oshogg If you are ever in Portland - you are most welcome to drop by Joe 🙂
From my side of the pond I'm probably not going to end up in Portland anytime soon, but a recording from the room would suffice. The thing you made the pictures with probably has a microphone built-in too.
oshogg At least, not for the VSTs I am using (Pianoteq, Garritan CFX, VSL Concert D). Compared to monitor speakers, it makes them sound boxy and distant.
VST recording samples are not meant to be played through a digital piano cabinet, just as Van Halen's Jump is not meant to be played through my guitar amplifier. The samples of the former already have a grand piano soundboard, cabinet and rehearsal room baked in and the latter is a finished mix too, with amplifiers and cabinets already in the recording.
Once you have (either mechanical or electronic) amplification, cabinet and room already in your samples, you can't influence it anymore through performance. Pedaling for example is not primarily about sustain, it's about keeping the cabinet and the room under control. Arranging ready-baked samples through neutral monitors removes that aspect from your piano performance entirely. You're not getting closer to an acoustic piano experience, but further away from it.
