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My Desert Island Piano VST - VI Labs Modern D

pianow

dickiefunk

of course, something like this should do the trick :

a subtle saturation on the highs and a very minimal low cut and high boost like in the picture, of course you should change all these based on how modern d sound (i don't have it) maybe more saturation, maybe less. hope it helps.


dickiefunk

Thankyou for sharing this. I will experiment with this later.


FREIRE

Amazing virtual piano! Having a good time with it. Will be even better when a find the right monitor speakers for my Kawai CN301.


David Lai

FREIRE Fantastic!!! I'm using Focal Shape 65. But due to my setup, I can't place them at my sweet spot near the keyboard. So headphones are my go-to now.

Glad you're enjoying the Modern D!


FREIRE

David Lai Those must be amazing. But are huge and expensive for my needs. I was hoping to get the new Adam Audio D3v to skip any audio interface and for being small. Also considered modifying the amplification of the KAWAI CN301 speakers as the line in audio works really bad. Does anyone here know how to do it? Crossover / Dsp? David your videos of Modern D introduced me / sold me to this software. Thank you!


David Lai

FREIRE Thank you! I love it very much!!! And I'm now not surprised that my videos have directed you to Modern D. It's my daily practice piano library, which says about its quality, sound and response.

The Focal Shape 65, it's indeed rather spacy. I guess if I'm not using my Babyface Pro FS, I'll for sure use a pair of small monitors.

Hope you're able to make a good decision for your VST use!


David Lai

FREIRE Here's a video I came across a while ago for you, where 2 similar ultra near-fields go head to head.


FREIRE

David Lai Thank you David! Both seem great!


David Lai

FREIRE Cool. I'm glad it can be helpful to you.


Florian75

Hi All,

I am a Pianoteq user and I purchased Modern D today. I wanted to share my first impressions after 3 hours of playing, in case it can be useful to people.

I have an i7 3770T (low consumption 13yo proc) and SURPRISINGLY it works as smoothly as pianoteq. Loading time, latency etc… No issue at all. I am in 48,000Hz 64 samples (1,3ms) and my proc usage barely reaches 20%. No crack no pop - similar to pianoteq. I also have a Motu M2 audio interface and a SQ

I have to concede that it's a major surprise, because my only experience with VST was Garritan CFX lite, which requiered lots of time to load and was not pleasant to use (in terms of UI)

Regarding the sound, it's a matter of taste and speakers, but I personnaly find it better than Pianoteq Steinway D.

Thank you to you all in this topic, for having me discover this VST.


HZPiano

Florian75

Hello,

That is nice to know, for I'm using a PC of similar age with an i7 4770 (I believe the number is..). After tuning it runs Modern U just fine. Modern D is not yet on my shopping list, but still lingers in the back of my mind.

Which Windows do you use? I'm still on W7 Pro and for reason of legacy applications, wish it to stay that way 🙂.

Cheers and enjoy!

HZ


Florian75

I have windows 10 (hardware not compatible with 11). Also a 6yo ssd.


David Lai

Florian75 I'm glad Modern D is optimized in a great way. Now I truly understand what it means, thanks for appreciating it!!! 🙂


pianow

finally bought it from @CyberGene for a great price last night, he's a friendly and professional seller and i highly recommend him🤍 🙂

so far it's been a good experience, the sound is nothing especial, a typical steinway d (i think the technology is at the point where we shouldn't really be that excited about the samples accuracy)

the playability is very good, fast and dynamic and there's something about it that reminds me of pianoteq, it makes me wanna play softer, i think it's because of it's excellent recording quality, most sampled pianos get thin and lifeless in the lower dynamic levels, but this one sounds rounded and alive with all the necessary punch and body, it's beautiful, and when you want to get it Loud, hell it gets very loud, I've read some comments about it being unable to go super loud on vi control forum, i kinda know what they mean now but they said it very wrong, this piano is voiced to be a studio piano, better for jazz, country, pop and such genres, it's not a classically voiced pinao, means it's not gets bright the moment you pass mezzo piano, but it's capable of loudness and sharpness while being incredibly realistic, i think the more classically voiced ny model d on the market is the ivory American d,

let's talk about una Corda, i never had a better experience fr, even on acoustics, most pianos don't have a very well regulated u.c, so they sound softer (a bit), the una corda on modern d sounds like a different piano, it adds a lot of character and depth so it's absolutely impossible to recreate with the typical software Una corda stuff (eq, velocity edit and sample shifting)

