La Campanella - GARRITAN STEINWAY

[valhalx]

Franz Liszt
La Campanella (http://www.valhalx.com/la_camp_08.mp3)

From, Grandes Études de Paganini

[NothanUmber]

Thanks for sharing this! Although well made I still find it difficult to evaluate the possibilities of a piano sound based on sequenced midi pieces.
Here a live recording (http://youtube.com/watch?v=hEnfZjqMSy0) played by Yundi Li for comparison, perhaps that better illustrates what I mean.

Greetings
NothanUmber

[LouisD]

Bill

A fantastic demo of this stunning new piano. You did an outstanding job ! Every time I hear a new demo, I get more and more impatient to get my own Authorized Steinway.....

[trentpmcd]

Not the deepest of Liszt’s compositions or transcriptions but certainly the most fun. This is a good example for the sound of lots of quick little notes. Lots and lots of quick little notes….

Overall, I think it sounds great.

[valhalx]

Thanks for sharing this! Although well made I still find it difficult to evaluate the possibilities of a piano sound based on sequenced midi pieces.
Your point is well taken. It is difficult to evaluate unless you can get your hands on it. I have an M-Audio keyboard and when I play the Authorized Steinway with it, it's as close as to the real McCoy as I've gotten with samples.

Here a live recording (http://youtube.com/watch?v=hEnfZjqMSy0) played by Yundi Li for comparison, perhaps that better illustrates what I mean.

Greetings
NothanUmberInteresting interpretation. I didn't like his holding the tempi back until the end. But then, tempo will always be debated in classical music, lol :)

[NothanUmber]

when I play the Authorized Steinway with it, it's as close as to the real McCoy as I've gotten with samples.
This is good to hear! It would be really great if you could post a small example (it doesn't have to be la campanella :p ). (If you want to keep your personal playing out of the public that's also absolutely ok of course!)

Here another interpretation (http://youtube.com/watch?v=hQULyGMhhWs) of the campanella (this time from Rubinstein) that seems to have more emphasis on bigger contexts than Li's "celebrate every note" approach. I like both interpretations for what they are :)

Greetings
NothanUmber

[etLux]

Lots and lots of quick little notes….


Oh, yeah! Yee-hah!

Excellent job on this, Bill. Loved it!

My best,



David
www.DavidSosnowski.com

[valhalx]

Bill

A fantastic demo of this stunning new piano. You did an outstanding job ! Every time I hear a new demo, I get more and more impatient to get my own Authorized Steinway.....
Great to hear from you Louis and thanks. I figured this would be a good one to show off the Garritan Steinway. :)

[maticomp]

To counterbalance light La Campanella it would be great idea to sample Liszt's Mazeppa from Transcendental Etudes, e.g. from here: http://www.classicalmidiconnection.com/cmc/liszt.html (the best MIDI I managed to find). It would show the thunder of Steinway :D

[valhalx]

Not the deepest of Liszt’s compositions or transcriptions but certainly the most fun. This is a good example for the sound of lots of quick little notes. Lots and lots of quick little notes….

Overall, I think it sounds great.
Thanks Trent. You're right about it not being the deepest of his efforts, lol. In fact, there are a couple of compositional blunders in this, not the least of which is the constant hammering on D#, lol.

Eh, it's a showpiece.

Bill

[rolifer]

Bill


Liszt was the rock and roll God of his times. Woman destroying his pianos and making bracelets from the strings. He used to have to have 2 pianos on stage just because of this. He also had his choice of all of those babes as well.

This piece brings out the qualities of LIszt and the Steinway.


Well Done
)(~)(~
Ron

[valhalx]

Oh, yeah! Yee-hah!

Excellent job on this, Bill. Loved it!

My best,



David
www.DavidSosnowski.com (http://www.DavidSosnowski.com)
Thanks so much David. The Yee-hah thing, that is. Your unbridled enthusiasm is humbling, lol. For a Connecticut Yankee, I must say, you'd fit in nicely out west here. Watch out for rattlers though, lol. They're real sneaky. :eek:

Bill

[etLux]

Watch out for rattlers though, lol. They're real sneaky. :eek:

Bill

It would be the rattlers that need to worry, not me.

David
www.DavidSosnowski.com

[Reegs]

Man, the high register is quite nice.

It does sound a little mechanical at points for me, but great work on this nonetheless, valhalx.

Best,
Reegs

[DanielB]

Oh! Awesome!

Makes me wanna buy it! Even though I won't use it. D: I'm not that good of a pianist.

Wait... maybe I WILL use it...

