The concert grand piano is a unique and remarkable instrument. Its length of nine feet and weight of close to half a ton makes it physically the largest musical instrument commonly recorded. The concert grand piano’s expressiveness and dynamic range are unparalleled, from the gentlest pianissimo to thundering fortes—the greatest expressive range of any instrument. The instrument has an extremely broad pitch range, over seven octaves; and a stunning complexity in the richness of its harmonics, its overtones, and its acoustical interactions.
A magnificent instrument!
During the last two decades, many composers and arrangers turned to piano sample libraries to realize their musical goals; and a realistic Steinway piano library became an elusive Holy Grail of the sampling world. To that end, there have been dozens of Steinway piano libraries, but none has met Steinway’s standards of excellence—nor had their originators had the privilege, as we had, of working together with Steinway & Sons to create them.
The Authorized Steinway Virtual Model D Concert Grand is the culmination of literally years of creative work. Planning for the library began in 2003, when our team made the decision to develop the ultimate piano library.
“This was a very important project for Steinway & Sons,” states Gary Green, Steinway Vice President of Business Development and Customer Satisfaction. “We have long recognized the need for a Steinway sampled sound set that would best reflect the complex architectures of the Steinway sound. We also understand the importance of quality samples and their use by amateur music enthusiasts, as well as prominent producers, composers, recording studios and other venues. We were extremely lucky to have Gary Garritan work with us on this technically and musically complex project. Although both Steinway & Sons and Gary Garritan recognize that nothing can replace the actual Steinway piano, we are extremely delighted that there is now a sampling product that comes closest to capturing the distinctive Steinway sound that we are proud to endorse.”
The concert grand piano is a challenging instrument to capture sonically. Its complex harmonics and interacting resonances were too grand for the constraints of samplers. In the past, compromises had to be made because of technological limitations—due to processor speed, hard disk or RAM limitations, limited polyphony, inability to do complex DSP (digital signal processing) and various other reasons.
We began by imagining what the ideal virtual concert grand piano would be like if there were no technological limitations, and proceeded to develop with that as our goal. Technologies were emerging so fast, we believed that the ability to do what we wanted would present itself. And it did. Computers became more powerful and software more efficient.
We analyzed existing libraries to discover what was available—and what was lacking. We consulted with Steinway artists, technicians and specialists to glean as much information as possible before the recording sessions. The more we sought the advice of these experts, the more prepared we felt. Two things are crucial for a sampling session—quality and consistency. Quality includes the type of piano, recording technique, tuning and environment; and absolutely must be maintained for the entire duration of each sample. The slightest little noise or imperfection, and the sample is ruined. This was particularly demanding in the natural acoustics of the concert hall.
The best quality samples start with the highest quality instrument. In our pursuit of the best piano samples, we knew that we would need a very fine Steinway concert grand piano. Gary Green, Steinway Vice President, arranged for us to obtain one of Steinway’s finest Model D concert grand models from its piano bank at Steinway Hall.
The next imperative was to locate the finest possible environment in which to record the piano. Steinway recommended the Troy Music Hall. Troy Music Hall is regarded as one of the most acoustically perfect concert halls in the world. To record there meant that the samples would have their genesis in ideal surroundings.
With a perfect piano and the ideal concert hall we were off to a great start. Steinway then arranged for the piano to be shipped from New York City to Troy, New York. Since the concert hall is on the third story of the Troy Savings Bank Building, Steinway & Sons arranged to have a crane lift the piano into the hall.
Having the right technician, a superb performing artist, a masterful engineer, and all the highest quality tools for the recording sessions was likewise vital. Our engineer was Brian Peters, a gifted engineer and classically trained musician who was intimately familiar with recording at Troy Music Hall. Mr. Peters has over twenty-five years of recording experience. He was chief audio engineer for the venerable audiophile label, Dorian Recordings, with hundreds of classical music recordings at the Troy Music Hall to his credit. While at Dorian, he mastered practically all of the final masters for every release of Dorian’s catalog of over 500 CD’s. His special knowledge of the intricacies of recording in the Troy Music Hall was invaluable. His assistant engineer was Dan Czernecki from the Classical Recording Service based in Waterford, New York.
