VSL Fazioli F308 Review

David B

I’ve owned every Synchron Piano including the Vienna Imperial. While each one has its unique charm, I feel that the Fazioli F308 transcends them all and has become my favorite VSL piano. Here is a short review demonstrating why I have an affinity for the F308.

https://youtu.be/GFlNtg2DSws

God Bless,
David

HZPiano

David B a short review

Hello,

A very nice video, explanation, and presentation David!

As usual, much, much better, useful, and informative than almost any other review/demo as we usually see them on piano VSTis.

Your style works! Which shows in me still happily playing Modern U daily, two years in, from a just as useful presentation of yours back then 🙂.

Cheers and the happiest playing,

EB5AGV

Thanks David, enjoyed your demo quite a lot. I am glad you have come to terms with this VST 👍🏻

Jose

David B

EB5AGV I am glad you have come to terms with this VST 👍🏻

Yeah, it took some time because when I first tried it out we had just moved and I didn't even have my N1X put together yet. However, now that I've been playing it for over a month it's hard to go back to their other pianos because they lack (to my ears) the warmth, clarity, and evenness in tone that the F308 has.

God Bless,
David

johanibraaten

Thanks for the review David, I think this piano, as your playing; sounds really good. Your descriptions of the piano according evens, linearity and clearness is interesting, It's exactly how my experience is with Fazioli pianos (acoustic ones). I noticed that you have a quite steep velocity curve, is it harder to reach the highest dynamic levels on this piano than the other VSL Synchron pianos?

David B

johanibraaten I noticed that you have a quite steep velocity curve, is it harder to reach the highest dynamic levels on this piano than the other VSL Synchron pianos?

That's more of an issue with the Yamaha N1X. There is no touch setting on the N1X that goes from 0-127. So depending on what touch setting is selected on the N1X the user will have to shape the velocity curve to reach the highest velocities. On some pianos the highest velocity sounds too harsh e.g., VSL's 280VC (IMO). So the velocity curve with the 280VC wouldn't be as steep since I really don't want to reach the highest samples. Not so with the F308. The entire range sounds good. Hence the steeper curve for easier access.

God Bless,
David

johanibraaten

David B That's more of an issue with the Yamaha N1X. There is no touch setting on the N1X that goes from 0-127. So depending on what touch setting is selected on the N1X the user will have to shape the velocity curve to reach the highest velocities. On some pianos the highest velocity sounds too harsh e.g., VSL's 280VC (IMO). So the velocity curve with the 280VC wouldn't be as steep since I really don't want to reach the highest samples. Not so with the F308. The entire range sounds good. Hence the steeper curve for easier access.

That's the same with my N1, I'm not comfortable with banging the keyed to higher levels than around 110-115 (I reach a little higher in the treble than in the bass) even if it might be possible to reach 127 with a sledge hammer😊 I haven't tried the VSL Fazioli but when I tried VSL:s other offerings I found the velocity response and over all playability to be superior on the CFX which I ended up buying. The velocity response of the CFX is a really a good match for the N1 and my theory is that it has to do with how they sampled it. With the CFX they used a built in Disklavier system to trigger the notes and as the Avantgrands and the Disklavier both are Yamaha made it could have something to to with the good velocity match. According to VSL, the highest sampled dynamics on the CFX is quite extreme and the force required to reach those levels should accordingly be similar extreme.