Beautiful playing! CFX is definitely my favorite of the bunch from the Synchron pianos. Playability is really impressive for a sample library, and they captured the timbre perfectly.
Great playing. I used to play solely on Garritan for some months before deciding to give VSL a try, and I must say I regretted not going for the latter earlier. VSL CFX has that gentleness and evenness to it from bass to treble registers. Dynamics are also so easy to control on VSL. The only complaint I have of it is you can't get an absolute dry sound out of VSL. The condenser mic alone already has some ambience to it.
I do not own/use any of the recent expensive piano libraries so cannot personally compare or give an opinion, from personal use, but from listening to a good number of demos and music pieces on Utube, there is such a huge range of piano sounds, from pianos that are soft to the percussive, and consistently VSL CFX and the Noire evoke more of the percussive. It's a beautiful sound especially for classical music and some jazz, but it can be a bit cold and distant and probably too modern. The VSL CFX is expensive - quite expensive - I think its the most expensive piano library I have come across and I can imagine it takes quite a toll on CPU. I feel that one major challenge of many musicians especially of software instruments, is their listening environment. Headphones or speakers or room or all of the above. Unlike acoustic instruments where you can hear and feel the sound without interference, ALL software instruments are produced by artificial speakers....which alters significantly each musician's interpretation of what was recorded. I also think that the monitoring environment of the sample producers can influence the quality of their work, any inaccuracies in their listening will alter their approach/result as they develop the sample settings after sampling. This is probably why there is somewhat a difference in opinion and also a difference in the results of musicians who use software instruments, cos for many of us - our listening environment does not tell us the whole truth. It is a challenge a huge one cos so many elements determine a neutral transparent and accurate reproduction, and this skill of setting up monitoring/mixing properly is not the core strength of many musicians. When their music is mixed in studios, many of which also have issues in their listening environment, it changes perception, and this changes the result. There should be a concerted effort to find a way to standardise the quality of audio that users of software instruments use, so that the differences in our listening is reduced and we can come more easily to very similar opinions on software instruments.
I cannot agree more about the listening environment. It's more than vital. My advice is: Find the flattest monitors you can and experiment...experiment...experiment. What i mean by "experiment" is by listening to your recorded material on every imaginable playback source (headphones, iphone speakers, earphones, car audio, PA system, laptop speakers etc...). I spent almost the entire past 3 months doing personal shootouts between different piano libraries i have and my personal final verdict is that this VSL CFX sounds amazing everywhere you listen to it. This is important to me because i have a solo piano album to make. What's great about this piano is the thousands of release samples they recorded for it, you'll hear the vividness of each key just like a real acoustic piano. It can sound percussive that's true but you can easily solve this by adjusting the velocity sensitivity and adding a little bit of body to it. Regarding finding a universal solution that cuts the "middle man problem" with digital piano sounds, man i wish some company can come up with something to solve this, that would be magic! I think i mentioned to you in another comment you made that there are software solution that help. While they don't cut the "middle man problem", they certainly help. I'm talking about frequency response correction software like Sonarworks Reference. It's a complicated art, and if you don't know what you're doing you're doomed. There's also the room issue, the monitors placements etc... I personally love the challenge of doing all this. I enjoy it.
I know I wrote a book below 11 months ago, but I have to reiterate, the VSL CFX wins. I thought for SURE Garritan was my #1, but listening to this again and also that live broadcast the other day, I had no choice, I downloaded the 30 day trial and to my surprise my cheap M-Audio sounds GREAT with it, without having to fuss with velocity curves. Now I have to come up with the money before the sale ends, lol! I’ll be replying to your email actually and will probably repeat all this but I wanted it publicly posted that after 15 months, the search really is over. 😀
Don't rush. Move the CFX somewhere else, make room and try the rest of the pianos. You never know! Hurry up because the 30-days special ends today or tomorrow i think. It was only for 3 days!
It's really fascinating, I've tried the Garritan CFX so many times hoping it would just click one day, but it always ends up coming off too.... Generic. Like a higher resolution version of the samples in a cheap Yamaha digital lol. Whether because of the sampling process of the instrument itself, I dont get that same impression with the VSL CFX.
