I must have been blind, thanks a lot!

Recently I reinstalled Windows 7 and I forgot to backup my Vienna Imperial custom preferences (eq and other stuff). However I have a backup of the whole hdd. What is the location of the settings on the disk? I went through virtual store and app data, but couldn't find these...

I don't have much experience with various controllers, but the two I used are Korg SP-250 and Yamaha P-120. The former has 4 pedal positions (sth like 0, 30, 70, 127), the latter has many (0,8,16,24,...,127).

Of course you can use the way of thinking practiced in Apple - "We say you don't need it, so you think you don't need it" - but it ain't gonna convince me. There are other genres of music than classical ( ), where between two different chords it's nice to make a fade out of the first one before hitting the next one, but you don't want to cut the first one immediately, because you have built up many notes...

And if you're only playing what's written in the notes, then you can be exchanged for a midi sequencer and I am pretty sure it's going to play more exactly what's written there.

Thanks! One more question: what do I lose by not using the VIPro-Player, but the freeware one?

Sounds strange. It requires to

1. buy additional software to be playable
2. pre-set sets of stops

I know you're concerned by very different instruments and trying to find a universal way to control them, but in case of organ the Hauptwerk's idea seems to be much more natural. I reckon it's not possible to use VSL Organ in Hauptwerk engine...

Oh, and one more thing. As I have a organ midi-controller (2 keyboards and set of pedals), it sends midi notes in 3 different channels. Can they be assigned to various stops?

I think of buying the Konzerthaus Organ, but the only way it might be
useful for me would be to play live. Is it playable? I have Korg
NanoKontrol (very interesting and cheap piece of hardware) that can send
Control Change MIDI messages. Can KO be configured in such a way I could press a button (send say CC 01 127 and activate one of the stops?

I think of buying the Konzerthaus Organ, but the only way it might be useful for me would be to play live. Is it playable? I have Korg NanoKontrol (very interesting and cheap piece of hardware) that can send Control Change Midi messages. Can KO be configured in such a way I could press a button (send say CC 01 127 and activate one of the stops?

Strange. I use Windows 7 64-bit and I also have D-Link active hub DUB-H7 -  7 ports. All of them are in constant use (mouse, keyboard, 2 sound cards, pendrive, syncrosoft licenser and midi cable) and never had any problems with that.

Wie Schade :(

Is there a possibility to create the .dat files for Vienna Imperial's sound without soft pedal samples? I never use them and they just waste space. That would be a great help for me before I buy a bigge SSD disk, because now the only setting that fits my flash disk is the close strings one.

Could anyone place a sample of music played on the "Dry Rock Piano" preset?
Thanks in advance!

Some companies (zum Beispiel Steinberg) offer high discounts for the accademic society (students, lecturers and so on). Is there a possibility of getting such a discount from VSL? As a student I believe there should be :D

The fact that the real piano is often out of tune does not justify that a virtual instrument is... One of the advantages of a digital piano is that it always stays tuned - here it seems to be slightely detuned from the very beginning, and to make matter worse, retuning is virtually impossible.

I had some problems with my WD eSata disk (2 physical disks workings in RAID 0). The problem is that WD goes to some kind of sleep after just a few seconds (damn going green - power saving). That's why I developed a tiny program, that saves a small txt every few seconds. Sounds similar to what you have used, but try running this and check wherher it is of any help. Helps with Ivory Grands.
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/688004/wd.exe
As far as I remember it requires you to set the drive letter to W. And hopefully you use Windows.

In both (Pianoteq and Ivory) I used the most standard option (the one that the plugin starts with) with only a change of turning of any reverb.
Probably the close position is the best one for such a test. When it comes to resonance sliders, it's always tricky. For example in Ivory you have a knob to turn, but it makes a very artificial effect. How about posting a recording with the standard settings and some increased resonance?

It all may seem stupid, but everything sounds great on prepared recordings, but when you start playing it, you find the hidden disadvantages and drawbacks. From my experience: Akoustik Piano sounds bad on samples and while playing, Pianoteq sounds better, but still far to ideal on samples, however occurs really responsive, Ivory sounds almost great on recordings but does not give the possibility to play with (just plays the samples), and now Vienna Imperial: sounds great on recordings, but how it feels under your own fingers? You may say that it's great, hoever I have heard opinions saying that there's nothing better than Akoustik Piano... Actually I believe VI's samples are ideal, but what I'm afraid of is the DSP.

I made a short test of resonances and half-pedalling.


The test consists of 3 parts:

PART1: sympathetic resonance

An almost silent note A2 followed by staccato notes A3, E3 and A1 at 2.3s, 6.1s and 9.2s respectively, that should make the A2 string to resonate.

PART2: overall resonance + half-pedalling

A few notes struck at full pedal should make a reverb-like sound, although any instance of reverb is turned off.
Between 36.8s and 40.1s the note should fade out, or at least increase fading out more rapidly than earlier because of the half-pedal. There should not be a sudden cut at 40.1s, because the note should be already silent (of course not due to too short samples).

PART3: just another test of resonances with full pedal.



I attach two versions (made by Pianoteq 3 and Ivory Boesendorfer), as well as the midi file. My opinion is that Pianoteq is a master of resonances, however its single notes sound much worse than Ivory's.
Now I'm really curious how does it work with Vienna Imperial: is it as ingenious as they say it is? Guy, could you please record this midi with Vienna Imperial? Thanks in advance!

attached files

Because when many notes are sounding and you want to make them quiter a little bit to continue, but without sudden cut-off, you release half of the pedal.
If it wasn't that useful, Korg wouldn't place this feature in the simplest piano SP-250. Surprisingly, there are more than 0 and 127 levels (namely 0, 38, 74 and 127) in this budget piano. You may consider it useless unless you try it and get used to it.

You're right, I also thing that it takes some time to find nuances and get used to them so much that you cannot return to the old version.

But it's a pity if half-pedaling is not present, because it's quite convenient for example for ending a song - increasing the fading down, but not cutting at once.

1. Thanks a lot for such a prompt reply!


2. I made a small switching comparison, but it is unfair, as two pianos are using different perspecives: comparison

In my opinion both are really good, I can't hear a crushing superiority... However the old one is more plastic-like.


3. So, how about the half pedaling? :>

Does this piano support half-pedaling? This is a future lacking in Synthogy Ivory.
How about the same in Bosendorfer Imperial?

Another thing: if you could publish (I'm sure you have some for your own comparison) one piece performed by both, Bosendorfer Imperial and Vienna Imperial... Chopin Polonaise Op 53 would be probably the best piece to do so!
Thanks in advance!

"the capacity on 32 bit OS systems which is limited to 2 Gig Ram usage"

my 32bit WinXP manages to use 3GB of RAM...