New in Nord Piano Library: Roal Grand 3D

Like many times before, Clavia has again given us a nice little Christmas present: a new grand piano sample set called Royal Grand 3D. So far Clavia hasn't revealed the exact piano model which was sampled, but I suspect it is a Yamaha. At least it sounds more modern compared to those more vintage ones. "3D" comes from the fact that it's binaurally recorded simulating players position. As they put it: "The dummy head is shaped like an average sized human head, equipped with ear shaped microphones, in order to reproduce the human hearing experience. The Royal Grand 3D was recorded in an acoustically dampened room where the dummy head was placed in the player's position to capture a natural and authentic experience of actually sitting in front of the piano."

Royal Grand feels just great - it's maybe Clavia Piano Library's best in terms of playability. At least on Nord Piano 3's action you'll get just right response, right tone from pp to ff. With earlier Bright Grand (Yamaha) for example, I felt that those brighter tones (forte) came out sometimes too easily. Royal Grand feels so easy and natural to control. It's more close to my idea of playing a real grand piano.

On the other hand, it can perhaps be too "round" sounding to cut thru in difficult acoustics or noisy gig situation. Quite often if you start to mess with EQ you'll loose something (natural sound and/or playability). Time will tell. To my ears Royal Grand is little closer to Roland's typical piano sounds. They are very even but they can be little "muddy" on stage situation. Clavia's Bright Grand is so clear and powerful and I never need to EQ it or anything. Those mellower pianos sound great at home or on recording but on stage they can be problematic.

More on Royal Grand 3D from Clavia's site:
(link)

Nord Piano 3 review

I remember being very excited when I heard about new Nord Piano 3 (NP3) which was announced at NAMM 2016. I had owned the very first version of Nord Piano, but last couple of years my only Nord has been Stage 2 (76 keys) which is a work horse I still use on most of my gigs. In almost all my latest recordings I have used some of Clavia's piano sound - they have a great piano library which covers the most famous grand pianos from Steinway to Bosendorfer, many different soulfull uprights and great electric pianos. (link here)

Nord Piano 3

So basically with NP3 there was nothing new with sound. My personal reasons to buy it was to get 88 keys, doubled memory capacity (1 GB for pianos and 256 MB for samples) and the best piano action Clavia has been able to give us so far. Other very nice improvement was the new very bright OLED-display. 

I believe for many of us the most interesting question is how good this new piano action actually is? To my fingers it's very good and clearly an improvement over earlier models, but not quite as realistic as my Kawai CS-7's action which is little more close to a real grand piano. On the other hand CS7 weights 80 kg and it's clearly not for gigging. If you want to make more fair comparison with NP3 and Kawai, you should probably take Kawai MP11 (stage piano) for this comparison. More components of real grand piano action makes it bigger and heavier: MP11 weights 32.5 kg and NP3 just 18.2 kg.

NP3 in its place in my cellar

NP3 has triple sensor action which makes it possible to trigger hammers more precisely and more faster. For example, you don't need to release a key all the way up before pressing it down again and still you'll get a sound. This is a welcomed feature if you play lot of fast repetitions. In general I feel that with new NP3 I have more control over different dynamics from pp to ff. Difference is not huge but still I feel that my Kawai CS-7 is more sensitive and perhaps little more heavier. I believe that the some difference in playing feeling come from two things: Kawai has escapement feature ("point of sound" in middle of key press) and more steinwaylike texture on their keys. For some reason Nord decided to not use "Ivory Keybed" which was announced at NAMM 2016. To most demanding piano enthusiasts NP3's keys can feel little plastic. But anyway these things aren't deal breaker to me and my fingers; with my new NP3 I can have best possible digital piano on my gigs and best piano sound on my recordings. One last very good thing to mention is that NP3 action is very quiet. Older Nords were very noisy and therefore annoying to use at home with lower volumes. Time will tell how quiet NP3 remains when it has hundreds of kilometres of road behind.

