Hi, 

It's all about choice 😊

For the Bösendorfer Imperial, we have decided to add more stereo width with the Mid 1 Mic, compared to Mid 2. If you want to limit the stereo width, you can always do that with the included Power Pan. 

In general, and because it's another saturday night in front of my computer:
We're REALLY happy to hear all the input from all you piano-enthusiasts. We know where you are coming 

If every feature / bug fix was a matter of minutes, all our lives would be MUCH better, I guess. Just saying / wishing for a feature does not make it magically appear. Unfortunately.  

In the real world, feature additions and bug fixes often take longer, needs to be tested and documented. 

We have learned that promises are counter-productive for both our developers and user, so we usually announce features and fixed when they are ready for the public. 

I know you understand, and I hope it will help you to have a little patience 😳

Best, 
Paul

@Paul said:

It's all about choice 😊

For the Bösendorfer Imperial, we have decided to add more stereo width with the Mid 1 Mic, compared to Mid 2. If you want to limit the stereo width, you can always do that with the included Power Pan.

Hi Paul,

It's not the width of the Mid1 mic - it's the fact that it doesn't pan consistently from left to right. It jumps around quite substantially from left to right between octaves and also between some individual notes. Just play a chromatic scale using only Mid1 and you'll see what I mean - or take a listen to the clip I posted above.

I don't think this is by design? It wouldn't make any sense. I'm assuming it's a bug.

Thank you for the reply, Paul.

Regarding the Boesendorfer Mid1 microphone, I am not complaining about the stereo width, but about the fact that the notes are randomly jumping from left to right in the stereo field. With headphones on and with only Mid1 loaded, simply run a C major scale up and down. I can provide you with with a midi file, but I don't think this is needed since the panorama issues are very obvious.

Regarding bugs, wishes or feature requests, I honestly consider that everyone on this board has been pretty patient and understanding, it's just that it's been a year and a half since the Concert D has been released, and we have yet to get a clear answer. We had a few replies stating that the sympathetic resonance and the silent key are not considered priorities, or that it's even been decided to leave these out, but I need to remind you that the sympathetic resonance is not a feature request. Moreover, I don't think there are many VSTi pianos on the market that do not have this feature. The same goes for the silent key and velocity curve control. These are basic yet important features and I am really having a hard time accepting that the most expensive VSTi pianos on the market do not have them.

There's been a "Sympathetic" control on the interface since day one, it's just that it really does not do what it's supposed to do. Not even close. The same behavior has been carried over to the CFX, Bluethner and the two Boesendorfer.

Nobody has asked for over night, magical fixes. It's been a while though.

I personally still have patience, but it would be nice of VSL to at least acknowledge the bugs and confirm that they are being worked on. An ETA would be nice too.

Thank you

Hi, 

Thanks for the additional explanations, I can hear what you mean. 

The mic signals have not been manipulated, but we will look into the Mid 1 again. 

Silent key, velocity editor and improved sympathetic resonance calculation is on our list. Unfortunately I cannot give you an ETA. 

Best, 
Paul

Thank you

@Paul said:

Thanks for the additional explanations, I can hear what you mean. 

The mic signals have not been manipulated, but we will look into the Mid 1 again.

Thanks Paul,

To be clear, this also affects Mid 2.

To test, load only Mid 1 or Mid 2, make sure the Power Panner is neutral (Center C, Width 100%, Balance C) and play a chromatic scale up the keyboard (ideally wearing headphones).

Some examples:-

On Mid 1 C4-C5 are panned slightly left, C#5-B5 panned right, C6-F6 left, F#6 right, G6-B7 left, C8 right. There are problems in the lower register too, but it's easier to hear the higher notes.

On Mid 2, it's most obvious B5-C6, F6-F#6-G6, B7-C8. 

I suspect it's just that the L&R Mics got mixed up in some places when the samples were mapped across the keyboard.

Hope this helps!

Hi Paul,

please don't worry about answering this question that was here before, I hope you don't mind that I deleted it, as, I decided on doing something else instead.

best,

Steve

Hi everyone,

I have the full version of the Bosendorfer. My computer is having struggles with it though. It plays well, but then when I'm adding large chords and the sustain pedal, I'm getting drop outs and clicks etc.

I have a Intel® Core™ i3-8100 Processor6M Cache, 3.60 GHz, and 24 gigs of ram. Maybe this processor is not fast enough? I'm just not sure.

I tried it also through the keyless vienna ensemble 7 tryout. As I have 4 cores, I decided to set it to one thread to see if that helped, but it seemed to be I was still having playback problems.

For the sound, I'm using a focusrite Scarlett solo for my soundcard. It's connected via usb.

I'm not sure what is causing the problem. I do have the SSD connected via an electrically powered usb port tree, and everything seems to be ok.

I would love some assistance if someone can help me here.

thanks,

Steve

The VSL team uploaded a nice video to their Youtube channel of Jordan Rudess playing the Bösendorfer Imperial. How can I get his settings so that my VSL Bösendorfer Imperial will sound like his? Can the VSL team retrieve his settings since they have access to him and I don't? Thanks for the help. Below is the link to the video.

