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Hi all,

I have just got a new Kontakt (full) library which features a Fazioli F212 and really sounds wonderfully to my ears. I have just installed it and like it a lot. The Ambisonics version seems interesting and for me is a primer on a piano library.

Sound sample: Chopin - Impromptu in A flat major, Op. 29




WEB site:

Pianoforte by Audio Brewers


Enjoy!

Jose

This looks interesting, the Fazioli F212 is a great instrument. Here is a nice demo and interview with the CEO of Audio brewers.

Yes, I found out about this library there, yesterday. It is huge, about 50GB compressed. It has "up to 24 velocity layers" according to the creators. And were sampled manually. The sound is very warm, I like it

Not surprised EB5 has acquired another VST.

Pleasantly surprised to see a (what appears to be good) Fazioli based VST! Thanks for sharing!

Can't say I'm impressed, the Impromptu sounded muddy and hollow, though some like it that way. Not saying it's bad, but I don't see this new library bringing anything new to the table.

This library has plenty of settings and mics. Also, that demo is intended for Ambisonics, it seems. I am using it in stereo and still going through the settings, which are quite a bit!

I was very fortunate to get it in the giveaway of the presentation. At that price, could not resist

Hello,


Hey! There's our Simeon again. A long video though, perhaps it can be my 'tv' for tonight 🤔.

Thanks for sharing!

Cheers,

HZ

PS Oh boy! It requires full Kontakt. To me, that is a hard brake to full Stop. May still be watching Simeon though--out of curiosity.

I listened to the SoundCloud demos as well, and unless they were all using Ambisonics, my opinion remains the same. Maybe they weren't all muddy, but there was nothing in them that impressed me.

While interesting, requiring full kontakt is a no go for me.

And I'm happy for my bank account.

I bought, about two years ago, on a very good offer, an upgrade to Komplete 12 CE, as price was about what Kontakt 6 alone cost. I am glad I did, as it opens quite a lot of opportunities for both free and paid libraries. And, as I said on a previous message, my account is also relieved as I was so fortunate to get a free licence for this library (the moment I won it is on the Simeon video). So far, so good

As you are a loyal Simeon fan, congratulations are in order!

😉

Cheers,

HZ

Newer player pointed me to this one a few weeks ago because it can be mixed down to binaural, and I think you can get head tracking to work. But it's no easier a setup than my binaural VR piano, and possibly more difficult because decoding happens in realtime.

Barrier to entry is too high for me, but interested in what others think.

After some hours playing, my experience on the Stereo version is so far good. There are some small glitches on mixer window, for example when you want to remove pedal noise and you change mics, even if the selection is not marked, the system loads and plays damper pedal samples. So you need to mark and unmark the setting again to remove it.

But, sound wise, if there is some lack of crystaline clarity, as you find on the VSL pianos, the sound is suitable for a variety of genres. The different mics are interesting and very different among some of them, as the soundboard one compared to ear or frame mics. And there are plenty of effects to work with... Is a deep library, for sure.

What do they mean manually sampled. That's not going to be nearly as consistent as VSL's solenoid plunger.

In the Simeon Amburgey video, Alejandro Cabrera, founder of Audio Brewers, explains it. I recall he said that they tried the plunger approach but they found that it was less musical than hand playing. Anyway, it is better to check his comments directly there, I may be wrong on my words.

In my experience, I have not found inconsistencies so far.

Hi there! We just found this post and want to let you know that we have issued an Update for Pianoforte's Sustain Pedal Bug.

If it wasn't for this post, we wouldn't have noticed the bug, please do not hesitate on letting us know about any bug or suggestions directly. You can reach us by Social media or by e-mail at hello@audiobrewers.com, it is thanks to bug reports that we can keep our instruments tidy, and it helps a lot to have the bugs reported directly.

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Regarding the 'Manual Sampling' question - we Sampled Pianoforte 'by hand' (pun intended) instead of using an automation mechanism, and then manually adjusted each velocity zone to adapt to its strength against the higher/lower and neighboring zones - this might have taken us perhaps countless of more hours than using a mechanism, but ultimately, while doing our research on how best to approach sampling, we found robots simply didn't have "that something" when striking a key, there was a connection missing and the sound simply 'wasn't there'.

It might be subjective? But again, each piano contains unique characteristics in each of the keys, and the only way to find and adjust these characteristics is by having the connection the musician has to the instrument, a robot will not know a fortissimo is actually a fortissimo, but it will simply translate a pressure. I guess we took the long way, but in my years sampling instruments (and trust me, I've done way too many haha), the most valuable lesson I've learned is that nothing will ever beat the human touch. This goes both for music, but also for sampling.


This is our humble opinion and approach to music, by no means we're saying it is the correct one, it simply is what we consider the best approach regardless of it being longer and more painful (especially when there are 1:30+ minute tails!) :P

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Regarding the questions and comparison to binaural recordings, the difference between a stereo binaural recording and an Ambisonics translation is the rotation, in a binaural recording your left/right ear will always hear exactly the same, regardless on how your head is positioned. With an Ambisonics, the sound behaves differently depending on how the rotation of your head is, so the sound arriving your ears is always precise to how it would be in real life.
You can certainly emulate rotation with plugins, but again, an emulation will perhaps not translate signals correctly as it doesn't have information on how the sonic sphere really is, but it can only guess through algorithms.
Regarding its setup, if you use a DAW it shouldn't be very difficult (our site contains a lot of documentation).

Finally, to remind you that Pianoforte also comes in Stereo, so if you don't care for Ambisonics, you still have a piano in Stereo with different Mic Positions and Mixes... and well, since you ALSO have the Ambisonics version (both come included), you are future-proof for the day you want to explore.

I hope I could answer some of the questions and if you have more, please do not hesitate!

Welcome Audio Brewers to PW! Glad you're here, and I hope that you stay engaged with this wonderful group here. If you don't already know, the diverse and knowledgable folk here have helped fine tune and improve major products from major manufacturers, by giving their valuable feedback - so I hope for great things to come from you folks!

#RhetoricalQuestion
Are there really more detailed, informative, engaging and more personal videos than Simeon's? He's amazing!

Great news!, Yes, I posted the pedal inconsistencies, will try soon new version.

Thanks!

Jose