David Lai
actually the qualities of the piano itself aren't the subject here (although they must be there to begin with)
but 90 percent of the top concert grands have those qualities by default without any kind of preparation.
you don't hear that qualities in sampled (or any virtualized) pianos very often though.
and that brings us to how perfectly fine the vilabs record engineers are, you know? recording all aspects of a one note (aka ultra high quality sampling) isn't an easy thing, it's quite challenging even for experienced record engineers (cause they record music not single notes at a time)
and that's why most virtual pianos always lacking some sides of the sound, they use the same techniques that they'd use in a typical session, to "sample" an instrument, that's not gonna work.
like vsl, they're on the bright and sharp side of the spectrum, the natural warmth and roundness aren't 100% there with any of their pianos, or something like the embertone is the opposite, way too warm and resonant but lacks a lot of liveliness and presence,
some people think recording something is to place some mics wherever you like and hit record and they'll capture everything but that's not the case, trust me.
...recording that balance sound that has everything throughout the whole ranges of the piano (and even in the dynamic range) is simply ART
I'm beginning to respect them a lot, the truekeys series were a little better then the competition, the r275 was even better, but their modern series is nuts, both u and d
like i said masterfully recorded.
sorry that was a lot