PAV Releases Blüthner Digital Model One Grand Piano Virtual Instrument

Samplist Dan Dean from Dan Dean Productions and audio architect Ernest Cholakis from Numerical Sound have joined forces in creating the new "Blüthner Digital Model One" Grand Piano, announcing its release in Native Instruments Kontakt 2 Player format today. Priced at $299 (US) for the single DVD, this groundbreaking piano is packed full of new technologies and features never before found in the world of sampling.

Features

Recorded at Skywalker Sound™ (a division of Lucasfilm, Ltd.) - one of the quietest studios in the world (both physically and electronically). Superb acoustics, excellent technical implementation and hand selected microphones, cables, preamps with Pacific Microsonics™ digital converters optimize the "front end" for the highest detail sample recordings.

Multiple Layers and Multiple Timbres. There are 12 layers of samples both pedal up and pedal down versions, utilizing our new Discrete Sustain technology. The number of samples totals well over 2,000. The BDMO's pedal down samples have "air" and depth in a spacious stereo field. Every sustain sample is unique - not modeled or computer generated. PAV's samples have the lowest noise floor of any digital piano on the market, using their proprietary techniques and algorithms.

Recorded "dry". The BDMO is close miked, meaning that there are no room reflections or acoustic ambience in the sample recordings. Close miking gives you far greater sonic detail and allows you to add the reverbs YOU choose - or use the custom created Impulse Response reverbs.

Extremely Wide Timbral Range. Finally, all the very low level detail of the piano have been captured with noise free pppp, ppp and pp samples. PAV placed special emphasis on accurately capturing and programming the Blüthner's rich and colorful low velocity dynamics. Most digital pianos' low levels "start" at PAV's level 5 or 6. When you play the BDMO, it is a truly evocative playing experience.

Convolution. The BDMO comes loaded with 3 types of custom designed Convolution: Timbral, Reverb and Sustain. Since PAV captured the BDMO in a close-miked perspective, the samples are dry, optimized for use with their proprietary Impulse Response technologies.

Timbral Impulses are literally "sonic fingerprints" of over 260 individual pianos and piano recordings. You can instantly see the basic frequency response of each of the TI's looking at the Timbral Impulse Frequency Display.

Timbral Impulse Groups. With the push of a button, you can instantly transform the BDMO's sound into one of over 260 discretely different pianos from seven TI categories:

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• Classical. Timbres captured from some of the world's finest pianos and piano recordings from the past century. PAV's Timbral Impulses not only capture the sound of the piano, but the proximity effect and other acoustic effects of the performance.
• Custom. Timbral Impulses from the Custom Group were specifically created to include various Blüthner piano models, such as uprights used in Hollywood films and other vintage pianos from the collection of the Kazimoff family in Los Angeles. You will also find some of Ernest's special hi-tech features in this group.
• Jazz. This group includes many different pianos from some of the world's greatest pianos and jazz pianists. Some of these have been captured from films, private recordings and artists' personal pianos.
• Pop. The Pop TI collection takes the BDMO to a different place. You'll find brighter, more present, punchier piano timbres in this group. There's more edge in these TI's and you'll find they will cut through a rhythm track.
• R&B. These TI's have been derived from some of the world's most famous R&B piano performances. Some of these are from New Orleans and very vintage.
• Vocal. Ernest went to work on creating a set of vocal phonemes with TI's based on speech elements such as:

  oo (as in boot), ought (as in bought), ss, tt and many more.

• Pianos. These TI's were derived from pianos of other manufacturers. Without being specific, these pianos were built in Europe, Japan and the United States. Again, at the click of mouse, you can transform the BDMO into another manufacturer's timbre.

Reverb Impulses. PAV included a huge assortment of Reverb Impulses ranging from small isolation booth ambience to very small rooms to very large rooms, scoring stage ambiences, various recital halls, concert halls and finally large symphony halls. Choose from Crisp, Clear, Warm and Dark variations of each of the Reverb Impulses for even more tonal flexibility. Each one of these complex, dense IR's has been optimized for use with the Blüthner Digital Model One.

Sustain Impulses. Realistic sounding sustain is a tremendously complex, near 3 dimensional component. True sustain has very small amounts of pitch, pan and harmonic movement, depth of field dynamics and other psychoacoustic factors. It is virtually impossible to capture true sustain using discrete samples alone. PAV began by recording very accurate pedal-down samples, specially captured to provide their unique True Sustain for the BDMO. Additional proprietary recordings were made from which very complex Sustain Impulses were derived from PAV's custom algorithms. When combined with the pedal down samples, these SI's provide the dynamic 3 dimensional component like you would hear in a real piano.

Linear db Keyboard Velocity - True Piano Dynamics. Proprietary Linear db Scaling accurately recreates the true dynamics of the BDMO. Each individual sample has its own calibrated dynamic level derived from the actual acoustics of the Blüthner Model One.

Keyboard Scaling. The BDMO instrument patches are built with high accuracy Keyboard Scaling programmed directly into them. Choose from 100% (acoustic) to 45% (compressed).

Variable Tuning. The BDMO offers built-in floating just intonation, custom designed by Ernest. It can be addressed by either using a 2nd keyboard or by assigning a MIDI controller to CC#16.

Variable Sustain Pedal ready. PAV created a complete set of patches to take full advantage of Variable Sustain pedal features found in Kontakt2. Instead of the typical cc#64 on/off switch you can now control the amount of sustain using a special footswitch. You can adjust the sustain amount and depth by pedal pressure.

Concentrated enough to use on your laptop. Unlike many of the "mega-pianos" the BDMO was designed with size in mind. Concentrated and ultra-powerful, the Blüthner Digital Model One will run on a laptop - even with 12 layers pedal up and down (24+ stereo samples per note) and advanced convolution.

Sampled and edited by Ernest and Dan. Drawing from many years of combined expertise in digital audio and recording, the BDMO was created by Ernest and Dan. Every sample was recorded, edited, and processed by PAV. PAV designed the programming, the layout and worked on new features with NI directly.

Powered by the KONTAKT2 Plug-In. Nothing on the market sounds as good, has as many features, lower latency or better overall performance than KONTAKT2. K2 has been thoroughly "road tested" and has more user hours than all of the other soft-samplers. Use BDMO as a stand alone application. KONTAKT2 works on the MAC in OS X (now supporting "Mactel" computers) or on the PC in Windows. Because DDSSA is a Plug-In, open it in Logic, Pro Tools, Digital Performer, Cubase, Sonar, Garageband or in any VST, Dxi or RTAS supported application.

Kontakt2 Player included. Everything you need to play "right out of the box" is included with the BDMO.