Well dude, I'm listening at work on my cheesy Dell i3 company-provided PC which I naturally fitted with a Steinberg UR12 interface and a pair of IK Multimedia iLoud monitors, and I've been listening to this without all the critical thinking you and I have been doing for the last 3 months, and just listening for the music it sounds pretty amazing. Yes, we could do the critical listening thing but as far as external libraries go, the VSL CFX wins in my book (along with Ravenscroft ONLY with the right controller like that $5800 modified VPC1 they used at NAMM). To me the VSL CFX is not that sterile... STERILE was the VSL Steinway I bought and returned. And btw, the playing isn't too terrible either, lol! Thing is, people are used to the thing they use to listen... I know one guy who's a window installer and he listens to music from his iPhone and is perfectly content. It's like a throwback to the 60's when we all had transistor AM radios. Listen to Jimi Hendrix's Purple Haze... audio-wise that sound and mix is the worst garbage compressed B grade audio that makes a audiophile wince (and his guitar sound is like a radial arm saw cutting aluminum), but when it was broadcast on AM radio in '68, did anyone care? Nope, they got into the song. We were fine with it then, and the window guy is fine with it now for some reason. You can't control what the user listens through (which, consequently, drives me NUTS). I'm listening to this piece at work thorough the system I'm used to listening with, and it sounds quite good. I can hear every one of the 43,981 notes in the fast runs, and the atmosphere in my office is quite nice (don't forget that part, how does a song fill a room for the listeners? This one nails it!). There is no harshness to the library which is HUGE. Your C5-C7 range is always going to sound thin in samples, that's samples. If you pixel-peep too much (and I do) in photography you'll never be happy with the images. I'm not actually telling this to YOU, just yapping in general, you already know this stuff, LOL. 'm a huge fan of the VSL CFX and to me it fits in its responsiveness to your playing style. You just need the right controller. If you test the Nord, bring the MacBook with headphones and see how the library responds, especially vs the Nord internal. Mang, great piece. I hope some version of this ends up on the CD.
Man you never cease to amaze me with your very informative and incredible "let's face it" posts. My favorite part of your posts are the analogies you give which are always on point. Whatever i'm going to reply here, you already know it lol. Regarding the Nord Grand, yes it will be a good idea to take the laptop with me. There's a guy who i value his opinion (even though he doesn't know that i do lol) tried it and said the action is VERY nice. We'll see. One more month to go!
I bought and downloaded VSL CFX and don’t even know how to get in going 😢 I’m ready to off my head 😭 lol how do you get the actual piano and keys to show up on the computer so I can play it like I see yours?
Pretty basic stuff really. You have to use the vst version that was installed. Google "VSL CFX manual" and a rich web version will pop up. It will guide you from A to Z.
Lovely playing and wow that piano sounds outstanding for a vst!! :O I heard with their 100 velocity layers these vsl piano libraries are unbeatable in terms of playabilty (except for Pianoteq with it's physical modelling). I'm thinking of buying the cfx, but I heard their sympathetic resonance function is horrible :( Is there a chance you could make video demonstrating the sympathetic resaonace? Maybe showing both a lower setting to a really high one, so I could hear what the people on forums are talking about?
pcgamingFTW Thanks for the comment. Honestly, I haven’t noticed any lack with the sympathetic resonance. There’s a setting where you can adjust but I leave it at default. I can’t promise regarding a video demonstrating it because I’m going to be very busy from now on hence I’m preparing to release my solo piano album this fall. You won’t regret getting the vsl cfx, it sounds very realistic and it has the most convincing release samples in the Vst world.
Just ask for a demo license on VSL. Contact support and they will give you one. You will need to have an eLicenser (or Vienna) key, though. But those are really cheap on Amazon and eBay.
Which preset (or settings) did you use? I tried VSL CFX standard version, but the sound was not like this, so returned it. But I really like the sound of VSL CFX in this video, so it seems like I did not know how to make it sound like this. Could you tell me how you achieved this piano sound? Thank you.
Copy the settings in the plugin window i'm showing. Turn off the reverb in the mix section (or use your own, up to you). Lower the RS value in the edit page to around -5. The rest is pretty much individual and up to you, for example adjusting velocity curve to fit your controller etc.
Beautiful playing! CFX is definitely my favorite of the bunch from the Synchron pianos. Playability is really impressive for a sample library, and they captured the timbre perfectly.
Thank you
Great playing. I used to play solely on Garritan for some months before deciding to give VSL a try, and I must say I regretted not going for the latter earlier. VSL CFX has that gentleness and evenness to it from bass to treble registers. Dynamics are also so easy to control on VSL. The only complaint I have of it is you can't get an absolute dry sound out of VSL. The condenser mic alone already has some ambience to it.
Thank you! I agree, the VSL CFX is something special.
Thanks for making my day better
My pleasure 😊
Just amazingly beautiful.