If I need to say some critical about Nord Piano 3 it's about something that's been there since Nord Piano 1 and 2. First, there's no external MIDI panel which makes Nord Stage 2 very powerful with external MIDI devices. Of course, Nord Piano has MIDI in/out (both traditional and USB) so it's basically possible to play some other gear with it but to be honest it really should have some buttons (at least external MIDI on/off button) and few knobs for controlling external gear. In general I like Nord Piano's simplicity - it's A PIANO and certainly not a workstation! - but because of this simplicity it should have better options to connect it to other gear. My second criticism goes to its sample playback synth which is of course simple and many ways very usable. But in my opinion there's one thing that should be there: a filter (cutoff and resonance and preferably those most basic filter choices). I am a synth enthusiast and to my mind synth without a filter is quite handicapped one. Of course I am not imagining to play killer leads with Nord Piano but any synth pad is quite lifeless without a filter.

More about Nord Piano from Clavia's web site (link).

Archipelago Part 1 - Overture

Please check Overture (part 1), intro of my Archipelago Suite.

This is a set of tunes made for a film series about Finnish & Swedish Archipelago.

Kawai CS-7 and search for a best possible digital piano

I'm lucky to have spent time with Kawai CS-7 for six months now, so it's time to write few lines about it. First few reasons why did I buy it. I already had Nord Stage 2 in my cellar, but I began to feel that I needed a more grand-piano-like digital piano for practicing and recording. The idea was also to buy a piano for a stable setup and therefore it was a bonus if piano also looked like a piano. I also wanted to have an instrument which is as easy as possible to use; just switch it on and you're ready to play it. No need for mess with computers, sound cards, mixers and speakers etc.

Roland V-Piano

Before Kawai CS-7 I went through few options. Basically it was a battle of three brands: Kawai, Yamaha and Roland. I must say Roland's alternatives were not very compelling to my taste. I have actually had three Roland RD-models (RD-600, RD-700SX, RD-700GX) so I believe I'm familiar with Roland's pros and cons. To me their "Supernatural" technology isn't perfect (yet). There are obviously some great qualities - no hearable looping or velocity layers - but sound itself can be little artificial and "muddy". In my opinion Roland's keybed isn't same quality compared to Yamaha and Kawai. This ain't surprise; those latter two have long history of manufacturing real acoustic pianos. There is still one Roland model which might have been a real alternative: Roland V-piano. This undoubtedly revolutionary product which was introduced on 2009 was still unfortunately too expensive even when sold second hand. V-piano is a brave concept and many pianists appraise it, but in my opinion soundwise it has same artificial qualities as Supernatural pianos. Also I am afraid that with V-piano there's very little hope for getting updates or general improvement in the model(s).

Yamaha NU1

The most serious competitor for Kawai came from Yamaha NU1. I remember that when I first played NU1 in a local music store this was a first digital piano ever which gave me an illusion of playing real acoustic piano. Or at least very close. It also fulfilled the aesthetic idea of how a digital piano should look. NU1 was also getting great reviews from magazines and internet. To me it was still little pricey. However there was a one crucial point which finally ruled NU1 out. When I played it with headphones I had a strange feeling that I was lacking the full dynamic palette especially when playing Fortissimo. One more thing to notice is that NU1 do not try to imitate grand piano touch, it has upright action inside. Sound is anyway sampled from Yamaha CFX-grand. So basically with NU1 you're playing grand piano with upright action.

In Finland we do not have Kawai reseller so I had to travel to Denmark to test CS-7. Luckily Copenhagen was on our summer holiday trip route! After a short encounter I had a strong feeling that this piano is quite promising to fulfill all the needs I described. Keyboard action felt natural and responsive, basic sound was nice and clear. As a nice bonus I also discovered that there were actually quite broad palette of different sounds, great variety of features (good connectivity for example) and also nice little LCD-screen. But all these extras were still secondary to the best part of it: Kawai CS-7 has a great grand-piano-like action with escapement. It also looked beautiful. Still the price was very reasonable and clearly lower than NU1 for example.

