TVBO

The Very Big One!

SampleTekk TVBO

An acoustic piano is a very dynamic
and expressive instrument!
You could use the same instrument, in
the same venue for different artists,
and get very different results. Even in
the same genre you would get different
sounds from different performers.
Jerry Lee can use a grand piano, and
Mitsuko Uchida can then use the same
instrument for a Mozart piece. (After
some tuning)
Why?
Because an acoustic piano is a VERY
dynamic and expressive instrument!
Theres simply so much going on
between the soft pianissimo and
thundering forte, especially on a Grand
Piano.
When you record a piano that shall be
used for a sampled instrument, you
want to capture as much as possible of
the tonal range, so you have to record
the same note several times, each time
hitting the note with a different
strength.
In the beginning of sampling you
would have just one, since the
memories of those early samplers
couldnt handle more. This would
mean that you have the same timbre
no matter how hard you hit the key,
and thats not really piano-like
With the arrival of software samplers
and the price drop on memory, you
could indulge in more velocity layers,
and you started to see pianos that had
4, 6, 8 and even 12 velocity layers,
drastically improving the dynamic
response of a sampled piano.
When SampleTekk released the White
Grand and Black Grand, the 16 velocity
layers were considered to be among
the most dynamic sampled pianos
around, (and they still are).
So, where to go next?
Why not 31 velocity layers..

Are you nuts???

That was the obvious question.
If you have a dynamic range on a piano
of about 30-40 dB, that would mean
that you would have to record each
note with an increase of just about 1
dB for each velocity, for both sustain
pedal up, down plus release samples.
Seriously, are you nuts???
Just nuts enough!
During the recording sessions for
TVBO, this was thrown forward as a
possible slogan for SampleTekk.
Considering the hours that went into
this project it probably wasnt such a
bad idea!
It would be very difficult indeed to
record with this level of precision,
especially if you are striking the keys
yourself. (It would also be terribly
tedious!) So we created a software tool
SLH that allowed us to record with
exactly this level of precision.
And, even with SLH you wouldnt
believe the hours!
But when the job was done and the
result could be heard
Yes, it was worth it!
This piano is a joy to play! It reacts just
like the real thing. Play soft, play hard,
play in between, play crescendos, play
diminuendos, its all there! The
response and feel was just amazing!
SampleTekk are so very, very proud to
give you: TVBO
We are certain that once you have
TVBO in your hands (under your
fingers?) you will know that you have
discovered something very special!

The Swedish Chef

Yes, I am from Sweden! So, I
hope youll understand that
the text in this manual
sometimes not are
grammatically correct, and
that there might be a few
spelling mistakes, but who
cares huudli-buudlii-
coconut.


Recording the TVBO
The Instrument

The Grand Piano used for the TVBO
is a Yamaha C7. One of the most
popular studio grands. Well known
for its detailed, rich, full sound.
The C7 is one of the best selling
Grand Pianos in the world and it has
been used on countless productions
in all imaginable genres.

The recordings took place at OAL
studios in Stockholm, Sweden and
we used two types of microphones,
Neumann SM2, a stereo microphone
and a pair of Neumann U89.

Neumann SM2

The SM2 model is a stereo microphone
thats essentially a pair of KM56. It
was introduced in 1956 and was at the
time, (and for quite many years), the
only stereo microphones available. Its
been used in a plethora of recording
situation, and has been dubbed the
piano saviour by many.
The SM2 was set up above the strings,
close the hammers, to capture a
detailed, bright sound that would work
well in a mix where you need detailed

Neumann U89
Neumann U89 The U89 was considered
to be a follower to the famous U87. The
demand for the older model was so
great, that Neumann decided to keep
both models.
The U89 is universal studio
microphones that very often are used
on pianos.
For the TVBO we used a pair of U89 in
an x/y position to capture a bit more
ambience without loosing the touch
with the instrument.

The Kontakt GUI

Heres what you see when you load up the TVBO In Kontakt:

Lets go through the controls from left to right!


Mixer
TVBO where recorded using two
different microphone pairs. Both
having their own characteristic.
(For details, please see Recording the
TVBO)
You can use them separately, or mix
the together using the volume faders.
You can also turn each channel on/off
using the button at the top.

Eq
With this section you can set the EQ.
From top you have Hi Frequency, then
Hi Mid, Lo Mid and Low Frequency
With the In button you turn the EQ
on/off

With the KHz control you set the area
where the EQ should work, and with
the dB control you can increase or
decrease the frequency.
The Q control (available for the Hi and
Lo Mid) controls the bandwidth. Fully
anticlockwise, the EQ is set to work on
a narrow part of the frequency
spectrum, and by turning this up, you
increase the area on witch the EQ
works.

With the dB control you can increase
or decrease the selected frequency
area with approximately -5dB 5 dB
And the frequency areas in witch the
EQ works are the following:


HF
1.5 kHz 16 kHz
HMF
600 Hz 7 kHz
LMF
200 Hz 2.5 kHz
LF
30 Hz 450 Hz

Reverb
This is a convoluting reverb
unit. This means that it works
with so called impulses that
have been recorded from real
rooms, halls and reverb units
like digital reverb, plate reverb
and spring reverb. Without
becoming too technical, this
produces a very natural reverb
sound. In the current version
you can choose between the
following reverbs (use the
arrows on the side of the
display to choose a reverb):

Large Room
Small Room
Concert Hall
Large Hall
Small Hall
Large Plate
Small Plate
Digital 1
Digital 2

Digital 3
Spring

Then you have some different controls:

Dry Volume of the dry, original signal
Wet Volume of the reverb signal
Delay Gives you a short delay between the dry signal and the wet signal.
Great if you want to emulate large rooms, but can also be used as an effect
Size Controls the length of the reverb
High A High Pass filter
Low A Low Pass filter

Go further
If you look at the blue plate, you will find a small button just below the little red
LED light.

