Synchron Fazioli F212

INTRODUCING SYNCHRON FAZIOLI F212!

As with the C. Bechstein upright piano that is available as the Synchron Upright 1904, this Fazioli F212 is owned by pianist and film composer Mick Baumeister, co-creator of the Hornberg hb1 MIDI breath controller. Mick acquired this Fazioli 212 after some intense testing at Piano Fischer in Stuttgart as a birthday present to himself in 1998.

Mick compared this piano with the other available Faziolis (228, 278 and 308) and was looking for a well-balanced piano with a nicely rounded bass that would fit his recording room. After a few days of testing, the F212 won his heart with its intimate yet powerful sound.

There was only one thing holding him back, and that was the feeling of one specific octave. After tweaking the intonation of certain notes didn’t help, Mr. Paolo Fazioli himself made the trip to Stuttgart and brought with him a brand-new hammer-row that immediately made this instrument sing over the entire range, with beautifully rounded tones across the keyboard spectrum. Given its sound and the significant attention it received, including from the company's founder, this particular instrument became an obvious choice to complement Vienna’s esteemed virtual piano collection.

The Synchron Piano Player

In addition to creating your sound by mixing several microphone signals, the included Vienna Synchron Pianos software offers multiple options for shaping the sound of the piano 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. You may also adjust the volume of body resonances, sympathetic strings, and pedal noises right in the main Play window. In the Edit window you can even tweak EQ, volume, tuning, dynamic range, etc. for each individual key!

Sampling Precision

To capture the sound of the instrument with all its subtleties, Vienna's engineers deployed 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

In order to capture this marvelous instrument on Stage B, Vienna’s recording engineers used multiple high-end microphone arrays, affording an abundance of options for creating your individual sound. The Full Library features three different sets of close microphones with condenser, ribbon and tube options, two pairs of mid mics, as well as the Decca tree with additional surround outriggers.