Kawai CS-7

Now after six months of playing CS-7 almost daily, I have a good feeling that my choise was right. Thanks to Kawai, I believe my playing has improved technically and arthistically: piano gives just right amount of resistance to my fingers and very precise response. If I play good it sounds immediately good but when I play badly I get immediate feedback of that too. The feeling is very similar to modern grand piano which is very responsive too. Sound is very good for playing and practicing, but for recording I'd say it's quite good. Now I am comparing it to Nord Piano Library which is in my opinion very good for recording purposes. With Kawai's "piano technician" you can nicely adjust many things: touch, voicing, resonance features etc. As said, there are many nice little extras like chance to MIDI/Audio-record your playing, metronome which can play nice drum beats and audio input (to play with your iPhone for example). 

Pianoteq 5 released!

I've been a big fan of Pianoteq since 2009. For those who don't already know, Pianoteq (PTQ) is a modeled piano software/plugin from French company Modartt and developer Philippe Guillaume. I have to admit that there were few years when I didn't practically touch PTQ at all. My Nord Stage 2 with all those quite nice sampled pianos was all I needed. Quite resently, some of my new musical ideas needed another type of piano sound, something which was outside my Nord's territory, I went back to check PTQ again. Luckily enough, same time I discovered that there was a new update available: Pianoteq 5.

Pianoteq 5 - a quick review:

First and most importantly, Pianoteq 5 seems to be a great improvement over version 4! It has more brightness and natural character of acoustic piano sound. If I A/B switch rapidly from my favorite (sampled) Nord piano sound to (modeled) PTQ, I can hear that there's still a difference in 'basic tone quality' between sampling and modeling but modeling has become little closer. To me this is a clear sign of improvement. With 'basic tone quality' I mean listening to individual notes played separately. I feel that modeling has still room for improvement for making it as warm and natural as it is in real life. On the other hand piano can sound very clear and punchy too; most often heard in pop, rock or jazzy situations. This ain't the best part of PTQ. Pianoteq is better for mellower sounds, more distant sounding concert hall pianos or cinematic piano sounds. But for that kind of tasks it's brilliant!

When listening to PTQ 5 I think there's one improvement over earlier versions: sound quality is more even all across the keyboard. I remember well that I have had hard time especially with PTQ's low mids area - going down from middle C and especially when played with forte or fortissimo. Still this low mids isn't the best part of the new model but it's not that artificial sounding anymore. In fact I have long felt that secret for finaly nailing 'it' lies in catching attack. Many PTQ users have asked for more 'woodiness' or whatever to call it. I believe Modartt should still pay more attention to the attack part of the puzzle. I strongly believe that this very first moment when hammer hits strings is very important for giving piano its personal sound. Of course, all this happens in a special acoustic space (wooden cabinet etc.).

Anyway piano sound isn't only individual basic notes which live in isolation. In fact piano is a complex structure where allmost all of its parts are affecting to other parts. It's all those complex hammer/damper/string interraction features where modeling clearly beats sampling. To get a better picture, just check this page: https://www.pianoteq.com/pianoteq5#new

Quite often lack of these features make sampled pianos sound 'sterile' or 'dead'. On the other hand, if modeling has improved in basic tone quality, it's fair to say that also sampled solutions have improved in this interraction area. Best sampled pianos have pedal down samples, pedal noises and even string resonance. How does they implement the latter, is not known to me. Is it somehow sampled or modeled? Anyway there's lot of feeling of whole piano resonating when you play PTQ and not that much when you play Nord (which have pedal down samples and 'string resonance'). PTQ feels like real piano and it's easy to understand why so many classical oriented players appraise it. In my opinion PTQ is best in solo piano, when it's easier to hear all these interaction features. On the other hand, band situations favor more punchy basic piano sound and this can be little difficult for mellower or more distant sounding PTQ. Fortunately there are great tools for adjusting the sound: hammer hardness, EQ, effects (compressor, reverb etc.) just to mention few. Still I have to admit that I wouldn't probably use PTQ for jazz piano trio recording at its current state. There are clearly limitations what kind of sounds you can get out of it and what not. With too much EQ, for example, it just gets unnatural.

Pianoteq Effects panel

One thing is sure. Pianoteq is fascinating way of learning things and just for having fun. You can play and record your perfomance with one piano and then listen to it with another. Using all those mic settings etc. you can really put it to another perspective. I have to admit that in these few years Pianoteq has taught me more about those features like string resonance and half pedaling than my acoustic Kawai. PTQ has opened my ears to listen to all those different things which make piano so special instrument. If you wanna dig into real classical stuff, you can experiment with different tunings or try to play Bach or Mozart with some historical instrument:

check: https://www.pianoteq.com/kremsegg1

Pianoteq and tuning possibilities

Couple of things deserve a special mention here. First: Pianoteq's user interface. It's just amazingly beautiful and so intuitive to work with. Everything is in right place and it looks marvellous. It has tons of features and parameters, but still it looks simple and not too technical. In my opinion this is very important for satisfying user experience. Second: Pianoteq user forum. I don't know any other software which has so devoted users and so lively forum. Developers are also interested to take part in those threads and all this gives you a nice feeling of things going further.

Pianoteq main User Interface

To sum it, I am so glad that Pianoteq story continues and I will definitely see what's the next step in this  evolution!

World's Smallest Synth Studio?

What kind of a synth studio fits into this rucksack...?

Let's take a closer look what have we here…

First, there's a newest member of my family: Arturia Microbrute, a real analog synth with 25 mini keys. Then there's of course iPad, all those cables and powers supplies and also a small portable speaker.

To connect Microbrute to iPad you'll need a camera adapter (from Apple Camera Connection kit) and of course a USB cable.

Basically I needed a small MIDI controller for all my iPad synths and Microbrute was the best candidate because with this reasonable low price (little below 300 euros) you'll have a MIDI controller plus a real analog synth too!

Few of my favorite iOS synths at the moment:

Arturia iMini

(Minimoog Model D emulation)


Very intuitive, good quality sound and
beautiful graphics.

Arturia iSem

(Oberheim Sem emulation)

Similarly intuitive, good sound and nice GUI


This is best iOS synth for playing Van Halen's "Jump" for sure!

Sunrizer

A modern (or digital) and very flexible synth. This one is "a little brother" of my Access Virus TI2. This is maybe the only synth which I could really use in my own productions which normally use my professional hardware (check My Gear if you like). It has personal sound…

Numerology 4 - part 2: review

Here's a little story of my own use of Five12 Numerology 4 Pro sequencer. If you wish to check only the main points (pros and cons), just go to the end and read my small review. And if you have anything to ask, correct or comment, don't hesitate to share it!

This post isn't trying to be a comprehensive review of Numerology. You can get more information on Five 12 website and on Numerology user forum too: 
http://five12.com/n2.html

Starting with Numerology

I found Five12 Numerology mostly by accident. One fellow member from Nord User Forum told me about Numerology when I in fact tried his own small sequencer app for Nord Drum. It seems to me that Numerology isn't very widely known even it definitely should be. I am sure there are plenty of potential users who would like to have modern pattern sequencer with great work flow and flexibility. Numerology is obviously a "love child" from one man, developer James Coker, who is also very active on Numerology forum and quickly answering any questions privately via email. So with Numerology you can really expect things to develop and you may even have a chance to make your own contribution to this development. As said earlier, this is one major difference compared to iOS music apps, which develop painfully slow if they develop at all. When writing this (February 2014) Numerology 4 is still on public beta state and we are living interesting times to see what happens until the official 4 release.

