My Desert Island Piano VST - VI Labs Modern D

johanibraaten True. But at least you could hear the sound and be like "this isn't my cup of tea." 🙂 I've done this with a lot of the pianos he featured.

pianow and one more thing, i think nobody made it sound so great yet (at least for my taste)

Let’s agree to disagree here, for I think David Lai did indeed make it sound great!

Now, to be clear, just because David made it sound great doesn’t necessarily mean the VST is great (there is a difference, you know). 🙂

Pete14 Let’s agree to disagree here, for I think David Lai did indeed make it sound great!

No Pete, I didn't make it sound great. The VST has to sound great first. Then, I just did a good curve, selected the mics I want and mix to taste, and then, that's it! Only a couple of steps. But the most important and the most difficult is for them to first make a great product… Then the rest would follow, but these steps on the user end are not hard to achieve, especially when you know what musical genre you're playing and after.

David Lai

David Lai Oh wow, I love finding another person who uses a screen reader in the most unexpected places. I use VoiceOver on Mac, and pretty much the whole UI of UVI Workstation is accessible, though it’s not super easy to navigate. The only tricky part, but doable with OCR, is the browser where you load the soundbanks. Other than that, I think almost everything is accessible.

Do you use a PC? Which DAW do you work with? I use Reaper and find it really comfortable.

I’d also be happy to help with anything I can.

Once again, congrats on those beautiful demos!

rodrigopv Well, lucky you on Mac! I've heard a lotout how UVI is workable with Mac. Not so much on PC. I use Reaper. I'll post more in a private discussion soon.

johanibraaten
yea it's a play through
which i like better cause i can hear the actual thing instead of someone telling me how it sounds (so many audio product reviewers are like this : 10% audio demos 90% talking about it without any proof, that must be the opposite imo)

Pete14 Now, to be clear, just because David made it sound great doesn’t necessarily mean the VST is great

nope, when someone can make a vst sound great especially with so little tweaking, it means that the vst itself is great and it has great potential.
🔨

pianow i would like to know if we can get close to the grandeur with the modern d

I played around with this a bit. It's best to start with the hammer mics. They're the closest in sound to the Grandeur.

After that, I tried using the built-in three band EQ to sculpt the sound a bit. I ended up boosting the low end below 300 Hz by a few dB, cutting about 3 dB around 1kHz using the band filter (with a Q of around 2), and adding around 3-4 dB above 7 kHz using the high shelf. It's not an exact tonal match, but it brings the two closer.

Argyris
wow, thanks for the update, it's not unexpected for me to hear that the hammer mics are the closest ones to grandeur tone cause the main thing you hear with the grandeur are two u87s pointed at the hammers (different neuman mics, exact same position)
anyway thanks a lot buddy❤️

I've been trying to find a setting that I like as well as my Ivory 3 preset. But I've come across one oddity.
It may be because my N3 does some kind of extended MIDI, but I think that would be the case for the N1xx as well.

Or I may have something cranked too weirdly in the preset.
What I find is that sometimes, not always, if I pound loudly and stop, pedals up, all keys released... the sound doesn't dampen.
Attached zip has the preset I'm using tonight along with a MIDI file of a few (wrong!) notes and a FLAC from the MIDI showing the lingering sound.
Edited to include two FLACs - Modern D with the lingering undamped sound and Ivory 3 audio from same MIDI that doesn't show that artifact.

Any thoughts?

Jane Hi Jane!

I was looking at your midi data, and I found some more pedal data after the notes:

