AcousticsampleS has announced the release of Kawai-EX, a Kontakt format sample Library of a 9-foot Kawai EX concert grand piano that used to be in the Kennedy center in Washington DC. This Library is the result of a collaboration with Lance Herring.

Features / details:

• 17.49 GB sample bank. No loops. Recorded at 24-Bit / 48 Khz.
• 5 "pedal up" layers; 5 "pedal down" layers; 15 release samples per note.
• Multiple mic position and mixing from the interface.
• Multiple releases depending on time. They have been carefully picked up for each note to really reproduce the real mechanical behaviour of a note.
• Sympathetic resonance (pedal down samples).
• Thumps samples and Automatic Pedal noises samples.
• Custom Kontakt interface that lets you modify the response of the piano as well as its tone and the volume of the releases and the pedal.
• Ability to save polyphony by enabling / disabling each position.
• Compatible with Kontakt 3 (optimized for Kontakt 3.5).

There is also the Lite version that has less features:

• 4 "pedal up" layers; 4 "pedal down" layers; 4 release samples per note.
• Only one microphone position - the player one.

Pricing & Availability

Kontakt 3+ is required. The Pro version costs €89; the Lite version costs €59. Upgrade from Lite to Pro costs €59.