God Bless,

David

Unfortunately, Jordan doesn't remember.... Here's what he said:

"Oh man – I realize I didn’t save a project for the piece I did. I basically called it up- tweaked the sound to taste and filmed it!!!!"

Best, Martin

@Martin said:

Unfortunately, Jordan doesn't remember.... Here's what he said:

"Oh man – I realize I didn’t save a project for the piece I did. I basically called it up- tweaked the sound to taste and filmed it!!!!"

Best, Martin

I understand. Thanks for looking into it for me. 

God Bless,

David

I have to say the update has resulted in a step up in my enjoyment of the Bösendorfer Imperial. I don't properly understand the fixes, the panning issue was one I didn't pick up on but there is something cleaner about the sound after the update

I am however confused, from what I understand and my reading of the lightweight release notes the fixes are for panning issues in the mid mics and removing clicks for certain notes in the close and mid mics at high velocities. It feels like the improvement is more than that to me, are there any other changes or is that it?

I was rating BI a step down from the Vienna Imperial, but now I'd be hard pressed to say which i enjoy more.

They have quite different sounds.

Hi Kevin, 

Glad to hear that you like the new updates, and our pianos in general!

We took the feedback we received in the introduction period and also took a deeper look, with some mini-adjustments here and there. We only mentioned the most obvious fixes with the Library Update Info, to keep us all from scrutinizing instead of playing. 

Best, 
Paul

@KevinMe said:

I have to say the update has resulted in a step up in my enjoyment of the Bösendorfer Imperial. I don't properly understand the fixes, the panning issue was one I didn't pick up on but there is something cleaner about the sound after the update

I am however confused, from what I understand and my reading of the lightweight release notes the fixes are for panning issues in the mid mics and removing clicks for certain notes in the close and mid mics at high velocities. It feels like the improvement is more than that to me, are there any other changes or is that it?

I was rating BI a step down from the Vienna Imperial, but now I'd be hard pressed to say which i enjoy more.

They have quite different sounds.

Hi Kevin,

I think I may be missing something.

The panning issues have not been addressed, nor have they been mentioned in the release notes.

Regarding the improvements you are hearing, can you be a little more specific? I am asking because I hear zero difference. Just so my ears don't deceive me, I created a chromatic run in Cubase, at different velocities and bounced the results with and without the update, then did a null test (listen to both bounces at the same time, but reverse the phase on one track).

Other than a few extremely minor differences in the lower registers on a few velocities on the ribbon mic only, and the C2 peaks, both bounces sound absolutely identical, i.e. they null perfectly.

Anyway, looking forward to the panning fixes, as these currently keep me from enjoying this otherwise great sounding VSTi.

Thanks

@cuzzinlouie said:

I think I may be missing something.

The panning issues have not been addressed, nor have they been mentioned in the release notes...Anyway, looking forward to the panning fixes, as these currently keep me from enjoying this otherwise great sounding VSTi.

Thanks

The panning issue has been resolved. It's resolved by downloading two improved mic samples (mid1 and mid2) to replace the original ones. 

The smaller update files address the clicking issues and whatever else is in the secret sauce the makes the Bösendorfer Imperial awesome! 

God Bless,

David

@David B. said:

The panning issue has been resolved. It's resolved by downloading two improved mic samples (mid1 and mid2) to replace the original ones. 

The smaller update files address the clicking issues and whatever else is in the secret sauce the makes the Bösendorfer Imperial awesome!

Excactly.

Thanks David and bbelius,

Where do you have this info from, and where are these two files available?

All I am seeing under MyVSL/Synchron Library Updates is Boesendorfer Imperial Library Update 01.

I did see a V2 in front of the main library downloads, but I assumed V2 simply includes Update 01, especially since I could not find any mention of the panning fixes anywhere. The release notes only mention the C2 fix.

Do I need to download the V2s mid1 and mid2?

Thanks

This video by Paul explains it all.

God Bless,

David

@cuzzinlouie said:

Where do you have this info from, and where are these two files available?

Good question...  😎

We replaced the original download files because putting two mics into an update would not only fill up your disk space but also result in higher traffic on our download servers each time someone purchases this piano.
If you read the e-mail curefully and follow the instructions everything should work just fine 😊

Thank you David and Ben, I really appreciate your help.

Somehow, that email landed in my spam folder. I only knew about the update because I saw it in MyVSL, where there was no mention about the mid1/2 and the panning fixes.

Anyway, I've updated mid1 and 2 and these are now good.

I was really hoping for a similar fix on close1 though.

While the panning on close1 is definitely not as problematic as it was on the mids, I was really hoping for a panning update on this too. These are harder to spot, but the issues are there and I hear them every time. 

I am talking about panning jumps between D2-D#2 and G2-G#2. In order to hear them, only have the close1 loaded and maybe turn off the reverb. Run an A Major scale starting from A1 to A2 and back. Headphones.

Same thing C4-C#4.

Other than that, the mid1 and mid2 are now good to go, thanks VSL for the update.