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Profonity Steinway D for Kontakt Full (not Kontakt Free) $15.60.

"The Concert Grand is a multi-sampled reproduction of a Steinway Model-D grand piano. It has a rich and warm tone, and a wide playable dynamic range that relates every nuance of the performance to its audience in a natural environment.

The character of any piano is intrinsically linked to the venue where it is played, and this instrument was designed to capture the sound of that real performance in a real space – while keeping it versatile enough to use in any style of music.

The UI has been designed to give you quick access to fundamental mixing features, as well as a variety of carefully crafted tone shaping enhancements – allowing the character of the instrument to be easily tailored to your production.

Please Note: The full version of Kontakt 5.5.2 or above is required to load this instrument. It will only work in Demo Mode in Kontakt Player. Please ensure you have the correct version of Kontakt before ordering.

FEATURES

5 dynamic layers
4 stereo microphone positions
Built-in IR reverb
Specially designed scripts for tone shaping controls

Microphone positions:

Hammers: A pair of SM57 dynamic mics directly over the hammers produce a hard attack from the players perspective.
Close: A pair of Neumann TLM103 condensers spaced out over the strings to capture the full body and clarity of the soundboard and strings.
Distant: An AEA R-88 stereo ribbon mic brings a warm and gentle character from a few feet away.
Ambient: A pair of AKG C414 omnidirectional condenser mics spaced far out in the venue to pick up the natural reflections in this beautiful auditorium."

Craig G. Richards (maybe related to someone here at PW lol) asked some questions on YT,
"Hi Alec,I just purchased and downloaded your Concert Grand, but won't have a chance to try it until next Tuesday. I like the tone & mic differences I hear in the video. I was surprised to note that there are no release samples included. How are note releases handled? Given the length of the longest samples is 15 seconds, are they scripted to loop & fade at the end on full sustain? Also, were the samples captured with the sustain pedal down or up? Finally out of interest, how old is the piano, and is it a New York or Hamburg Model D?"

The developer's response follows,
"Thanks for the support and interest in the instrument. I believe it is a Hamburg model, but I have no idea how old it is. I chose not to include release samples as I originally recorded it for a much simpler sample player that had no way of handling them, before I redesigned it for Kontakt. Each note decays to silence naturally with the sustain pedal up, so some samples are longer than others and there are no loop points. The releases are handled by carefully tuned envelopes that match the character of the release tail.

I recorded this many years ago, but looking past the RAM and storage limitations of the day, the instrument still sounds great. I hope you enjoy it!"

https://www.kontakthub.com/product/concert-grand-kontakt-piano/

https://youtu.be/BZC4xfnJzyg

I pass on Profanity........Steinway D!

It has a nice sound, but I noticed some notes a little bit out of tune in the trebble
region. Like the piano tuner man did not make an spectacular job.

bought it.
played it.
only played the Close Position Mics.
and for a short time.
and at low volume because its late.
and only 1 speaker.
and my humble opinion, so far
it is a joy beyond words.

Really incredible piano for 15$. But there is very important update for some notes made by CGR user in VI control forum. So check it out. I really enjoy in natural character of this piano. It blows away lots of many other pianos with much higher price. Of course, its not comparable to VSL or Garritan, but the sound is gorgeous and playability is good.

Wowww...sloba, i always consider your opinion valuable !!
But only 5 layers and yet playable ?
What’s the size of this library ? And have you purchased the VSL Bösendorfer upright yet ?

Five layers might not be best in class. But there are many aspects of a sampled piano that matter far more than the layer count.

True !!

However I am much more picky lately with those superb 20+ layer libraries in my arsenal.
I loved the CinePiano Steinway very much untill the limited velocities especially in a couple of very jumpy notes spoiled the fun.... once I noticed it in a distracting way, it was hard to get by .

Thank you Pianistje, appreciated very much. At first I didn`t expect too much of it despite overall good user thinking in VI forum, on the way to bank mine was `Oh probably another for collecting dust`, still some respectable users in VI forum have very good opinion so alright only 15$ I will survive`. Then, problems with notes, but CGR save the day messing with script, and finally I was focus on piano. And now I am happy. This is one of `that` specific pianos for real acoustic mode, composing, lyrical pieces, when you tired of Garritans or Ivory sweet digital perfection, when you tired of your Ilok or Vienna key and 100+ GB size, etc. As Mac said, 5 layers is not too much and many technical aspect are missing (release samples, etc) but piano shines in sound details, it has good `vibe`. Size of piano is 2.14GB on disk. Don`t expect too much and you will be surprised. About VSL Bosendorfer, unfortunately still nothing, but it is in first place together with VSL Bluthner on my list.

Not to forget, low end is little weak compare to high notes but its not too dramatical, it is tolerable, and its not comparable to VSL or Garritan dynamics though, but highs are incredible and overall it is very inspiring for playing.

Thanks for the info slobajudge,..I’ll buy it,...did register at Kontakt Hub , but the site claimed i used a wrong pass word, while i did use the one suggested and stored ...can you believe it ?

I like the fact that it has a modest bass register though......

