My Desert Island Piano VST - VI Labs Modern D

MacMacMac Hey Pete … would you fall in love with this VST if it said "modeled" on the packaging?

Is this a trick question?

OlivierW Really cool. I think the warm sound of this instrument is very well when putting against instruments, vocals, ETC. Thanks for sharing! 🙂

Pete14 Is this a trick question?

No, not a trick question.
Rather … it's just that "sampled piano" to you is like a wooden stake to a vampire.

Now THIS is the Steinway library I've been looking for. Wow. Just wanted to say thanks @David Lai for the heads-up!

David Lai

That’s disappointing to hear! I would expect to be able to play all three mic perspectives on a fairly new and capable computer! I’m not sure why companies produce libraries with these features but are unusable on all but the very latest highest performing computers!?

pianow

Thanks. I tried the demos of the VSL Faziolis and found those also had quite high noise floor when using more than two mic perspectives.

It’s a shame to hear the Garritan has the highest noise floor as I’ve read many people say it is very respectable with cpu useage and plays really well. The clips I’ve heard of it also sound great! If it wasn’t for the noise floor I would have probably gone with that one.

The cpu useage of Ivory 3 is an instant deal breaker for me. I would like to be able to use it within a fairly bust mix.

The Modern D could be a good option but with Davids experience of not being able to use more than two mic perspectives on a pretty new high performing computer puts me off a little.

dickiefunk

I've only tinkered with it for a few minutes but I had no problems running 3 mics on a 4-year-old i7 (8700k IIRC) set up with only 16gb of RAM.

With that said, David plays rather more notes than I do and gives the software much more of a workout :-)

CraigNZ

Okay thanks. I also play a lot of classical music so I’m hoping the cpu can cope with this library.

pianow do you think the good old modern u still worth it?

Oh yes, utterly and absolutely. Nothing has changed for U with the introduction of D.

Yesterday I was playing U and realised I don't need D. A thought that brought relief because at the moment it wouldn't be wise to spend $199 "toy money"; my "toy" budget for this year is well spent already. Of course I would enjoy adding D.

They're "just" different instruments, both of utter quality.

Cheers and happy co-existing,

HZ

David Lai Tell them to add a checkbox option : enable Sympathetic Resonance even in pedal down. So the user can choose to use it or not.

David Lai Yes, i will adjust PTQ resonance better in a near future

After listening to some different demos, including the ones posted her (thanks for beautiful music @OlivierW , @David Lai & @CyberGene, I hope I didn't miss anyone) I must say that this seems like a very fine instrument. It sounds very warm and authentic and it's refreshing with such "raw" sound without the constant influence of a concert hall. However. I'm not sure the voicing of the instrument speaks to me 100%. To my ears It's something constrained with it, especially in the lower treble that makes it sound a bit "narrow". And it sounds like it doesn't open up with the dynamics but instead gets a tad sharp in the higher velocity layers. It reminds me of an instrument that's "too new" where the hammers haven't been fully played/worked on yet. Maybe (or most probably) it's just me not being as familiar with the American voicing as the European but it feels that it doesn't quite have the transparent and "free" tone the best Steinways can have. But don't get me wrong, I still think the Modern D sounds very nice.

CPU usage is low

I have a Ryzen 7700 CPU its overclocked a bit, so running about 5% faster than a 7700x. 64 sample buffer, 48000khz. Classical preset with full polyphony. pedal down and go crazy on the keyboard and the highest usage I have seen is 12% on a single cpu core with the other 7 sitting at 0% or 1%

Same test on PianoTeq, sits at about 10% on one core, with an occasional 14% spike

David Lai

Those are important considerations.

One aspect of 'U' that I love it for is how easy it is on resources. I run my "piano" on my homebuilt photography PC that is very powerful for its tasks, but will probably not run the likes of VSL completely fluently. I don't want to invest in yet another computer just for the piano.

So if 'D' were (or were to become in the future) heavier on resources, it would cross the line of usability for me.

Cheers and keep up the good work,

HZ

OlivierW Tell them to add a checkbox option : enable Sympathetic Resonance even in pedal down. So the user can choose to use it or not.

My thought exactly!

Cheers and happy switches,

HZ

My latest preset:

Irmin

Thanks for sharing your experience with it. I have similarly low cpu usage with Pianoteq here and if Modern D is comparable to that, I will be very impressed.

dickiefunk Thanks. I tried the demos of the VSL Faziolis and found those also had quite high noise floor when using more than two mic perspectives.

It’s a shame to hear the Garritan has the highest noise floor

the amount of noise in these two is quite natural imo, given the fact that they're "stage" pianos and not some tight studio recordings
if the noise floor bothers you while playing, there are some dirty solutions like noise gate plugins, or maybe using a pair of speaker instead of headphones.

but if it's a problem with your final track, there are tons of ways ro reduce the noise to its minimum (you can find a thousand free stuff in YouTube)

dickiefunk The cpu useage of Ivory 3 is an instant deal breaker for me. I would like to be able to use it within a fairly bust mix

couldn't agree more.

dickiefunk The Modern D could be a good option but with Davids experience of not being able to use more than two mic perspectives on a pretty new high performing computer puts me off a little

idk but david is a top level pianist, he uses all kinda things while playing, like complex pedaling, resonances, a high polyphony and such

those are much more cpu intensive than just using all the mics with a simpler music (and most pianos in an arrangement aren't THAT complex)
but that's just what i think. i haven't tried the modern d yet

HZPiano
thanks🤍

HZPiano

Modern D might be slightly more resource intensive than Modern U, but not hugely I don't think.

I caved and bought Modern D tonight, and it is magnificent (I feel pretentious using that word, but it's really a fantastic achievement). By a wide, wide, wide margin I think it's the nicest sounding Steinway D library out there.

The hammer mics alone are incredible. It's great to have the flexibility of all the other options, but having just the lone set of mics turned on makes a beautifully balanced sound with huge dynamic range. I love the percussiveness.

If I won't straight up say it's the best grand piano VI I own, it's only because of stubbornness (and continued loyalty to the Kawai legend and VSL CFX…and recent fondness for the Vienna Imperial!).