Stam,
If you really-really like that sound — and you’re certainly not the only one: while not a favourite of mine, the Art Vista quickly became a widely acclaimed and much loved sampled piano ever since it was introduced all those years ago and any serious list of most treasured sampled pianos will find the library invariably in the top region —, the simplest way to get it, is to save up $89 and buy it.
Better hurry though cause the Vista normally costs $199 and the heavily reduced price which it currently sells at, is only on occasion of the developer having recently released the v3 upgrade.
Me, I don’t belong to the group of Pianoteq fans who believe that just about every type of pianosound is within reach of this splendid software. Try all you like — even with the Pro version of Pianoteq — but you won’t get anywhere near the timbre and character of the Art Vista. Not even close to near. To my ears, the D4 sounds nothing like the Vista, nor does any of the other Pianoteq models. Totally different soundworlds, I believe.
Having said that, the quickest way to attain a hint of that singing quality which you like and which is such a defining characteristic of the Vista, is indeed to raise the Unison parameter. It’ll only be a very faint and unconvincing approximation though, because the instabilities in the Vista’s tuning are so complex and irregular — each and every sample sings in its own unique way and the tuning of the instrument is very stretched as well — that you need more than a single parameter, a lot more, to get something of that peculiar undulating sound out of Pianoteq.
The Vista is also a very resonant piano, by default. Unlike Joe, I don’t think there too much reverb on the piano in the YT-clip — I certainly wouldn’t call it “awash in reverb” —, what I think you’re hearing is the pronounced resonance of the piano increasing the impression of there being plenty of reverb. I find the amount of reverb in that YT-clip actually rather modest.
But it’s that combination of (1) the Vista’s resonance (2) a fairly long reverb and (3) the compression, which creates the illusion that there is a lot more reverb than there actually is. (Joe is quite right about the limited dynamics though: realistic dynamics are not the Vista’s strongest point. Even when not compressing the instrument, it still sounds compressed.)
I would love to be able to suggest to raise the resonance of Pianoteq in order to get closer to the Vista, but unfortunately, that is not the case either. Mainly because Pianoteq’s resonance generates an entirely different sound than the captured resonance in the Vista. Moreover, raising Pianoteq’s resonance also adds a lot of low and low-mid weight to the sound — unfriendly observers would call it boomy-ness — which is completely absent in the Vista as well.
So, I don’t know. Personally, I wouldn’t even try it. I prefer to use Pianoteq for what it’s good at (which is many things), but I never try to make it do things which it isn’t good at. Emulating the Art Vista falls very much in that category, I’m afraid.
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Last edited by Piet De Ridder (27-09-2015 08:50)