Studio Blüthner 1895

Blüthner 1895 - The Lyrical Grand

Key Features

• Refurbished 6-foot-4 (193 cm) grand piano with patented Aliquot stringing
• Glorious example of Blüthner’s legendary “golden tone”
• Recorded at Stage B of Synchron Stage Vienna
• Advanced Release Sample Technology
• Multiple Microphone Positions – for a multitude of timbral variations
• Pre-configured Main Presets: "Concert", "Intimate", "Player", "Pop", "Ambience", "Vintage"
• FX Presets for enhanced, warped or mysterious piano sounds
• Soft (una corda), sostenuto, sustain pedals
• Half-pedalling and re-pedalling
• Sympathetic resonance
• Body resonance

The 6-foot-4 professional scale instrument is equipped with Blüthner’s specially developed and patented Aliquot system that uses additional dampened strings positioned above the conventional strings of the treble register, which are not struck by the hammers but resonate sympathetically. This fourth set of strings enhances the overtones, providing a velvety, organic shimmer and giving the instrument a particularly lyrical “singing” quality. In addition, all the strings are unusually long and thin, stretched to an enormous string tension of 20 tons, which helps define the instrument’s specific sound. In combination with its soft hammers the Blüthner grand produces a clear, yet warm and soft timbre that is superior to many modern instruments in its variety of tonal colors.

Composers such as Debussy, Brahms, Mahler, Bartók, Liszt, Tchaikowsky, Shostakowitch and Rachmaninov created their works on a Blüthner grand. Famously, Paul McCartney played a Blüthner concert grand when recording “Let It Be” for the film of the same title in 1969.

Vienna Symphonic Library’s Blüthner 1895 grand piano was recorded at Stage B of Synchron Stage Vienna. This beautiful 739 sq ft. (69 m²) live room with a 11.5 - 14.75 ft (3.5 to 4.5 m) height features a controlled acoustic environment with less ambience than the large main hall (Stage A).

While beautifully restored, this Blüthner 1895 was recorded “as is”, with all the charm and peculiarities that give a seasoned instrument its character. Its virtual recreation is extremely versatile and well suited for soloists looking for a slightly different, personal piano sound. The Blüthner lends itself extremely well to song accompaniments and chamber music settings, as well as to pop songs and ballads where other concert grands sound too large and obtrusive. Presets like “Intimate” or “Vintage” bring out this special quality even more.

Sampling Precision

To capture the Blüthner 1895 with all its subtleties, Vienna’s engineers developed a highly precise motion-control system based on a solenoid that controls a noise-free “robot finger”. The micro-controller moves the finger with super-human precision, providing flexible curvatures for down-strokes and release movements, the latter corresponding with the preceding note length and various release speeds.

8 Microphone Positions

The Blüthner 1895 was recorded using multiple high-end microphone arrays, affording an abundance of options for creating your individual sound.

Standard vs. Full Libraries

The Standard Library versions of the VSL Synchron Pianos feature an essential set of close mics plus the classic sound of a Decca tree stereo array. The Full Library versions add more close mic options and include all available room microphones for a wide variety of stereo and surround possibilities. Even if you're not using a surround setup, you get more ambience variations and spatial depth out of the Full Library by adding the room microphones' signals to your stereo mix.

Customize Your Personal Sound

In addition to the multitude of options from mixing various microphone signals, the Blüthner 1895 comes with the free Vienna Synchron Pianos player that offers multiple options for shaping your sound and your playing experience. Hosting a high-performance playback engine, the software provides a full-blown mixer with a broad range of effects such as EQ, compressor, saturator, algorithmic reverb, delay, chorus, flanger, rotary, and many more. Change the volume of body resonances, sympathetic strings and pedal noises right in the main Play window. In the Edit window you may even adjust EQ, volume, tuning, dynamic range, etc. for each individual key!