Sampled And Modelled Grand Piano

US Sound Magic releases Imperial Grand, NEO Hybrid Modeling Piano with Artificial Intelligence Assistant 21/04/11

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Here's the Sound Magic press release:
Imperial Grand starts with the famous dark, rich Bosendorfer style sound, and establishes an incredible level of realism by using patented NEO Hybrid Modeling Engine coupled with Artificial Intelligence Assistant Tool. Sound Magic's NEO Hybrid Modeling is a completely new way to offer the best of both worlds, the Realistic Sound of Sampling and the Playability of Modeling. The NEO Hybrid Modeling Engine leads all other virtual pianos by providing a smaller footprint, lower latency and a truer, richer sound that makes our piano live and breathe! The NEO Hybrid Modeling Engine achieves this realistic and authentic sound by using physical modeling to shape the sound's "skeleton" and then maps it to a series of harmonic components in real time to provide the resonance between the strings and the sound of the piano "box". IR and Convolution Reverb provide for a sense of realism essential to the live sound. Too often, reverb is added as a gloss to emulate playing in some sort of cavern, but here the reverb is replicating the reverb that occurs inside of a large vibrating instrument. (You can add your cavern playing on top of this essential sound if you need to!)
The purpose of Artificial Intelligence Assistant Tool (A.I in short) is to free musicians from technicians' work and let us focus on our music, not continuous controller assignments or tweaking the velocity curves! A.I is a bridge which connects your musical feelings and ideas to the technical data. With A.I, musicians no longer need to be technicians. A.I will make achieving your ideal sound more... well, musical! NO NEED TO REMEMBER arcane terminologies, finicky operation steps or the intricate specs of your keyboard.
A.I will auto test your keyboard - learn all about it - and then use artificial intelligence to make suggestions for you. It is A simple to use and it speaks the same language as musicians - YOUR language - not the geek-speakS of technicians. A.I will test your keyboard velocity response, pedal support and most importantly suggest ways to shape the sound that you are looking for. A.I makes it simple to quickly achieve your ideal sound.
Armed with these Revolutionary HD Velocity Layers, Imperial Grand has a truer and richer sound with a touch that's 500 times more sensitive than the usual limited 127 velocity layers. Pianists - even classically trained virtuosos - will at last be able to bring all the subtle nuances of live playing to an electronic setting.
Have you ever noticed how repeated notes sound dull and artificial when played with the same velocity? On Imperial Grand with HD Velocity Layers, you will never have this problem because each note you play will have a tiny nuance, an almost imperceptible difference that makes Imperial Grand startlingly real.
Imperial Grand achieves a new level of realism by emulating the behavior of Piano Legato. When you are playing legato phrases on a real grand piano, the transition between two legato notes is created by subtle variations of key pressure. Imperial Grand is able to respond to these differences and truly allows your sound to sing when playing legato phrases. Imperial Grand supports Add-ons, You can choose over 10 different add-ons from online store for different usages. Add-ons are like a Swiss army knife that will make Imperial Grand fits for different situations or solves different problems. Add-ons add different special features to Imperial Grand. They help the musicians living with a easier life and could achieve their goal in a quicker and precise way. These add-ons are all designed for a special purpose or a style of music.
Here are just some features of Imperial Grand

Imperial Grand gives you absolute control over every aspect of a piano. You can adjust hammer actions, microphone positions, sympathetic resonances, dynamics and more. You can even design your own piano!
HD Velocity Layer supports up to 65,536 Velocity Layers!
Multi-microphone positions enable users to mix between different microphone positions and create new sounds that easily fit into a mix.
Real Piano Legato make the legato passage so real with a sustaining tone.
Meticulous Dynamic Response controls enable users to adjust the dynamics of the piano, change the keyboard response, and achieve both realism and playability at the same time!
New! Our 264-string Sympathetic Resonance System adds beautiful harmonies to both pedal up and pedal down notes.
Imperial Grand is able to detect repeated notes and activate True Staccato Mode which precisely reproduces staccato notes.
Built-in professional Reverb Engine simulates resonances with environment and soundboard, adding extra realism to the sound.
Actual modeling and soft pedal samples vividly present the sound of three kinds of pedals.
Faster load times. Smaller hard drive footprint, less memory and less CPU usage.
Imperial Grand now provides standalone and VSTi version running under Microsoft Windows XP/Vista/7.

Pricing and Availability:
€99 More information: