VI Labs Modern D [Falcon, Workstation]

A VIRTUAL MODEL D LIKE NO OTHER
Concept and key features of our latest concert grand piano library

The Modern D is our impeccable simulation of the world's most well-known concert grand. Sampled from a 2021 New York Steinway© Model D, chosen for its exquisite tone and immense power, the Modern D is our most ambitious and largest piano sample library ever. The library contains 34,615 pristine samples in five stereo microphone setups, all controlled from a beautiful, easy-to-use interface. Our new Natural Response method recreates the full dynamic range of each key within each mic, so every touch input generates the true and accurate response of the real piano. Many notes have over 50db of dynamic range and some sustains can last well over two minutes. This is the ultimate studio concert grand simulator, at your fingertips.

As always with VI Labs, 100% of the sound is sampled from the real piano, nothing is synthesized or faked at all. Legendary microphones like the M49 and 4006 were chosen to capture everything, including 2,500 release trails per mic, multi-layered sympathetic resonances, fully sampled Una Corda with its own release samples, plus sampled Muted Strikes, Half Pedal, Silent Strikes, along with Pedal and Key noises. With its massive range in both timbre and volume, this piano can do it all. Whether it's bright, mellow, or anywhere in between is entirely dependent on how it is played. Everything you want from the softest yet detailed pianissimos, up to the most aggressive growling fortissimos, the Modern D delivers. This truly is the pianist's virtual piano.

KEY FEATURES

34,615 samples composing 118GB wave data in a tidy 18GB file. Massive library, small footprint thanks to lossless compression and complex scripting. This also means fast loading and efficient CPU usage.
Five stereo phase-aligned menu-based microphones with interactive mic display. World class mics and gear with diverse perspectives cover every way of recording a concert grand all around, close and far.
Real deeply sampled resonance for both pedal down and sympathetic resonance types. Powerful scripting recreates real pedal resonance behavior adding complex depth and sustain to the tone, all fully adjustable.
Complete control of up to 4 pedals including sampled Una Corda. Repedal and adjustable Half pedal features included. Sostenuto, Una Corda, plus Muted Strikes all MIDI CC controllable make for a highly expressive piano.
New MIDI panel with unique split controls for both timbre and volume. High resolution discrete tables and controls allow custom curves for any response imaginable. Many presets included, or create your own.
2,500 release samples per mic including staccato releases that respond to the quickest playing, no articulations needed. Release samples capture the resonant ring of the Model D concert grand and are crucial for realism.

AUDIO AND VIDEOS
Listen to our demos and watch the videos.

THE PIANO ¦ THE SESSION
We sought out the best piano and quietest studio and found both - watch video

The Modern D is sampled from a very new Steinway© Model D concert grand with serial #616803. Built in 2021, less than a year old at the time of sampling, it was chosen for its superb tone and immense power with a strong fundamental on every note. And it has been perfected in tone and touch by a top concert technician over its lifetime which has brought out the full potential of this world class instrument. Single notes with over 50db of dynamic range and sustains lasting more than two minutes only happen with the best pianos. The tuning is superb and was maintained during all moments of the session by the same technician. This really is like the F1 car of concert grands.

With any acoustic piano sample, the recording space can impact the sound as much as anything else. For our modern sound, we needed an intimate studio big enough for the piano to fill out but not overpower, and detailed enough to record a pin drop from every mic. This was our quiestest studio ever which led us to create our most pristine samples yet. Room size matters too; dryness is needed to preserve fine detail especially for our staccato releases, and also just enough roominess for a sense of space and distance, without unwanted room reflections or standing waves. With this library, it really feels like you're at this piano in this room, your own virtual Model D simulator.

Being one of the new New York Model D's, there are now very few differences with its counterpart made in Hamburg. It mainly comes down to how they're voiced, and this piano is very much in the New York tradition but with the latest builds and materials. The crisp detail of the new hammer and damper felt can be heard throughout, even in the softest 'silent strike' samples particularly on notes with wedge dampers that excite the strings with surprising vigor and sustain. The tuning was done aurally, per the manufacturer's specs, and was maintained at all moments by the technical staff while monitoring with an ETD (electronic tuning device). The voicing is incredibly even, not only from key to key but within each hammer when playing softest to loudest, the same level of color change is consistent in every way which is crucial for the highest levels of playing. You can be confident every detail of your touch is spoken back exactly as intended, never misquoted.

