I'm certain they won't do una corda since they have to re-record the entire pianos and it would effectively double the size of the download. Frankly I don't even like it on my Baldwin 5'8" grand because when the dampers come down they make a little bit of a twang because not all the strings are vibrating equally. It was that way when it was new. But the sustain resonances would be very simple for them to do.

I've been doing the sustain resonances myself using the sampler Kontakt. If anyone else wants to know how, let me know. It's a bit of work.

I would very much appreciate a response, Paul. And if you don't intend to do this please tell me why. It seems like it would be a very simple thing to do and would make many people happy. Theoretically everyone.

If you absolutely won't do it I will have to figure out a way to do it myself. But it will be extremely time consuming, and if I have to do it I want to get started on it now.

I guess I'm dumb but it took me a long time to realize why sometimes my mix sounded better than other recordings and other times it sounded worse. I guess it's because I assumed the sympathetic was doing what you said it would. My solution this would definitely make it a superior piano.

Best, Phil

Hello again Paul,

I will add that I've done extensive analysis of my piano sound versus numerous recordings at YouTube and it's clear that when both are using no pedal, mine is superior. When both are using the pedal, mine is superior. But when the recordings are using the pedal and mine is not the recordings are superior.

One main difference with virtual pianos is to get the full pedal resonance you have to have the pedal down before the note is struck. With a real piano, if you depress the pedal immediately after striking a note you will still get most of the resonance. I've checked this on my piano. But not with the virtual piano. And it's extremely difficult if not impossible to have the pedal down before the note without catching the previous note — unless you want an audible gap in sound. I've spent many hours working on this and analyzing all of this. Plus the pedal down samples would give a delightful sound to all notes that are played.

If desired, you could give the option of having the pedal down samples for every microphone position individually, in case some people wanted to mitigate the effect. But it should definitely be available for all the microphones.

I am currently just redoing the recordings I made years ago using your earlier Bösendorfer Imperial and the midi clips I made then, with your Steinway. Thanks, Phil

Hi Paul,

I totally agree with the people expressing dismay regarding the sympathetic feature. It only does a little bit up to about six and then it turns to mud. Nothing like the sound of actually having the pedal depressed when a note is played.

I have a very simple solution that should use no CPU and would make me at least extremely happy. The sound with the pedal down is definitely superior. Put in an option to use the pedal down samples instead of the pedal up samples (when the pedal is up). I actually did this with the 10-year-old Imperial by means of sample robot and then the Kontakt 4 sampler. Unfortunately the process degraded the sound.

I hope VSL will take this suggestion very seriously because it would truly make these superior pianos (I have both the Bösendorfer Imperial and the Steinway).

Best, Phil

Yes, I've already done that by boosting the higher frequencies of the bass notes, and of course I could make them louder but they are still weak on the harmonics. That's why said if you could adjust the velocity for only  selected bass notes it would help considerably.

And as I said in my update it seems like for the velocity chart not to take into consideration the midi sensitivity essentially makes it worthless — unless one always stays at zero, which I don't. 

But other than this, these are wonderful pianos. The holy Grail I've been searching for the last 15 years. Best, Phil

I have the 10-year-old Bösendorfer Imperial, and the new Steinway and Bösendorfer Imperial. On all of them I find the bass rather dead. At the moment I'm just redoing midi clips I previously have made of the last works of Bach, Beethoven and Schubert and posted on YouTube. I overcome this problem by selecting notes in the bass in the clips and raise their velocity by 5 to 20 V. (With the old Imperial I could set up two midi tracks with one to the bass and one to the treble; but I don't have enough computer resource for the new pianos. I'm currently using just the condenser, mid 2 and the tube microphones — and perhaps a high-sur.)

A much better way to do this would be with your new velocity editor, to make it so you could apply it to certain selected notes, just as one can with the EQ. For example, everything below C4 I would raise the left side of the velocity curve, and below C3 even more so.

It also makes me wonder if when the solenoids that apply the force to the hammers were developed, it was taken into consideration the fact that the hammers (and dampers) get progressively heavier from treble to bass, and thus more force needs to be applied. This would explain why the bass sounds dead. Even at a velocity of 127 the deepest bass notes don't sound very bright (sensitivity at zero or above). Nothing like they do on my 5'8" Baldwin grand.

I just discovered this update now. Are emails sent out for every update? Seems I didn't see one. Best, Phil

update: doing some more tests with this — recording the lowest three octaves at a velocity of 127 I discovered the Steinway has much more harmonics than the Bösendorfer. So possibly it's just the piano. But it certainly would be helpful to be able to raise the velocity of just the lower half or one third of the piano .

I also discovered that observing the velocity curve, that it didn't register the midi sensitivity. If the velocity was 127, it showed that whether the sensitivity was -100 or +100. Seems that should be rectified for it to be useful at all.