Ivory III American Concert D Review and Test

Thanks David, this is incredibly instructive...

While the actual piano sampled for the American D sounds like a lovely instrument, and I prefer its tone to the Hamburg Steinway sampled for the German D (and possibly even the Modern D), I could tell right away that it exhibits some of the same qualities that bug me about the Hamburg D, and which I must assume is inherent to the Ivory 3 engine.

It's most apparent in the short, staccato passages which sound oddly processed, and also exhibit the generally sub-par release behavior that is another weak point with Ivory. The una corda and side A mics sound quite lovely, though.

The Modern D sounds more authentic in terms of presence and behavior to me, even if I may slightly prefer the more worn-in tone of the piano used for the American D.

David Lai Woooow, thanks for that review.

Once upon a time, back in 2008, a young aspiring pianist bought the first Synthogy pianos. It was quite an experience, he never thought a piano that wasn’t acoustic could sound that realistic. Over time, he ended up getting more Synthogy products, and his favorite piano became the American Grand from Ivory II.

Now, I’m not sure how to feel, but I definitely don’t think I’ll upgrade to version III. Not so much because of the noise issues, but because I honestly feel it sounds cold, synthetic. It has the same problems as the German D.

Anyway, I’m glad I invested my money in the Modern D.

Thanks again for the review.

Cheers.

thanks for sharing, @David Lai !

just for my awareness [asking primarily for curiosity sake], was your previous recordings and performances for Modern D voluntary, or paid basis from VI Labs?

to be clear, I'm still making my judgements based on the rationale you make within this thread's MP3, but in spirit of transparency, wanted to see if you received any, or none, compensation for the Modern D.

Awesome! Thank you David, and thank you to the generous benefactor who made this review possible. This is the most helpful kind of review. Good insights and the skill to show us what's really going on.

I listened to the review twice and what my uneducated ears heard was Ivory 3 sounding a bit more airy with ambiance baked in. The piano seems a bit more open and resonant than the Modern D. The una corda samples sounded nice. Release samples were almost nonexistent at default. Side A mic sounded the best to my ears.

Overall, I like the warmth of the Modern D and the intimate/dry nature of the library. I can and any reverb profile I want, but I can also have that very intimate, close, and personal living room sound, which can't be done with the Ivory 3. The release samples on the Modern D sounded better and it seems like it has a clearer tonal profile. I like that.

This review helped solidify my initial impression that I don't need the Ivory 3 American D. Thanks again, David. You did a great job.

God Bless,
David

rodrigopv Not so much because of the noise issues, but because I honestly feel it sounds cold, synthetic. It has the same problems as the German D.

Yes, that's exactly my impression as well. Did the original Ivory II American D not exhibit this synthetic quality?

jdg78 I would say no, but I might not be very objective in giving my opinion. It was my favorite piano for a long time. I can say, however, that although the resonance in Ivory has always seemed a bit synthetic to me, it had never been an issue until Ivory III.

It’s unfortunate because the German D has excellent playability, and I assume the American D does as well, besides the fact that the sound of the sampled piano is delightful.

jdg78 Did the original Ivory II American D not exhibit this synthetic quality?

as someone who only heard demos of both
i can say that i never heard that little midrange digital zzz in the old ACD
but this one has it
it's not a terrible thing and it's not that obvious but still a good ear can spot the differences between this and a authentic piano like modern d or vsl stuff

HeartKeys Well, I did get to use Modern D for free, so I wonder if this is a form of compensation? I don't know, but that's the main thing I got. Same as the Modern U.

I was asked by VI Labs to make the recordings, as in they verbally asked if I wouldn't mind playing some things for them. Hope this helps.

jdg78 As someone who both owns the II and now the III, I can say that the original II ACD is more faithful to the tone of the piano used for sampling. It was one of the first New York D's I've ever played, and I loved the tone ever since.

rodrigopv Thank you for sharing! The win for Ivory is its accessibility. Every dial and slider is automated on the Reaper parameters dialogue, so when you press P, you can adjust to your heart's content.

David B Yes, David. The attacks on Ivory are not that dry compared to Modern D. So I should have added some ambience reverb. But in fairness to both, I decided to leave reverb out of it. I also adjusted the release time on Ivory to 0.6 for all the short notes, because that sounds closest to the higher and mid range short notes on the Modern D. It was very easy to adjust a good curve to match the custom one I did for the Modern D, too, so all you hear is very much on par response wise. I made sure I try to minimize the differences, so you hear the pianos for themselves.

David Lai Well, I did get to use Modern D for free, so I wonder if this is a form of compensation? I don't know, but that's the main thing I got. Same as the Modern U.

no, that happens all the time with the youtubers and such
companies give them their products for review sake
but it's not like they force people to say positive things about their products, especially these big companies

some companies even take back the item after the review thing, one of them is beyerdynamic

pianow companies give them their products for review sake

I see, thanks for explaining. I don't know how this works. So yeah, in a sense, VI Labs did lose profit from me because I didn't buy their Modern U or D.

But I wasn't instructed on what to say, or how things are presented. I'm not working for them, or any company for that matter.

David Lai You’re right, but you know, the same can be done with ViLabs pianos.

rodrigopv Yes, exactly. What Synthogy did, however, was out-of-the-box. We have to come up with solutions for UVI WorkStation after the fact. That's the difference.

David Lai Good point. In fact, if I remember correctly, it’s been like this since the first time I used Ivory, back in 2008. Good times with Cakewalk Sonar 8.

rodrigopv It’s unfortunate because the German D has excellent playability, and I assume the American D does as well, besides the fact that the sound of the sampled piano is delightful.

I am entirely in agreement with you. While the playability of Ivory 3 is superb, it seems to come at the expense of tonal fidelity, which is not a tradeoff I'm willing to make, especially given the alternatives currently available.

At this point, I doubt I'll invest further in this platform unless they make improvements to the underlying technology.

Although I am a bit tempted by the original Ivory II version of the American D, as the basic tone is quite lovely. If I ever see it for offered for a good price, I might pick it up.

jdg78 Well, on Best Service, according to a post above, it's $150.

Thanks @David Lai for the response to me from above (in terms of being relatively impartial about your reviews).

I do agree meanwhile that the Modern D seems more meticulous done compared to the Ivory, in terms of its technology, and capturing the essence of the instrument, and just overall "getting it right."

It's probably the first sample-based VST that I felt rivals the responsiveness of Pianoteq. Modern D "feels real" while "sounds real" at the same time. Whereas, VSL to me has some amazing sounding instruments, but the user-to-instrument connection is less there (as well as some other coding quirks).

So far, my only quip is that the middle C# seems to be louder than all other keys (I didn't have this issue with my other VST's, so this seems to be isolated to Modern D, and not to my VPC1). I did use the VPC Editor and reduced middle C# by about 10 velocities. Would love that to be updated!

HeartKeys Very well-said, and I agree with you on both points. 🙂

Yes, I want to make sure that what you hear is what you get, because otherwise, what's the use for me to demo these things?