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  • Velocity/Volume problems with VSL Bosendorfer Piano

    I have some velocity/volume problems with the VSL Bosendorfer Piano.
    With some pitches I noticed that increasing the midi volume by the value one
    might result in a sample that is played at a strinkingly lower instead of a slightly higher volume.

    To see or hear what I mean I uploaded the 128 different
    velocities created for one example note:
    www.angermueller.com/VSLBosendorferPianoNoteG128Velocites.mp3
    (the file is mp3-compressed, please ignore any compression artefacts)

    When opening this file in an audio editor I can see two big gaps:
    1.) between the midi volumes 50/51 (from -16dB to -22 dB)
    2.) between the midi volume 64/65 (from -19dB to -13 dB)

    I know that in the recording process for the library only some
    velocities were recorded for each note and all the other values
    were interpolated.
    But a 6dB change between two succeeding midi volumes is very
    disturbing and especially a 6dB decrease (!) instead of an increase
    in volume between 50 and 51 is very irritating.
    And this is just one example. In other notes I also noticed some
    strange gaps.
    Will there be an update that corrects these velocity/volume problems ?

    Or do I have any wrong settings ?
    The recording was done with VSL 1.11 standalone player
    and the dynamic range was set to 25.

    Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

    Jan Angermueller

  • Are you referring to the full Bosendorfer Piano VI or the version in Special Edition? If it's the full version, please tell me the name of the patch you're hearing the problem on and I'll test it with 127 velocities. I don't have SE, but I heard its version of the piano has fewer dynamic layers.

  • I refer to the Boserdorfer Piano VI full edition.
    The problem occured with all three patches I tested:
    01 Bos-Imp_Cl
    02 Bos-Imp_CL soft
    11 Bos-Imp_Di.

    It would be great if you could check it on your system.

    Jan Angermueller

  • Thanks for the info Jan. I ran my own test using a repeated note of Middle C on patch 01 Bos-Imp_Cl pedal-up (with dynamic range on the default setting of 25) at MIDI velocities 1-127.

    No transition was more than 1dB apart from:

    4 or 5dB level increase between vel 29 and 30
    3dB level drop between vel 50 and 51
    5dB level increase between vel 64 and 65
    3dB level increase between vel 79 and 80, sound gets much harder
    2dB level increase between vel 119 and 120, sound gets harder

    I used a Logic audio track's input meter (probably not the most precise in the world) to measure the level. The fact that my figures are smaller than yours is probably due to the fact that I was operating at a different global level. (The lowest velocity showed -52dB and the highest -19db.)

    The drop in level between 50 and 51 is clearly a programming mistake. On the others, I found the changes in timbre more noticeable than the level jumps - although the jumps look like they might be a problem on paper, I think they would sound OK in a musical context.