The ambisonics channel delivers a full 3D grand piano sound, allowing users to change the direction of the sound in any 360° spherical range up, down, left or right. The virtual microphone can be aimed at the piano, the room or anywhere in between. The ambisonics channel was recorded using a Soundfield microphone. Ambisonics is the most flexible audio format, allowing you to use just one microphone for 5.1 surround sound and beyond! The ambisonics output can be routed from your DAW for external processing using plugins like Harpex and SurroundZone2.
Film and game composers, as well as sound designers, will appreciate the ability to bring grand piano sounds into virtual reality worlds with full ambisonics or surround sound, with very little effort compared to traditional sample libraries.
Premium Microphone Suite
The choice and placement of microphones significantly impacts the quality of the recording. Sound engineers around the world rely on the sound quality and timbre of standards like the U87 and 4006 microphones. B&K (now DPA) 4006 microphones are used in classic recordings for their realistic, linear sound. The Concert Grand sampling path represents the best of the best, from microphones to preamps and converters. That’s a bold claim, but it rings true in the Concert Grand. The 96 kHz sampling rate provides a clean, clear sound that contributes to high sound quality when using multiple microphones and multiple notes of polyphony.
- B&K 4006 – hammers
- Neumann U87 – inside
- Neumann M149 – outside
- Neumann U47 – outside mono
- Soundfield MK V – lid
- Crown SASS MKII – player position
- RCA 77 – under the piano
- Royer SF24 – room
- AKG 414 – room
Studio Mixer
9 mic positions are impressive in themselves, but it’s the way the Concert Grand handles this solution that makes you feel like you’re in the engineer’s chair when you’re not at the bench. The mixer is a full SSL emulation with simulated SSL EQ and compression on every channel. Get the same control as if the piano was being recorded on different tracks in a recording studio. The Concert Grand mixing console gives you studio album quality.
- Pan on each channel
- Solo left or right channels
- Invert stereo image on any channel
- Dedicated pre-fader reverb send per channel
- DAW multi-output send – send any channel to your DAW mixer
- Fully automated parameters
- Channel on/off clears samples to save memory
- Mono can be summed or left or right
- Solo and mute controls
The iconic New York Concert Grand piano
is sampled from a 9′ New York Steinway Model D, made after 2010. The difference between the new and old Model D can be heard in the playing, hammers and overall timbre. Without a doubt, this is a majestic piano with all the characteristic sounds you would expect from this model. The timbre is not too harsh or shrill, like some Japanese models, but it still sounds good. The piano has a natural mechanical noise by nature, which gives it an authentic sound. We have not hidden the flaws. You get a concert grand piano with all the controls a recording engineer needs to create finished recordings straight from the software!
Custom Presets
The Concert Grand has some amazing presets to help you start playing and enjoying the library from the very beginning! These presets have been designed to sound great in a variety of styles and allow you to choose from 9 microphones.
The Ambisonic section also contains presets covering a variety of virtual microphone positions. There are traditional stereo mic positions like XY and Blumlein, as well as creative mic placements that add depth to the room. There’s a lot to explore in ambisonics inside Kontakt, but there’s much more to explore when using ambisonics in a DAW like Pro Tools or Logic.
The Reverb section contains 29 impulse responses, all preset with the right amount of pre-delay for each. To enhance the piano playing experience, there are plate, studio and hall reverbs. Each mic position also has its own reverb send, so the sound can be shaped based on the microphones you’re using. Many of the instrument’s presets feature built-in reverb.
- 9 mic positions
- Ambisonic 3D sound control
- 200 GB of samples before lossless compression
- 96 kHz 24-bit raw samples converted to 44.1 kHz 16-bit with Goodhertz
- Circular pedal noise repeats with normal and loud settings
- Real-time samples of mechanical keystroke noise
- Sympathetic resonance with on/off and volume control
- Recorded in a top-notch Toronto studio using a classic Neve console
- High-quality Burl Mothership A/D converters
- Premium API mic preamps
- 20+ layers of pedal-on velocity
- 20+ layers of pedal-off velocity
- 16 layers of velocity release
- Advanced half-pedal control with locking
The Concert Grand LE Samples\Concert Grand LE Mic Samples folder (over 41,000 files) was placed in an ISO file. This file should be extracted to the Concert Grand LE Samples folder in the root library folder.
