It takes forever to upload with my slow internet (1 megabit per second).
Here are Gene's midi files rendered with my VSL Bösendorfer Imperial Grand. I have the VSL velocity curve setup for my N1X (I use the N1X default touch sensitivity and I think Gene does also) so it should sound the same if played on both instruments.
God Bless,
David
Here are the two compositions rendered using one of my favourite (home made) presets for Ivory II Bösendorfer 225:
Both files rendered in Reaper using VSL D274 (custom preset of ~ 60% close condenser mic and 40% mid decca mic). Your max midi value is around 100 (and usually it wavers between 30 and 60) so this is a well tamed D274.
This is direct from reaper. Forgot to normalize on audacity.
A couple of things jump out at me as I read through this thread. I mentioned in another thread about the preferences of European pianos for Europeans, and American pianos for Americans (a theory) - now I am wondering if, when you improvise, that you tend to play in a particular piano range. I prefer the tenor (fat American sound), so I play alot of stuff like Linus and Lucy (peanuts) and don't improvise too far above middle C. And I wonder if this affects the type of piano you prefer.
The other thing is that this crowd sourcing of piano sounds can really help me with my next library. I may create another thread about this, but I would post a MIDI file to be rendered - single notes at different piano ranges with different velocities, and then have 'clackers render them and post which controller they use along with the piano library they're using. I could then compare the output sound and get a rough idea of the velocity scaling. Not exactly the velocity curve, but at least the dynamic range of each keyboard section (ie, C1-C2, C5-C6)
BTW, does anyone have a Fazioli sample library they can use to render Cybergene's midi file?
Both of the VSL samples are far nicer, in my opinion, than either PTQ or Garritan. Cleaner, less overtones (muddiness?). Your improvised playing is quite good, Gene.
Here are renderings from my free Fazioli F308 library. I thought about also including renderings from other free libraries to make the F308 library sound really good…. ha ha.
Anyway, if anyone else has a commercial Fazioli library, I'd love to compare.
Wow... Your Fazioli library sounds really impressive. The loud middle section (around 1:00) is as clear as in the VSLs and, in my opinion, better than Garritan. It is very bright and for that reason it is not to my personal taste, but I am in the minority and I think the library captures well the shimmering character of that piano. Congrats...
I’m in the midst of a Sunday evening home chores/madness, so I’ll wait for the family to go to bed and will listen to all these renderings later 👍🏻
Yup. It's bright. I put a hidden filter in the kontakt version to tamp down the brightness at lower velocities.
It's occuring to me that I may never hit the vsl quality because my mics, while very good, are not the $3-5k mics that the pros use.
dore_m It's occuring to me that I may never hit the vsl quality because my mics, while very good, are not the $3-5k mics that the pros use.
You should be happy thinking "there are pros out there that use $3-5k mics and publish crap..."
TomLC Someone deleted my post?
I deleted my post because I forgot to normalize my audio file. I reposted
I'm going to listen to all the renders now. If I knew, I would have recorded something meaningful, e.g. classical music, not that stuff... 🤣
Strangely enough "that stuff" is working really well for this comparison, and is exposing the pros and cons of each VST. Forget chopin...
QuasiUnaFantasia Here are the two compositions rendered using one of my favourite (home made) presets for Ivory II Bösendorfer 225
This is a good preset, however I think the way I played the first file (Pianoteq with the default N1X touch curve) is a bit too hard for the Ivory preset and produces rather bright timbres. If I had played the actual Ivory preset in realtime, I would have changed the velocity curve or would have adjusted my touch to be lighter. However the second file that I played with Garritan is slightly softer, so I believe Garritan CFX is closer to Ivory as timbre mapping and I have played softer.
vagfilm Both files rendered in Reaper using VSL D274 (custom preset of ~ 60% close condenser mic and 40% mid decca mic). Your max midi value is around 100 (and usually it wavers between 30 and 60) so this is a well tamed D274.
I'm not sure why that is but I don't like that recording at all, sounds extremely nasal and more Pianoteq-ish than the Pianoteq Steinway D I used 😃 Hope you don't take that insulting... Are you sure something is not messed up because in the very beginning I though it was a mono file, it's very narrow, boxy and nasal. Very weird! Or maybe that's the real Steinway and is why people love Pianoteq 🤣 Go figure.
dore_m Here are renderings from my free Fazioli F308 library. I thought about also including renderings from other free libraries to make the F308 library sound really good…. ha ha.
Man, that's surprisingly good! It sounds almost like a binaural recording, the room reverb is very nice! I totally forgot that you asked feedback about that library and you just gave me one more reason to test it. Kudos for the really excellent result!
David B Here are Gene's midi files rendered with my VSL Bösendorfer Imperial Grand. I have the VSL touch curve setup for my N1X (I use the N1X default touch sensitivity and I think Gene does also) so it should sound the same if played on both instruments.
I comment on this last because it can easily be my favorite rendering among all of them. I'm split between whether I prefer the Garritan CFX rendering and this one. And I'm sure that if I played the VSL live, I would have played even better to control the half-pedal according to the resonance and the blend that is needed, etc.
CyberGene I comment on this last because it can easily be my favorite rendering among all of them.
Yep. The VSL Bösenderfer puts the SmackDown on everything else. 😀
It was my favorite also.
God Bless,
David
CyberGene Hope you don't take that insulting...
Of course not... To me it sounds good, and I prefer it to BI. Uneducated ear? In any case I may have messed up something in Reaper or in the preset. I will rerender it using a default velocity curve, and normalize the file afterwards.
vagfilm can you please listen to your files with headphones. Is it how you expect it to sound? Just to eliminate it's not something messed up in the rendering.
And of course we have different tastes about pianos, otherwise there wouldn't be Pianoteq and so many flame threads, and all the hundreds of sampled pianos 😃
🍻