Hi all,

I am looking to buy EWQL Pianos. I've been listening to the demos at http://www.soundsonline.com/product.php?productid=EW-188, particularly the Third Party Comparison demos.

I've noticed that with the EWQL versions of these demos (e.g. http://media.soundsonline.com/ip/mp3/EWQL_STE_comp.mp3), the left hand cuts out at around 4.4s and 8.5s, and it sounds quite a bit like repedalling is not supported in the software. The Synthogy and Pianoteq samples don't do this, and I know they support repedalling.

I've played using software that doesn't support repedalling (e.g. early versions of The Grand) and know that these are unplayable with my (sloppy ) style. So I'm hoping someone who owns EWQL Pianos can tell me if repedalling is supported.

Thanks!

I recently ran many EWQL pianos through the DPBSD test:

EastWest Quantum Leap Goliath Pianos

EastWest Quantum Leap Bechstein D-280 Concert Grand

EastWest Quantum Leap Bosendorfer 290 / Steinway D / Yamaha C7


By "repedalling" do you mean this (from the DPBSD readme file):

4. The more mass a vibrating string has, the more difficult it is to quickly damp. Therefore the bass notes in particular on a real acoustic piano can be damped for a brief period of time but still retain some vibrational energy. Since a brief damp / undamp via the keyboard requires the difficult task of replaying a note silently and quickly, this test instead relies on the damper pedal to briefly damp and undamp a playing bass note. I call this behavior "brief pedal partial damping".

If so, I can tell you that they all fail that test. I later tested (but didn't post) the new 2.0.8 play engine and it failed that test too.

EastWest has other, more serious, issues - I'd recommend you thoroughly try before you buy (if that is possible) and/or look at other offerings.

That description definitely constitutes repedalling, yep. Although my use-case is slightly different: since I'm occasionally a fraction late in pressing the sustain pedal, I rely on being able to "catch" the note just before it rings out. The basic idea is the same in either case, though.

If EWQL doesn't support this, then it's definitely off the table for me. I found it very jarring playing with software that didn't have this capability.

Your warning about serious issues seems to be a general theme with this software, from what I've read on the forums. Maybe I'll hold out for Synthogy Ivory II, which looks like it will be released imminently.

I definitely appreciate the feedback, dewster.

I'm not sure how they stay in business actually. Poor quality control over the sample recording process (extraneous noises, high noise floor, etc.) coupled to a somewhat broken play engine.


Lots of excitement over that release, let's hope it pans out.

On a related note, does anyone happen to recognize the piece in http://media.soundsonline.com/ip/mp3/EWQL_STE_comp.mp3 ?

It's an improvisation by Thomas Bryla, according to his own Myspace writeup:
http://www.myspace.com/brylamusic

Greg.

Greg, you are like some kind of Superman around here, swooping in with the answer to everything!

Thanks Dewster - you're not too bad yourself. Ha ha

All I did was look at the Soundsonline demo page, saw who the author was, and then Googled for him. I was very curious about this because the demo sounds like very nice classical music - I was surprised to learn that it was an impro!

I tend to find that posting in forums is so much easier than actually playing the piano.

Greg.

Or actually doing any engineering, or actually doing any work on the house...

Uh oh, that's some scary list you've started.

There's now a report on their forum that they doctored piano demo's after they were recorded to remove bad velocity levels that stuck out because of their inconsistency. I bought QL Pianos to play live based on their demos and hear these problems.

Oooh, nasty. There ought to be a law...

Years back when rendering MIDI through their EW Bosendorfer 290 I had to heavily "doctor" the MIDI files too. IIRC it was a 4 layer sample and I had to stay away from the lowest and highest layers. After that I had to send it through some pretty aggressive noise reduction to tame the noise floor. The end result wasn't worth anywhere near that amount of pain and suffering.