Basically idea here is to describe my own use of Numerology which is perhaps little different from average users. In fact this is the major power of Numerology: this application is very flexible and you can make it fit into your personal needs. Just take those modules you need. It's also possible to make your own template-projects to make it easy to start with your next project. Do you want to have just one old-fashioned pattern sequencer for playing your hardware modular synth? Fine. Or perhaps you want to make a complete song with multiple tracks only using soft synths and plugin effects? That's fine too. Just remember that you cannot record all this in audio tracks or master it. Numerology isn't DAW.

Numerology 4 Pro start-up screen

Note sequencers

What I usually do with Numerology is to sequence my hardware synths via iConnect MIDI. So basically main my tools are those note sequencers, especially MonoNote, PolyNote and DrumSeq:

Note Sequencer modules

With MonoNote you can run mono patterns from any length from 1-128 steps and also send velocities, MIDI CCs etc. Step can represent anything from very small lenghts (e.g. 1/128 notes) to very long lenghts (e.g. two whole notes). There's also a chance to experiment with probabilities, "humanizing" parameters and let pattern evolve by itself based on predetermined rules. When you check all these features, you'll begin to realize how different this approach is compared to linear timeline sequencing.

MonoNote sequencer

PolyNote seq is quite similar as MonoNote, but it is "piano roll" style polyphonic seq. Main difference to Logic's Piano Roll (view) is that individual notes in a vertical line do not have individual velocities. This is something which I miss sometimes.

And finally here's DrumSeq which is configured to play my 6-channel (or 6-voice) Nord Drum 2. DrumSeq is simple but powerful tool for experimenting with groovy drum patterns. Those vertical red tabs represent different velocities from 0-127. This is very intuitive way of making beats. Then you just fine adjust tempo and Groove Amount (=swing ratio). Quite often my compositional process begins with experimenting drum beats and bass lines.

DrumSeq 

Stacks - putting modules together

Higher level structure a Numerology project is based on stacks: first stack is always a clock-stack which controls obviously clock related stuff: tempo, meter, Groove amount or special user defined groove and MIDI sync routing destinations. User can then make his/her own stacks and any stack can have practically as many modules that is needed. 

Example of stacks (pages with different colors in upper row) and Clock-stack 

You can also make (stack-) presets which save all data of the current stack (all parameter and note or CC valuers etc.). With those presets you can make multi-module patterns which are building blocks of your song or more or less improvised live performance. You can play (or trigger) presets freely or force them to follow a predetermined playlist.

Stack-presets and Playlist mode

Speaking a little about live performing there are few major improvements in Numerology 4 (still beta) over version 3: there are more options for quantizing jumping from a preset to another and also a chance to play indefinite loops. We also got "an exit loop button" which relases loop when it's pressed. To be honest there are still few issues to fix to make these new features 100% usable. Despite these issues I can already make many nice things that was impossible with N3: I can make song forms with loops from 1 to 32 bars (or more) and loop them as long as I like. Then when I want to move to a following song section I just press this exit loop button in any place of an ongoing loop. Sounds simple? Well in fact it is, but surprisingly few sequencers can do this. Probably there are few but personally I haven't met any. I must also say that after N4 came available I even sold my Elektron Monomachine. I had no use for it anymore cause with Numerology I could do all the same (well, at least almost) and much more and much more easily.

Few minor specialities

Of course, above I just scratched surface about what can be done with Numerology. I must admit that there are many modules which I don't understand at all the the moment. Probably there are also modules and features that I'll never use. But that's just great: I know there's so much to learn. Or if you wish, you can keep it very simple. Here in this final section I'll just throw out some ideas which I have come up with Numerology.

First, Numerology can serve as a simple "Program Change sender". This is can be very useful on stage with multi-synth setup. The simplest way to do this is to first make a stack with (as many as you need) Program Change modules and route them to some MIDI Bus. Then you need to make stacks which route this MIDI Bus data to predetermined Midi Outs. Now with first stack you can make presets which send all this MIDI data at once to all your synths. When you trigger song X on your playlist (or should we say "set list") you'll get your right sounds immediately. Before Numerology I used "Set List Maker" app for iOS but now it's quite useless, cause Numerology is there anyway.

