Some may not lve the sound of this piano, but I, for one, find it closer to the sound of a real piano than any other sampled piano I've heard so far. In other words, you might not like the sound of the piano that was sampled or you might wish it had been voiced differently, but it sounds real. One of the things that I noticed is that notes in chords sound like they interact (fm) as they would on a real instrument. In fact, although I might wish a Steinway had been sampled or or that this Bösendorfer had been voiced with slightly softer hammmers, I find I like this piano a great deal - - not t mention Guy's terrific playing.

another positive point : 5 repetition per note ! the problem with other libraries turn around this.

Is it the close or distant sound ? could be fine to compare two versions (close and far) of "The Flight of the Bumblebee" [8-)] [[;)]]

Guy just sent me two another great demos, this time in a lyrical and softer style.

Claude Debussy's Clair de Lune
http://www.vsl.co.at/Player2.aspx?Lang=13&DemoId=4964

Frederic Chopin's Nocturne op9_No2
http://www.vsl.co.at/Player2.aspx?Lang=13&DemoId=4965

Both demos were performed using the Close Mic version.
If you click on the "Tutorial Download" button, you can download a rendering of the Far Mic version to compare.

Guy told me that he would have performed a little different, hearing the Far Mix version during the performance, but it's OK for comparison purposes.
Again Guy's interpretation is live performed, with hardly no edtiting afterwards.

thanks a lot Guy
Herb

Does the far mic version have any other processing or reverb on it? Is this the out-of-the-box sound?

Thanks,
Jay

Much better.

May I have a Ligeti Etude performed live on the Imperial?

n. 1 ("Désordre") or n. 12 ("Entrelacs") will be perfect.

@Another User said:

Does the far mic version have any other processing or reverb on it? Is this the out-of-the-box sound?

I think it's rendered with the same Altiverb settings like the dry version to enable an 1:1 comparison. The reverb of the far version is defenitely not out of the box.

best
Herb

@JBacal said:

Does the far mic version have any other processing or reverb on it? Is this the out-of-the-box sound?

Thanks,
Jay

Jay, both versions, close and distant mic, I processed the exact same way, same altiverb, but when i tried other concert halls rev. they each sounded totally different, so it comes down to a question of personal taste.

@Coqui said:

Much better.

May I have a Ligeti Etude performed live on the Imperial?

n. 1 ("Désordre") or n. 12 ("Entrelacs") will be perfect.

I think you're asking a lot here, I didn't plan on investing a whole week 8 hours a day learning a single piece...

I feel a little bit dispointed by the Bösendorfer sound.
I own the Ivory and I regulary play and record on different grand concert pianos. Let's say I hopped something better…a great sound.
as said before this one is tricky, almost sound like a piano forte !

As an exemple you can hear the sound of the Imperial Bösendorfer I recorded on on the myspace site:
www.myspace.com/laurentlevesque

The sound is called "Situationnellement"

This is what I expect from a 50 gig piano sound bank.

@Laurent said:

This is what I expect from a 50 gig piano sound bank.

What? To end up as a crappy video on myspace, next to some trashy kiddypicture?

I can't believe some peoples judgements....

Holgmeister, you really must be some kind of [8o|] .

I don't like any of these demos but it is only a matter of tastes and ears.
So who cares ?!

@Guy said:

I think you're asking a lot here, I didn't plan on investing a whole week 8 hours a day learning a single piece...

A global recession could be a matter of months.

In that case, not only the VI Cube price would drop to 500 USD, but we all will have lots of free time...

[;)]

@Laurent said:

This is what I expect from a 50 gig piano sound bank.

What? To end up as a crappy video on myspace, next to some trashy kiddypicture?

I can't believe some peoples judgements....

It's a soundfile, from an album released 5 years ago that appears as a soundtrack on a 3 million hit movie last year and continue its way on…

seems your kids put you on the Disney page [H]

@Laurent said:

This is what I expect from a 50 gig piano sound bank.

What? To end up as a crappy video on myspace, next to some trashy kiddypicture?

I can't believe some peoples judgements....

It's a soundfile, from an album released 5 years ago that appears as a soundtrack on a 3 million hit movie last year and continue its way on…

seems your kids put you on the Disney page )´

Ok, so I have to be impressed .-- you won the price for best famous performance since my Disney kids put me to sleep playing "Twinkle twinkle little star" on my Steinway in my mansion's Grand Hall ---


To your both 'L..'s : I know, that every piano player has his own mindset about the perfect mastercrafted piece and its sound. But I bow before that technical, organisational and perfect sounding effort that is behind such an endeavour at VSL, and not beckmessering about a personal opinion of how it "sounds", which is a pure personal point of view.

I just think it is totally 'daneben', what these 'L's posted....

gentlemen ... please ...
"Situationnellement" is beautifully played and recorded (and a very moving piece IMO), to publish it on MySpace (which incredibly crackles and overdrives here btw - well, a flash-player ...) is everyones personal decision.
probably we will hear *this sound* (as laurent would expect) with the imperial in another arrangement
christian

I didn't think this would turn into a piano competition...The Bosendorfer has a nice sound but how you process it will make it your own.

Is the picture from the newsletter how the Boesendorfer was recorded? Why was the top/wing removed? Seems pretty strange ... (I just a musician, no recording engineer ....)

Bravo Guy for that action music ..again you show your composition and orchestration
skil but something new here you are mixing your stuff and it sound realy good..
nice job with the reverb ! the wet and dry balance sound musical !
and for my taste the piano sound much better in a orchestration and i think it was
built for that task it have a very sharp sound that cut trough the orchestra but
for solo piano piece it lack sustain (decay seem to fast ) and body..
sorry i do not ear any sustenuto pedal like i have on The Grand 2 by Steinberg.
anyway i will get the VI piano just to complete the sound bank and have a piano
sitting in my virtual orchestra.

Mephisto
[6]

I think to put this in balance it is fairly well known that this particular Borsendorfer sound that VSL has produced is largely for the specific purpose of being combined with their other instruments in a suitably similar engineering sound and also orchestrally to fit with the VSL orchestra. It makes perfect sense as a companion to the rest of the library. No sampled piano could cover all bases, this one does what it is supposed to do superbly and that is the point to recognise with this unique piano. Plus, the close and far mic recordings mean that you can mix and match as you please and add your own reverb onto it to have a truly flexible sound that in most cases even with heavy reverb will cut through the orchestra beautifully if you wish, and of course you can always tone it down as well.

Just to clarify for the mixes on the first released demo's from Guy those are all far mic recordings no close mic mixed in I did not have the close mic recordings for those pieces.

Miklos.