Topic: Request: Kawai Novus NV10
Greetings,
Would anyone have a good velocity curve for this instrument? Thank you very much,
Toshi
- ohsumit
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- yeq30
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Re: Request: Kawai Novus NV10
Hi. I know this is 2 years after the question but I have what seems like a reasonable NV10 Velocity curve for Pianoteq8:
Velocity = [0, 49, 66, 77, 85, 95, 102, 108, 114, 121, 127; 0, 9, 12, 19, 31, 51, 68, 88, 116, 127, 127]
The NV10 touch needs to be set to "Light1"
You can copy and paste the above string exactly as-is into the Velocity curve window of Pianoteq8.
Caveats / Points of interest:
I have found that the NV10 generates quite a poor velocity MIDI range - roughly 50 .. 113 most of the time. I spend weeks trying to compensate for this to get a good velocity curve in Pianoteq8.
The velocity curve on its own is only a small part of the story of getting a good dynamic range (soft .. loud) when playing. On Pianoteq8, everything seems to be interactive: If you play around with the hammer hardnessess etc. then this will affect how much use the velocity curve is. For this reason, selecting various different piano presets in Pianoteq will require you to modify this curve. I use it with just one preset.
I found that the whole digital piano scene seems to be in love with Loud, LOUDER and E-A-R S-P-L-I-T-T-I-N-G. I found that most of Pianoteq's presets are brash, brassy and bright. It took me a long, long time to customise one of the presets to get a very nice mellow profile that mimics a good quality domestic grand piano in sound and dynamic range. I now get NO ringing in my ears and I can play reliably everywhere from ppp to fff.
- yeq30
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Re: Request: Kawai Novus NV10
ohsumit wrote:
Greetings,
Would anyone have a good velocity curve for this instrument? Thank you very much,
Toshi
Further to my previous reply. Here is a slight variation on that Kawai NV10 Velocity curve. I use it with the NY Steinway D Classic preset.
As I said before, all digital pianos and nearly all of the Pianoteq presets are shrill, LOUD and brash. I found that none of the built in voices on the NV10 are serious piano substitutes at all. Kawai seem to have declared war on mp, p and pp and gone for ff, fff, ffff, fffff and fffff. Anyway, rather than just give the velocity curve alone. Here is the whole preset for a friendly, home grand piano where you CAN play everything from pp to fff:
Filename: 2023_10_16_12_48_NY Steinway D Classical
Kawai NV10 Touch Curve Normal
Kawai MIDI window:
(Remember to set Set Local Control OFF)
Windows sound / speakers / levels: Volume 66 Balance 50/50
TUNING:
Unison Width 1.00
Octave stretching 1
Direct Sound Duration 1.00
VOICING:
Hammer Hardness, Piano 0.17
Hammer Hardness, Mezzo 0.70
Hammer Hardness, Forte 1.17
Spectrum Profile All 0dB Except 7 = -4.1dB
Hammer Noise 0.68
Strike Point 1/9.1
Soft Pedal 0.3
DESIGN
Soundboard Impedance 0.98
Cut Off 1.0
Q Factor 1.0
String Length 2.70m
Sympathetic Res 0
Duplex 0
Blooming Energy 0
Blooming Inertia 1
Output Binaural
Limiting On
Volume -4.5 dB
Dynamics 45 dB
Off ON Off Off
[ Delay EQ3 EQ3 Reverb ]
ACTION:
Damper Position 1/4.9
Damping Duration 0.79
Last Damper 91
Mute 0
Damper Noise 0
Key Release Noise 0 dB
Sustain Pedal Noise -3 dB
MALLET BOUNCE:
Irrelevant
EQUALISER:
Equalizer = [150, 400, 600; +1.0, -3.0, 0]
Green light ON
NOTE EFFECTS:
Irrelevant.
EFFECTS:
Delay green light off
EQ3 (fx2) Green light ON
EQ3 (fx3) Green light off.