134 Position:3.3.97;Channel:1;Type:CC;Parameter:Hold Pedal (on/off) (64);Value:119

135 Position:3.4.17;Channel:1;Type:CC;Parameter:Hold Pedal (on/off) (64);Value:117

136 Position:3.4.19;Channel:1;Type:CC;Parameter:Hold Pedal (on/off) (64);Value:113

137 Position:3.4.21;Channel:1;Type:CC;Parameter:Hold Pedal (on/off) (64);Value:102

138 Position:3.4.24;Channel:1;Type:CC;Parameter:Hold Pedal (on/off) (64);Value:84

139 Position:3.4.26;Channel:1;Type:CC;Parameter:Hold Pedal (on/off) (64);Value:71

140 Position:3.4.28;Channel:1;Type:CC;Parameter:Hold Pedal (on/off) (64);Value:45

141 Position:3.4.31;Channel:1;Type:CC;Parameter:Hold Pedal (on/off) (64);Value:66

142 Position:3.4.36;Channel:1;Type:CC;Parameter:Hold Pedal (on/off) (64);Value:9

143 Position:3.4.38;Channel:1;Type:CC;Parameter:Hold Pedal (on/off) (64);Value:0

144 Position:4.1.00;Channel:1;Type🙁end) All Notes Off;Value:0

These were the midi events afterward. Could it be that the sustain pedal was sending different data that overwhelmed the sample player? I think this is a great issue for the support team to take a look at.

However, I do have to say that word has it that the pianos before the N1X has some midi inconsistencies. I've certainly experienced bad time on my NU1 in China. Could it pedaling is another one of those? I don't know.

Sorry, more questions than answers, but never the less some thoughts there.

Jane I might add that listening to the audio, it sounds like some resonance sample was stuck playing to their full length.

Thanks, David,

I just re-uploaded the zipfile. It now contains a FLAC rendered from Ivory 3 using the same MIDI file which doesn't have that undamped stuff at the end.

I created a ticket on the VI Labs website but couldn't find a way to attach a file. So I stashed the zipfile on my webserver and put a link into the ticket.

The automated reply says "Your ticket has been created, our team is currently understaffed due to the holidays so please note that you may experience an unusual delay for our replies." Not sure what holidays they observe?

And sorry the playing was so crude... don't want to hurt your ears! Just wanted to demonstrate the issue I'm having.

Jane Notsure of this either, but tomorrow I’ll try emailing them as well and attach your file. Sounds strange to me, too. I’ll also test on my other VI Labs libraries. Glad you shared everything! And thank you! 🙂

David Lai However, I do have to say that word has it that the pianos before the N1X has some midi inconsistencies. I've certainly experienced bad time on my NU1 in China. Could it pedaling is another one of those?

I have an N1 which should have about the same MIDI behavior as the N3. I wouldn't say that the MIDI response is inconsistent but rather consistent and even (although it's possible that there are unit variations). It has a few naggles though that could be good to know about. The pedal sends continuous data from 1 to about 80 and then it jumps straight to 127. It also doesn't support the standard MIDI message for silent key press (Note on 1) so it's not possible to play harmonics over silent keypress in standard MIDI. Instead the N1 sends data about damper position in the Disklavier XP format where the value for silent keypress is "Damper position 127". It also sends data about damper position if you release the key slowly as the "string" is slowly dampened. However the standard MIDI dialect doesn't understand damper position data so it interprets it as "aftertouch".
The N1 also require slightly more force to reach a certain velocity in the lower part of the keyboard than in the higher regions due to the different weight/inertia of the keyboard. I think this behavior is normal though due to the nature of the acoustic action and when I've tried the N1X it showed a similar behaviour. It's also really hard to reach the highest velocity levels on the N1.

The NU1 could be another story though as it lacks hammer sensors and relying on key sensors only.

johanibraaten

Indeed! I was going to say something along these lines.

I like Simeon, his drive, his great enthusiasm, his Joy. I have bought one or two VSTis in the past because he made them sound like heaven (pun not intended!). But I quickly discovered that his enthusiasm isn't a useful yardstick for the (or my) real experience under one's own fingers and ears.

However indeed, let him keep up the good and enjoyable work he does.

Cheers!

HZ

PS So yes, @VILabs , please expand your greatness with providing demo licenses!

HZPiano PS So yes, @VILabs , please expand your greatness with providing demo licenses!

🤔

HZPiano PS So yes, @VILabs , please expand your greatness with providing demo licenses!

expand your greatness i say @VILabs

HZPiano PS So yes, @VILabs , please expand your greatness with providing demo licenses!

pianow expand your greatness i say @VILabs

+2

pianow Tomorrow at 3 PM Eastern time, he's streaming!!!