The Velocity Map Editor, which allows you to visually check and adjust each note, is a lot of fun.

takaeku

I'm surprised people aren't more excited about the update. The Velocity Curve Editor is a big deal. We can now customize VSL libraries to our specific controller.  The Half Pedal Editor is nice also. I really like the visual indicator that moves horizontally. The Smooth Attack feature is a bit harder to judge. I really don't notice a difference until around 60%. Anyone else notice that also or is my hearing not so good? 

I'm so thrilled with this software update. It's nice to have more control especially with the Velocity Curve Editor. Thanks VSL.

God Bless,

David

Hi!

Happy to hear that you like these new additions!

@David: Positive feedback is not very often the case  - it's as hard as writing a happy song 😊

Best, 
Paul

Hello,

Thank you for this very nice update :)

I really like the addition of "The Velocity Curve Editor", I can now easily customize the curve following my keyboard and fully enjoy the sound range !! :)

Good work VSL staff !

This is a fantastic update!  All three of these additions are very much needed, useful, and appreciated.  Along with the per-key EQ and release sample tweaking (which I admittedly am too timid to mess with), I'm hard pressed to think of how much more powerful and flexible the SYN pianos player can get. 

Thank you so much!

- Sam

That's great news! It makes the Synchron Piano's even better and more irresistible than they were already. Personally I like very much the velocity map editor! A beautiful fine tuning tool! Thanks for the effort you made!

I just played a little on the Steinway. With the velocity map editor a little bit adjusted, my Kawai keyboard has really gotten so much more a Steinway feeling (of course a real Steinway wins always ;) ). 
So many times it is in the details, and in this case for me the little adjustment in the velocity map makes the VSL Steinway the perfect instrument!

Hi David,

The difference in smooth attack you notice when you e.g. the C4 key, which has a particularly strong attack very slowly pressed down until a tone comes. For me, it starts to show an effect from about 28-30%. I think the tuning is so finely done that some don't hear anything until a certain point. Actually a good thing if you can fine tune it that way. Of course, it would be even better if you could set each key individually, because the keys have very large differences among each other. So you move the attack even for keys where you don't really need it.

Part 3 of my VSL Bösendorfer 280VC Review addressing the new Synchron Piano updates.

God Bless,

David

Hi David, 

Thanks for sharing!

Best, 
Paul

I have the 10-year-old Bösendorfer Imperial, and the new Steinway and Bösendorfer Imperial. On all of them I find the bass rather dead. At the moment I'm just redoing midi clips I previously have made of the last works of Bach, Beethoven and Schubert and posted on YouTube. I overcome this problem by selecting notes in the bass in the clips and raise their velocity by 5 to 20 V. (With the old Imperial I could set up two midi tracks with one to the bass and one to the treble; but I don't have enough computer resource for the new pianos. I'm currently using just the condenser, mid 2 and the tube microphones — and perhaps a high-sur.)

A much better way to do this would be with your new velocity editor, to make it so you could apply it to certain selected notes, just as one can with the EQ. For example, everything below C4 I would raise the left side of the velocity curve, and below C3 even more so.

It also makes me wonder if when the solenoids that apply the force to the hammers were developed, it was taken into consideration the fact that the hammers (and dampers) get progressively heavier from treble to bass, and thus more force needs to be applied. This would explain why the bass sounds dead. Even at a velocity of 127 the deepest bass notes don't sound very bright (sensitivity at zero or above). Nothing like they do on my 5'8" Baldwin grand.

I just discovered this update now. Are emails sent out for every update? Seems I didn't see one. Best, Phil

update: doing some more tests with this — recording the lowest three octaves at a velocity of 127 I discovered the Steinway has much more harmonics than the Bösendorfer. So possibly it's just the piano. But it certainly would be helpful to be able to raise the velocity of just the lower half or one third of the piano .

I also discovered that observing the velocity curve, that it didn't register the midi sensitivity. If the velocity was 127, it showed that whether the sensitivity was -100 or +100. Seems that should be rectified for it to be useful at all.

Hi wilderness,

Thanks for your report. I think that you should be able to fine-tune your piano in the EDIT view of the Synchron Player. Give it a try!

Best,
Paul

Yes, I've already done that by boosting the higher frequencies of the bass notes, and of course I could make them louder but they are still weak on the harmonics. That's why said if you could adjust the velocity for only  selected bass notes it would help considerably.

And as I said in my update it seems like for the velocity chart not to take into consideration the midi sensitivity essentially makes it worthless — unless one always stays at zero, which I don't. 

But other than this, these are wonderful pianos. The holy Grail I've been searching for the last 15 years. Best, Phil