The legendary Steinway Piano is “the piano by which all others are judged”. With a warm, rich, beautiful tone forged across over 150 years of meticulous craftsmanship and brilliant innovation, it is among the greatest gifts to music. The distinctive Steinway tone, though, is perhaps the most acoustically complex of any instrument, with its voice comprised of numerous flawlessly interacting elements in an intricate sonic dance.

Developing the Authorized Steinway Virtual piano required exacting attention to these subtle nuances. In the Garritan Authorized Steinway Model D we have created not just another piano library, but one which faithfully reproduces the incredible detail inherent in a real Steinway’s sound.

Steinway & Sons has long recognized the need for a virtual Steinway piano that would best reflect the beauty and complexity of their legendary sound. We are pleased and honored that Steinway & Sons chose Garritan for this technical and artistic challenge.  Developed with the care, excellence and craftsmanship that are hallmarks of both companies, the Authorized Virtual Steinway is a new standard, worthy of the Steinway and Garritan names.

When played, the Steinway comes to life with a sound that piano lovers describe as vibrantly warm, rich and beautiful. Steinway & Sons were integral participants in the development, ensuring that this library met their stringent expectations for a virtual Steinway concert grand piano sound.  Steinway provided one of their very finest pianos, selected the piano concert hall and the technicians, and were directly involved in all aspects of the development of this library.

Steinway & Sons believes that a properly tuned piano is a fundamental requirement for their sound.  A well-tuned instrument brings out the finest tonal qualities in a piano. For the recording of the Authorized Steinway Virtual Concert Grand, Steinway & Sons provided one of their finest pianos to sample. In addition, one of their very best technicians meticulously listened to each note for consistency, tuning and fidelity.

Notes were not tuned electronically after the fact; but were perfect from their inception.  The same can be said of all aspects of regulation and adjustment of the piano used for these samples.

A piano's sound depends on where you are listening to it. The Garritan Authorized Steinway Concert Grand Piano has more listening aspects than any other virtual piano. Depending on the edition you have, the following perspectives are available:

• Close audience
• Classic
• Under the lid (suitable for jazz and pop)
• Stage Side and
• Player Perspective (from the bench)

The piano was recorded at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, regarded as one of the very finest piano concert halls.

Put simply, without resonance you do not have a true piano sound.

• Sustain Resonance excites the strings across the entire range of the instrument (as when the damper pedal is pressed).
• Sympathetic Resonance excites the strings of just the notes being played or held down. 

The Authorized Steinway Concert Grand Piano is the only virtual concert grand piano to have both Sustain and Sympathetic Resonance. Advanced digital signal processing and convolution modeling make it happen.  The stunning complexity in the richness of harmonics, its overtones, and its acoustical interactions all work together to give the virtual Steinway its distinctively real sound, presence, and richness.

Pedaling greatly influences the sound of the instrument.  Faithfully emulating a real Steinway’s pedal functionality was a top priority. The library realistically emulates:

• The damper (or sustaining) pedal on the right
• The soft (or una corda) pedal on the left
• The sostenuto pedal in the middle
• “Repedaling” (pressing the sustain pedal after the key is played and the damper has fallen on the strings).
  

The Authorized Steinway also has true recorded soft pedal samples. Unlike most other libraries, they aren't simulated by muting or filtering.

Traditionally with other sample libraries, the pedals served merely as on/off switches. Real pianists use a wide variety of pedal positions, known as “half-pedaling” and “proportional pedaling” (various intermediate degrees, rather than just holding the pedal all the way up or down). The Garritan Authorized Steinway Virtual Concert Grand supports “proportional pedaling” to fully reproduce the kinds of pedaling that real pianists do.

How a note sounds as it ends is equally as important as how it begins.  The string vibrations of a piano will decay very fast at first and more slowly later.  “Release triggers” are samples of the release of the hammer and the decay of the note. The Garritan Authorized Steinway Virtual Concert Grand has unique “multi-stage” tracking release triggers that track the decay stages throughout the length of each note. The brightness and amplitude of the decay for each individual string is measured and then matched to the release triggers for a seamless, completely realistic decay.

The ARIA sample engine which powers the Authorized Steinway Virtual Concert Grand is a rock-solid, stable, state-of-the-art player with low latency and stellar performance. It has an aesthetically pleasing interface designed for ease of use. With the recommended hardware, the touch responsiveness action is nimble and immediate.  There are even adjustable velocity curves to tailor the responsiveness to your needs.

The ARIA Player is straightforward and user-friendly. The complexity is under the hood so you can focus on the music not the technology.