Here is my review of this beautiful sampled piano. You guys did an amazing job and I feel its a real privilege to own this. It has dethroned the Bösendorfer Imperial and has become my primary piano. However, I'm not getting rid of my Imperial. It's what made me fall in love with the Bösendorfer sound.

VSL Bösendorfer 280VC Review

God Bless,

David

Nice review, thanks David. Very informative.

Unrelated to the review, has anyone else noticed that the tube mic position is a lot more demanding CPU wise than any of the other mic positions? then it can be quite significant, noticeable playing just a single note but it can really add up when playing using the pedal. At least that is the situation for me.

Got my version yesterday evening...night...far too less sleep last night...anyway

There is a question with the CPU - Meter. The CPU will be max to 12% or 13 %, but the red Peak starts (do nothing on the fresh started computer) with 42 %. Just hit the pedal will rise up to 87% without playing a note. While playing it is about 100% fortunately without any drops...

Not a big deal,  the sound is perfect, but it looks a bit strange to me...others?

Win10pro / i7-7700K@4.20GHz / 32GB RAM / GTX 1080 / SanDisk SDSSDH3 500GB / 10 Fingers / 1 Brain

@migebo said:

Got my version yesterday evening...night...far too less sleep last night...anyway

There is a question with the CPU - Meter. The CPU will be max to 12% or 13 %, but the red Peak starts (do nothing on the fresh started computer) with 42 %. Just hit the pedal will rise up to 87% without playing a note. While playing it is about 100% fortunately without any drops...

Not a big deal,  the sound is perfect, but it looks a bit strange to me...others?

Win10pro / i7-7700K@4.20GHz / 32GB RAM / GTX 1080 / SanDisk SDSSDH3 500GB / 10 Fingers / 1 Brain

I have never been able to play live ANY of the Synchron Pianos... I tried first on a 6-core i7 with 16GB RAM and internal NVMe and I was not even able to complete a piece execution with the Room-Mix mic only because of continuous CPU spikes. Then I tried a 6-core i9 with 32GB RAM and internal NVMe and guess what? Room-Mix mic was ok, but adding another mic produced the much hated CPU spikes again!
In both cases I set the buffer at 64 (since with higher it's impossible to play live) and the preload size to maximum (32768).
If one would play only pedal-less pieces than he MIGHT be able to use more mics, but... seriously?
I've read on another popular forum of people having CPU spikes even on a 2019 16-core Mac Pro!
To me and with my equipment, Synchron Pianos are currently unusable for live playing 😞

I'd very like to know the exact setup that VSL and their demo contributors used to play and record their audio demos.

Hi,

I nevert encountered such problems, be it with my
- current AMD Ryzen 5950x, 64GB RAM, NVMe SSD (as many mics as I like @128 buffer size),
- last system Intel i5 8600k, 32GB RAM, NVMe SSD (presets work perfectly @128 buffer size), or
- current notebook i5 8250U @1.8GHz, 16 GB RAM, NVMe SSD (2-3 mics work fine @128 buffer size).

1) What exact version of Windows 10 are you running?
2) Are you running stock Windows, or did you already optimized any settings related to performance and energy consumption, data-collection...?
3) Are you using ASIO driver?
4) What audio interface are you using at what buffer size?

Best, Ben

Hopefully this will demonstrate what I was talking about in the previous post where the tube mic is far more demanding than any of the others. I like the tube over the condenser mic, but there is something odd about it compared to all other mics, all the others behave like the condenser.

In the video I am just playing a single note, the same in both cases, B5 with no pedal a few times.

As soon as you use the pedal with the tube mic and play chords the cpu usage climbs faster and higher than for any other mic.

Hello all. I made some demos to demonstrate the versatility of the wonderful 280VC.

- The 280VC part of a jazz quintet

- The FX presets showcasing the film scoring capabilities of the 280VC

- The clean and pensive sound of the Decca Tree Player mics

Thank you Paul and VSL for this fantastic piano!

Best

R

@bbelius said:

Hi,

I nevert encountered such problems, be it with my
- current AMD Ryzen 5950x, 64GB RAM, NVMe SSD (as many mics as I like @128 buffer size),
- last system Intel i5 8600k, 32GB RAM, NVMe SSD (presets work perfectly @128 buffer size), or
- current notebook i5 8250U @1.8GHz, 16 GB RAM, NVMe SSD (2-3 mics work fine @128 buffer size).

1) What exact version of Windows 10 are you running?
2) Are you running stock Windows, or did you already optimized any settings related to performance and energy consumption, data-collection...?
3) Are you using ASIO driver?
4) What audio interface are you using at what buffer size?

Best, Ben

Hi Ben,

thanks for your reply.
Both of the computer I tested was Mac systems (Catalina and BigSur) with integrated audio card, no external audio interface

Hello Ben,

I don't know who are you listening... my PC-Details:

Windows 10 Pro Version 2004 Betriebssystembuild 19041.746 Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.551.0

No data-collection, no cloud, energy-settings are always on a high level, no screensaver (lol), no overclocking, no experiments

External sounddevice Focusrite Clarett2pre USB, sample rate 44100, Buffer 256, Clock source ADAT (synced)

(Changing the buffersize will change the "problem" in a linear way, so no help in that way)

Well, I can use the program, it sounds very good, I have definitet no drop outs - so it's more a "cosmetic-thing"...

Hey, now I testet it within Cubase Pro 11.5 and the peak is just about 16% while do nothing. Using the sustain-pedal only results in 45%,  playing fast and much including the pedal about 70 - 85%...

So I see the main problem in the VSL - solo single without using the DAW-Interface...so to say...

Here is a follow-up of my initial review addressing some comments about the volume and percussiveness of the 280VC.

280VC Review Part 2

God Bless,

David