Post
by dahnielson » Sat Feb 02, 2008 6:10 pm
dahnielson wrote:Per "Worra" Larsson (of
Sampletekk whose Yamaha C7 have 93 velocity layers) said that he once tried a mechanical system but it made too much noise for the samples to be useful, instead, he use custom software that let him sample pianos in 2 dB steps.
Ok, maybe not 93 velocity layers. It should read 93 samples per note, forgot about pedal up/down and release samples. Anyhow, this is what the manual to my
Black Grand - Steinway D (with 36 samples/note in GS2 and 48 samples/note in GS3) says:
The Black Grand's featured piano, a Steinway D Hamburg, was recorded using SLH, SampleTekk's proprietary digital recording system which allows ultra-deep sampling of acoustic instruments with an accuracy that’s impossible to achieve with traditional recording practices. We auditioned many mics and preamps during our R & D phase of development. We ultimately selected preamps from Millenia and microphones from Neumann, MG, Milab, and Röde for our sampling sessions. Each lends its own signature sound to the Black Grand, and we think you will be very pleased with the different approaches to this first-class instrument.
When playing any acoustic instrument, there's an inherent relationship between loudness and timbre. Using the piano as an example, you get a louder tone when you strike a key harder, but you also get a brighter timbre. The tone is continually variable between the softest and loudest strikes—a single note is an infinity of expression. When sampling a piano, of course one cannot sample an infinite number of velocities. The instrument designer must limit himself to a practical number of samples, which must succeed in emulating this infinite range of possibility. Even five years ago (the stone ages in sampler-world) most premium pianos had two to four discrete samples per note. Today, pianos average six to eight different velocities per note. This has increased quality of sound and playing proportionately. It is difficult to record large numbers of velocities per note—It is difficult for even the most trained player to consistently strike note after note with exactly the same strength. This is why we have developed SLH.
We developed SLH to ensure even timbral coverage through the entire instrument, while generating high numbers of usable, discrete samples. Using SLH, we have designed the Black Grand with sixteen discrete velocity layers. Both pedal up and pedal down samples were taken, along with four release samples, for a combined total of thirty-six discrete samples representing each note of the instrument! We are confident that you will find the Black Grand to be a uniquely expressive and beautiful sounding instrument, representing the highest standards of design and care in delivering a state-of-the-art sampled piano.
Anders Dahnielson
Ardour2, Qtractor, Linuxsampler, M-AUDIO Delta 1010, Axiom 61, Korg D12, AKAI S2000, E-MU Proteus 2k, Roland R-5, Roland HP 1300e, Zoom RFX-1000, 4GB RAM x86_64 Intel Pentium Dual 1.80GHz Gentoo Linux