I hope not too many find this off topic for a
Disklavier list, but over the years I have heard many complaints about the
quality of the Ensemble sounds coming from XG tone generator DB50 modules.
Now, I have very simple ears, and think my
MX100XG disklavier sounds great both on the piano (older model U1) and the DB50
tones coming through a single big Yamaha speaker. When my Disklavier is
playing I am a very, very happy camper!
However, I am the first one to recognize that if I
want to burn MIDI piano data to a CD to play on my stereo system, the digital
audio sounds on my computer soundcard are awful. Those folks lucky enough
to have a MarkIII Disklavier have an amplifier underneath the piano whose audio
outputs produce an excellent piano sound for this purpose. For me, this
all started when my father recorded some songs on my DKV and wanted me to burn a
copy to a CD so he could listen to it in his car. I am still in the middle
of this journey to find a better sound, so the remainder of this post will
probably bore those not interested in the nature of what sounds good to
different people.
In my search for something better, I discovered VST
instruments which are the next generation of XG sounds. What makes them so
much better? Can they be used like a tone generator? Since they are
software programs, can they be installed on a computer and the sounds played
through a stereo system?
Would something like the HALion 3.1 ($300) or the
HALion Player ($129.99) on the Sternberg website substitute as a tone
generator?
I have developed a curiosity over the years about
what other people are hearing because they seem so devoted and adamant to
finding the perfect sound. Also, my livelihood depends upon my
ability to deliver quality piano sounds through tuning and voicing. Many
times I am not in agreement with a client with a sound, but it is my job to
produce what they want to hear and not push my own agenda. I am
especially astounded when dealing with audio engineers who describe themselves
as "purists" when what I hear in the recording booth differs so greatly from
what I hear on the studio floor with the piano. This goes for concert
stages as well. I will sometimes knock myself out to produce a beautiful
sound to my ears on the stage only to creep into the theatre during a
performance and be so disappointed at what I hear coming through the audio
system.
I am amazed about how different shapes of
microphones produce different sounds; how the more they cost the better they
sound. Why? The Library of Congress is archiving their old vinyl
collections (including parafin cylinders) using high resolution photography of
the grooves to produce data that converts to digital audio called project
Irene. Yet there are people who will
only own stereo amplifiers with vacuum tubes and only play music from
vinyl records because they say these are the best sounds. Some people say
they can hear the difference between a VST piano and an audio recording of a
real one. How can that be when the recording of a real one is mixed with
reverb in the studio? when the artist wants a wetter or drier sound and
still be a purist?????" I suppose the answer lies in the art of
reproducing what we hear as soundwaves with our ears to a table of
numbers.
Is the perfect sound coming through a
speaker just a table of numbers? That when you buy a reverb kit with
may options, they are just different tables of numbers? That when audio
engineers push those sliders up and down on a control board, that they are just
creating a different table of numbers? That XG sounds are the parameters,
but the little doodads on the circuit boards send a data stream that is just
another table of numbers? Is that what an artist is today - someone who
can skillfully manipulate a column of numbers to produce the perfect
sound?
Carol Beigel