Eric Schandall, one of Steinway’s consummate technical masters, was there every single day for the recording sessions. Mr. Schandall is one of Steinway’s top technicians, responsible for training other Steinway technicians. He meticulously listened to each note for consistency, tuning and fidelity. His incredible acuity could hear the slightest imperfection; and if a note sounded even minutely wrong to him, he would stop the recording—then tweak the offending note with his arsenal of specialized tools. He was constantly touching up, adroitly applying special techniques and tricks to assure the perfect sound. Mr. Schandall brought out the best in the piano; brilliant at his work, the instrument could not have been in more capable hands.
William J. Jones, Jr. was the Steinway artist selected by Steinway & Sons to perform the recording session. Mr. Jones, a student of Russian pianist Alexander Borovsky, provided just the right touch. He knew how to make the recording of each note a performance. Mr. Jones’ patience and stamina were amazing; imagine being a virtuoso player and having to play scales for most of the day! Mr. Jones needed to play each note as consistently as possible for each run. You can barely fathom the tedium. Nevertheless, this may have been one of the most technically demanding and exacting performances of his career.
When you’re sampling an exceptionally fine instrument, you must capture each note’s full spectrum and tonal characteristics or you’ll seriously compromise the samples. That meant using superior equipment and paying flawless attention to recording technique. The subtle details, overtones, unique nuances and resonances would all be diminished if we settled for anything less.
We wanted to capture many different perspectives of the piano—what the piano would sound like if you were playing the piano; or if you were out in the audience, or close to the soundboard; as well as other flavors and colors. Fifteen microphones were used in the recording of the piano. Recording from many placements and positions would give us a wealth of alternatives from which to choose. Various microphone techniques were chosen for their uniqueness and capability to be merged or mixed with other techniques. Thus, a multitude of variations were created from the recordings—providing the end user wide and varied choices for the sound they want.
We utilized high-quality professional microphones of types preferred by audio professionals for capturing the full frequency spectrum of the Steinway piano. Two Schoeps MK4 cardioid microphones were placed inside the piano to balance the high and low string sections of the instrument. Two Microtech Gefell microphones were configured in an ORTF array for a close but balanced sound from the piano for a more intimate, less reverberant sound. In addition, two Schoeps MK5 omni microphones were provided for a perspective from the side curve of the piano. Two spaced Neumann TLM170’s in wide cardioid mode provided the preferred classical approach of Mr. Peters. Two B&K 4006’s and a Jeklin disc provided the player’s perspective; and two widely spaced Schoeps MK21 microphones with ball diffusers provided the room perspective from the farthest location from the piano.
Finding the ideal microphone placement—the “sweet spots”—required experimentation and careful listening. The recording system was almost entirely made up of Metric Halo products. A MIO 2882 and two ULN2 firewire audio interfaces plus a soon to be released developmental product were utilized to record the project. Twelve of the microphone pre-amps were from the two ULN2’s and the Metric Halo (beta) device. We also used four channels of Prism mic pre-amps. This gave us 16 channels of world-class mic pre-amps into the A/D converters of the 2882 and the Beta firewire interfaces, which were all synchronized via WC (WordClock). We recorded every channel at 24-bit, 96 kHz resolution. (A piano has such richly harmonic content, 16-bit, 44.1 kHz equipment cannot adequately record it. The higher sample rate captures the top full range of the sound more accurately with less chance of distortion or aliasing.)
With this set-up, we could choose between the various mic techniques in the control room without affecting the data capture. The recording system used was part of the Metric Halo control software that captures the incoming audio via firewire hard drives with no extra overhead of the other DAW software. An Apple PowerBook controlled all of the audio interfaces except for the Prism, and fed the data to the large firewire hard drive arrays. There was also a tape back-up just in case.
With the right Steinway technician, artist, engineers and equipment, we were ready to record. Over the course of the next week, we set up and recorded more than twelve hours a day, and made additional six-hour overnight recordings most nights. We started with pedal-up samples, playing each of the 88 notes from the range of an almost inaudible pianissimo to a roaring fortissimo. We repeated the process for pedal-down notes, then soft pedal, sostenuto, release triggers and staccato notes—all at various dynamic levels. At times, Mr. Jones started at the lowest note of the piano and worked his way up the scale chromatically. Occasionally, he worked from the top note down. We also recorded sympathetic resonances, key clicks and mechanism noises, and piano soundboard impulse resonances.
