The Grandeur Presets
Hermila Farquhar
Each one of Grand Piano's 88 keys has been recorded with multiple dynamic layers, release samples, and sustain resonances in order to bring out all of the instrument's subtle nuances and character.
Grand Piano's 1.5 GB of samples are grouped into 12 pure piano presets in "Production" and more detailed "Solo" versions (both available in stretched and equal tempered tunings), as well as nine hybrid presets that combine the acoustic piano samples with a selection of synthesizers and effects. Each preset provides Macro Controls for reverb, release noise volume, key noise volume, sustain resonance volume, tone, velocity, and fine tune.
Grand Piano was created in cooperation with e-instruments.
Experience the richness of Native Instruments' flagship The Grandeur piano in your Sibelius compositions. Our sound set gives you instant access to all 35 instrument presets directly from your notation.
Immerse yourself in the detail of one of NI's most deeply-sampled pianos. Tailor the tone with adjustable lid positions, studio/live patches, and creative FX. An expressive piano presence to complement any score.
Here's some demos of various patches running in it smoothly. They're all straight playback of MusicXML downloaded from MuseScore - though with extra hairpins for "cresc" and "dim" instructions (sometimes - I might have missed one or two!). Dynamic range is pretty large on the solo patches.
Dry Resonant Air Grand, Hard Grand, Hard Soft Dry Grand, Modwheel Distance Grand, Plate Grand, Pop Grand, Pumping Stereo Grand, Resonant Pad Grand, Saturated Studio Grand, Spring Grand, Tape limited Grand.
Playback Configuration Merge Tool: add this library painlessly to any existing playback configurations you have, and even add effects! (in fact, this tool is independent of the sound set - anything can be merged).
I forget the resolution of the query, but didn't someone clarify that this is not a new library, but rather an extraction of one of the pianos in a UVI keyboard suite, that had not yet been released on its own?
I had similar misgivings when I got it as part of the upgraded Keysuite Acoustic bundle last year, but have changed my opinion. My advice is to spend some more time tweaking it and optimising it to your keyboard. Bumping the mid & high dials of the built in EQ helps, and the UVI engine has a limiter which can be inserted under the hood which brings up the body of the tone more. I've found the UVI pianos are a little fussy with getting the best from them compared to Kontakt based pianos. Have you checked out these demos?:
Also meant to mention: I've found the default release setting in the ASDR controls to be way too short resulting in an unnatural truncated sound on note releases.Try a setting around 1.8 to 1.9. Also the sympathetic resonance control is set a little high by default for my taste:
You guys are never happy are you? I must be some kind of freak. I found a piano I liked and stuck with it, many years ago (NI New York). Late last year NI had a 50% off sale so I grabbed the Grandeur. I'm perfectly content with it but actually find the old NY a little better suited for live gigs it has more clarity in the mids. I have messed with EQ a lot too. You could say the Grandeur is "richer" in the mids and indeed it sounds better at home in my cans and on a recording. Also, the top end sings a lot more than the NY (that was actually the reason I got the Grandeur).
In any case, I'm sure there are other pianos out there I would love, but I don't have the disposable income to "buy and try" -- obviously you can't return piano software whose sound winds up not working out. Youtube and Soundcloud demos tell one small piece of the story - the sound that hits the listener's ear. Not the way the piano responds to the velocity information you're sending it. In my case, I considered it a two-way street: I found a controller I liked, stuck with it, started playing the piano, then spent time tweaking velocity curves, keyboard sensitivity, and eq settings to arrive at something I can call my instrument. Buying a different piano VI and plugging it into my existing setup seems like a crapshoot - I'd be tweaking again, and why go through that if I'm generally happy with what I already have? I know I might be missing out but I feel my time is better spent on working on my piano playing, not my piano! Of course a film composer or producer would want an arsenal of different pianos in order to have a larger timbral pallete to work with, but otherwise I can't help thinking it's a search for a kind of "holy grail" that a player imagines will transform his or her playing. If something like that exists in piano-VI land, please let me know!
In any case, I'm sure there are other pianos out there I would love, but I don't have the disposabe income to "buy and try" -- obviously you can't return piano software whose sound winds up not working out. Youtube and Soundcloud demos tell one small piece of the story - the sound that hits the listener's ear. Not the way the piano responds to the velocity information you're sending it. In my case, I considered it a two-way street: I found a controller I liked, stuck with it, started playing the piano, then spent time tweaking velocity curves, keyboard sensitivity, and eq settings to arrive at something I can call my instrument. Buying a different piano VI and plugging it into my existing setup seems like a crapshoot - I'd be tweaking again, and why go through that if I'm generally happy with what I already have? I know I might be missing out but I feel my time is better spent on working on my piano playing, not my piano! Of course a film composer or producer would want an arsenal of different pianos in order to have a larger timbral pallete to work with, but otherwise I can't help thinking it's a search for a kind of "holy grail" that a player imagines will transform his or her playing. If something like that exists in piano-VI land, please let me know!
I've been content with the Ravenscroft 275 since I bought it shortly after its release, but every now and then, I can't resist adding a new piano to my collection, especially when they are on sale. I'm likely to do so again when Cinematic Studio Piano is discounted.
Of course if pianoproducer uses a different controller than yours, if his velocity curve settings are more matched to his playing, if he favors a mellower or brighter sound than you, etc. etc. then the preset may not work for you. Or maybe it will.
I did a fair amount of tweaking early on. Once I had things feeling good I left my settings alone and haven't changed much in the last few years. I was actually happy that my piano VIs gave me the opportunity to tweak so much - I wonder if any hardware DP has the same # of parameters that a piano VI like NI's Grandeur has. In effect you're "custom-designing" a piano to fit your kind of playing. Horowitz had his Steinway shipped to all his gigs. Herbie has his Fazioli. And I have my plastic Roland A800 and Grandeur for all my gigs! (well, all my potential gigs right now!).
I understand all of that. I'm just looking for a starting point that might save me some time/work. I'm not a noob. I've been playing keys professionally (albeit not on your level of gig) for 30+ years and playing live and in the studio exclusively with software instruments since 2008, so I get it. But I am a much better player than an audio/mix engineer, so I focus on that.
I thought I try something keys from UVI so got this Austrian Grand. I assume it's a Bosendorfer? I didn't really read the specs or the manual. It's an interesting library. I'm pretty sure most people won't like the stock presets out of the box. If anything, I found them rather confusing a bit. NI pianos are always safe. You install them and play like you had them for years. I was kind of expecting the same of this 3 to 4 gig library, but that wasn't the case at all. It's like they tried to make the acoustic presets sound processed! Once you turn off some of the FX and change the settings, you get a much better sound. It's definitely playable and has its own unique character but I doubt it'll be anyone's go-to piano.
That means once you have purchased you have a license to use the audio samples, presets, MIDIs, and any parts from the project files in your commercially released productions without any further payment.
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