My Desert Island Piano VST - VI Labs Modern D

David Lai before Pete14 decides to trash the party

there's a "ignore" button that works really well😂😂

@David Lai ,

Wow! Far as I know, No Single VSTi piano publisher has demoes of the quality your provide them with!

And finally, demoes that really are about the piano… and no other fuss, fluff or stuff.

Well done you and VI Labs!

Cheers,

HZ

PS How am I going to fund this license*), I've been investing rather heavily in the revival of my photography passion lately… Hmmmm. Will Require Thought.

*) Plus a VPC-1… 😲

David Lai But I guess I do have something to offer afterall.

Oh man! Don't you ever doubt that!!

HZ

QuasiUnaFantasia You sure do! That Mozart was a knock-out!

+1234567890

QuasiUnaFantasia Thank you!!! I really wanted this to be a raw performance. So excuse the wrong notes… And just hear the piano and how it reacts to my fingers. I'd say, pretty good for a VST.

First of all, bringing logic to a party drunk with “emotions” does not make Pete a party-pooper; however, I will steer clear from this here party, so as to not take another beating (there’s only so much a man can take).

Before I see myself out, I will say one thing:

It’s interesting that VI-Labs seems proud of the fact that their resonances are “100% sampled based; no modeling or synthesis used;” because, if anything, it seems like the middle-ground nowadays is to “mix” samples with modeled resonances. I do wonder how this VST would sound with Pianoteq providing the resonances (as a plug in)?

P.S.

In the spirit of keeping things civil, I apologize for briefly bringing Pianoteq (resonances) into your party, and please, do go on with the celebrations….. 🎉

Thank you, @David Lai . Just purchased the Modern D. Thanks to VILabs! 👍

jenpal I hope you like it! I finally have found an experience like I was playing the pianos at Auer Hall and Parker Concert Hall.

this one looks like the end of everything (in the best way)

I feel like the search for a complete virtual piano is finally over, and the fact that it's a steinway, a somewhat brand new steinway d (built in 2021), makes it much better.

pianow And don't forget, it's a New York D. So you have both lyricism and clarity.

David Lai

Yes, clarity is what I dearly miss in Hamburg Steinways.

So, good point!

HZ

Anyway, guys & gals, this sounds amazingly good.

Congratulations, @VILabs !

Cheers,

HZ

HZPiano I believe the clarity on modern New York D's is because of the Renner action. If you compare the classic Ivory American D with this, you'll see why. That D was made in 1951, and the action is the old one used with New York Steinways.

FYI: the 2 dry demos were done with a combination of room and side mics, while the ones with reverb was done with a combination of close and room mics.

@David Lai

Great piano and demos.

I do not want so be like a cheap Scotsmen 🫣

But were they so good in VI LABS, that they have given you exclusive code for your Pianoclack members to get it with 50% discount? ,p

You ruined my day!!!. Err…my wallet!!! 😆

Now I need to get it!!!

Thanks @David Lai 🤩

Jose EB5AGV Haha, Jose. I knew I'd get you!!! 🙂

OK, so, despite being very tired, I decided to test it 😀

I've been playing with it for the last one hour and I can say this is maybe even better than my favorite Garritan CFX. I need some time with it to be able to declare it as a clear winner but there are aspects of it which are obviously better. I've been thoroughly enjoying it, it's the missing Steinway library I've always dreamed of. Kudos to VI Labs.

I created my own preset after some tweaking, also a touch curve for the N1X and it's absolutely majestic 👏🏻

However, there's a bug with half-pedaling that I will report in more details to VI labs tomorrow and can record a MIDI for them to test. But shortly: I have re-pedaling and half-pedaling enabled, then I play a loud and short bass note, release it, then catch it with a fully pressed pedal towards the end of its release, not immediately. Then I slowly release the pedal and at the start of the half-pedaled region there's an unnatural volume increase, I guess the half-pedaled mapping is not good and restarts from an earlier (louder) region.

My piano playing is extremely rusty, I've not been playing a lot recently, and I haven't played my beloved Scriabin for maybe months, so I almost completely forgot the pieces I knew, but here's the first part of a Poeme that I used to play. Had to play it for 10 minutes to remember it and it's still bad and not very smooth but you can hear the preset I created and like:

scriabin-poeme-incomplete-modern-d-normalized.mp3

On the VI-Control Forum, there's a post for Roland users, and I quote:

"For any Roland users with this, just for reference.

Use "Light Touch 1" in the GUI for PHA-50.

Use " Light Touch 1" or "Light" inside the digital piano itself (FP 30 x, RD-88 etc) for PHA-4."

Hope this helps!

CyberGene The half pedaling is indeed something they need to fix IMO. I've reported bugs before, and they've improved since their first bata version in May-ish.