Stack with three Program Change modules

Above I have mostly talked about note sequencers. It's important to point that there are so many other modules to experiment with (again, check: http://five12.com/n3.html to read more or just download a demo and test it yourself!). I use for example ModulationSeq (one type of CV Sequencers) routed to some MIDI CC parameter like modulation wheel (CC #1) etc. With ModulationSeq you can loop your pattern while you experiment with some curve which affects some synth parameter (typically filter cutoff or resonance). All this is of course possible in Logic for example, but in Numerology everything goes so intuitively and smoothly.

In this example ModulationSeq is routed to PitchBender module:

One more thing deserves a special mention here: routing MIDI and CV (control voltage) data. Probably it's because of my lack of knowledge, but I've always had some trouble with managing MIDI routing in Logic. I suspect that I don't understand its logic completely. But when I started with Numerology I was amazed how easy it was configure my MIDI-setup. And when this is done, it was so easy to draw (yes, it's really done that way with mouse) those routings from modules (MIDI/CV in and out) anywhere I want. Here's an example how it's done:

Last topic here is about using Numerology 4 with other programs like Logic. There are in fact several options here: 

(1) you can use it as a AU plugin. I must admit here that I haven't used it this way much but (if I remember right) it's very limited compared to standalone version. (By the way, there is something interesting happening at the moment when v4 is evolving: you can use it as a MIDI FX in Logic X in OS X Maverick).

(2) You can record stacks (etc.) to MIDI clips. This is very handy if your main composition takes place in DAW. Still you can have both applications open and compose your music with both simultaneously! This way all the MIDI timing happens in one place and it's easier to keep it in sync. In N4 you'll get new MIDI clip options and you can even drag-and-drop clips straight to another application. 

(3) ReWire technology (Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReWire). If I just first open Logic and then Numerology those two apps go into ReWire mode where Logic acts as a host and Numerology as a slave. Simple as that. When you press play both apps will start playback. With this approach you can play audio- or more SMF (Standard MIDI file) type of tracks from Logic and patterns from Numerology. This combination is really Best of Both Worlds! I really don't miss Ableton Live at all.

SUMMA SUMMARUM

PROS

(+) Numerology is great help in whole creative process from searching for first idea to arranging it to a complete song to live stage playing.

(+) Its approach is non-linear pattern sequencer but it goes SO far beyond these old fashioned pattern sequencers. It gives you a nice alternative to linear timeline sequencers or DAWs.

(+) It's very easy to start with: MIDI configuration is easy, routing is very intuitive.

(+) It's very flexible: practically there are no limits how many modules or stacks you can combine. This makes it so much more powerful than most hardware sequencers like Elektrons. But if you wish, you can keep it very simple too.

(+) It can be your sequencer solution on stage too! I have used it on many gigs for managing my presets (sending Program Change messages to my synths), sending MIDI sync and of course playing some sequences. I am happy that I can count on this system! (Well, there have been two or three crashes, but then I just re-open the app and rock and roll. Fortunately start-up goes quite quickly…)

(+) Many possibilities to integrate it to other programs: AU Plugin, export MIDI clips, ReWire

CONS

(-) There are still some minor bugs which can puzzle me sometimes. Fortunately developer James Coker is listening and you get a feeling that things are really developing.

(-) There are few things which would make its use much more powerful: some users have asked for cut/copy/paste -approach to editing. I agree with them. Personally I wouldn't mind having more options for adjusting visual GUI, more options for Preset Playlist mode and Standard MIDI File player module. And as said above, PolynoteSeq could also have individual note velocities.

We aren't living in a perfect world so maybe it's not fair to ask for a perfect Numerology either. Especially because it's a creation of one man. All this being said we are getting closer and closer...