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Salut

Bechstein Digital Grand is one of favorite among VSLs and Garritan CFX. I don’t regret my purchase even if the full version price is higher than most of the others (249€). I have VILabs Ravenscroft, but I find it too peculiar for my taste. I have purchased Bechstein Digital Grand because I was felt in love with the EWQL Bechstein tone…. But its huge velocity layer gaps were too irritating. Then an other Bechstein was welcomed.

With a i5-3330, the polyphony must be limited at 130-150 voices… knowing that a single note takes 4 or 5 voices. Then the actual polyphony is really around 30 notes. My i5-12600 is quite more powerful then it is not an issue anymore. A visit to https://www.cpubenchmark.net/ is recommended, then you can compare you CPU index with mine (4080 for a i5-3330).

The reason why Bechstein Digital Grand is so hungry deals with the mixing for each note between 4 or 5 samples (Basic tone, partial tones, sound body, "softness" , and optionally aura).

You can take the Bechstein Digital Grand Essentials to test it, and upgrade afterward if it please to you and want more tweaking or velocity layers. The upgrade price is the difference between the two versions. (But Essentials has no mixing between 4-5 samples then won’t probe your CPU).

One interesting feature of Bechstein Digital Grand Essentials and Full is the mellow/bright knob. An easy tweak to adjust the tone to your taste. Mine is more toward mellow but your taste may be different.

I could add that VILabs has also a Bechstein (the 3 pianos bundle)… but some samples have some click inside it (an Audacity spectrogram shows a big red dot above the sound). The issue is acknowledged by the support (a « quick chiff » they said), they tell me they will fix it but they must be still too busy with the (2015) Winter NAMM. Perhaps my AKG702 headphones are too detailed for this virtual piano.

I guess you mean Plogue's OPS7 plugin.

My brother (who has a lot of synthesizer experience, while I have next to none) recently started using it and is over the 🌙 with it.

Cheers and happy oscillations,

HZ

For a minute there, HZ, I was wondering why your brother was over a banana ;-)

😄 No, I am bananas, he is more of the expert 😄

Cheers and happy fruitcakes,

HZ

[quote=Frédéric L]
Hi Frédéric could you elaborate some more about the Bechstein vst ? I have a super fast system and recently swapped my processor , motherboard and cooling to handle the latest AMD Ryzen chip.
I am most intrigued about it’s character. I like my three VSL piano’s and top notch playability, but they all sound like the modern approach of a concert grand. I am looking for a superb seventies concert grand. A golden era in many recordings. They have body and warmth that the VSL piano’s don’t really have. Maybe this Bechstein has ?

Hello,

From that, @pianistje, I would say we're after the same qualites, same taste, in a piano library. Thus far, I have not really found any Grand library that does the job the way I'd like it to.

So, curious as well!

Cheers and happy (re)search,

HZ

Thanks ! And nice to hear i’m not alone in my specific requests !

Wow... I had a real DX7II and sold it, and since then I was using a free DEXED emulation which to my ears was not as good. I was using some Japanese Jazz Fusion sounds and they sounded awful on the DEXED while great on the DX7, the OPS7 is very promising and I'm tempted to buy it. Can your brother or you share any wisdom as to how he uses it when he wants to take it outside to play? I don't think it runs on tablets (only laptops which I'm reluctant to bring) ... or does he only use it in the studio?
I don't know what type of semi weighted "synth" MIDI keyboard controller is good these days to control such VSTs... Since I sold the DX7 with aftertouch and a bit of weight on them keys it seems MIDI keybeds nowadays are more focused on having 20 knobs and 16 drum pads rather than a good action which is a shame... IDK lol.. I wish the CT-S1 had aftertouch lol

I bought it the other week. And it’s a perfect DX7 emulation. However i am used to modern allrounder synths like Dune3 and those sound much better, more hifi, vastly superior effects and straight forward sound sculpting. It wasn’t very expensive but i have no use for FM synthesis. Although it gave me a very satisfying nostalgic evening

Recently I bought the Nektar Impact GXP88 for Synth sounds ... Give it a try- I like the keys for synth stuff

thank but I'm looking for 61 with velocity + aftertouch, something that doesn't feel cheap plastic and has a bit of heft, basically a "DX7" feel.. with 2 wheels. And I don't need gazillion sliders/knobs/pads/screens and colorful lights/leds as I find myself not using them, just makes the keyboard look ugly and the lights distracting IMO I like the sleek look of a keys with 2 wheels on the side and that's it. That being said I won't say no to a suggestion just because it has a couple of sliders etc..
I've begun some researched and noted that some of the cheaper MIDI keyboards from Native Instruments and similar companies have simpler interface but no Aftertouch

Hello,

He doesn't. It runs on his PC at his music desk.

Cheers and happy playing,

HZ

and what about the Nektar Impact GXP61 ? Its with aftertouch...

Noire does require a fair amount of tweaking to get the most out of it. I was also somewhat underwhelmed at first, but it quickly become one of my absolute favorites.

Most of the factory presets seem geared towards highlighting more extreme and/or artificial effects, but below are the settings I've settled on for general playing.

I don't know if this would qualify as the most "natural" sound, and everyone's taste is different, but for me this has a good balance of clarity, depth and presence.

FWIW, I play mostly solo classical (Mozart, Bach, etc.) and pretty much exclusively w/ headphones (Grado SR125).

Main Knobs
Color: +42%
Tonal shift: +8%
Dynamic: 0
Reverb: Off
Delay: Off

Anatomy
Release Samples: On -0.6 dB
Resonance: -11.2 dB
Overtones: Off
Attack: 0.00 ms

Noises
Pedal: On -36.5 dB
Mechanical: On -23.4 dB
Felt: Off

Tone
Tonal Depth: Off
Low Keys: 20%
Sub: Off

Velocity (manually customize via KSP - Preset - Factory - Transform - Change velocity)
Repedal: On
Halfpedal: On

Effects:
EQ: On
Presence: +6.2dB
Bite: +6.0dB
Bass: -3.3 dB

Transient: Off
Compressor: Off
Stereo Image: Off
Style: Off
Noises: Off
Pianist: Off

Particles Engine: All off

Reverb: Off
Replika Delay: Off

Hello,

@jdg78, Thank you for your time and effort in sharing these settings!

Over this weekend, I spent some time redoing Noire from scratch, and I see quite a few -- though not all -- similarities with what you've done. And indeed I have a custom velocity curve in place, which is essential.

I'll try your choices next time I can put some attention towards tweaking Noire.

Cheers and happy playing,

HZ

Just tested your settings and it is indeed an improvement. I don't like deviating too much from the default settings, so I had given up on Noire. Too muffled. Turns out that if you crank up color it improves dramatically without becoming artificial. Have to adjust the eq to my headphones, but it is a workable VST at the moment.

Thanks for giving me some hope on this muffled piano.

Hello,

@vagfilm, I was already hoping you'd see this.

This afternoon, I further crystallized my Noire settings, and if they hold well over the next day or two, I'll try to remember to list them here as well.

Cheers and happy VSTi resurrections,

HZ

How do you set a custom velocity curve in Noire? I never noticed that setting

@jdg78, Those settings are really good.

I am sold.

You got anything else to send our way. I am terrible getting VST's to sound good.

I am not ashamed for asking even if I should not.

Grandeur, Garritan, Bechstein Digital, Pianoteq,

Ron