Thanks Mike.
I do not own/use any of the recent expensive piano libraries so cannot personally compare or give an opinion, from personal use, but from listening to a good number of demos and music pieces on Utube, there is such a huge range of piano sounds, from pianos that are soft to the percussive, and consistently VSL CFX and the Noire evoke more of the percussive. It's a beautiful sound especially for classical music and some jazz, but it can be a bit cold and distant and probably too modern.
The VSL CFX is expensive - quite expensive - I think its the most expensive piano library I have come across and I can imagine it takes quite a toll on CPU.
I feel that one major challenge of many musicians especially of software instruments, is their listening environment. Headphones or speakers or room or all of the above. Unlike acoustic instruments where you can hear and feel the sound without interference, ALL software instruments are produced by artificial speakers....which alters significantly each musician's interpretation of what was recorded. I also think that the monitoring environment of the sample producers can influence the quality of their work, any inaccuracies in their listening will alter their approach/result as they develop the sample settings after sampling.
This is probably why there is somewhat a difference in opinion and also a difference in the results of musicians who use software instruments, cos for many of us - our listening environment does not tell us the whole truth.
It is a challenge a huge one cos so many elements determine a neutral transparent and accurate reproduction, and this skill of setting up monitoring/mixing properly is not the core strength of many musicians. When their music is mixed in studios, many of which also have issues in their listening environment, it changes perception, and this changes the result.
There should be a concerted effort to find a way to standardise the quality of audio that users of software instruments use, so that the differences in our listening is reduced and we can come more easily to very similar opinions on software instruments.
I cannot agree more about the listening environment. It's more than vital. My advice is: Find the flattest monitors you can and experiment...experiment...experiment. What i mean by "experiment" is by listening to your recorded material on every imaginable playback source (headphones, iphone speakers, earphones, car audio, PA system, laptop speakers etc...). I spent almost the entire past 3 months doing personal shootouts between different piano libraries i have and my personal final verdict is that this VSL CFX sounds amazing everywhere you listen to it. This is important to me because i have a solo piano album to make.
What's great about this piano is the thousands of release samples they recorded for it, you'll hear the vividness of each key just like a real acoustic piano. It can sound percussive that's true but you can easily solve this by adjusting the velocity sensitivity and adding a little bit of body to it.
Regarding finding a universal solution that cuts the "middle man problem" with digital piano sounds, man i wish some company can come up with something to solve this, that would be magic!
I think i mentioned to you in another comment you made that there are software solution that help. While they don't cut the "middle man problem", they certainly help. I'm talking about frequency response correction software like Sonarworks Reference.
It's a complicated art, and if you don't know what you're doing you're doomed. There's also the room issue, the monitors placements etc...
I personally love the challenge of doing all this. I enjoy it.
great playing! How does it compare to the Garritan CFX, please?
I know I wrote a book below 11 months ago, but I have to reiterate, the VSL CFX wins. I thought for SURE Garritan was my #1, but listening to this again and also that live broadcast the other day, I had no choice, I downloaded the 30 day trial and to my surprise my cheap M-Audio sounds GREAT with it, without having to fuss with velocity curves. Now I have to come up with the money before the sale ends, lol! I’ll be replying to your email actually and will probably repeat all this but I wanted it publicly posted that after 15 months, the search really is over. 😀
Don't rush. Move the CFX somewhere else, make room and try the rest of the pianos. You never know!
Hurry up because the 30-days special ends today or tomorrow i think. It was only for 3 days!
Good job bro
It's really fascinating, I've tried the Garritan CFX so many times hoping it would just click one day, but it always ends up coming off too.... Generic. Like a higher resolution version of the samples in a cheap Yamaha digital lol. Whether because of the sampling process of the instrument itself, I dont get that same impression with the VSL CFX.
Well dude, I'm listening at work on my cheesy Dell i3 company-provided PC which I naturally fitted with a Steinberg UR12 interface and a pair of IK Multimedia iLoud monitors, and I've been listening to this without all the critical thinking you and I have been doing for the last 3 months, and just listening for the music it sounds pretty amazing. Yes, we could do the critical listening thing but as far as external libraries go, the VSL CFX wins in my book (along with Ravenscroft ONLY with the right controller like that $5800 modified VPC1 they used at NAMM). To me the VSL CFX is not that sterile... STERILE was the VSL Steinway I bought and returned. And btw, the playing isn't too terrible either, lol!
