Spitfire Audio BBSO Piano

dore_m

Looks promising

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NJS4ahbEUo

David B

I watched the video and I don't think he mentioned half pedal or repealing features. That's a deal breaker for me. Also, I expect there aren't una coda samples. That's not a deal breaker for me, but it is nice to have. I'd also like to hear more demonstration of the release samples.

I think pedaling and release samples are what separates virtual pianos between usable and unusable.

God Bless,
David

Joannchr

Funny thing is their main advertisement starts with Clair de lune , which starts with Una corda pedal as mentioned by Debussy in the score to make a color contrast between the opening chords sequences and the introduction of the bass and wider sound .

Imho , all sustain pedal modes ( Half pedal , repedal) , Una corda are a must have for classical piano . Silent notes and sustenato are a nice to have for 20 th century music .

To me this is only usable if you want to do cinematic type of production only or pop rock style .

pipAT

Only 6 velocity layers and many RRs, reminds me of what HZP used to be. CSP has 7 velocity layers, and I hardly heard any complaints about it. I guess it's for mixing in the orchestra, less for solo performance.

jdg78

Having gone through the promotional material it's pretty clearly intended to be used as more of a scoring/mixing instrument to supplement their full BBC orchestra program than as a solo instrument. 6 dynamic layers isn't nearly enough for more advanced solo repertoire, but if the transitions are handled well it could have decent enough playability for more basic material.

Still, at almost $200 for the full version, the price seems rather high for what it offers. You can get any number of fully playable and more comprehensively sampled piano VSTs for that price.

dore_m

I like the way it sounds in the demos, but I doubt I'd fork over money for it. I also looked for half pedaling and it's not there. The thing that continues to puzzle me is not the 6 layers but the 4 round robins. IMHO, if you're going to record the notes at 6 velocities x 4 times, why not just make 24 layers? Unless there are not really 4 rrs per layer, but even then, 10 vel layers would still be superior. Perhaps it's too much work to blend more layers, which is why I also only do 7.

And I guess the real value in the instrument is that they recorded it with the same mics and environment as BBCSO, so it automatically blends with the orchestra.

David Lai

Watched the video and also read some comments here. Indeed, 6 layers sounds like not so much, and honestly, I would prefer 5 or 6 layers in the "Experience" series, since it's the best price in the world. 🙂

That said, I do have to say I like the tone of that Steinway in the hall. It's crisp and warm at the same time.

David Lai

And I just saw this in my subscriptions, my friend Simeon posted this. He sounds like he's always having fun. 🙂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rM6cn5CvcNg

Pianissimo

Lots of reverb baked in. Pass.

n-player

Spitfire had some teething problems when their player was introduced several years ago. I don't know how well those were sorted out but that is worth investigating.

Some of the BBSO strings were really nice.

dore_m

The free one layer version was released with BBCSO discover. The stereo mix wasn't wide enough for me because it's meant to sit inside of a full orchestra and the free version only has those mics.
On the bright side, the upper range of their Steinway D has the same sort of ring-ey overtones that my B had and I noticed immediately. Interesting to hear the family resemblance.