My pianos *DEBUNKED*

BTW, I've been monitoring some traffic surge in the last few hours. Apparently this "drama" attracted people towards our small community, so thanks 😉

David B David B In my opinion, comparing it to VSL's F308 is ridiculous. VSL's F308 is lightyears ahead of this in terms of playability (yes all those layers really makes a difference), consistency, tone, realism, etc.

David B I'm not trying to be mean, but Sofia's did not seem very smooth…Maybe compared to other free libraries Sofia's layering/mapping is good, but it is nowhere near to being on par with VSL.

I did not suspect a deception (if indeed that is true) but I know I did not care for playing it and did not consider it close to being an equal with VSL.

God Bless,
David

Well in fairness, I never considered Sofia's pianos equal to VSL or other top-tier VSTs like Garritan or VI Labs, and said as much, but in comparison with other free amateur and even quite a few mid-tier professional pianos, I do think they are indeed impressive - particularly in the playability department. And who doesn't like free things? Managing expectations is 90% of the game here.

And I have to say the reaction to the (fake) Fazioli was also somewhat revealing in that quite a few seasoned players preferred its basic tone to that of the VSL Fazioli. If anything, this just goes to show how polarizing that particular VSL instrument is.

I'll freely admit that Sofia's "Fazioli" was the first sampled Fazioli I'd played on where I didn't feel like the tone was essentially one-dimensional, but as it turns out, it wasn't a Fazioli at all. 😐

I just looked at her/his "buy me a coffee" page. Seems that people tipped Sofia for the copied work. Hope they have a sense of humor about it.

CyberGene

Some traffic might have come from VI-Control. Once someone linked post from there containing example recordings I've shared my suspicions there as well.

At first I thought 'Sofia' was posting only here, but learnt later it's PW and VI-C as well. I don't know about Keyboard Corner or Gears***z. It's probably forbidden to share anything like that on Modartt forum, but that would be another level of 'evil' 😃

CyberGene

Also, "Sofia"'s "project" has attached several new members over the last few weeks, if I'm not mistaken.

Cheers and a happy 'Clack,

HZ

HZPiano

Hotel Zulu Papa, I'm afraid some of those "new members" might be 'Sofia' incarnations, unfortunately.

Cheers
ABCharlie 😉

CeDur

Roger that, Alpha Bravo, such did cross my mind as well.

🙂

HZ

Ha! That was funny. 😀

I did think about Pianoteq at some point, but somehow let go of that suspicion and fell for the hoax.

Pianoteq of course doesn't allow distibuting virtual instruments recorded from it, so I guess they'll need to go offline sooner or later.

As a teacher, I never cease to be amazed at the amount of effort teenagers can put into something they find amusing.

And yes, I sure swallowed hook, line, and sinker.

OMG, what a prank!. I should confess the number of layers had me really intrigued since the beginning and, knowing a bit of @dore_m work , was something I could not find explanation for.

I have PTQ and can tolerate it using speakers but lots less using headphones. Those new pianos had a similar fatiguing effect. I should had linked that with the layers thing 😅

Well played, @Sofia_MZ , I hope all that energy and knowledge is redirected to attain great things in your life. Don't waste it just fooling PTQ haters 😉

Of the seven Sofia pianos, I had been hoping the Steinway would be a win. It's just that I prefer Steinway over all other pianos. But the Sofia Steinway was the most disappointing of the bunch (save for the Estonia, which sounded terrible).

The Bosendorfer sounded okay, but I should have been suspicious of its lack of bass. A real Bosie is a bass blast, but the Sofia Bosie was weak there.

The Fazioli was a don't-care. I've never liked any Fazioli VI.

My hopes were on the Bechstein and especially the Bluthner. Too bad.

Can we have the mapping Sofia MZ vs. Pianoteq ? What is really the Fazioli or the Estonian ?

Jose EB5AGV I should confess the number of layers had me really intrigued since the beginning and, knowing a bit of @dore_m work , was something I could not find explanation for.

