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.

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.

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.

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.

The MIDI panel is based around two separate graph tables, one for velocity or timbre response and the other for volume response. The graph tables represent MIDI velocity values 1-127 horizontally and outgoing velocity and gain values vertically. The default MIDI response is 1:1 which is the natural feel of the real piano, and Gain is a 1:1 averaging of each key's individual response so more or less gain is available at each velocity step. Here's a description of every control of the interface:

• Presets include several light and heavy touch curves along with some special effects such as Compressed and specific controller model presets. You can also save and load your own customized presets here as well.

• Bend adjusts the curve of the response table from the center either higher or lower. This is the most common adjustment to start with as it drastically alters the character or volume response.

• Sync Bend lets both Bend knobs turn as one for a quick general MIDI sensitivity adjustment. Typical MIDI curve bends would have both curves tied together like this.

• Mininum Gain changes the lowest volume. Increase to raise the lowest volume which decreases the overall volume range, for instance instead of using a compressor. Or decrease to -0.01 to have silence at lowest velocity level.

• Smooth rounds out a rough-drawn curve. Draw a curve with your mouse, then click Smooth as many times as needed to smooth the curve.

• Min/Max In/Out Velocity limits the incoming or outgoing velocity start and end points for the MIDI response table. Click and drag the arrows to change. For example, to remove the highest fff sample layer, simply lower the Max Output Velocity below 127 until the fff layer is no longer triggered. Or if your controller doesn't easily play the softest velocities, set Min Input Velocity to a higher value so the softest samples will be triggered.

• Reset restores each tables and its controls to default settings. If Sync Bend is switched on, Reset will affect both tables.

• MIDI In/Out shows velocity received from your controller and velocity going out to trigger the samples. This is a great indicator to see the velocity response from the controller and then make necessary modifications with our settings. For example, if you see your controller isn't outputting the max velocity of 127 and only reaching 120, you can adjust the Max Input Velocity to 120 so the mapping is scaled and velocity 127 is accessible.

Full control of all pedal function is available on the main interface. All three typical piano pedals are supported with our special True Pedal Action plus sampled Half Pedal available for the sustain pedal. Sostenuto, sampled Una Corda, and Muted Strikes can be used with other pedals. Repedal action is smooth and True Pedal Action creates highly realistic damper pedal resonance which also works well with Half-Pedal. Pedal Noise volume can be adjusted and velocity sensitivity can set to Fixed or Variable.

• Half Pedal: Special samples and scripting create the effect of variable damper control, so as a note is played and the damper pedal is pressed slowly, the release trail gets longer until full sustain is reached. Min and Max CC ranges for your continuous sustain pedal set the range of this effect so you can customize to your pedal and style.

• Pedal Noise Type: Allows pedal noises to be triggered at a fixed velocity or set to variable for velocity-sensitive noise. The Variable setting only works with continuous style pedals and will respond to different pedals in different ways, so we've added this option to bypass the velocity sensitivity so it responds like a typical on/off pedal. Note that Half Pedal can still be used regardless of this setting.

• Repedal: Allows the note to continue if the sustain pedal is lifted then pressed down again quickly. A crucial feature to most pianists, this enables subtle blurring mostly in the bass and responds like a real piano without the sound fully stopping when the pedal is lifted.

• Una Corda: The soft (or shift) pedal on a grand piano making the hammers shift over not only to play one less string on most keys, but a softer part of the hammer meets the strings which results in a mellow tone with a different character. Load this separate sample set to use with your soft pedal or solo it with the 'S' solo button.

• True Pedal Action: Emulates the way an acoustic piano's pedal down resonance responds along with the sustain pedal being used. A chord played with the pedal down will cause other strings to resonate, but if the sustain pedal is lifted but pressed again quickly, all strings will resonate but with lower volume. In a real piano, the resonance occurs if the pedal is down when a chord is played but also if a chord is played followed by the pedal going down. The Pedal Resonance comes on when the sustain pedal is pressed and is muted when the pedal is lifted, exactly like the real piano.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Modern D comes with its own sample player, the UVI Workstation 3 (requires v3.0.0 or later).
We provide it for free with every library that you buy, you don't need to buy an expensive sampler to use our products. It works on Mac (10.14 or later and intel or arm processor) and PC (windows 10 or later), in standalone or as a plugin (VST / VST3 / AU / AAX) and in 64 bits only and is compatible with all modern daws. You can find more info about it here.

 

Modern D is also compatible with UVI's Falcon.