VI Labs: Modern U Review

CyberGene Scriabin

Hello,

Just listened to your recording. As a "self-taught pianist" you should pat yourself on the back a little more! 👏

And, doesn't it sound lovely and realistic? Wonderful. I'd like to see a screenshot of the settings you used there. Your recording also shows (near the end) that the bass/tenor regions have more difficulty resolving the chords in such a way that the individual notes in the chords keep standing their own ground. This is something I also ran into playing Modern U. But -- I should add -- on real-world uprights that usually is just like that, so I don't mean to point out a fault here.

Cheers and have a good weekend,

HZ

HZPiano
Thanks for the nice words!

The final few chords I played with the sordino samples assigned to the soft pedal which is why it’s not very distinct but in all fairness Scriabin just put a lot of notes in a low register which is a tricky situation for any piano.

I’ll share my multi and also screenshots.

CyberGene The final few chords I played with the sordino samples assigned to the soft pedal which is why it’s not very distinct but in all fairness Scriabin just put a lot of notes in a low register which is a tricky situation for any piano.

Ah, I see!

Cheers,

HZ

David B

Well, I can explain my choice 😀

Main mic is the player one, kinda makes sense if you sit in front of a piano:

"This is the most natural mic setup in the library and really does emulate the experience of sitting at this piano, with just the right balance of direct and room detail along with a natural stereo image. This is the go-to classical mic."

Then you definitely want to hear the soundboard:

"A unique perspective away from the hammers capturing only the piano's soundboard up close with a wide image, the tone is warm and immersive, a bit 'woody' with a broader hammer attack."

The mono one sounds very important:

"Positioned just above the action front and center, this mic captures everything, the warmth and detail all with a modern edge."

As for timbre, I've seen a description of what it does somewhere, so turned it a bit down.

And eliminated the pedal noise, that's really disturbing, the piano has to be in a very bad shape to make noises like that…

CyberGene

What does it do exactly?

Timbre Shift: Shifts the timbre by pitching samples upon playback, resulting in a warmer sound with negative values and a brighter sound with higher values. Interesting results, especially suitable for soft playing.

Found it here.

The interesting thing about timbre shift with VSL is that you lose notes on the piano depending on which direction you shift in. For example, -1 will drop the highest C, -2 will drop the highest C and B, etc. That's why I never use it with VSL products. However, zero notes are dropped with the way VILabs has implemented it.

I really don't understand what's happening with timbre shift. It obviously changes the tone color, but other than that, I can't say what's going on. It's definitely better implemented with VILab's software.

God bless,
David

Weird. I hoped the terminology would be the same…

Another timbre related blog.

David B CyberGene decided to record something with the Modern U.

Very beautiful song and nicely played.

Yes, I listened to it more carefully and it's wonderful. I understand one does never like his or her own voice, but it's not sloppy at all!

David B In my limited experience, it seems to me that there wouldn't be much difference playing the Modern U compared to an actual Yamaha U3.

I never played a real modern Yamaha U-something. The sound of this U is very different from any other upright that I've owned or played. Well, I guess because most of them were not modern 🤣

My take on the instrument is that it's nice to have a variation, but it's not something that I'd long to have (or buy) per se. Simply my opinion, obviously!

Hello,

So, triggered by everyone's Modern U posts of this Saturday, I just spent one or two hours tweaking my settings -- which I hadn't done for a long time now. What I found today is:

• Listening closely, the timbre setting definitely shifts samples from neighboring keys (in half-tone steps), re-pitching them. It is definitely not for me, it becomes subtly but surely weird/artificial. The quality of the samples falls apart somehow.
• I never used the tone knob before, but now think that one proves useful, carefully applying it in the minus direction. In return, I brought back the Bend knobs from left -35/right +35 to -21/+21 respectively. That brings back some timbre variation/liveliness that I already started missing, while the tone knob still attenuates the harsher edges a bit.
• I tried the player and mono mics (separately as well as combined) again (meanwhile keeping the soundboard mics) but I find them strangely introducing distance, the opposite of what I would look for intimately playing an upright piano. So those are not for me. I went back to having the soundboard mics on my lower 4 speakers and the two pairs of close mics together on my upper two speakers. To my taste, this is as "player" as it gets 🙂.

Cheers and happy tuning-to-taste,

HZ

CyberGene

Hi,

I also haven't found a manual for the Modern U.

But the Help in the interface is pretty good.

First click the "i" icon. Then with that window open, click the text of the item of interest.

Jane: let me be the first to welcome you to the Clacking community... Here the discussions go a bit deeper than in PianoWorld, and your expertise is a wonderful addition. There are a bunch of us around (me included) that bought the Modern U in the last couple of days.

Jane Welcome! And thanks for the great advice regarding the embedded hints in the Modern U interface. Basically it answers my need for a user manual.

Jane Help in the interface is pretty good.

Hello,

Welcome Jane! Do we also "know" you as JaneF?

And… how totally silly of me to have totally forgotten about the on-screen help texts, which are indeed pretty well done.

Cheers and happy playing your new acquisitions,

HZ

vagfilm There are a bunch of us around (me included) that bought the Modern U in the last couple of days.

Actually, this forum will soon be rebaptized "U'Clack" 🤭.

Oh well.

Cheers and the happiest playing,

HZ

CyberGene I can't wait until my vacation and decided to record something with the Modern U.

Very nice, thanks for sharing. How do you apply the EQ, do you use the built in or an external one?

johanibraaten I'm using the internal 8-band EQ. Here are my settings:

The room mic is at -5.81dB. I've also swapped MIDI CC 67 and 68 (soft and sordino), so that the soft pedal triggers the sordino samples.

In the FX section I use the 8-band EQ and I've lowered Peak 3 gain to -3dB and Peak 4 gain to -2dB.

For the touch curve I'm on the N1X default and on "heavy touch 1" on the Modern U.

OK, I just realized there's a main EQ in the main panel and I could use the tone knob instead to make the sound less bright 🤦🏻‍♂️ Thanks to the hint of using the information button to get info regarding what the various controls do. I feel a bit stupid now but I didn't have a lot of time to tweak the piano and was in a hurry to record something 😃 Next time I will try to use that one instead.

CyberGene I feel a bit stupid now

As you should 😉!

Just as stupid as me for just yesterday using the Tone knob for the first time since I purchased Modern U almost a year ago 🙄.

I've got Tone at -5 now for both may 'layer instances' and in return could get the Bend knobs to a smaller adjustment. No EQ. I'm now even happier with the piano tone and sense of realism.

Cheers and a happy Sunday,

HZ

CyberGene I'm using the internal 8-band EQ. Here are my settings:

Thank you, I've now tried you settings and it makes a good intimate experience. Cool idea to let the soft pedal trigger the sordino samples. I'm yet to come around those harmonics in the C5-C6 range though. Do you think it would be possible to run it in Logic/mainstage and make a script that aplies EQ (external) to certain notes/ranges? I like the bass as it is but find the treble too bright and would like to get rid of those harmonics in the mentioned range.

HZPiano I've got Tone at -5 now

Hi @johanibraaten,

See this post and maybe you can try that as well.

Cheers and happy fine-tuning,

HZ