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My God that Vintage D sounds amazing

Can you add an American D render of the Chopin pieces? Interested to hear it in a classical context.

http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1883922/1.html

very nice job. I don't know why I can't get my Ivory II Steinway to sound that good from my Receptor - perhaps the problem is located between the chair and the keyboard. Very nice recording.

ha! have to admit that made me laugh.. self depreciating humor and all..
We've all had that problem at one time or another...

Cubus uploaded video with American Concert D:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qb_CSnAo_Fs&feature=g-all-u

Thanks for link. I had not heard him play before.

Synthogy now posted an American Concert rendition by Volker Rogall of Chopin's Scherzo No. 2 on their website:
http://www.synthogy.com/demos/play/d2012-09-05a.html

It's so hard to distinguish the underlying character of the samples from the other effects, like reverb in there. These examples sounds so mellow they are almost muffled, but it probably has more to do with the settings than the samples. Unfortunately it's really hard to evaluate things from clips.

Though that won't stop us from trying, and loving it. Thanks for pointing this out.

7notemode just uploaded a very nice "raw" display of what the American D sounds like. And that piano is JUICY, especially the highs, mmmm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWnbja5UXm8&feature=g-all-u


I ordered this piano this past Thursday, I just couldn't resist. Unfortunately, my Purolator tracking seem to be stuck. I hope my American D order wasn't lost by the delivery guy, or I'm going to go nuts, haha.

i loaded it up over the weekend. initial thoughts are that i wouldn't descibe it as mellow.... its got some real punch to it. Very full spectrum... doesn't sound quite as even as the Ivory's German grand- as 7notemode mentioned - the German is "crisp" with a shorter sustain. The American is obviously an old(er)instrument, and the sound does have more variation and nuance to it, and they definitely are long samples, particular in the lower registers. You even get a sensation of the hammers being worn when playing it versus the new German D. There are lots of variations/settings presented to the user by the developer, but it stays true to its sound.

Its definitely a big sucker. I didnt have any problems loading it- in fact, it loaded more smoothly than the Ivory II grand piano suite (which had corrupted files that had to be downloaded from their website) and the Italian. It's size has made me pay more attention to settings- i've had some pops and crackles and had to adjust buffer size and some other settings vs what i run mindlessly with the other ivory pianos. I've also noticed the installation screwed up my presets for the other pianos, why i don't know, and its not a big deal.

Like all new things, you go through the initial sorting out process of "wow" to "meh" depending on your mood at the moment. The American certainly sounds big and real. And there is a lot of detail. I'm used to the evenness of the German so i'm noticing the note-to-note variations with the American. i'm still in the camp that the German will be the better choice for quiet, introspective solos, and the American will be a great choice for bolder music requiring some sonic muscle.

Just an initial impression, subject to the usual massive amount of change. But i would close out by saying- its the most like a real grand of anything i have loaded on my hard drive.

TheIshter,
I went her to post a link to the video, but you beat me to it!
I hope you get your copy soon. It's a satisfying way to blow some discretionary income.

bfb,
pretty much agreed. For me the positive point is that these two Ivory Steinways don't cover the same ground. They are not redundant and serve different musical niches.

Bfb (or anyone), can you compare the American grand with its closest apparent competitor: Vintage D?

i'd defer to 7notemode on the Vintage D side-by-side, gvfarns. i just didn't like kontakt with my setup so i really wasn't playing the Vintage D much, was going to use it to render midi files as an alternate "take". I think the American is definitely more robust, but that's my bias towards Ivory more than anything.

You ought to spring for this baby. I know its a couple hundred bucks, but if you like the steinway sound i think you'll really like this..

this link takes you to Geoffrey Gee's soundcloud page- he has a couple recordings using the American D at the top. I think the American really fits his style of playing well. Of course it helps that the guy is fantastic.

http://soundcloud.com/search?q%5Bfulltext%5D=geoffrey+gee

7notemode, thanks! Though I don't think it helps that Purolator tracking system is down right now (and has been since yesterday evening).

*sigh* I guess I'll put your American D video on loop meanwhile

Hi everyone, this is my first post here and I felt compelled to add to the Ivory American Concert D discussion. I loaded all the files in today and nearly couldn't run it due to not able to put the licence into the iLok key. there were issues with the iLok driver but I soon got that fixed by downloading from the iLok site to my other computer. I must say that I'm very pleased with the American Concert D. I've been wanting a Steinway sound that didn't have that "woody knocking darkish" tone that the German steinway has, although I like it for many situations. The American D is clearer and very direct sounding. Very smooth and silky at the same time, very much like the Italian Grand but with a fuller more present tone. It has characteristics of the Yamaha pop sound but with a more robust quality. I'm sure it will be my 'go to' piano overall. I own all the Ivory pianos including the uprights. I also have excellent pianos in my CP-1, Roland RD700NX, and Motif XF7. I think i'm in sampled piano heaven. Thank you Synthogy and thanks Pianoworld!

Listening to demos, I don't like American that much. There's some particular dullness and it sounds like the sound is coming from a box, furthermore it is kind of distant which is usually not very pleasing when playing with with headphones for personal enjoyment, however this may be due to the reverb used. It's a pity they don't provide playable demos...

I feel the same way. I haven't been impressed with any demos I've heard. But it's hard to tell all that much from clips you hear online because you don't know how hard the player had to work for that sound and what settings were used. I take people's testimony on the subject more seriously than clips. Eventually enough people will buy and give their opinion on it that we will have a good representative sample.

I guess it's not an easy task to offer a demo version of 20GB+ software piano I am wondering how far will be the time when Internet data transfers will provide means for low-latency audio via Internet. You'll get say 20 minutes of demo time, hook your MIDI keyboard and control Ivory online and hear the sound coming with a low latency back to you. Dream on

If you can tolerate no more than, say, 20 msec of latency, then the one-way transit must complete in no more than 10 msec. At radio/light speed, that means the server must be within 1800 miles of your client machine. (With cabled networking, they'd need to be closer together, around 1200 miles.)

This assumes NO processing delays at the server, and no store-and-forward delays in the network. But these delays will, of course, be present. So this means you'll have to be even closer to the server so that the reduced network transit time compensates for those latencies.

But even that's too much to ask: As things stand today, my best cross-town latency is nearly 30 msec. (Nearly all of that is store-and-forward delay.) And it grows larger with distance.

So it's rather hopeless.