Same here my friend.... I had a lot of questions in my mind but just laid low. I was particularly wondering if European concert grands are a dime a dozen in Italy. I have real difficulty finding subjects nowadays after I ran thru my personal contacts.

I actually ran across fake huge kontakt pianos vis named after some constellations, each weighs around 20 gigs and contains 12398 samples. The guy sold them claimed the samples came from well-known brands like Steinway, Bechstein, Blüthner, Yamaha etc., including rare models. Users reported they all sounded the same way muffled , heavily EQed, feature and function absent. I had a sense that the samples were stolen from somewhere and to avoid legal issues, the guy must mask them, so they could be possibly sold.

Now I remember, one of them called Gemini.

@Sofia_MZ Oh please put your site back up. This was a work of art and brilliantly executed in every way. This should be preserved as part of Internet history. Can't you mark it as parody or something?

I'll even personally write Modartt and ask them to let you keep the sample libraries up or hire you. Not that I've got any sway with them, but I'll try.

The reviews are brilliant:
https://forum.pianoworld.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/3430267/re-my-free-piano-libraries-in-sfz-format.html#Post3430267
https://pianoclack.com/forum/d/1152-my-free-sfz-piano-libraries

And you got MacMacMac to grudgingly admit he can more than tolerate Pianoteq. That's quite a feat.

I was even starting to feel bad for dore_m... as I've been no help to his sampling quest. And your blasé comment on consistent tuning really had me concerned about my own piano for a bit.

Props to David B. You really do know your pianos.

navindra I was even starting to feel bad for dore_m... as I've been no help to his sampling quest.

I want it taken down. It's illegal and I'd feel the same if someone repackaged my source samples. I have given licenses to those who I allow to redistribute.

I find it funny strange that people are now saying the backstory is fishy when it's very similar to my backstory. In fact, I wonder if my backstory was purposely copied in part. I also have not shared that I always suspected that my Sfz template was used in part. Some of the envelopes and such were copied exactly (character by character). I normally don't mind this, but don't want it used to further a hoax.

dore_m I'm not a lawyer, but it's taken down already... or is the GitHub still up there?

Out of curiosity, how was the story similar to yours? I can see how this social experiment wouldn't go down well at all.

I read David B's original review a bit closer and actually there was some praise for Pianoteq's Fazioli tone there. 🙂

CyberGene Also, correct me if I'm wrong since I am myself a non-native English speaker (and excuse me for what is probably a stereotype of the typical Italian) but isn't her English way too perfect (and British?) for an Italian?

Sofia said she was a fan of British procedurals. Sounds like that part was true.

Given the success of her FAQ, maybe she should make another, answering the many questions asked here.

navindra I read David B's original review a bit closer and actually there was some praise for Pianoteq's Fazioli tone there.

I don't know how or what Sofia's "Fazioli samples" were derived from, but there was a warmth to the tone similar to my VSL Fazioli. As a base piano sound it seemed like it could have potential. I believe that's as far as my praise went. However, it took me about 3 minutes to realize it was not even in the same stratosphere as VSL. That's about 2 minutes longer than I can tolerate playing my actual Pianoteq models for. 😀

God Bless,
David

navindra Out of curiosity, how was the story similar to yours?

I guess I haven't been explicit about how I sample pianos in the open threads, but my technique and personal experience mirror Sofia's. I go to people's homes and have to be accommodating. I often have to deal with eccentricities of owners, or at least quirks of the recording environment. People don't normally understand what I mean by needing a silent recording environment. It's definitely a passion for me, and I put up with it all so I can have a copy of someone's instrument. So that part of the story resonated with me. I actually thought there was someone out there crazier than me.

The technique described was near what I would do if I had to start again. If I started again, I might consider automating with a robot. The Sfz templates are a simpler version of what I have done so I can drag and drop a new piano in with my workflow. So maybe I'm just projecting as not many people know what I do in such detail.