Thing is, people are used to the thing they use to listen... I know one guy who's a window installer and he listens to music from his iPhone and is perfectly content. It's like a throwback to the 60's when we all had transistor AM radios. Listen to Jimi Hendrix's Purple Haze... audio-wise that sound and mix is the worst garbage compressed B grade audio that makes a audiophile wince (and his guitar sound is like a radial arm saw cutting aluminum), but when it was broadcast on AM radio in '68, did anyone care? Nope, they got into the song. We were fine with it then, and the window guy is fine with it now for some reason. You can't control what the user listens through (which, consequently, drives me NUTS). I'm listening to this piece at work thorough the system I'm used to listening with, and it sounds quite good. I can hear every one of the 43,981 notes in the fast runs, and the atmosphere in my office is quite nice (don't forget that part, how does a song fill a room for the listeners? This one nails it!). There is no harshness to the library which is HUGE. Your C5-C7 range is always going to sound thin in samples, that's samples. If you pixel-peep too much (and I do) in photography you'll never be happy with the images. I'm not actually telling this to YOU, just yapping in general, you already know this stuff, LOL.
'm a huge fan of the VSL CFX and to me it fits in its responsiveness to your playing style. You just need the right controller. If you test the Nord, bring the MacBook with headphones and see how the library responds, especially vs the Nord internal.
Mang, great piece. I hope some version of this ends up on the CD.
Man you never cease to amaze me with your very informative and incredible "let's face it" posts. My favorite part of your posts are the analogies you give which are always on point. Whatever i'm going to reply here, you already know it lol.
Regarding the Nord Grand, yes it will be a good idea to take the laptop with me. There's a guy who i value his opinion (even though he doesn't know that i do lol) tried it and said the action is VERY nice. We'll see. One more month to go!
I bought and downloaded VSL CFX and don’t even know how to get in going 😢 I’m ready to off my head 😭 lol how do you get the actual piano and keys to show up on the computer so I can play it like I see yours?
Pretty basic stuff really. You have to use the vst version that was installed. Google "VSL CFX manual" and a rich web version will pop up. It will guide you from A to Z.
Lovely playing and wow that piano sounds outstanding for a vst!! :O
I heard with their 100 velocity layers these vsl piano libraries are unbeatable in terms of playabilty (except for Pianoteq with it's physical modelling).
I'm thinking of buying the cfx, but I heard their sympathetic resonance function is horrible :(
Is there a chance you could make video demonstrating the sympathetic resaonace?
Maybe showing both a lower setting to a really high one, so I could hear what the people on forums are talking about?
pcgamingFTW Thanks for the comment. Honestly, I haven’t noticed any lack with the sympathetic resonance. There’s a setting where you can adjust but I leave it at default. I can’t promise regarding a video demonstrating it because I’m going to be very busy from now on hence I’m preparing to release my solo piano album this fall. You won’t regret getting the vsl cfx, it sounds very realistic and it has the most convincing release samples in the Vst world.
Just ask for a demo license on VSL. Contact support and they will give you one. You will need to have an eLicenser (or Vienna) key, though. But those are really cheap on Amazon and eBay.
Which preset (or settings) did you use? I tried VSL CFX standard version, but the sound was not like this, so returned it. But I really like the sound of VSL CFX in this video, so it seems like I did not know how to make it sound like this. Could you tell me how you achieved this piano sound? Thank you.
Copy the settings in the plugin window i'm showing. Turn off the reverb in the mix section (or use your own, up to you). Lower the RS value in the edit page to around -5. The rest is pretty much individual and up to you, for example adjusting velocity curve to fit your controller etc.
@@RabihRihana Thank you. Another thing I want to ask is, which microphones did you use? Is the microphone setting from a preset?
@la2z029l The player preset. Either "player room" or "Player decca" will work (standard library).
@@RabihRihana Thank you so much. I will try when I repurchase VSL CFX.
@@RabihRihana During this VSL piano sale, I tried the demo and decided to buy CFX again. You helped me a lot. Thank you so much!
Nice! Can you please share what keyboard you're using, and which mic position setup?
Thanks. Just an old and battered Casio CDP 200R. I'm using the standard library here.
Is that the standard or the pro version?
Standard mics.
Great, great from you. But this Vsl demands more PC resources and money. Is obvious it has to sound better than Garritan CFX
Just get a fast SSD or NVme drive and have at least 16 GB of ram (or more....ram is cheap those days) and you'll be good to go!
What is the controller your are using please???
Hi Sally. Not a controller! Just an old Casio CDP 200-R digital piano!
@@RabihRihana thank you