zauberklang

Roland's SA technology is actually a precursor of their SuperNatural synthesis. This is from an Electronic Musician article from 2008: "After the press conference, I talked with Toshio Yamabata, the director of Roland R&D; Shun Takai, an engineer who has been working on the technology directly; and Mike Kent, manager of technical relations for Roland R&D. They confirmed that SuperNatural, which the company has been quietly developing over the past two decades, is indeed an outgrowth of SA. As was the case with SA, the first step in creating a SuperNatural program is separating the various elements of the target sound—for example, the string and bow of a violin as well as the frequency, time, and phase components. These elements are then utilized to reconstruct the sound using an additive technique with complex waveforms from the original sound, along with modeled components and wave-table synthesis."

You have to play the sounds on an actual Nord keyboard to hear it.

I believe Vienna Symphonic Library sampled 127 or more layers for their latest pianos https://www.vsl.co.at/en/Synchron_Package/Synchron_Pianos_Bundle I haven't played them, but I'm pretty sure the transitions between the layers are very smooth.

This is exactly what I'm dying to find out. I'd love to hear from Yamaha CP88/P515 and Nord Piano/Stage users if there are any audible velocity transitions. (I should have included Yamaha in the title of my original post.) Why did Yamaha decide not to include this sample interpolation or related advanced technology in their top of the line synthesizer/workstation Montage. Are there technical restrictions or was it a product policy decision.

Yamaha uses sample interpolation on all or most of their digital pianos. They just don't mention it anymore because it has become a standard feature. The Yamaha AvantGrand N3 from 2009 had no audible velocity layer switching. http://forum.pianoworld.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/1391594/Re: The DP BSD Project!.html#Post1391594

Cphollis, may I ask what Nord and Yamaha models you own? I'm interested in knowning when Clavia (and Yamaha) began do implement the technology. The math associated with smoothly interpolating two sample waveforms may be well understood, but it still took two specialists at Synthogy 3 years (!) to program it for sampled piano waveforms. (This information is from a reliable source that knows the company.) Kurzweil and Korg do not (yet) have this technology AFAIK. That's one of the reasons they don't sell as many home digital pianos as Yamaha and Kawai. The standard piano sounds on the Kurzweil Forte and the Korg Kronos have 8 clearly audible velocity layers. They do use filters to make the velocity switching less jarring, but that does not make them smooth. Users of synthesizer workstations don't mind the audible velocity switching on the piano sounds as much as users of home digital pianos do. The main piano sound on the Yamaha Montage has 8 layers that are not smoothly blended like on a Yamaha stage or home piano AFAIK.

This technology is real. Synthogy calls it Sample Interpolation Technology used for ultrasmooth velocity and note transitions https://www.synthogy.com/index.php/products/software-products/ivory-2-studio-grands (see Highlights) Yamaha first used it on the CP1, I believe. Kawai used it on the MP10 for sure (I owned one). They don't mention it in marketing texts anymore. (I'm not sure they ever did.) People who buy digital pianos from the big three manufacturers (Yamaha, Kawai, Roland) take it for granted these days.

Hi everyone! I'm trying to find out if Clavia has developed Sample Interpolation Technology for their piano sounds. So my question for Nord owners is: are the velocity layers of the acoustic piano sounds (at least on the newer models) smoothly blended (meaning inaudible)? I'm not planning on buying a Nord Piano anytime soon; it's just the geek in me who wants to know. 🙂 I know that Yamaha, Kawai and Synthogy have developed this very advanced Sample Interpolation Technology for absolutely smooth piano sounds. Roland doesn't use samples for their piano sounds anymore, only physical modeling. I know that at Synthogy it took two highly qualified employees three years to develop this technology! This explains why it is still so rarely used. My apologies if this topic has been covered before.

Apart from a thick accent, your English is rather good. :-)