His Majesty, Sir Bosendorfer Imperial!

Published on November 14 2012

Today, I saved $179,345!!!

... :-)

Actually, I just bought the Vienna Imperial from Vienna Symphonic Library. I'm already a big user of the library and programs which come with it, and own quite a lot of instruments (Please don't force me to count how much I've spent on these! ;-)), and this one was missing in my collection. In fact, I do own several piano libraries, I like them, more or less, but this one is very impressive!

Up to 100 velocities per key, 1,200 recorded samples per key
Audience, player, and close microphone recording positions
Powerful proprietary piano engine
Multiple release samples for different note lengths (supports authentic staccato/staccatissimo performances)
Repetition samples for pedal-sustained notes
Sympathetic resonances for sustain pedal up and down positions
Adjustable pedal noises
Easy to use interface with unique velocity histogram
Convolution reverb featuring three halls of the famous Vienna Konzerthaus
Equalizer
Dynamic range control
Lossless sample compression for using less hard disk space
RAM Optimizer to unload unused samples out of RAM
24-bit/44.1kHz, stereo

1200 samples per key (!!!) ... those guys are crazy ... :-)

It's been released some years ago now (2009 I think), but I was listening to the demos since then, and was always blowned away. I was saying to myself, one day this bad guy will be mine!

Each year there's a workshop given by Paul Steinbauer (VSL Product Manager) in Montreal, in a very nice studio called "Ton of Bricks". I think last year (in 2011), I could finally touch it very quickly. It was so good that I was about to buy it right away ... but, dunno ... I finally got "wise" and decided to postpone the purchase.

Last Friday, Paul came back again ... and this time he showed us the version 1.1 feature, which allows to EQ every single note, individually!

Just figure you have your piano track mixed within a tune ... but you notice kinda frequency that annoys you and that comes from the piano ... Usually you EQ your piano track and manage to remove it ... yes but you kinda destroy some harmonics as well, which is not so good too.

Now, you can EQ the specific annoying note in order to remove the frequency you want, as well as changing the note volume too! :

Pretty amazing feature, and might be very handy!...

Back at home ... I felt like it was the time for me to get this beauty! :-)

So today I received the download links (46Gb!!), and after a couple of hours, I finally could put my hands down the beast!

I must say that I have a Roland RD-700GX, which I love because of the "ivory touch" keys.

I used to ~~play on~~ try a real Bosendofer Imperial once in my life, and believe me, the combination of the Roland's ivory touch + the Vienna imperial, is like the real thing! I mean, very close to! While playing I really felt it was "alive"! ...

So, yeah, I've spent $655, but a real Imperial cost about $180,000, that's why I say that I saved $179,345 today! :-P

Here's my first recording (just played real quick, no edit, no mastering, just bounced the track):