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  • Best VSL Equalizer for Vienna Imperial

    Hi,

    I'm having issues finding the best equalizer settings for the Vienna Imperial piano. I have Vienna Suite installed (not Pro) and VSL equalizer offers various presets for the Bosendorfer Imperial.

    I have tried all available presets, tweaked them, tried various Sympathetic Resonance settings, added and removed all reverbs, etc. I still have a slight grizzling, buzzing sound on several notes, which is very annoying as I try to achieve the most realistic sound. I know it comes from my speakers reacting to the richness of the harmonics samples of the Vienna Imperial. I don't hear the noises when I use headphones.

    First of all, I'm not sure the Bosendorfer presets really fit the Vienna Imperial. I had the feeling that Bosendorfer refers to the lighter piano that was first released, so the samples are different. One clue is that there are two families of presets – close and distant. No "player position". The Vienna Imperial has 3 positions.

    My speakers are decent monitoring speakers, and my master keyboard is a brand new keyboard with grand piano touch. This issue only occurs with the Vienna Imperial, all my other sample libraries (Vienna full orchestral libraries, EW Hollywood Brass & Strings, EW Choirs, etc.) sound perfectly fine.

    It really spoils all the fun when I try to play something because no matter what I do, I cannot get rid of these noises. I need a piano for composing, I don't have the space at home for a grand piano, so I intended to use the Vienna Imperial as my main composing companion. 

    I have also tried using the VSL Analyzer to get some insight into this problem but found no clue. I must say I am no sound engineer, though, only a composer, and my knowledge on this topic is limited. So I am opened to all suggestions from more knowlegdeable colleagues in this domain, including speaker recommendations.

    Thank you very much,
    Esther


  • Hi Esther,

    you're absolutely right: Vienna Imperial and the smaller Boesendorfer Imperial are completely different instruments, recorded in different sessions with different technical approaches. :-)

    The fact that you hear those noises only on your monitors, not on your headphones makes me think that there might be a problem with your monitor system rather than with the sound source.

    ... any chance to double-check this ...?

    Kind regards,


    /Dietz - Vienna Symphonic Library
  • Good morning Dietz,

    Thank you very much for your reply. I will follow your advice, record samples of the problematic frequencies, and have it played on the various monitor sets at some professional sound equipment shop nearby. This will tell me more about the source of the problem.

    All the best,
    Esther