My VSL Blüthner 1895 experience

EB5AGV

Hi all,

As most of you know, I am VST-holic 😬. So, when VSL offered some of the Synchron Pianos at a discounted price, I bought the Blüthner 1895. I had already the three Bösendorfer (Imperial, 280VC, Upright) so the Blüthner seemed to be a good one to complement them. My other missing ones, CFX and D-274 were not discounted, so this year the VSL addition was clear 😇

I got it an installed it on my dedicated music desktop. But, from first moment, I noticed a resonance around A-2 which was pretty noticeable mostly at mf and higher velocities. It was present from about C-2 to at least B-2 and less pronounced on a larger range. Not the same resonance, but the same kind. It is like a parasite vibration of something on the piano. If that is the Aliquot… I hate it. All in all, once I noticed it, playing the Blüthner lost quite a lot of its interest to me. I was always noticing that 😞

Of course, I checked different speakers and also headphones… and the problem remained.

What is incredible is that there are no comments about that from other users. But I did all what was reasonable to get rid or tame that sound. Nothing worked. So, sadly, I have asked for a refund and VSL has agreed (pretty good customer service 👍🏻)

I am sorry for not being smarter and having tried that VST before, when temporary licenses have been available (in fact, I still have, unused, 1 month licenses for CFX and D-274, I wonder if they will be expired now!)

So, well, this time the end result has been less than stellar 🙄

Jose

HZPiano

Hello,

EB5AGV Thank you for posting!!

Sorry to hear the end result, of course. Wise decision to return it. And indeed strange that nobody has mentioned such issue anywhere, including Gamma1734 who is serious about his playing and VSTi use. Such resonance would annoy the heck out of me too, as I am currently experiencing with NI Noire, which is loaded with problems and strange artifacts which to me make it unusable except maybe for bass- and some sound sculpting experiments.

Apart from the annoyance, did you get any other interesting (positive or otherwise) impressions from this trial?

Cheers and happy playing,

EB5AGV

HZPiano Apart from the annoyance, did you get any other interesting (positive or otherwise) impressions from this trial?

Well, that piano is for sure lots less powerful on bass than the Bösendorfers and also I would say that dynamic range is smaller. The tone itself is quite nice for romantic era / soft / intimate music. Not well suited for pop and such, but that was to expect.

I am pretty sad it didn't work for me, I had great expectations. And, yes, I wonder why those artifacts are not noticed by more people. I should have done a recording, but was just too upset to think on that, sorry. Now my eLicenser is already modified so the license is gone for good. BTW, I will now see what happens when a license is deleted. I mean, if the VSL Synchron Pianos application will just not show the Blüthner (my bet) or it will raise an error. Just curious!

Only good thing is that I will free some GB from that SSD. Not big deal.

Jose

MHirsch

That's a very detailed description of a problem 😀

I simply didn't like it and returned to VSL next day, no questions were asked.

I happened to play a real Blüthner, not a 1895 but a Modell 11 (I believe it's the smallest one). Well, it sounds totally different 😆

HZPiano

MHirsch a real Blüthner, not a 1895 but a Modell 11

Hello,

I recently heard and example of a 1950s fully restored model 11. Lovely!

I am definitely going to look into real-world Blüthners "for later when I grow up". I am much charmed by these rather special piano's. These smaller grands have a hint of upright intimacy with a flavor of a bigger, more open, yet beautifully rounded sound. I love that.

Cheers and happy piano exploring,

Ralphiano

I wish you would have revealed this problem before returning your VSL Bluthner. I had a similar problem that had an unexpected resolution without disturbing the VST.

At one recent point in my experiments with my sound, I experienced an ugly reverberation across a narrow range of notes, centered and most pronounced around A440 (first A above middle C). It was metallicy, and wavering as if played "vibrato". It was terribly annoying.

After trying and failing to correct it with adjustments to the VST and amplifier, I accidentally stumbled onto a slight improvement in the sound from an inadvertent, small relocation of the speakers. I immediately set out of explore the possibility of solving the problem with speaker placement. And, I succeeded. I kept making very small adjustments of a half inch (13mm) or so. I also experimented with rotating the speakers to change the angle and distance at which the rear impulses (rear ported speakers) hit the wall behind them so as to modify the reflections.

During the course of this experimentation, I had the fun (I like learning) experience of actually changing the range of notes that exhibited the unwanted effects, at one point moving the ugliness about half an octave lower. I felt like a mad scientist who had stumbled onto a way to control what was previously uncontrollable. I eventually achieved what I wanted, the elimination of those unwanted sounds from the entire range of piano notes. The total change in speaker location did not amount to any more than about three inches in any one direction.

Your description of your problem sounds a lot like what I experienced. If you have not actually irreversibly returned your Bluthner yet, I encourage you to spend some time making small adjustments to your speaker locations to see if the problem resolves.

EB5AGV

Ralphiano Thanks but, as I wrote, it happens even with headphones. I did my work before deciding to return it. I wanted to love it, but was just impossible ☹️