My Desert Island Piano VST - VI Labs Modern D

Interesting! But yes - I played a Steinway D once, and also found that it wasn't so upper mid/treble foward as most acoustic pianos I played. But I think I just like it more when it's easier to make the melody "sing" on a piano.

johanibraaten I often find the treble on VI:s to be a little too forward and fatiguing

Same here! Quite often indeed.

Cheers,

HZ

HZPiano That's also due to how some VIs are scripted. They voice the treble a bit more forward. And, fun fact, on VI Labs and VSL pianos, you can make a curve so that the treble notes are responded brighter / easier played out. But I decided to not go with that for my Modern D custom VPC 1 curve.

David Lai

After a long hiatus, and triggered by the Modern D commotion, I toyed somewhat with the Ravenscroft VSTi again. Those trebles are also approaching piercing. Given the real Ravenscroft grand, that is to be expected, though.

I tried to curve them down a bit but then the rest of the range goes too dull and muffled.

Anyway, after a few hours of tinkering fun (which I seldomly allow myself) I went back to my trusted Modern U.

Cheers!

HZ

HZPiano Sorry to tempt you with it, but I feel playing wise, Modern D might be your cup of tea. The rounded tone reminds me of Modern U a lot.

If you want an everyday musician's perspective, you're welcome to watch this review.

Have fun!

David Lai

It might. Or not. So far, I'm still at: Superb piano VSTi, yet not my sound character. And that has everything to do with me not having a click with the actual Steinway sound character.

And yes, I watched David's video over morning coffee 🙂.

Cheers!

HZ

PS Piggy bank considerations aside, and all of that…

HZPiano sounds to me like you're trying really hard to find reasons not to think of Modern D 😀

Cheers and happy denial 😉 Kidding!

Truth being told, I think I shouldn't have purchased the Modern D not because it's bad but because I use VST-s only when recording videos for YouTube and I've not had any desire to do that recently. Even then, I already have the perfect piano for that purpose, Garritan CFX. I don't even play/practice often lately but when I do, I always use the on-board sound of the N1X. So, yeah, I don't want to make anyone spend money on something I personally won't use often, if ever 🙂

CyberGene

😄 😅 😄

Do not think of a pink elephant, do not think of…

David Lai

PS My absolute favorite weekly TV show "Podium Klassiek" used to have a splendidly absolutely gorgeously well-roundedly voiced Yamaha (perfectly matching my taste) grand in the studio. For some specific performances they rolled in a Steinway and occasionally even Faziolis.

Since the start of this season, the Steinway is their regular. I'm gutted! Yesterday some nice pieces were performed on it, I could definitely hear the resemblances with Modern D's sound, and was reinforced that it is not for me.

Cheers, as always,

HZ

HZPiano PS My absolute favorite weekly TV show "Podium Klassiek" used to have a splendidly absolutely gorgeously well-roundedly voiced Yamaha (perfectly matching my taste) grand in the studio. For some specific performances they rolled in a Steinway and occasionally even Faziolis.

I love that YouTube channel. I noticed the Steinway, but missed the Fazioli.

David Lai maybe I should think about mini PC's?

Mini PCs have the problem of the loud fans. Some cpu/model combinations are ok, but others are annoying. Don't think about it (unless you can have the PC far away from the piano).

vagfilm Got it. Thanks, then I'll still stick with laptops. 🙂

David Lai And I also find smaller concert grands to be more treble forward.

Agreed. The overall balance with the fuller bass, the lesser amount of inharmonicity and transparency on a larger grand can feel wonderfully relaxing in comparison.

HZPiano Same here! Quite often indeed.

That's one of the reasons I like the VSL CFX so much. It's quite relaxed in the treble compared to most other virtual pianos I've tried despite being kind of bright tone wise.

David Lai

The fan noise likely varies depending on the model. On my unit, a Beelink SER6 MAX, it's not horribly noticeable, and I have the computer sitting right on my keyboard. Plus, if it ever did bother me enough, I've discovered I can put Windows into power saving mode, which all but eliminates the noise (at playing distance I can't hear it) and so far hasn't significantly impacted the playability of most* of my libraries.

A good laptop is still a neater solution, since you don't have to have a separate monitor and interface peripherals. I just decided to take a chance on the Beelink, since it was inexpensive enough to justify keeping as a general purpose computer (which it also currently serves as) if audio didn't work out on it. As it turned out, I got lucky and thus saved quite a bit.

*Once again, the Walker ends up on the wall of shame here.

Argyris I see. Thanks for sharing your perspective. I guess in the long run, it's best to stick with a laptop because physically speaking, it saves space for me. I agree with you.

Well, here's someone doing a gig using the Modern D, and having a great time with it!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BICW_2eN6VE

David Lai Hey neat, I have a CP88 also. I'll have to give his curve a shot, it's much more aggressive than anything I've tried.

Mindbullets He also has the compression turned on, so there's that. It does help cutting through all other things well. 🙂

Wow 586 posts in 16 days. Plus other threads…

I've managed to set up the input curve with the FP90 roughly (Light touch 1 with some more bend, and +3 dB overall gain), and am almost a happy camper.

I'd like to ask if you guys also notice a certain attack noise (?) in some keys in the upper octaves, for instance E5, D6? Not the same in all mics (been using Close / Player / Room)…

And I sometimes seem to get a certain high-pitched ringing in the bass?