The story
To start of my sampling-journey, I decided to sample this beautiful Steinway Grand Piano at the Arts College where I study “Tonmeister”. It resides in our lovely Studio A, a big room with high ceiling.
This piano has seen a lot of different hands. Music students record everything here, from classical literature to wild free jazz to cheesy pop-tunes. In a way, this piano is a teacher: It provides a learning experience for many, playing a great sounding grand piano in a (possibly a little intimidating) studio, maybe for the first time ever! But the sweat of fear on the keys diminishes with every time they return, and after completed studies this piano has taught them the fine art of great session-musicianship. We try out every possible way of micing this piano day in and out, learning everything about a great piano recording. Sometimes with two, sometimes with 20 mics. It tirelessly serves us greatly, it is open for a lot of crazy experiments, and we treat it with care and the respect this professor of a piano deserves.
I recorded 9 different mic positions, but ultimately decided on three of them for the instrument. Maybe I can expand on that in the future. This was my very first endeavor in the world of sampling, but I’m already hooked: I designed a custom UI, figured out how to skin knobs, and programmed custom scripts for the pedal and the release triggers. The main view lets you change the volume of the different mics. With the little gear-icon in the bottom right you get into the settings, where you can change the volume of the release triggers and the pedal. Have fun!
Reviews for Grand Studio A
- Sound
- Character
- Playability
- Inspiration
- GUI
Leave a review to let others know what you thought of the instrument!
Phenomenal Piano
This is easily in the top 3 piano VST's on pianobook (and I've tried them all). It has a beautiful tone that feels realistic throughout the entire velocity range. It's worth a place in anyone's library.
A true workhorse
Disclaimer: I am not a pianist. Disclaimer 2: I have not tried every single piano on Pianobook. BUT... I do use acoustic pianos in my mixes and often, even some paid pianos don't sound good in the mix. There is something about this one that just sounds great whenever I use it and find myself always coming back to it after trying others first.
Nice warmth and presence.
This library has a warmth and up front presence that is rare in piano libraries. The samplist included release samples in the lower register however i wish they were integrated directly into the piano as I'm not sure how to integrate them. The GUI is not that pleasant but functional and the mic positions are very useful. Overall 4/5 from me.
Studio sound
The sound that this library produces is very high quality and 'studio-like'.The clean stereo ambiences of the studio room are lovable. This set is particularly great for quieter musical pieces. Due to the clean base character, you can also sculpt the sound into almost any direction you want. There is no too obstrusive character here. A few issues I found in the DS version doesn't influence the verdict, I reported it in the Forum: The notes of the second microphone M149 are not present. When you turn up the M149 no sound will be put out. The Apollo and Soyuz mics work as expected. Also, the font on the upper three controls is very small.
Very nice, but...
This piano has a wonderful warm and bell-like tone with minimal room ambience, which I prefer. Its quite playable, if slightly heavy on the velocity slope making it difficult to achieve very light notes. Its more upfront and in your face. I love the pedal and release noises, though completely over the top by default. Luckily you can turn it down in the settings. The samples are quite noisy, especially when holding two-handed chords. Wonderful instrument, highly recommended.