The goal of a VI Labs piano library is to capture the instrument itself as precisely as possible and then recreate it virtually with our proprietary processes and scripting. Therefore the space we use cannot be too reverberant or color the sound in undesirable ways. The noise floor is crucial. Even with our latest methods to reduce noise in samples, we need the quietest studio possible so all detail in the samples is preserved, even with the softest Silent Strike samples. The result is five stereo mics worth of pristine and clean samples, the faithful capture of this instrument in a superb room with just enough sense of space, and with no loss in fidelity at any dynamic level.

COMPLETE VIRTUAL PIANO STUDIO
Five menu-selectable mic setups with interactive mic display - watch video

From a whopping 39 individual mics recorded, we chose the best five stereo pairs from the session that fully capture this piano from several traditional perspectives, close to far, more or less hammer presence, all with a clean high end tone. Legendary mics like the U87 and M49, C414 and 4006 were chosen not only for their luxurious sound but for how perfectly they captured this piano with so much detail. The sound of a big grand varies considerably based on where mics are placed. These five stereo pairs were favored for their diversity in character and their placements, the balance of direct vs. room, and how how nicely they mix together.

When recording acoustic piano in the studio, there can be many options. Different mics and placements all offer various perspectives and character, never limited to one basic tone. Our mics are selected from the mixer menus, the interface shows each mic as set up on the real piano. Tones from close and intimate, wide and distant, with warmth or brilliance, all can be acheived with these mics. Load and mix the mics in any combination. Every mic is time-corrected and phase-aligned so even the distant Room mics have no extra delay; all mics respond and mix incredibly well in any combination.

Every measure was taken to assure the maximum S/N ratio for the purest samples. All preamps were in the live room with short connections to the mics. All mic preamps were by Grace Design© and Neumann©, and A/D conversion was done with Digital Audio Denmark© converters. The UI's Main panel features the Mic selection and Mixer. Select a mic from the drop-down menu, the mic is pre-loaded and the interactive display shows that mic as it was during the sampling session. Click the circular arrow to load the samples. Set mic volume with the fader and switch on/off with the power button. If a mic is loaded but switched off, samples remain loaded but are inactive so no polyphony is used. Click the checkmark button to purge samples and free up RAM as needed.

Close U87: Brand new matched pair of the well-known large diaphragm FET mics, in a spaced pair near the treble and bass bridges inside the piano. These have a large immersive stereo image and take EQ very well, if even needed. A very modern sound indeed, mix-ready and perfect for any pop or solo piano work. The sound quality is also extraordinarly clean and detailed, given these mic's great tech specs and their proximity to the piano capturing the faintest sounds with ease.

Hammers M49: The legendary vintage tube condenser mics in a spaced pair over the hammers, positioned for best balance of hammer and soundboard tone. These M49s magically bring out the legendary New York Model D hammer bite along with the right amount of body so they never sound thin or plunky. It's rare for us to use vintage tube mics for sampling as reliability and noise are almost always an issue. But these immaculate M49s were perfectly suited to sample this piano, their tone being captured was too great to miss. One session engineer noted, "With these mics, it's like hearing this piano in Technicolor."

Player C414: A pair of the vintage EB's with the original CK-12 'brass' capsules in a NOS configuration over the player's head. A perfect balance of hammer detail with just enough room for a sense of space all around. A slightly more narrow image than the close or side mics, they sound great in any headphones or speakers. Sampling with vintage FET mics is also a bit risky, but these too were immaculate and gave just what we wanted with a neutral but beautiful image of sitting at this piano in this room.

Side 4006: Matched pair of these classic classical recording mics, small diaphragm omni condensers in spaced A/B just outside the lid for a traditionally classical sound, with less hammer bite and more of the body of the piano projecting from the side as an audience would hear vs. the player. A very pure tonal character differing from the close and player mics, giving the true tone of the piano with just enough extra room sound due to their omni pickup patterns. These capture the warmth of the New York sound, as well as the power of it. They're crystal clear, yet tender at the same time.

Room MK2H: CMC6 bodies with MK2H capsules in a spaced A/B pair about ten feet high and far from the piano. Originally the left and right mics of a Decca Tree, but being set up with narrower spacing, we did not mix in the center mic and thus kept the discrete signals as a standard A/B pair. These work great as a room mic mixed with any other mics, but also standalone for a more distant diffuse sound without being too spacey or lacking in focus. Even when recording a piano in a dry detailed studio room, nothing replaces distance from instrument to mic, and huge pianos need space to 'breathe' so an omni room mic is essential.

