Baldwin Parlor Grand, v1.1 released

[wholesounds]

I just released the first revision to my sampled Baldwin grand, v 1.1.
It's on sale until February 1st for 35% off at both KVR and my own website.

Fixed a few things, and added a few more, including...

• Pedal noise samples now respond to the velocity of the most recently played note so quiet playing results in softer pedal noises - and pounding on the keys results in a more "stomped" sustain pedal responce. Electronic sustain pedals aren't velocity sensitive like acoustic piano pedals, but this gets close to mimicking the way real sustain pedals work!
• All the "extra" layers can be toggled off at once to reserve system resources when editing or composing. Pedal sounds, sustain resonance samples, and key release samples can all be turned off and on with a single click. 
• An alternative, simple interface is introduced, with minimal controls. From here, you can load presets and adjust the volume - and get a chance to see the piano you're playing. The full control set, however, is always just a click away.
• A new bundle of scene presets has been uploaded to the website.
• Some samples have been tidied up, with some soft clicks removed.
• The window for the "scene" presets dialog has been tweaked for easier access.
• The instrument has a smoother dynamic response with a more gradual increase in volume as velocity increases.
• The sustain resonance dial is no longer detented to whole numbers.

As always, the demo version is free and fully functional, and includes all the updates in v 1.1.
I've uploaded some new audio files to the KVR product page, and a bunch more on the website.

Check out the new version, and let me know what you think! I'd love to get some feedback from the forum.


 

[wholesounds]

Blues 1
Blues 2
Arabesque, Claude Debussy

A few quick audio demos - 2 sloppy improvs from me, and an excerpt from a Debussy piece contributed by one of my customers.

[tristan-]

Interesting!

While checking out the demos, why UVI and not Kontakt?
I use it only when I'm forced to.

[wholesounds]

Tristan,

I've never been that much of a fan of Kontakt, even though I know it's kind of the standard! The interface never quite clicked for me.

UVI offered a great platform for creating the instrument, a nice free player with UVI Workstation, Pace protection, and the opportunity to protect the samples in a monolithic file for distribution. So, that's the way I went.

Download that free demo version, and let me know what you think!

http://bit.ly/BPG_v1-1_demo

[Fleer]

Quite interested too.

[Tj Shredder]

Interesting!
While checking out the demos, why UVI and not Kontakt?
I use it only when I'm forced to.

Anybody could get it, if its Kontakt only those with a full license. The Kontakt player is not really free for this kind of stuff...

Good decision...

Not relevant for me though, I have too many pianos around already...

[wholesounds]

No such thing as too many pianos!

[tristan-]

and the opportunity to protect the samples in a monolithic file for distribution.

I absolutely loath those huge files.
and all software is hacked eventually. I hate it when paying users "suffer" from this, while the warez users benefit.

[wholesounds]

True. All software, and music, eventually just spreads around for free. So, why do we try? As yet, an unanswered question!

But as far as the monolithic files go, you'd still have to download a huge zipped file if the samples were distributed as separate files. So, what's the difference between downloading a program files and a few thousand zipped samples or downloading a single monolithic file? There would be multiple gigs to download in either case.

I'm very glad for the .flac compression, though. It really knocks the library size down significantly. Since flac compresses quiet files better than loud files, piano samples really benefit from flac since there's one big spike at the head, and a very long tail that dwindles to silence. Lots of "empty" space there for flac to get rid of!

I think the original .wav files are a bit over 20 gigs. Flac was able to shrink that down to just over 3 gigs, which, to my mind, is pretty doable as a download.

[tristan-]

Thanks, your comments are very valid. but most importantly, the library sounds great and really capture a parlor type of sound!

[Fleer]

Got it in and quite happy indeed, as I wrote over at VI Control.
This one's on sale now bringing it down to $50 or so, and it's actually wonderful.
Good decision to go for the UVI engine, like VI Labs did with their Ravenscroft and TrueKeys.
That means it's only about 3 GB on your drive, representing 22 GB of uncompressed samples.
It also means you get up to three activations, either to your iLok or to your computer and laptop.
Now this Baldwin is a grand of its own. Delicate, articulate, detailed. And a great guy behind it, indeed.

[ghobii]

This sounds really great. Will definitely buy when funds allow. And better yet, this piano lives just an hour north of me I've actually been traveling through Center Valley a bit frequently lately, to visit my niece in Lehigh Valley Hospital.

[wholesounds]

Where are you? Down around Philly? If you're driving by Center Valley on 309, give a shout as you pass Camp Meeting Rd on your right.

Hope your niece is doing OK!

[ghobii]

Even closer - Abington. I'll be sure to roll down the window and give a good yell next time I go by.

[tristan-]

This sounds really great. Will definitely buy when funds allow. And better yet, this piano lives just an hour north of me I've actually been traveling through Center Valley a bit frequently lately, to visit my niece in Lehigh Valley Hospital.

Respect for the first post since registering in 2004!