If you click on that, further controls will be revealed:

SR Vol



Sympathetic Resonance The life &
soul of the piano
There are two ways of undamping a
piano string, one that described above,
when you press the sustain pedal and
undamp all strings, and another where
you play and hold a tone.
When playing a note on a piano, it will
effect all other strings that are
undamped by resonating them.
Depending on what note(s) that are
held and what note(s) that are played,
you will get certain overtones going.
This is called Sympathetic Resonance
and really, really blows life into a
piano.

To try it out, turn on the SR by pressing

the button, set the SR Vol to about half
way up, play and hold a C chord, let it
ring out and then, while still holding
the keys to the C chord, play the C in
the octave below.
As you can hear, youll get a resonance
going. This is the Sympathetic
Resonance.
You can, if you like, turn this knob to
eleven (In a true Nigel Tufnel
manner).
This will produce an over the top
resonance that still can be cool for
effects!

Some limitations
If you consider the amount of combinations of possible pressed and held keys
together with possible played notes, that sum would be, well big! The SR in the
TVBO is an emulation that works on many, but not all combinations. To get
actually all would make a, well BIG program and would really be impossible to
make.

U89 Ph

Phase cancellation, good or bad?

Well, it depends.
As you might know, Tom Waits once
said: Music, fun thing you can do with
air.
Sound is airwaves, with peaks and
valleys. If you would listen to the same
sound source from different angels, the
peak of a sound wave would reach the
closest listening point first, and when it
reaches the point a bit further away,
the wave would have travelled a bit
further.

When you mix these listening points, as
you do with TVBO two microphone
sources, you will get cancellations of
different frequencies.
In ALL situations where you have
several microphones you will get this.
In fact, even if you use just one
microphone you will get this, since the
sound will reflect from walls and
ceilings.
In short, it changes the timbre.
You can use this as a feature when
sculpting the sound. Changing the
phase of one microphone pair, (in this
case the U89), you will change the
timbre a bit.

Velocity Settings

Here you can set the way that the piano

response to velocity, or, how hard you
hit your MIDI keyboard.

Vel Resp

The Velocity Curve

You will probably have the option to
change the velocity response, or curve,
on your MIDI keyboard. I would
recommend having this set to a linear
response if you want to control things
with the TVBO. Also if you prefer to
control this with your keyboard, I
suggest you set the Piano in a linear
mode

Min Vel & Max Vel

Min Vel & Max Vel ganged

You cant set the Min Vel higher than the
Max Vel, because this would only be,
well, strange!

With this control you can set the

velocity curve of the TVBO. Fully left,
you will get a response where you will
trigger lower velocities on a larger
range, fully right you will set it to
trigger higher velocities on a larger
range.
In the middle, you will get a linear
response and will probably be your
starting point. If you are in a softer
mode, turn it down a bit, and for more
aggressive playing, turn it up. Try it out
and youll see what I mean!

Here you can set the velocity range of

the piano. With Min Vel fully left and
Max Vel fully right, you will get the full
velocity response from the instrument,

and this would be your go-to setting.
If you turn up the Min Vel, you will not
reach the lower velocities, and if you
turn down the Max Vel, you will not
reach to higher velocities. Try it; youll
see what I mean!

Res Vol & Shimmer

The resonance, (in this instrument
anyway), is the sound produced when
you hit a key with the sustain pedal
pressed. What happens when you
press the sustain pedal on a piano is
that you lift all the dampers from the
strings so that all strings on all notes
are undamped. When you then hit a
key, all strings in the piano will
resonate.
Here you set the volume of the
resonance that the piano produces
when hitting a note, or notes, with all
strings undamped.
Set the amount to taste, or turn it up
for some really cool effects!

As described above, you can set the
volume of the resonance produced
with undamped strings.
Ok, on some pianos, the dampers are a
bit worn out and simply dont damp
the strings as they should, so when you
are playing with the sustain pedal up,
you still get some resonance from the
strings. This gives the instrument a
shimmering tone that, in some cases
might be considered a fault, but in
other (this), case are considered a
feature.

With this control you blend in the

resonances to notes played with the
pedal up. All the way to the right you
will actually playing pedal down notes
all the time, but experiment with this
to find a setting that works with your
current musical mode!
Res Vol & Shimmer ganged
You cant have a Shimmer thats louder
then the Res Vol. If you could, pressing
the pedal would actually produce a
lower resonance, and thats a bit to
weird even for me. So, when raising the
shimmer and reaching the Res Vol
settings, the Res Vol knob will follow

Detune U89, HB Vol & Ped Vol

Detune U89
With this control, you can change the
tuning of the U89 perspective.
If you blend the detuned SM2
perspective with the U89 perspective,
you can get really cool effects! Try it
out!

Hammerback Noise

Pedal Volume

This sets the volume of the clunk that

the mechanics of a piano key makes
when released. Here you set the
volume of the clunkiness.

When pressing and releasing a sustain

pedal, you will get a certain sound. So
with this control you can choose how
much of that you want present. Also,
the pedal noise is a bit random, so its
there are several versions recorded,
and you will not get the same noise
triggered two times in a row.

Technical stuff

31 velocity levels
More than 7399 samples
TimeVel Release Technology
Sympathetic Resonance
Real Pedalling
Controllable volume for key/pedal noise
Two different mixable microphone perspectives
Controllable volume for Sympathetic Resonance and Resonance
24 bit 44.1 stereo samples

Minimum requirements:

Kontakt 4, (full version, it will open in the free player, but in a time
limited/session mode)

As always, have fun with the instrument. Please remember to eat, sleep and register
to vote.
Love & Peace!