NI - The Maverick

HZPiano

@David B , I just listened again to the "Fantaisie" rendering (by @Frédéric L ) using the Grandeur, and to my surprise it sounds much more palatable than many of the other libraries.

Yet, still curious for your current impressions in the context of my question above.

Cheers and happy playing,

David B

HZPiano I might have time to record something today. I think it sounds very authentic. The release samples and resonances are very convincing. The tone and attack is pleasant. It sounds good through headphones and the internal speakers of my N1X. Although, there are two problems I have with it.

The dymanic range seems more limited. I feel like I can really hammer on the keys and not worry about controlling the ff range (and that's using all 18 velocity layers). That might not be a negative for some people. However, that's generally not the way large pianos behave. Those extra 4 layers in Noire are noticeable in the ff range.
There is something wrong with the repedal feature. I'm talking about the ability to hit a string, pump the sustain pedal quickly, and recapture the sound of the vibrating string. VSL, VILabs, and my N1X internal samples behave like a real acoustic piano with the repedal behavior. I can hit a string(s) with the aforementioned libraries, pump the pedal numerous times, and continue to capture the vibrating string(s), and it sounds like a normal acoustic piano when doing that. The repedal feature doesn't work at all on the Noire. Zero repedal ability when the repedal button is activated. That's very disappointing. It doesn't work very well on the Grandeur. The Grandeur will only allow for one pump of the pedal to capture the vibrating strings, but it won't do anymore after the first one. And unfortunately, it doesn't sound very authentic with one and only repedal allowed.

God Bless,
David

HZPiano

David B

Thanks a lot for those useful notes, David! Now I have a little more understanding of The Grandeur.

Now that you mentioned it, and if my memory serves me well, I think there may be remarks on that pedaling behavior on PW.

As for Noire, I don't think I tested that, seems silly that wouldn't work while there is a setting you activated. I'm afraid I can't offer any input on that.

Cheers and happy recording,

📹

Gamma1734

Oh I love the Maverick. I've made probably 50-100 recordings with that. I think I sometimes did boost the whole high frequency range with an EQ if I felt the sound was a bit too dead/dull. Don't know if that was realistic but at that time it sounded good to my ears.

QuasiUnaFantasia

Good things come to those who wait!

And I've been a really good boy, waiting for months (as cheapskate's like me have to do a lot). 😄

At any rate, it's on sale now at half price. I got it directly from Native Instruments.

As for my experience (all 10 minutes) of it: sound is good, not too many parameters to play around with, but the important ones are there. So far, I am very pleased. 🙂

David B

QuasiUnaFantasia As for my experience (all 10 minutes) of it: sound is good, not too many parameters to play around with, but the important ones are there. So far, I am very pleased.

Video of you playing or it didn't happen. 🙂

QuasiUnaFantasia

David B I still haven't worked up the courage to record myself with video, although I have bought a gadget to lock my phone onto a tripod, and it was one of my targets for this year to get video recording going. I'll get around to it. 😀

n-player

Turn off the Round Robins else you get some haphazard results.

QuasiUnaFantasia

n-player Do you mean that there are considerable differences between the different samples from the same key? Actually, I would welcome that. I'm after realism, not concert hall consistency.

n-player

QuasiUnaFantasia

Yes. I found the Round robins don't work well for live playing as the haphazard variances are too big. Round robins may be great for studio and other work, however.

Try both on and off and decide for yourself.

@dore_m has a head tracking thread; those subtle variances are not so haphazard as they follow your head position. I found those small changes with head position to be realistic and to remove some of the monotony of recorded samples.

dore_m

I'm not a fan of round robins - and after playing with sympathetic resonance, I think that much of the "randomness" that occurs in a real piano is because of the interactions between strings, hammers and resonance, which are not entirely random. So the trick is to get the SR turned up enough so it doesn't cause too much strange-sounding sustain, yet makes the sample playback not sound so much like a recording.
Still experimenting myself actually.

dore_m

n-player @dore_m has a head tracking thread; those subtle variances are not so haphazard as they follow your head position. I found those small changes with head position to be realistic and to remove some of the monotony of recorded samples.

oh yeah - that's totally true also. Maybe I'll experiment with the headtracking with the SR. I admit that I don't have the SR stereo image dialed in perfectly as it's entirely synthetic. I just put the sine waves out of phase so the image sounded wide enough.

.... so much to optimize if I feel like putting in the effort...

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