Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards If you could only have 2 VSL pianos...

I do, but they're on another machine - I'll pull a few off later!

The CFX is so musical and inspires me to play so much more than other VSTs. I’m surprised it’s not getting much love in this thread thus far!

I just bought a new hard drive, I guess this is getting serious!

No way, you are saving thousands! Imagine buying the real things... We are blessed to be able to play such wonderful VIs

I have three VSL Synchron pianos, Bösendorfer Imperial, Bösendorfer Upright and Bösendorfer 280VC (only this last in full version) and plan to add a couple more on next offer, for sure the CFX being one of them.

For me the Bösendorfer Imperial is a must have, and I guess full version will be even more enjoyable. Perhaps some day...

Lol, yeah I just told a musician friend I might be treating myself to a $250,000 piano for my bedroom!

I'm not complaining! I want to put Windows and maybe 2 VSL pianos on the same boot drive, so I'm upgrading from 250GB to 1TB m.2 nvme drive. It will be nice to have super fast boot and hopefully less issues with popping/drop-outs.

Hopefully I can stop working, get some sleep, and play with these demos before my time expires!

Yes, I got the standard library. I had the great Vlad K on this forum help me mix a warm sounding preset that I save by default, so it sounds less fatiguing to me. But I have a hunch I may play the 280VC more if I had it, using the mid2 position only. Anyway, it's good to envision it. The pianos are simply too big for storage IMO!!! If they could losslessly compress the samples, say in flac format, that would be so much better!!!

Vladk? Care to distribute that preset?

Just sent you the preset, check your messages. Sorry I only have the free version of WeTransfer.

Do you guys think the VSL libraries would run well on an external Samsung T7? Has anybody tried that?

I don't think I have it.

Vlad: David just sent me. Will try it. Thanks to both.

TheodorN: no idea but I have used both the internal SSD and an external cheap SSD (both with CrystalMark medium-high transfer rates: nothing stellar...). Performance was similar, but I only use 3 mics at most.

I believe that all samples are accessed from RAM, and the SSD is only critical to load to ram memory. I assume that all ssds will perform similarly (and will only differ at readiness not playability. But I may be wrong).

The max transfer rate of the T7 is supposed to be 1000 MB/s. That is much lower than NvME, but still pretty good, and twice as much as most conventional (non-NvME) SSDs. I also believe the bottleneck is much more likely to be in the CPU, or the RAM, before the SSD ever gets to be the weak link.

They should run without issue. As it so happens, I just got the Bosenderfers to add to the bluthner, and I pulled out my Samsung T3 to store them. It's only about half as fast as the T7 (~450 MBps vs ~1050 read speeds). The Bosendorfers run just as smoothly on the T3 as the as the bluthner does on my internal NVMe drive, so the T7 should have no issue.

Thanks, napilopez.

I don't have any complete VSL libraries on external drives, but I've got the extra mics for the 280VC on a T5, and it all runs very comfortably with my buffer at 64 (via a 2nd gen Focusrite Scarlett interface). It certainly doesn't seem to pose any problems having the standard/additional mics on separate drives!

Have added a few 280 presets to that folder!

You are amazing! Thanks so much for doing that.

This thread has been amazing - we all know how difficult it is to 'explain sound' and that we all have different perceptions and equipment - but having now used 3 VSL pianos I completely get what everyone is talking about!
(Of the 3 I've tried)

Bosendorfer Imperial: "Even, balanced..." If you want one piano that can do everything and with the least amount of tweaking, this is probably it. Nice full bass, some Bosendorfer character, not too strident up top. It's superpowers are accuracy and loyalty - it's not a specialist, it puts you in control and has your back every step of the way. I tried this one last and can't say much about full vs standard versions as I went right to full, since it had some pretty serious shoes to fill. It's my least favorite of the 3 so I didn't spend time playing with standard version (yet.) I think my trial ends today or tomorrow, so....

CFX: Someone described it as "musical" and I agree - other ways to describe it could be "organic, responsive, coherent." Out of the box the low end is a little light (IMO, and with my equipment) and the top end a little thin, but this was quickly and easily corrected for with some EQ. The CFX's super powers are dynamics and space. I could go either way regarding the standard/full version - the EQ does pretty well at warming up the standard mic's tone, and the Close 2 on it's own isn't anything spectacular, but you get get a nice warm and holographic setup with the full version.

280VC: This one has been my favorite based on demo tone. I haven't seen many/any people say this was their #1, and I agree it's got a few rough edges. Out of the box, the top end is pretty strident and the hammer/attack is pretty dominating. But, it's got a really rare blend of character and playability - I find that pianos with character usually limit my repertoir as there are only a few things they sound good doing. But the 280VC really sounds great doing everything. What it lacks in the BI's even-ness, or the CFX's coherence/connected-ness, it makes up for with sparkle and 'magic.' No ribbon mic in the full version unfortunately, but the tube mic does help to warm it up and smooth out some of the 'hammer attack.'

Thank you for this description!!! I'm hoping someone could render a midi file using the 280VC and a daw, or maybe talk me out of the temptation to buy it while it's EDU discounted...