before i forget, i find some of the notes to be a little off, some of them don't get as bright and punchy as their neighbourings when you play fff, not a deal breaker at all, but worth pointing out imo,

the mics… they're excellent, very effective and different, i loved the player, side, and hammers

all three sounded so warm and lovely, the room is something I'd use if i want to put the piano behind other instruments in the arrangement, and the close u87s sound a little too nasal for my taste, especially in the lower midrange of the piano (the keys, not frequencies)

and one more thing, it sounds so close to my all time favourite steinway vst - ni grandeur

anyway, a 9.3/10 product, thanks to my dear friends @CyberGene for the great deal, and @David Lai for advertising this incredible instrument 🤍


HZPiano

pianow

A very nice and useful report, thank you!

Cheers,

HZ


_sem_

David Lai I see. I have moved away from the Windows built-in audio for piano VSTs for many years now. Hopefully you can work it out with your laptop. My native ASIO driver doesn't work, unfortunately, so I'm forced to "outsource" my audio. 🙂

After a while of testing Modern D and some others I've noticed that Modern D works with Windows audio better than most others, that tend to crackle without ASIO4all. As if it had sth like ASIO4all built in? The achievable reported latency around 3 ms feels okay for me, while the default 10 ms isn't.

So I'd say that add-on ASIO like ASIO4all does make a difference (if a proper ASIO driver is not available) with other VSTs that handle winodows audio "averagely".

I found another factory ASIO driver for the built-in Realtek card which is supposed to be a "proper" ASIO driver (came with a Realtek driver for some Dell model) which kind-of works but it appears that changing the latency isn't effective, so ASIO4all is better.

I hear M$ is planning native ASIO support in Windows, for the start on ARM (!?)…

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/windows-music-dev/making-music-on-windows/

Just found out there is a generic Steinberg ASIO driver for devices that don't have their own for Windows (since Dec 2024) but I haven't tested it yet, not sure if better than ASIO4all

https://helpcenter.steinberg.de/hc/en-us/articles/17863730844946-Steinberg-built-in-ASIO-Driver-information-download


dickiefunk

pianow

Fully agree with your report of Modern-D!


pianow

the other things I've noticed (comparing it to other model Ds on the market) is that it sounds so close and in your face, and as a result, all the characteristics are more noticeable, it's more rounded then any other sampled steinway, but also, more nasal, more dynamic (honestly.. the triple fortissimos make me jump scare on studio monitors, and some triple pianissimos aren't even easily audible, that's what i call a healthy dynamic range)

in comparison:

the vsl steinway d sounds far away and empty (only close mics) and most mezzo piano, piano and triple pianos are super thin and bodyless, however it sounds like a more mature piano, and i think if it was recorded with the same techniques as modern d, it would have sounded better maybe. although not with its current voicing - cold and metallic.

native instruments grandeur, well this one's quite similar, except it doesn't have that super fancy dynamic range and also lacks a great deal in the higher dynamics (remember, only in this comparison, otherwise the grandeur is one of the best pianos when it comes to dynamic reach)

pianoteq nyd, it sounds close although when compared back to back, the unrealistic and synthy nature of the pianoteq gets super annoying (and I'm not one of those sensitive people who can't deal with that, sometimes i can even play pianoteq for a few hours without hearing that {a better word: without get distracted by it})

i think it's because of how well modern d was captured back in the vilabs studio, it's very accurate and alive and even though it's nasal, as i mentioned earlier, its nasal quality is nothing compared to ptq model d.

anyway, i tried using the same mic position in all three mic slots, with some of them (for example the u87) it gets NASTY, edgy and uncomfortable, with others it sounds excellent, for example the player mics sound so POP and bright (in a beautiful way- kinda CFXish😅) and i simply can't stop playing modern pop chords, with the side×3 it sounds like a calm ocean, for romantic stuff, YEA.

I'm not yet very comfortable with its "in your face" quality, it's new to me in the virtual piano realm, but that very quality makes if much easier fo drop within an arrangement without excessive eqing and such, it melts down and fill the wholes of a mix like butter on bread. this is the best thing i can say about any kind of virtual instrument, it's EASY to make MUSIC with😇

in my opinion the only competition this piano has is garittan cfx.



FREIRE

pianow Increasing the Tone dial makes the instrument more thin, a bit more Hamburg D.


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