I'm gonna contemplating purchasing this...

[Eugene]

Superb job here Bill. Reminds me of Cziffra playing this piece! The tone quality is realistic, and the overall conception/realisation is spot on. I really enjoyed this.
Eugene

[valhalx]

To counterbalance light La Campanella it would be great idea to sample Liszt's Mazeppa from Transcendental Etudes, e.g. from here: http://www.classicalmidiconnection.com/cmc/liszt.html (the best MIDI I managed to find). It would show the thunder of Steinway :D
Here is an exerpt of Mazeppa (http://www.valhalx.com/mazeppa.mp3) from the above MIDI. The Steinway sounds good here. But to my ear, the piece could sound better (dynamic balance, etc). No doubt just a matter of how this particular MIDI was tweeked and adjusting MIDIs is not my forte. I tried it once and decided to stick with notation, lol. :)

[valhalx]

Bill

Liszt was the rock and roll God of his times. Woman destroying his pianos and making bracelets from the strings. He used to have to have 2 pianos on stage just because of this. He also had his choice of all of those babes as well.
Oh yeah, he was a babe magnet, lol. :D Then there was Brahms. A decent pianee player by all accounts, but he never got the babes. :(

This piece brings out the qualities of LIszt and the Steinway.

Well Done
)(~)(~
RonThanks for the listen and comments, Ron.

Bill

[maticomp]

Thanks :) The midi of mazeppa is not that good indeed. Steinway performs superb nevertheless. Thanks for your time in pleasing our ears :)

[valhalx]

Man, the high register is quite nice.

It does sound a little mechanical at points for me, but great work on this nonetheless, valhalx.

Best,
Reegs

Reegs,

The high register, the low, every note of Garritan Steinway is amazingly real.

Thanks,

Bill

[DelCarry]

Will I be able to play this well (as Liszt) if I get the new piano samples?? The great thing about this package is that it seems to (sort of) solve the reverb issues that we all struggle with by providing several "spaces" for the piano. If you are one of the fortunates who own the PRO version and disagree with this statement please let us know. Your treatment sounded pretty good.

Thanks for sharing - Del

[Rhap2]

Bill:

Very well done. I just listened to Yundi Li (who is incredible) and I
think he did a fantastic job, but in spots a little too fast. I like your
tempi and the sound you produced from this wonderful instrument.

BRAVO, Bill

Jack

[valhalx]

Oh! Awesome!

Makes me wanna buy it! Even though I won't use it. D: I'm not that good of a pianist.

Wait... maybe I WILL use it...

I'm gonna contemplating purchasing this...

Come on! Get it! You'll love it!

[DanielB]

Come on! Get it! You'll love it!

I probably should!

'Scept I need to save up... I just spent all my monies on a boychoir sound library.

Buahaha, I'll just save for the basic one.

[valhalx]

Superb job here Bill. Reminds me of Cziffra playing this piece! The tone quality is realistic, and the overall conception/realisation is spot on. I really enjoyed this.
Eugene
Thank you so much Eugene. Glad you enjoyed it. It was fun doing it.

Bill

[lesotho72]

Man -- that is impressive!
I'm talking about the piece and the software! Both of which are artistic acheivements
Of course everyone uses the same 'a computer will never replace the sensitivity of humans' -- but this sounds amazingly good. Only part that I 'knew' it was a computer was the repeated notes which even Hamelin or Aimard probably couldn't do.
Cool stuff

[valhalx]

I still get nightmares thinking about studying this piece. Only once I played this at home for an audience and never again. Instead of this piece I'd put Berceuse of Chopin on my repertoire and thinking about the comments I'd got, with success.

Still it is a great piece to study......
And your rendering is great. Thank you for reminding me, listening to it gave me much pleasure..... Though some velocities could be a bit lesser in the first part. The last section when those octaves creep in for the left hand is a bit too fast..... IMHO.

Raymond
Thanks a lot Raymond. My hats off to you even if you struggled through this demanding piece. Being well acquainted with Czerny certainly helps, lol.

Will I be able to play this well (as Liszt) if I get the new piano samples??

The great thing about this package is that it seems to (sort of) solve the reverb issues that we all struggle with by providing several "spaces" for the piano. If you are one of the fortunates who own the PRO version and disagree with this statement please let us know. Your treatment sounded pretty good.

Thanks for sharing - DelActually it doesn't provide different spaces but different perspectives. Each of those mic perspectives is like moving around the piano while someone is playing. The perception of different spaces is provided by Ambience or whatever reverb you decide to use. In this case I used a convolution reverb called SIR.

Bill