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This is now my favorite for all occasions:

WARM BABY-MEDIUM GRAND AT HOME R1.0

Glad you dig that project, Steve! It's based on an actual live home situation I witnessed where the acoustic grand, despite of a closed-lid, is real loud and warm at the same time!

TADutchman, nicely done.

Cheers,
James
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TADutchman, thank you once again for your great work on these CA93/CA63 custom settings.

Having raised the topic of the Rotary slow/fast control with some colleagues, it would appear that there may well be a bug with the way the preset is stored/recalled from Registration memory.

We will have to continue studying the cause for this particular bug and see if it can be resolved in the future - thanks again for reporting this issue.

I'll obviously keep you informed of any developments.

Cheers,
James
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Thanks for the compliment and for your fast info update, James!

Just make your own temperament for this special character grand; detune it a little this way and it's easy to imagine being almost two centuries back in time, playing like Chopin in his study room ...well, at least the first part.


ANTIQUE 1848 PLEYEL GRAND R1.0

Dual Voice: Concert Grand 2, volume 9 + W.Bass & Ride, volume 1

1 Basic Settings
1 - 3 Tone control: low +4, mid 0, high -2

2 Virtual Technician
2 - 1 Voicing: mellow 2
2 - 2 Damper resonance: 9
2 - 3 String resonance: 10
2 - 4 Key off effect: 9
2 - 5 Touch: light+
2 - 8 Stretch tuning: Wide

3 Key Settings
3 - 3 Layer octave: +2
3 - 4 Layer dynamics: 10

Reverb: Stage

Effect: Delay 2, time 2, depth 3

After a heavy playing session, I must say that, with subtle instead of over-the-top detuning and some small optimisations, this grand could even pass for a slightly imperfect and (therefore) very dynamic early 19xx grand:


ANTIQUE 1848 PLEYEL GRAND R1.1

Dual Voice: Concert Grand 2, volume 9 + W.Bass & Ride, volume 1

1 Basic Settings
1 - 3 Tone control: low +5, mid +1, high -4

2 Virtual Technician
2 - 1 Voicing: mellow 2
2 - 2 Damper resonance: 10
2 - 3 String resonance: 10
2 - 4 Key off effect: 9
2 - 5 Touch: light+
2 - 8 Stretch tuning: Wide

3 Key Settings
3 - 3 Layer octave: +2
3 - 4 Layer dynamics: 10

Reverb: Stage

Effect: Delay 2, time 2, depth 3

I've seen that people like CyberGene and several others prefer to use heavier touch keyboard settings. Therefore, I have started to fully optimise some of my excisting presets for this purpose. Here is the first organic, dark and deep sounding Heavy Touch Edition:


BLENDED CONCERT GRANDEUR R2.0 - HEAVY TOUCH EDITION

Dual Voice: Concert Grand, volume 5 + Concert Grand 2, volume 5

1 Basic Settings
1 - 3 Tone control: low 4, mid 3, high 0

2 Virtual Technician
2 - 1 Voicing: normal
2 - 2 Damper resonance: 10
2 - 3 String resonance: 10
2 - 4 Key off effect: 9
2 - 5 Touch: heavy
2 - 8 Stretch tuning: Normal

3 Key Settings
3 - 4 Layer dynamics: 7

Reverb: Hall 1

Effect: Delay 2, time 2, depth 3

Really good stuff this, thanks TADutchman. Glad I found this forum - I was pretty happy with my CA63 before, but these layered sounds are amazing.
I'm another fan of WARM BABY-MEDIUM GRAND AT HOME R1.0.
Shame there are only 8 registration memories...
Thanks again !

TADutchman, thank you for the preset Here is a recording I have made with it:

BLENDED CONCERT GRANDEUR R2.0 - HEAVY TOUCH EDITION.mp3

On speakers it's really warm but on headphones there are something like phase differences which are a little bit artificial. Not sure if it depends on the headphones.

Here is the same piece recorded with the plain vanilla CA63 sound with no tweaks (except for heavy touch and hall2 reverb):
Kawai CA63 - Concert Grand [default] - Heavy Touch - Hall2

Thanks for your swift feedback and recording, CyberGene; I'll have a look into this in more detail tomorrow, the day after a local Jazz festival. I'm available for a meet and greet in Heerde to be exact.

http://www.jazzfestivalheerde.nl/programma/

Welcome and thanks, KeemaNan. Yet another proud owner!

TADutchman, as we have discussed in private messaging, without any doubt the STEINWAY GRAND DEVOTION R2.1 is my personal favorite and the best among the layered sounds I use. It has resonances which are really beautiful. I have used it with heavy touch although it is originally made for light touch, so if you can fine tune it specifically for heavy touch, that would be really great! As you see, I prefer romantic classical music which sounds great with full, warm, woody and even dull sound and not bright and percussive sound and the Steinway patch is close to that. Thank you very much!

All that jazz and then a final soul/funk performance of 10 Beaufort after midnight that blew me away (the band leader of this Tower of Power cover-band is a friend of mine). I hope my eardrums are still intact.

In the meantime, I've updated the heavy touch Blended Concert Grandeur patch in the orignal post...

Sure, here it is, let me know your thoughts:


STEINWAY GRAND DEVOTION R2.1 - HEAVY TOUCH EDITION

Dual Voice: Mellow Grand, volume 9 + Pick Nylon Gt, volume 1

1 Basic Settings
1 - 3 Tone control: low +2, mid +1, high 0

2 Virtual Technician
2 - 1 Voicing: mellow1
2 - 2 Damper resonance: 10
2 - 3 String resonance: 10
2 - 4 Key off effect: 8
2 - 5 Touch: heavy
2 - 8 Stretch tuning: Wide

3 Key Settings
3 - 3 Layer octave: -1
3 - 4 Layer dynamics: 10

Reverb: Hall 2

Effect: Delay 2, time 1, depth 5

To complete the trilogy, here's the one with normal touch:


STEINWAY GRAND DEVOTION R2.1 - NORMAL TOUCH EDITION

Dual Voice: Mellow Grand, volume 9 + Pick Nylon Gt, volume 1

1 Basic Settings
1 - 3 Tone control: low +5, mid -1, high 0

2 Virtual Technician
2 - 1 Voicing: mellow1
2 - 2 Damper resonance: 10
2 - 3 String resonance: 10
2 - 4 Key off effect: 8
2 - 5 Touch: normal
2 - 8 Stretch tuning: Wide

3 Key Settings
3 - 3 Layer octave: -1
3 - 4 Layer dynamics: 10

Reverb: Hall 2

Effect: Delay 2, time 1, depth 5

TADutchman, thank you for your efforts! I have tested both new patches and now I understand why you have chosen to use light setting in the original one. The heavy touch seems to be too heavy for the already dark and mellow patch you have created and now it seems I prefer the STEINWAY GRAND DEVOTION R2.1 - NORMAL TOUCH EDITION.

By the way, I've spent today some more time to play with the settings of the CA63. Well, some people may not believe it, but in fact I've only played my piano with the default sound in 99% of the time ever since I bought it. Because the piano sound is great out of the box. The only change I've made was to use it with the heavy touch setting but it seems to be only me doing it, maybe a consequence of the fact I've been playing relatively heavy touched Scholze upright for more than 15 years at home.

So, I decided to analyze why it's only me using the heavy setting. And I've discovered a "tweak" which now makes it possible to play with the normal touch setting without the velocity and brightness jumps I had before. I need to play my new patch more in order to state it's my new favorite, but here it is:

ANTI-JUMPY MELLOW GRAND (I know, I know, it can't compete with TADutchman's sexy names...)

Single voice: Concert Grand
1 Basic Settings
1 - 3 Tone Control:off

2 Virtual Technician
2 - 1 Voicing: Mellow1 (That's the important)
2 - 2 Damper resonance: 5
2 - 3 String resonance: 5
2 - 4 Key-off effect: 5
2 - 5 Touch: Normal
2 - 6 Temperament: Equal (p.only)
2 - 8 Stretch tune: Wide (that's nice if playing solo piano, otherwise should be switched off in order to avoid detuning between you and other instruments which are using non-stretched tunings)

Reverb: Hall2
Effect: off

Well, as you see, the only difference with the default (out of the box) sound is the usage of mellow1 voicing (and optionally the stretched-wide tunning and hall2 reverb). But it makes huge difference to me.

Correct, what you do with mellow1 in single voice mode now is the same as what I did in dual voice mode with the STEINWAY GRAND DEVOTION R2.1 - NORMAL TOUCH EDITION

Whatever works best for you.

Suggestion towards Kawai: with an overall brilliance parameter (like on the MP10), it would be possible to fully control overall brightness, for instance when using heavy touch, independently of the Voicing parameter.

Let's update the specific CA93 optimised version too:


STEINWAY GRAND DEVOTION R2.1 - NORMAL TOUCH EDITION - CA93 variation

Dual Voice: Mellow Grand, volume 9 + Finger Nylon Gt, volume 1

1 Basic Settings
1 - 3 Tone control: low +6, mid +3, high +5

2 Virtual Technician
2 - 1 Voicing: mellow 1
2 - 2 Damper resonance: 10
2 - 3 String resonance: 10
2 - 4 Key off effect: 8
2 - 5 Touch: normal
2 - 8 Stretch tuning: Wide

3 Key Settings
3 - 3 Layer octave: -1
3 - 4 Layer dynamics: 10

Reverb: Hall 2 / Off

Effect: Delay 2, time 1, depth 5 / Off

When I saw the last presets, all with light touch, I was reluctant because I had already noticed that leads to bright tones, amplifies the high freqs and the bell effect.

But on the other hand, TADutchman has well compensated this effect correcting Voicing (2-1) and Tone control (1-3)

So, once I've tried all the lasts presets, I have to say very surprisingly I prefer the original Light touch versions than Normal and Heavy versions that are too muffled for my taste.

Now talking about the presets:

The Steinway patches are truly great sounds but unlike to many people here, these are not in my favourites.

After my little "test drive" this afternoon, I would like to give you my personal list (that is not in preference order), here we go:

SHIGERU KAWAI R2.0
BRUTAL BASS BOSENDORFER R2.1
BLENDED CONCERT GRANDEUR R2.0 with 2-1 Voicing: mellow 1/2 for lid effects
KAWAI EX ADDICTION R1.1
JAZZ & BLUES IMPROVISATION GRAND R1.0
ANTIQUE 1848 PLEYEL GRAND R1.1
PUB PIANO SING-A-LONG 1.0
DIRTY UPRIGHT ROCK R1.0
BRILLIANT CLASSICAL PIANO R2.2
GOOD OLD VINTAGE GRAND R1.0
FUNKY GROWL SOLOING
INVOLVING E-PIANO
DREAMY TREMOLO HYBRID
KAWAI EP-308 ELECTRIC GRAND

maybe in future I find time to write a little review for each of them, only to share my impressions with you...