My Desert Island Piano VST - VI Labs Modern D

CyberGene Another reminder why we are all so different

yes, what i call intimate and close someone else might call it clinical and isolated, and that's alright 🤍

CyberGene the ambiance always sound like there's a delay, a weird feeling of repeated sound that muddies up the actual piano sound.

the thing with vsl is that they're very flexible, I'm sure that someone can copy the sound of the garittan with one of the Synchrons if he/she wants

but still the price isn't reasonable, 600$ for a single piano is just nuts especially when it lacks some really important features like una corda and resonances (those become deal breakers for me)

about the modern d, i think most people can use convolution reverbs with it and get great results, personally i always recommend the fab filter pro r, it's excellent but the reverbs in the modern d itself are nice as well

CyberGene the only missing thing for me in the Modern D: a really distant mics with nice and deep reverb

+1. Although I would not use it daily, having a large hall mic is a plus. But you cannot record from afar in a small room…

About the delay, I don't remember the exact values (I'm not at home so cannot check, but maybe someone can correct me if I am mistaken) but in many presets the distant mics (maybe even the decca tree) have something like 20msecs delay which is almost an echo. If you reduce that to 4-6 msec in the GUI you have garritan ambience without echo.

pianow yes, what i call intimate and close someone else might call it clinical and isolated, and that's alright 🤍

Sure, that’s “alright,” so long as it isn’t “The Magnificent D;” where I had the audacity to humbly question its magnificence and was all but crucified; heck, I was kicked out, “alright,” of this here thread because I wondered: “could it be that it might need/use some help in the resonance department?”

But of course, I’m not saying there’s a double standard, alright!

Pete14

if they kicked you out, why are you still here then? David just didn't want you to trash the party (like he said)
and for most people the important thing about vilabs and of course their modern d is the fact that it's completely sample based, and they don't wanna ruin that with using a modeled resonance,
r v clear?

MacMacMac It's been years since I felt any need to buy a new piano library

out of curiosity😄
what's the last piano vi you bought? and when did you buy it?

i think you'd appreciate this new modern d (i need to wait a little bit unfortunately 😑)

CyberGene Well, you can always achieve that reverb-like cathedraly sound with the reverb engine on the interface. To me, that sounds just like room mics in a large hall. I made a couple of demos where I put Modern D in such spaces. They even have a "complete classical" preset with the extra reverb, and I'm grateful they included it. Don't lose hope, a distant pair of room mics plus a reverb and you can get what you're looking for from this library!

Pete14 it might need/use some help in the resonance department?”

To some people, yes. But IMHO (there, satisfied?), no. Because they've captured the flowing,-like feel of resonances through sampling the real thing. I don't know how they do it without the attack, but they surely provide me with a great emulation, and that's what I'm looking for -- the representation of the acoustic D. Unlike sampled resonances, modeled ones sound dead, just a wall of sound. So, it doesn't need help, IMHO, and I agree with VI Labs, the developer.

Anyone else noticed the higher you play the more dead the piano sounds? the notes decay so fast, maybe it's a problem with my setup, or a problem with the sampled piano, I'm hoping it's just a bug, the lower registers and from middle C upwards to around A all sing, from B upwards and all the way up, so much decay. 😒

SH4DOW No, the sustain is long enough, and typical of Steinway pianos. The higher you go, the shorter the sustain is, and when you reach the undamped strings, the sustain is even shorter. That's how acoustic pianos work.

It really feels like the hammer is coming down on the string and muting it too soon, happens when I hold the key down with and without the damper 🤷

I've tried a lot of VSTs the behaviour is not normal compared to those. I haven't played an acoustic grand so I cannot directly compare to that.

The notes disappear so fast with the damper pedal down. 😒 😓

SH4DOW The notes disappear so fast with the damper pedal down.

Maybe that's your setup, but the notes, along with the resonances, actually sustain longer and fade out slowly. The bigger the concert grand (in this case, being a 9-foot Steinway), the more this effect is pronounced. As a person who's played acoustic concert grands before and majoring in piano, I can tell you that the Modern D behaves just like an acoustic piano.

You can hear it here, don't pay any attention to the playing, I've only been playing for 2 years.

SH4DOW

can you upload an example? play a few notes maybe?

pianow

I've got a Vod that's timestamped from twitch awaiting approval atm, I will record something that better shows what I'm experiencing and upload to youtube and link it here after I've cooked and eaten.

David Lai

can you upload an example davy? some sustain notes with and without the pedal
I'd appreciate it

pianow

David Lai

Okay, a better video showing how quick the notes decay, not sure if it's normal or not 😅 🤷
Without Damper Pedal and With.

Everything Default.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oA9zL-Fo7I4

In a real-life grand piano the uppermost 15-16 keys don't have dampers at all: pedal up or pedal down, the decay is absolutely the same.

SH4DOW it's like my real Grand Piano with fast and regulated dampers + right releases like real piano. with fast a right behaviour. With my midi Keyboard / N1X : no problem. Great release feeling and i've a grand Piano too. great real Steinway Staccato's

Try with player C414 mic + Room Mic : the sound will be better too

SH4DOW i've found : Set key noises to 0 dB. By default is off.

just set on Key noise to 0dB and use Play C414 mic : you will feel better

@vilabs : set default preset with Player C414 et Key noises on, i find it's a better default preset

CyberGene the sound from the distant mics was somehow compensated for the delay of the distant mics.

I believe that is what VI Labs call "phase aligning" all of their mic pairs. And it works beautifully.

Out of curiosity I once did a test (with Modern U as the piano):

At my piano I have four Wharfedale Diamond speakers, the upper pair gets the close mics, the lower pair gets the soundboard mics. Works splendidly.

So I thought: Well, what about those room mics. My TV and hi-fi, between two and three metres away in the same room, also have a pair of Diamonds. So I sent Modern U's room mics to that speaker pair. As one would expect over that distance, the resulting experience was very weird with the phase/time differences resulting from that two to three meter distance. It wasn't pretty 😋 so end of test; back to four speakers.

Cheers and happy experiments,

HZ