My Desert Island Piano VST - VI Labs Modern D

robertgrze

Hello,

Here's the thread that was started by @David B in 2021 about Modern U:

#84

In that thread I shared (in several posts, maybe read the whole thread if you like) how I set up Modern U to my taste.

Since then, I tweaked tiny bits, mainly because I now have good headphones. In essence though, nothing significant has changed.

I love Modern U for its realism, that's what I bought it for and how I set it up. I stopped tweaking years ago so have no idea of "character" settings and such.

Cheers and happy fine-tuning,

HZ

What really change the sound to any piano vst it's a very nice reverb like Liquidsonic seventh Heaven, and a nice compressor like UAD LA-2A. You might think that you don't want any reverb and compressor, but that's because most reverbs and most compressors are just not good enough, you need something very detailed, but just a light touch of them.

Pianissimo

And I am surprised people don't talk that much about EQ.

In any living room, you usually have 2 or 3 frequency bumps (as high as 10 db) and if you don't tame them with EQ, it's ear piercing and really deteroriate the sound.

Florian75 I'm also surprised how many people make definitive statements about VI quality without realising how much these things can affect the sound.

Most people have untreated rooms and don't use room EQ (room EQ is the ideal solution instead of per-instrument EQ).

dikrek That's a can of worms, a piano vst doesn't have enough power to provide a nice reverb, compressor, or eq, so the user is left wondering what to do, and what is annoying is the fact that you need to run everything from a DAW. I think a grand piano is just too difficult to sample, compared to an upright piano, that's why the Modern U or the VSL upright pianos are so successfull, because they don't need a lot of help from other plugins.

Pianissimo What really change the sound to any piano vst it's a very nice reverb like Liquidsonic seventh Heaven, and a nice compressor like UAD LA-2A.

+1. I always use Seventh Heaven with my piano VSTs - really helps add dimension to the sound and is so much better than the reverbs that typically come built-in with the player software.

Thanks for the tip about the LA-2A compressor. What kind of settings do you recommend?

jdg78 Usually compressor side (no limiter), all at 12 oclock, gain reduction and peak reduction at 12 oclock and you'll be fine.

Thanks! I'll give it a shot when I get a chance. Just to be sure, is this the plugin you're using?:

https://www.uaudio.com/products/teletronix-la-2a-tube-compressor?srsltid=AfmBOor0A_ddNpVkP30c59IDSGk1cJHe1h8IH57eSSiNl2Uro0bEm3-N

I’ve recently started using a compressor and it seems to enhance my experience with the VST piano. I’m using the CLA-76, but after reading some of your comments, I’ve also added the CLA-2A which seems to improve further. 👍
I’m only using the piano presets of the Waves compressors though as I’m not sure how to adjust them.

jdg78 At the moment I am using a clone, free to download, it's flawless, by analog obsession:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/lala-36128829

Pianissimo Thanks. FYI, in case you’re interested, the official UA audio version of the LA-2A plugin is currently being offered for free on their website. All you have to do is register and fill out a brief questionnaire and then you can download at no charge along with several other plugins.

I’ve been playing around with it and it sounds great!

jdg78 Great, and if you want a good free Bricasti M7 clone you can download the Magic7

https://www.wavealchemy.co.uk/product/magic7/

[unknown] I worked with the developer to come up with the preset. Because I can't draw using the mouse, I asked them to remotely assist me.

[unknown] I sent him the velocity preset and he baked it into the product. In the midi / response tab, you can load the "VPC 1 Custom" preset to access it.

[unknown] 🤔 Is that some sort of humor or…?

[unknown] This VPC 1 velocity curve was meant to be built into the product. What on earth are you talking about?

David Lai This VPC 1 velocity curve was meant to be built into the product. What on earth are you talking about?

Yes, we all wanna know, what the hell is Tony talking about?

If you look all of @[deleted] messages are on this topic. There is some kind of fixation. And the last message is utter nonsense... Maybe a bot?

thanks for taking care of this, mods.

I found this old Mrs Mills Piano VST from Spitfire Audio, which is a vintage Steinway upright. It’s probably something that you could only use occasionally as it is detuned, but it seems nice. I pulled one of my MIDI files from my collection and recorded with the default “All Together” preset of the piano, and it seems to fit quite well with this piece.
the-entertainer.mp3