Steinberg The Grand

Steinberg The Grand Image
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The Grand is a VST Instrument devoted to providing the sound of a Concert Grand Piano in the self-contained, pristine environment of your computer. Its sounds are based on the sampled/modeled sounds of a real Grand Piano. As a result it takes up over 1.3 GB of disk space! It also uses a large chunk of RAM (you can adjust how much sample is streamed from disk or loaded into RAM). If you want that real piano sound instantly accessible and flexible enough to use in your computer sequencer, The Grand is an affordable good deal! It is available for both Mac and PC platforms with VST 2.0 compatible host applications.

Steinberg The Grand Image

The initial screen you see when you open an instance of The Grand is of the keyboard. You can click on the keys to play notes (or use MIDI instruments connected to your computer). The Grand's 88-key keyboard emulates many of the characteristics of an acoustic piano. There are three weighted key settings to choose from and adjustable velocity curves individually adaptable to suit your personal playing style. Authentic functionality of sustain and sostenuto pedals is also built-in with real re-pedaling resonance.

Steinberg The Grand Image

There are a couple options for shaping your Grand Piano sounds. There are four basic Piano sounds: Natural, Soft, Bright, and Hard. A simple Ambience effect can be dialed-in, adding a little reverb to sweeten' the sound. There are also hammer and string release parameters for authentic-sounding damper and hammer action, adjustable polyphony and tuning, tempered and grand concert piano tunings. The Grand succeeds in creating a darn good piano, rich in sound and with enough editability to give you a broad range of feeling. Unfortunately, The Grand does not attempt to go beyond emulating the piano sound, so there are no LFOs, no filters, nothing that can really modulate or change the sound. Just rich, clean piano sounds instantly available and with simple programmability. It's a great tool for composers who don't want to deal with the troubles and expense of a real concert grand, and it's easier to use than any sampler.

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Demos & Media

Audio Clip 1 A demo of the Grand used in a Bruce Hornsby style track.
Audio Clip 2 This is a demo of The Grand playing Bach's "Prelude in C Minor".

Specifications

Polyphony - Up to 16 voices per Instance (CPU Dependent)
Oscillators - Four master timbres: Natural, Soft, Bright, Hard
LFO - None
Filter - None
VCA - None
Keyboard - 88 keys with adjustable Non/Light/Heavy weighted simulation and adjustable Velocity Curve
Macintosh - Power Macintosh, G3/500 MHz/100 MHz bus, 256 MB RAM (512 MB recommended), 1.3 GB free hard disk space, Mac OS 9.x, Cubase VST 5.0 or higher, Nuendo or other VST 2.0 compatible host application
Windows/PC - Pentium II, 400 MHz, 256 MB RAM (512 MB recommended), 1.3 GB free hard disk space, Windows 98/ME/2000/XP, Cubase VST 5.0 or higher, Nuendo or other VST 2.0 compatible host application, PC configured according to the specifications of the host application
Date Produced - 2002

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