Piano VST velocity confusion... too quiet/weak

Question

So I'm a bit confused about something. Anytime I load up a piano VST and I try playing it, it's the softest and most unsatisfying thing to play. If I want a note to pop out, it's like I have to hit the keys with a hammer (This is well outside the realm of reasonable dynamics.) The preview sample sounds great and like what I would expect, but when I load it up myself, it's like there's a blanket over the piano strings or something.

I suspect it has something to do with velocity settings, but I don't understand how to set it up. I tried all the options in the velocity curve (soft, hard) on the keyboard itself and none of them feel anything close to what a piano should be like.

(I realize nothing will ever be 100% like a real piano, but my point is that it is so far away that I can't imagine this is the intended experience.)

I don't think it's a volume thing, because when compared to my DAW metronome, it seems like a reasonable balance, at least when written in with MIDI. Are people adding lots of gain on all their piano VSTs? I'm just not sure why the default setting is so far away from what the preset preview demonstrates.

So I'm really just wondering how people set this stuff up so that it resembles the dynamics of a normal piano? I've been mostly trying with the Noire VST.

Uwe303 · Answer

If you record a few notes into your DAW, what is the velocity value if you press really hard? Do you reach 127 or at least 100? Can you give an example preset so we can test ourselves. I own the 49MK3 it maybe you have the big version with a different mechanic, as already pointed out.

JesterMgee · Answer

Are you talking about the 61 key (synth action) or 88 key (weighted hammer action) version?

Vocalpoint · Answer

"So I'm a bit confused about something. Anytime I load up a piano VST and I try playing it, it's the softest and most unsatisfying thing to play"

If you are basing this solely on Noire - you are correct.

But that is not an Ni instrument - you would need to talk to Galaxy Instruments - who built this thing.

I am no concert pianist in stretch of anyones imagination - but they clearly missed the boat on velocity and bunch of other things when creating this instrument. By far the quietest plugin I own and a major reason why it never gets used.

If you want something better - magnitudes better - try Keyscape from Spectrasonics. Also some props to the Grandeur as well from NI - that one I do come back to - again and again.

VP