Throughout this process, the engineers paid constant close attention to monitoring in order to obtain the best recording levels and signals. Mr. Schandall was also there to scrutinize every note that Mr. Jones played, to be sure each and every note was perfect.
As we proceeded with the recording, we had to decide how best to use the limited and costly time available. We wanted alternate takes for safety, and to effectively use all the available time we had at the Troy Music Hall. So, we devised a way to record during the middle of the night: we set up a Playola device, provided by QRS Inc. This device fits over the keys of the piano and allows one to “play” the piano remotely. Jeff Hurchalla programmed MIDI sequences to exercise a series of scales, so alternate material could be recorded while we slept. The Metric Halo control software was able to synchronize with the MIDI sequences and start and stop the recording files automatically.
After more than a week of intense and demanding recording, we had gathered an astonishing 1.2 terabytes of audio data, comprising tens of thousands of samples. We never realized how long, or how much data, it would take to sonically capture a Steinway concert grand piano—with all of its pedal combinations and dynamic abilities!
Producing a “playable” sampled piano instrument from a myriad of source recordings proved to be a daunting challenge, involving a mountain of editing and programming work. A laborious and tedious task, it requires a great deal of care and unfaltering attention to detail. Each of the fifty thousand individual note samples had to be sliced up, trimmed, and named. Selecting the best takes for each note took still more time, as we made decisions on a note-by-note basis.
…we are extremely delighted that there is now a sampling product that comes closest to capturing the distinctive Steinway sound that we are proud to endorse.
Gary Green, Vice President, Steinway & Sons
For editing and programming, we developed our own in-house software. It took over a year just to edit the samples—a Herculean task, to say the least. But even with meticulously edited and comprehensive samples of the finest piano in the world in hand, the job was far from over. We knew we had to make the samples musically playable and expressive. Mere notes alone cannot convey the act and art of musical performance. When emulating the sound of a real piano, the more control options you have, the more successful you will be at creating a realistic performance. Shortcomings in the past had made sampled instruments the antithesis of expressive performance—but we felt it was time to change that perception, forever.
Real pianists perform on the instrument in a variety of ways. They alter dynamics instantly or gradually over time; they do a variety of subtle pedaling; and they impart a wealth of refined playing techniques. What we needed was a way to allow a keyboard player to emulate those and other performance actions with relative ease. That would require an innovative solution.
Tom Hopkins, a fine musician, composer, and programmer extraordinaire, did the instrument programming. Hopkins’ musicianship and programming magically transformed the library into a coherent and musical whole.
We looked at all the samplers on the market and none had the features we would need to develop the instrument we had in mind. We needed a very stable underlying engine, with the ability to do sympathetic resonance DSP, proportional pedaling, and high-order convolution. But nothing out there fit our needs.
We decided to develop our own specialized sampler for this extraordinary project. For this, we enlisted David Viens from Plogue Technologies to create the uniquely powerful authorized Steinway sample piano engine. Magnus Jonsson produced the sympathetic resonance DSP algorithms; and Jeff Hurchalla developed the convolution engine. Every step of the way, we were charting new territory with technologies never before attempted.
To us, the user experience was equally important. Software samplers were often laden with knobs, dials and sliders and seemed like one needed a degree in rocket science to operate them. It was an endless source of frustration for many users.
We wanted a user interface that was intuitive, inviting, very easy to use, and which provided the user with a pleasing experience. We also wanted to reflect the distinguished, classic “look and feel” of the beautifully designed Steinway. To help us achieve this goal, we enlisted the services of Wallwork Curry McKenna, the marketing firm that handles all of Steinway & Sons artwork and creative design. After many discussions with Steinway & Sons and Wallwork, we came to a consensus on a GUI design that would be ideal for the Authorized Steinway virtual piano software. We also sought the help of James Mireau, who has been the Garritan design consultant for the past several years. James did the 3D rotoscopy design that displays a visual perspective of the various piano listening positions.
Gradually all of the elements came together. The sound was superb, the sample engine was rock solid and reliable, the look was elegant, and the playability was unparalleled. We previewed a pre-release version of the Authorized Steinway and the praise was unanimous.
A unique and unparalleled virtual sampled concert grand piano had emerged, one that was worthy of the Steinway & Sons name.