Frankly speaking this was also my first registration at Kontakt hub, I was using my old pass and everything was ok. I hope you will like that piano and use update that user CGR from VI forum give us to cover some faulty notes. Scroll down to download the last attachment https://vi-control.net/community/threads/somebody-concert-grand-by-alec-mackay.89295/ I will be glad to hear your opinion.

I played around a bit and i like it a lot !
Good character Steinway, pretty playable.... and considering it’s modest price a steal.

Now some nostalgic add on....In the nineties i read a lot of keyboard , piano and synth magazines.
Some great interviews with live bands and musicians were among my favorite items.
In those days i used romplers and stage piano’s like the Roland RD600.
I remember an interview with a keyboard player in a band who said he didn’t like what the hardware companies had to offer, so he sampled his own grand piano in three levels with his Akai sampler.
He claimed it sounded so much better than what was on offer in an hardware stage piano.
I did take notice, but never had a sampler myself......

This profanity grand piano reminds me of that article....
Why o why is one person with modest equipment able to capture the sound of a grand piano that gives instant recognition and pleasure.
Why o why did the big companies with all the money in the world such an extremely lousy job by comparison.
Sure the marketing talk was/ is top of the bill..... unechoing chambers, cleaned samples, carefully chosen super expensive grand piano’s, tuned and intonated by top technicians and so on.....
But only till recently the hardware companies are sounding somewhat above mediocre.... not that i ever play the internal sounds of my MP11SE....just to mediocre in all sound aspects. No amount of playability makes up for the sterile sound.

I understand the guy with the sampler much better now and this ‘profanity grand’ sounds way better than the onboard anthology of mediocrity in your Korg Grandstage or whatever super duper stage piano....

It remains puzzling why the A brands chose the direction they did, while your ‘average joe’ with some love and dedication and a pair of mics easily captures the real piano sound of the piano we love compared to the polished ,overly processed and weak equivalents of the big brands.

End of rant

Good rant, and interesting points you raised.There are so many variables in sampling a piano. Firstly, the piano itself, and it's tuning & voicing are paramount. Secondly, the space the piano is captured in. The natural room reflections & ambience make a huge difference to what is captured. Thirdly, the mic placement - critical for getting a natural stereo image & depth. After this comes the equipment, which while important as far as good quality mics, mic-pres & signal paths, really means very little if the stuff beforehand isn't up to scratch.

This Profanity Concert Grand achieves a heck of a lot in capturing a natural piano sound with only 5 layers and pretty simple scripting. The real surprise for me was how well the
ubiquitous Shure SM57s worked as hammer mics, adding a fullness of tone & hammer attack when combined with the other mics.

The developer Alec mentioned he is interested in revisiting the piano for a more deeply sampled version 2. Let's hope he can recreate the magic from this first effort!

I am glad you like it, Craig above is `responsible` for my new Profanity piano and I am glad because of that. Thanks Craig. This piano comes like strawberry dessert after big quality pianos, this Profanity guy catch some little magic enough to really enjoy no matter some flaws. I am agree with you about one person and his work. But there is always something magical about soul of one man no matter it is musician, scientist, etc who can made something different to inspire and move lots of people. Many times one man succeed when group of people failed. This world need that true wish and naivety so we can again enjoy in creativity of one true musician and famous composers as people do earlier. Enjoy in piano.

I read it too,(VI-Control)..... that’s great news a version 2 !! Kudos to Alec and his (future) efforts !

And i fully agree with the amount of variables that come into play when sampling a piano.
But i also do think the big companies overthought their approach instead of capturing the fundamental essence of a real piano.
I always played a Nord Stage live because it sounded like a piano....whereas that Yamaha P and CP series and the Roland SN and V tech and their polished renderings completely spoil the illusion for me personally.
I also had a Yamaha P120 once and started to hate the instrument so much that i was kind of feeling embarrassed to sell it for good money. I think the sample fatigue kicks in way harder with those perfect and sterile sampled piano’s. And the modeled renderings aren’t there yet either....
Nord does also use Sampletekk piano’s in a smaller footprint to fit in their board’s ROM and the original sample source from Sampletekk is top notch.

Strange that in hindsight a real sampler sounds pretty appealing instead of buying the idea of a specific instrument from third parties with a global marketing focus and profits as top priority.
Little to late now since i enjoy a couple of my vst’s very much.... not in need of something of my own creation.

Also thanks Graig and yourself from me !!

And i couldn’t have said it better about the dedication of one inspired induvidual vs a whole group of people with different preferences and ideas molded into one project.
Sometimes the former comes up with better and unique end results !

How do you download this Profonity? The web site references Kontakt Hub as the "download method".
Why does this download require a special method? What is different or special about it?

I have no clue....something marketing technical ?

I had to register at Kontakt Hub first, then i bought the piano....
I should have received an email with download codes, but i didn’t because it was allready placed in my personal Kontakt Hub folder....ready for download.

Then i had to register at VI- control forum, because a member created an important fix about some bad notes.

Certainly a bit cumbersome....but i simply did what was required without complaining to much...

At first I also had that question, but as Pianistje said, when you paid for piano it will appear in your K.Hub account you open earlier, and just download library without anything else. I only receive one mail from K.Hub with number of transaction and thats it.