Hi Paul, the splendid development team and friends!
As a student learning classical music, I've been addicted to the Synchron Steinway ever since owning it and solving technical problems, and since yesterday I've been loving my experience with it... except one thing...
Yesterday I asked if there are separate una corda samples, because to my ears, when I press the soft pedal, all I get is the main samples toned down (having the higher frequencies turned a bit off). That is not the standard way for a Steinway's una corda to react. A real Steinway's una corda, when engaged, really has one to two strings vibrating, creating a muted sound, and providing extra tone colour for the classical / jazz pianist.
I would think for this library and the price I'm paying, I would get a complete and faithful representation of the Steinway D down to every detail. And yes, the samples do give us this promise. And yet, due to my extensive testing and confirmation, I can sadly say that all we get in the library is an emulation of what an upright piano might do, and not the grand. I will provide specific links below, two of them are my clips of playing, and another a video published by VSL showing the Steinway!
I find it sad that both Ravenscroft 275 and Garritan CFX Concert Grand have soft pedal samples, and even the Galaxy Vintage D has an emulation of the una corda sound. If Synchron Pianos used such extensive techniques to record the pianos, the una corda is a feature that should also be especially noted. I find it hard to do variances in the interpretation, and the music of Chopin, Debussy, even Mozart and Bach would be so much enriched if at least an emulation of this special muted tone is present!
Also, of equal importance would be the sympathetic resonance and silent key features -- when one holds some keys silently while pressing others exciting the strings of the pressed keys to vibrate in the harmonic way. Also, the keys above G6 have sympathetic resonance by default, as they are notes with no dampers. This resonance and extra vibration would make the samples without pedal sound more rich and realistic.
What I'm suggesting above are not decorative features, but I would argue they are equally important as the main samples themselves to really make the Synchron Pianos the best of the best in sampled libraries!
OK, I conclude with the links.
1. Steinway piano "una corda" tone, amplitude boosted to 0DB in Audacity after recording: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BqgmgIav8QKtbdCJv797sisdxZvEJvC7/view?usp=drivesdk
2. Ravenscroft soft pedal, a simple clip of it would suffice: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pCnFQGLGMvVIIcZ66ieb51z48sfHiS4X/view?usp=drivesdk
3. The Concert Grand Comparison video, in which Maestro Stefan Mendl demonstrates the 3 concert grands that the Synchron Pianos have sampled, and the una corda is included. The Steinway demonstration is at 5:09:
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I hope you can really seriously consider doing this -- this library needs to live up to the price it demands, and I think right now the lack of these features are limiting my playing possibilities.
Sincerely,
David