Fx2 setting EQ3 Brilliant
Freq Gain Q
65 -0.5 0.33
650 0 0.01
750 +1 0.33
Velocity Curve:
Velocity = [0, 64, 77, 87, 97, 103, 110, 114, 116, 127; 13, 26, 32, 42, 61, 79, 99, 116, 123, 127]
Note Off 127
Pedal Curve:
Sustain Velocity = [0, 1, 4, 32, 55, 82, 98, 111, 127; 0, 43, 86, 93, 100, 109, 119, 126, 127]
Note Edit
Detune: Default
Volume = [-4.9, -6.6, -8.3, -6.3, -5.6, -6.4, -5.7, -6.3, -6.7, -6.7, -4.6, -4.9, -4.8, -4.5, -4.7, -5.8, -4.6, -5.2, -4.6, -3.8, -8.1, -4.7, -4.6, -5.8, -4.5, -5.4, -3.3, -6.5, -6.3, -6.0, -5.6, -4.8, -3.2, -4.0, -3.1, -4.0, -3.5, -3.1, -3.3, -2.2, -2.6, -3.6, -3.2, -3.7, -2.3, -2.6, -5.1, -5.4, -5.9, -3.5, -3.3, -3.1, -2.4, -2.2, -2.4, -4.5, -3.0, -4.1, -5.2, -7.8, -4.7, -3.0, -5.8, -8.0, -2.6, -4.4, -4.7, -2.5, -3.6, -3.1, -6.3, -6.2, -5.2, -4.8, -3.3, -7.6, -5.1, -3.1, -2.6, -5.0, -7.6, -5.8, -7.7, -6.2, -6.7, -8.7, -3.2, -3.0, -4.6, -6.6, -4.5, -1.8, -5.9, -4.7, -3.9, -3.5, -6.9, -6.8, -6.2, -7.6, -6.8, -7.9, -6.9, -6.9, -6.9]
Aftertouch 0
Condition 0.31
SoundBlaster app settings:
PLAYBACK: DirectMode=ON AudioQuality=32 bit 48kHz
Headphones settings: Gain normal (32 – 148 Ohm) (I have DT900 ProX headphones)
Volume: Windows volume above over-rides this.
Pianoteq Options:
Perf: Sample rate: 48000 Hz, Host sample rate 192,000, Buffer size 1024. Polyphony 256
Devices: Audi Device Type ASIO. Device ASIO4ALL V2. Active Output Channels SoundBlaster x3.1 and x3.2 Sample rate 192000. Audio Buffer 1024 5.3mS. 32 Bit
The whole piano sound is critically dependent upon the exact settings here. I have found that if you change anything even by a gnat's whisker, it seems to make a really big difference to the sound.
Also, I have done the "bit-of-cardboard" physical mod to the sustain pedal to get rid of the incredibly silly dead zone at the top of its travel.
Last edited by yeq30 (16-10-2023 13:27)
- ohsumit
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Re: Request: Kawai Novus NV10
Thank you very much for the velocity curve. I will definitely try it. Apologies for the late reply. I haven't looked at this forum in a while. I am very happy with the Modartt, particularly the Bluthner piano.
- yeq30
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Re: Request: Kawai Novus NV10
ohsumit wrote:
Thank you very much for the velocity curve. I will definitely try it. Apologies for the late reply. I haven't looked at this forum in a while. I am very happy with the Modartt, particularly the Bluthner piano.
I've evolved this velocity preset (with an overlay of a couple of pianos) and the overall result is astonishingly good - not far short of a normal acoustic grand:
Velocity = [0, 64, 77, 87, 97, 103, 110, 114, 116, 127; 13, 26, 32, 42, 61, 79, 99, 116, 123, 127]
Obviously, as usual, loads of other settings such as hammer hardesses etc. have to be "just right" to get the whole result.
(I'm trying to find some time to make a calibration gadget that should give me the true, actual force curve.)
A couple of weeks ago I spent an afternoon playing with the Kawai's own menus and settings. I have to admit that I did eventually find a combination that was " *fairly good* " but still nowhere near as good as I've got with that curve above in Pianoteq.