REAL SYMPATHETIC RESONANCE
Both types pedal down and pedal up, entirely sample-based - watch video

Pianists are well accustomed to the sympathetic resonances that develop in acoustic pianos and their importance to the sustain and how chords resolve. These resonances blend the individual strings together as one instrument. Sympathetic Resonance is created when harmonically related keys are held down while others are played, and Pedal Resonance occurs as all strings vibrate together when notes are played while the sustain pedal is down. With the massive soundboard and long strings, the resonance effect is strong and adds body and bloom to the sustain.

Both pedal down and harmonic key pedal up resonances are sample-based and not synthesized in any way. We believe this important part of the piano's tone is best emulated only with samples from all mics. The Modern D features our new multi-layered resonance samples to deliver a complex evolving tone. Precisely sampled and scripted for both types of advanced resonance models, they respond naturally like the real thing. Resonance volume for both types is adjustable, and Sympathetic Resonance has its own polyphony setting.

Our resonance features are carefully matched to the real piano in their behavior. This is done with complex scripting made possible with the UVI engine plus our precise sampling methods. The end result is stunning and recreates closely what happens in the real piano, while still giving full control of the resonance volumes. Here's a description of all resonance features on the interface:

• Pedal Resonance is the unique sound of all strings vibrating in harmony when the sustain pedal is pressed down and keys are played. The volume of Pedal Resonance samples can be independently controlled for more or less of the effect. Our new Pedal Resonance methods are our most accurate and realistic ever and fully capture the note's attack and have more body and tone than before.
• True Pedal Action ties the Pedal Resonance samples to your sustain pedal motion. A chord played with the pedal down will cause other strings to resonate, but if the sustain pedal comes up and then back down quickly, the strings will resonate again but with lower volume. This enables the sample-based Pedal Resonance to work the same as it would on the acoustic piano and offers realism not possible with traditional pedal resonance methods.
• Repedal allows blending and blurring of the sustained sound when the pedal is lifted and pressed down again quickly. This is a crucial component to the pedal down sustained sound which differs from anything played with the pedal up. You can also 'catch' a note or chord with the pedal if you're quick enough, which is easier in the bass due to the longer larger strings.
• Sympathetic Resonance occurs when partials are triggered in keys harmonically related to keys that are struck. Not only is this an integral part of the piano's tone and sustain, it's also used musically to great effect such as silently holding a chord and playing harmonically related keys to cause this resonance in the chord that is held.
• Sympathetic Polyphony allows independent control of the number of voices allowed for the Sympathetic effect. If you're using this effect specifically and want more of it, simply increase the polyphony value. Or decrease to conserve system resources.

REAL UNA CORDA SAMPLES
An essential part of a grand piano's tone, fully sampled - watch video

One distinct advantage grands have over uprights is their soft, or Una Corda pedal, which shifts the entire action to the right so a hammer normally hitting three strings only hits two, etc. Plus the strings are struck by a part of the hammer that's voiced differently to create a softer muted tone. The Modern D includes a fully sample-based Una Corda with its own release samples for a softer attack and a stronger release trail compared to the normal sustain. This adds another layer of tonal color only available in grand pianos. It's really like having two sets of hammers in the same piano that you can switch in real time.

A premium grand piano library would not be complete without real Una Corda samples as classical and other demanding pianists use it not only to lower the volume of a soft passage but also to get the unique variation in tonal color. It's not an effect that's easily mimicked or modeled since the changes in tone come from physical factors of the real piano such as the different hammer voicing, the aliquot string effect of the non-struck string, as well as the special tone of the release trails due to the different vibrations in the strings.

The Una Corda tone on many grand pianos is naturally developed over years of playing, the hammers eventually get deeper more compacted grooves from normal playing and thus the shifted hammer will have a softer area in between grooves that hit the strings. On newer pianos though, the Una Corda is usually voiced separately which gives much greater control and consistency. The piano for our Modern D was set up for a full shift Una Corda but not so much that the hammer ends up striking in a normally struck area but still fully clears the first string. This allows careful separate voicing of the hammer between the grooves for a lovely soft Una Corda tone.

The Una Corda pedal is off and samples are unloaded by default. Click the Load button to load these samples for any mics currently loaded, the default pedal CC is 67 for soft pedal. Change the CC as needed, or use the 'S' Solo button to activate Una Corda if no pedal or other CC is used.



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