Coming Soon - The Hammersmith - Our Piano

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soniccouture wrote: Upgrades - Yes, this is fine, but while you try out the Std Edition, don't register the serial, run it in demo mode. that way we can easily swap the serials over if you decide to upgrade.
If you want to upgrade much later, that's still fine, but we will need to get your serial de-registered by NI which takes a day or two.

James
Love the standard edition, but as I already registered the serial number, I hope it's not too late to upgrade! Will I still have to de-register my serial number? How do I go about upgrading, then? I paid $109 at JRRShop for Hammersmith Standard; how much more will I need to pay to get the Professional version, and how do I go about the process?

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contact us via the site and we'll arrange it.

James

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OK, have done so, though I don't know if I am just yet in the position to make a payment yet. :)

P.S.: You may be flattered to know that my decision-making process is being complicated by the fact that I'm seriously considering getting a copy of EP73 Deconstructed (and possibly the Clav) on sale at some point this month. ;) Already love Broken Wurli! :D

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I love the sound and playability of The Hammersmith Pro but I am Really missing the Half Pedal function.

Are there any plans for adding this or is it already there and I have just not found it?

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No, I'm sorry - we didn't record any half pedals. Perhaps it could be programmed instead, I don't know - we'll consider that.

James

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Hello James,

I have several Sample libraries that support Half Pedal and they are All programmed. It would be a Serious undertaking to record and play back Half Pedal samples.

The Hammersmith sound has me completely blow away and I would love to use it more, but without the half pedal it is limited in use. I hope you can find an easy way to implement this serious function to an already serious library.

Kind regards,
Rick Tucker

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Hi Rick,

I agree that half pedaling is an important aspect for creating a realistic acoustic piano playing experience, particularly in lyrical, classical solo piano. I've come to the conclusion that there is no single perfect sampled/virtual piano. The sampled/virtual pianos that I own (and I own most of the quality ones) which nail the performance/playability nuances are often lacking in a realistic tone & air or stereo imaging, and lead me down the frustrating path of trying to create a sound/tone that doesn't exist in that instrument's DNA to begin with. Like many things, it becomes an exercise in compromises, and for me, the Hammersmith has the least number of compromises of all the sampled/virtual pianos I own and use.

I often record some free playing/improvising to minidisc, switching between my various software pianos, and then play it all back on our home stereo while going about daily stuff around the house. I then check the tracks (I name each for reference) of playing that catch my ear or give me an emotional response. Hammersmith is one of the rare software pianos that pass this test for me, and I'm fussy when it comes to piano tone. What is experienced as a player at the keyboard with headphones or studio monitors, and what is perceived as a listener on a home or car stereo are two very different things.

As a bit of background, I've played acoustic piano for 37 years, including a stint working for the Melbourne agents for Steinway & Sons, so believe I have a solid point of reference for my opinions.

The Soniccouture team have captured the body of the piano and the air/imaging and resonances beautifully. It is also very engaging, responsive and dynamic to play.

Also, with the appropriate settings, it sounds absolutely convincing as a recorded acoustic piano sound, a rare thing that the Hammersmith shares with very few other virtual pianos on the market.

Regards,
Craig - Melbourne, Australia

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Off topic but are you going to post on your blog products you are working on for 2016.

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I got the Hammersmith Pro with the Conservatoire Collection last month. I'm very pleased with both, and I'd say the Hammersmith is the nicest piano VI that I have played, so far (I am not a pianist, though). It is very responsive, and sounds great.
“The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information.”
-Henry A. Wallace

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rtucker55 wrote:Hello James,

I have several Sample libraries that support Half Pedal and they are All programmed. It would be a Serious undertaking to record and play back Half Pedal samples.

The Hammersmith sound has me completely blow away and I would love to use it more, but without the half pedal it is limited in use. I hope you can find an easy way to implement this serious function to an already serious library.

Kind regards,
Rick Tucker
Hi Rick,
We have discussed this, and it would be very difficult for us to program it because we have the real sustain pedal samples. It’s very simple for a cheaper library to go between no release and full release of course, since they didn’t sample the full release. But we would have to disable the real pedal samples to do a 'fake' half pedal, which I'm sure you'll agree would not be worth it.

James

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Hello James,

Thank You for the consideration and Quick Communication. I appreciate that you took a look at the possibility of variable/half pedal and maybe something will change in the future.

Kind regards,
Rick

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I"m having a hard time figuring out the Hammersmith. Maybe I'm not getting things set up properly but it seems the lower range of keys are dull/muted, whereas the upper half are extremely bright. Are there any settings I should be looking at to offset this?

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punkfest2000 wrote:I"m having a hard time figuring out the Hammersmith. Maybe I'm not getting things set up properly but it seems the lower range of keys are dull/muted, whereas the upper half are extremely bright. Are there any settings I should be looking at to offset this?
If you're using a default patch, then it should sound natural enough - as the audio demos on the website sound, for example.
if you think there's really something up, email us via the site and we can work through it further with you.

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hm - i had the chance to play the Hammersmith Piano last week - and i first noticed , that the soft pedal implementation is completely nonsense and has nothing to do with a real piano. It's just like a lowpass filter switched on and off with the pedal.
It seems to be a problem, that people, who are not piano players are making sample-libraries from pianos.
btw. the "Pearl Concert Grand" by "Impact Soundworks" has a similar problem with the una corda pedal.
Very strange - every grand piano has this pedal and every piano player knows how it works, but many library-manufactureres are not supporting it or supporting it wrong - they create 50GBs of samples but forget this essential thing.

The best i found so far is the Galaxy Vintage D - soft pedal behaviour is working like on a real piano, it supports half pedalling, a lot of realistic resonances and the overall quality is great.

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horacewimp wrote:hm - i had the chance to play the Hammersmith Piano last week - and i first noticed , that the soft pedal implementation is completely nonsense and has nothing to do with a real piano. It's just like a lowpass filter switched on and off with the pedal.
I'd be interested to hear a reply to this... you guys seem to have an intelligent reason behind all the decisions you made with this piano, and were very particular about sampling sustained notes, so I'm curious to hear your thoughts on sampling una corda notes.

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