Paris, France (MuseWire) – UltimateSoundBank has announced theire new “Grand Piano Collection,” compatible with the free UVI player, and MOTU MachFive II. According to the company: “Grand Piano Collection features surely some of the best sounding sampled pianos in the market. True to our beliefs, we don’t think it’s about figures (like velocity, memory, number of microphones) but about feeling. A good sounding piano is a rare alchemy between the instrument, the acoustic in the recording studio, the microphones and above all, the engineer’s taste. These pianos are not our first endeavour, in fact we did sample many more, so we had the chance to see the expertise turn up.”

Grand Piano Collection highlights five wonderful instruments:
– Steinway D Concert Grand
– Fazioli F278 Concert
– Erard Baby Grand Piano
– Seiler Upright Grand
– Japanese Upright

For everyone of them we used the same method:

First, we had to find the right instrument. Then we solicited two different classical and jazz pianists, both outstanding concert performers, to give us a hand finding the ideal one. After some research and like dozens of piano reviewed, we found the amazing sounding models that all our consultants loved. Then we booked for several days some of the best recording studios in Europe, for example (www.guillaumetell.com) for the Steinway. As the tuning work is important, we took the best qualified person for that essential part of the process.

During the recording we always used the very best sounding quality gear. But for each piano, we did select a different set up, to give different colours for every of the five instruments. And thanks to UVI Engine’s advanced keygroup layers and rule switching, the sustain pedal and release samples perform and “feel” like a real piano.

At the end of the process, during the editing of samples, we consulted a great instrumentalist to test the result of this work, then we were able to even improve the instruments in response to make it really enjoyable.

The result is five excellent sounding pianos, with soul and a musicality.

In the maze of piano sample libraries, Grand Piano Collection has a very unique place: the UVI philosophy regarding pianos is to propose truly musical and excellent sounding presets, but with a convenient and “realistic” size (around 20 GB for 5 instruments). It’s also the most versatile library, thanks to the choice of very different sounding instruments.

Info: http://www.ultimatesoundbank.com/uviscp2.html .

The UVI SOUNDCARD libraries are dedicated to be used with the brand new UVI WORKSTATION, the MOTU MachFive II virtual sampler and BPM. The UVI WORKSTATION is a multi-timbral software instrument that provides unlimited parts, integrated effects, live performance feature, and a smooth real-time workflow. It operates as a MAC/PC stand alone application and as a virtual instrument software plug-in compatible with Mac OSX and Windows for all major hosts sequencers.

The UVI WORKSTATION is courtesy of www.uvisoundsource.com. It is downloadable for free and features a tutorial soundpack so you can test this outstanding software workstation without limitations on your own system.