I'm wondering if anyone has used Galaxy Vintage D piano synth and may have suggestions on how to resolve a couple of issues. The main one is that when playing back a midi track into Galaxy sometimes notes are cut off if the sustain pedal is raised to cut off sustain as a normal pianist will do throughout a song. An acoustic piano will stop the sustain but not cut off the notes. The only thing I can determine is if the pedal is raised at the same time a note or chord is played then the note(s) get cut off, and mainly lower register notes. I can fix it by extending the duration of the note, but this shouldn't be necessary. By the way, this problem doesn't show up if I use Cakewalk's piano synth, but don't like the sound of that piano.
 
I am also looking for suggestions on configuring the piano within the Galaxy program itself. How to get an sound that is as close to an actual acoustic grand - within the limits of a piano synth of course. I've gotten a pretty good sound but find some of the notes a bit "synthy" sounding. The demo tunes on the Galaxy web site sound very good, but there are no details of what the configuration is.
 
I'm using Sonar X2, Tascam FW-1884 w/2 FE-8's as the controller.
 
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
 
SkyKing

What Cakewalk piano synth don't you like? 

SkyKing
I use the Galaxy Vintage D. I've had problems along those lines too, but it's a while since I've used it and can't quite remember what I did to fix it. Try reloading the samples? Latest version of Kontakt? I think I may have used the nudge feature in the piano roll to move the pedal points slightly? (I don't know if I'm imagining this, but sometimes I think the pedal points don't stay where I put them midi wise in Sonar) If I remember rightly, I think I've also had issues with 'bounce to track' and 'export audio' with Vintage D and had to disable 'fast bounce'. Try just reloading the samples first though. Maybe also try closing and opening the project again?
Sound wise, I generally use the synth 'dry' and use another reverb. East West's Quantum Leap Spaces works well if you're looking for something 'concert hall(ish)'.
I find it a very nice. responsive piano to work with though and put up with its little foibles.

Reply to Daveny5:
 
TruePianos vst synth piano. Galaxy Vintage D is significantly better from my experience if looking for a Steinway sound, which I am.
 
SkyKing

Can't help you with Galaxy D but since you own a version of Cakewalk that ships with TruePianos Amber you can get a 30% discount on the full TruePianos suite http://www.truepianos.com/cakewalk.php It contains five different pianos (including the Amber that ships with SONAR).

Jean


SkyKing
I use the Galaxy Vintage D. I've had problems along those lines too, but it's a while since I've used it and can't quite remember what I did to fix it. Try reloading the samples? Latest version of Kontakt? I think I may have used the nudge feature in the piano roll to move the pedal points slightly? (I don't know if I'm imagining this, but sometimes I think the pedal points don't stay where I put them midi wise in Sonar) If I remember rightly, I think I've also had issues with 'bounce to track' and 'export audio' with Vintage D and had to disable 'fast bounce'. Try just reloading the samples first though. Maybe also try closing and opening the project again?
Sound wise, I generally use the synth 'dry' and use another reverb. East West's Quantum Leap Spaces works well if you're looking for something 'concert hall(ish)'.
I find it a very nice. responsive piano to work with though and put up with its little foibles.

I have the latest version of everything including Kontakt5. I have edited sustain pedal events to move them further away from the note events, but this really should not be necessary. Increasing note duration of cut off notes seems to work about as well, but it's tedious editing. I have had no issues exporting audio. I don't use "bounce to track" for anything. When time to do final mix for mastering I will export to wav file and do final tweaks from there since this project is 100% midi recording input of solo piano.
 
I have more or less decided not to add any reverb as it seems solo piano doesn't really benefit much. I may change my mind. I have all the UAD-2 reverbs, plus what comes with Sonar X2 Producer, but I might demo the EWQL one as I like all their stuff. I am not going for a concert hall sound, something more intimate - i.e. Andre Previn's solo stuff. A very high standard to try and achieve, but that's the idea of what I'm going for.
 
I didn't mention before that the pianist is using his Yamaha Clavinova which is less than ideal but meets our budget constraints ($0). The sustain pedal is either controller velocity value "0" "127" as it isn't a continuous controller pedal.
 
SkyKing

scook


Can't help you with Galaxy D but since you own a version of Cakewalk that ships with TruePianos Amber you can get a 30% discount on the full TruePianos suite http://www.truepianos.com/cakewalk.php It contains five different pianos (including the Amber that ships with SONAR).

Thanks. I would prefer to stick with Galaxy at this point since I've invested in it. It was between Galaxy Vintage D and Synthogy American D which I really like the sound of also. I went with Galaxy because of rave reviews and no iLok requirements. I'll check into this TruePianos offer anyway in case it offers something I could use.
 
SkyKing

Hi Skyking,
 
I see you say you're running the latest versions, just to check.
Kontakt 5, do you have the 5.10.6066 update ?.
 
Galaxy D also had a 1.2 update that was a major rewrite.
 
Do you have the repedalling option enabled ?.
 
I see you're definitely not using continuous CC for sustain for half pedalling, which BTW, is very cool - it's so much more like a real sustain pedal. I hate working without it now for solo piano.
 
I do recall having some funnies with sustain when I first got Galaxy D, but that was before the 1.2 update which was very much a ground up rewrite (according to their docs).
That was also Kontakt 4, and many updates ago.
 
I don't recall having problems of late, and I just did a round of full on classical solo work, no glitches at all.
I use both the repedalling option, which does apply to your situation because it doesn't require a continuous CC rather than On/Off sustain, AND the half pedalling with a continuous sustain pedal.
 
The only other thing that crosses my mind, is with Kontakt options - CPU overload that results in voice stealing or dropping.
 
 
Cheers - Cliff
 

I think most people would probably disagree with me, but I like the pianos in Dimension Pro.  There are things wrong with them though, e.g. some notes not in tune and some unwanted resonances and background noises that require a bit of filtering.  But somehow these seem to work best for me and I keep on returning to DimPro after trying out other options.

cliffr


Hi Skyking,
 
I see you say you're running the latest versions, just to check.
Kontakt 5, do you have the 5.10.6066 update ?.
 
Galaxy D also had a 1.2 update that was a major rewrite.
 
Do you have the repedalling option enabled ?.
 
I see you're definitely not using continuous CC for sustain for half pedalling, which BTW, is very cool - it's so much more like a real sustain pedal. I hate working without it now for solo piano.
 
I do recall having some funnies with sustain when I first got Galaxy D, but that was before the 1.2 update which was very much a ground up rewrite (according to their docs).
That was also Kontakt 4, and many updates ago.
 
I don't recall having problems of late, and I just did a round of full on classical solo work, no glitches at all.
I use both the repedalling option, which does apply to your situation because it doesn't require a continuous CC rather than On/Off sustain, AND the half pedalling with a continuous sustain pedal.
 
The only other thing that crosses my mind, is with Kontakt options - CPU overload that results in voice stealing or dropping.
 
 
Cheers - Cliff
 

Cliff,
 
I appreciate all the input but have addressed all your points already. I updated to latest Kontakt 5 version this week, have Galaxy 1.2, tried enabling repedalling which didn't help. I think this is a glitch in Galaxy but have no way to confirm it. Their tech support admitted to nothing - of course. So until I find a solution I'll continue to edit midi events as needed.
 
I have a Core i7 processor with 24 Gig of ram so I doubt there is any CPU overload or memory issues. I have run apps to determine if there are any PC related issues, such as interrupts etc., and found nothing. Nothing shows up in the bar graph indicators related to CPU or disk operation.
 
SkyKing