Modern D is a flawless imitation of the world’s most famous concert grand piano. Sampled from the 2021 New York Steinway Model D , chosen for its exquisite tone and incredible power, this is our most ambitious and largest piano sample library ever.
The library contains 34,615 samples across five stereo microphone setups, all controlled via a simple and intuitive interface. Our new Natural Response method recreates the full dynamic range of each key in each microphone, ensuring that every touch generates the authentic and precise response of a real grand piano. The dynamic range of many notes exceeds 50 dB, and sustain can last up to two minutes. This is the perfect studio-quality simulation of a concert grand piano, right at your fingertips.
As always at VI Labs Audio, 100% of the sound is sampled from real pianos—nothing synthesized or faked. Legendary microphones like the Neumann M49 and DPA 4006 were deliberately chosen to capture everything, including 2,500 release samples per microphone, multi-layered sympathetic resonances, a fully sampled left pedal with its own release samples, muted articulations, half-pedaling, soft articulations, and pedal and key noises. With a huge range of timbres and volumes, this grand piano is capable of anything. Whether the sound is bright, soft, or somewhere in between—it all depends on how you play it. The Modern D has everything you need: from soft, detailed pianissimos to the most aggressive, growling fortissimos.
Features
- 34,615 samples with an original size of 118 GB in WAV format, compressed to 18 GB in lossless FLAC format
- 100% sample-based, no modeling or synthesis
- Efficient use of RAM and CPU resources
- 5 discrete microphone setups with interactive interface
- Mic positions: Close (U87), Hammers (M49), Player (C414), Side (4006) and Room (MK2H)
• Fully sampled left pedal for a soft, ethereal tone - Fully sampled sympathetic and pedal resonance
- Adjustable sympathetic resonance polyphony
- Repedal and True Pedal Action options for realistic sustain pedal control
- Half Pedal option is sample-based and fully customizable
- Sampled muted articulations with percussive attack and short decay
- Adjustable MIDI response and dynamics
- 37 convolution reverbs with deep adjustments
- 2500 release samples per mic, including true staccato
- Complete imaging control with Stereo Width , Tone , and Timbre Shift
- Settings panel contains numerous presets and supports micro-tuning
An early version of this update has been available to all customers since July 1, and now we’re rolling out the final release that includes a few more fixes and improvements, including our Extended Sympathetic Resonance feature which allows more resonance samples to be heard in more playing instances. Model-based virtual pianos will often have this, but we believe the Modern D is the first fully sample-based piano that has this feature.
The complete list of changes and improvements is below. This update is free and we encourage all Modern D customers to update to this latest version, even if you have the early 1.1 version. The download is available right now in your VI Labs account. Just replace your existing ‘Modern D.ufs’ file, and update UVI Workstation to 4.0.1 if needed, and that’s it! We listened to your feedback, and this 1.1 update includes many fixes and improvements, so we at VI Labs hope you enjoy the fresh new and improved Modern D!
- Fixed noise issues that occurred mainly in the Sympathetic Resonance and some other samples as well, that could cause some noise buildup when playing many notes or using extreme EQ or compression levels. Now there should be no issue, even in extreme situations. These corrections also helped reduce the library size by nearly 1GB while maintaining the same high quality sound.
- Sympathetic Resonance now works during sustain pedal down playing, as well as on keys played and held after others are played and released. Previously, this resonance would only be heard on keys held prior to others being played. This is useful in some playing styles, it thickens the overall pedal down resonance for a more immersive sound, and you can ‘catch’ lingering resonances in notes not previously played. The CPU usage does not increase in any significant way, as the overall voice count is still managed by the Sympathetic Polyphony amount.
- Numerous individual sample fixes and cleanups. Some fixes include notes that had a slight click or tick in the attack, excess low rumble noise like in the Side 4006 mic, and many general improvements to over 2,500 individual samples total. The C sharp above middle C now has more sustain, and the pedal down resonance with True Pedal Action now more accurately follows the sustain decay of each note.
- All key releases are now a bit tighter while more accurate and effective, especially in the treble keys, due to the new Release Xfade value of 340 and other improvements. This helps give the piano a more lively feel, closer to the real instrument, while also allowing a slight reduction in CPU usage.
- Bug fixed with Repedal when the Half Pedal is in use. There was an issue in which the half pedal and release samples could be too loud if a note was caught with the Repedal, and then the pedal was slowly released. Now it is smooth and works nicely. This fix plus the Release improvements give an overall better repedal and half pedal experience.
- Bug fixed with the Gain Response curve not loading properly when loading in some DAWs. *Please note that any previous presets with a custom-drawn Gain Response curve will have to be redone, unfortunately this is necessary due to this new fix. Presets or saved settings that only used the Bend and Minimum Gain knobs should still load correctly, only those with a custom curve will need to be redone.
- Other script and UI fixes such as Pedal Volume now working from -24 to +12, Symp Resonance on/off works properly, and the VI Labs logo has been improved. ‘V1.1’ is displayed in the lower bottom corner of the UI and also in the UVI description text, indicating the updated version.
- Improved VPC1 Custom preset in the MIDI presets list, created with the help of classical pianist David Lai. This VPC1 preset works best with the VPC1 set to its default linear curve or its curve for Ivory (solid red and solid orange lights on the VPC1’s power button).
- Changes to the Preset feature, now presets load with a * by the name, and the name of any user-created preset will now show in the Preset box upon being loaded. The name no longer switches to ‘User’ if any control value is modified, but this was necessary to allow more functionality planned for future updates.
- Fixed possible issue with Sympathetic Resonance hanging when using Una Corda with the Solo button engaged. Una Corda when Soloed should work perfectly now.
- All interface controls are now set for automatic host automation, so any DAW can control the interface features now if needed. This is particularly helpful for blind users as every control is accessible when using a screen reader-friendly DAW or hosting application.
- This update will integrate smoothly with your old sessions, there should be no need to reload everything, you can just replace the UFS library file and you’re good to go. The only thing that won’t load is a custom-drawn Gain Curve, as in #6 above, but the rest will load perfect as-is.
- This update requires the newest version of UVI Workstation V4.0.1 or later, or Falcon 26 or later. Modern D works with UVI’s new Library browser, complete with interface image so it can be found easily.