Modern D is a flawless imitation of the world’s most famous concert grand piano. Sampled from the 2021 New York Steinway Model D , chosen for its exquisite tone and incredible power, this is our most ambitious and largest piano sample library ever.
The library contains 34,615 samples across five stereo microphone setups, all controlled via a simple and intuitive interface. Our new Natural Response method recreates the full dynamic range of each key in each microphone, ensuring that every touch generates the authentic and precise response of a real grand piano. The dynamic range of many notes exceeds 50 dB, and sustain can last up to two minutes. This is the perfect studio-quality simulation of a concert grand piano, right at your fingertips.
As always at VI Labs Audio, 100% of the sound is sampled from real pianos—nothing synthesized or faked. Legendary microphones like the Neumann M49 and DPA 4006 were deliberately chosen to capture everything, including 2,500 release samples per microphone, multi-layered sympathetic resonances, a fully sampled left pedal with its own release samples, muted articulations, half-pedaling, soft articulations, and pedal and key noises. With a huge range of timbres and volumes, this grand piano is capable of anything. Whether the sound is bright, soft, or somewhere in between—it all depends on how you play it. The Modern D has everything you need: from soft, detailed pianissimos to the most aggressive, growling fortissimos.
Features
- 34,615 samples with an original size of 118 GB in WAV format, compressed to 18 GB in lossless FLAC format
- 100% sample-based, no modeling or synthesis
- Efficient use of RAM and CPU resources
- 5 discrete microphone setups with interactive interface
- Mic positions: Close (U87), Hammers (M49), Player (C414), Side (4006) and Room (MK2H)
• Fully sampled left pedal for a soft, ethereal tone - Fully sampled sympathetic and pedal resonance
- Adjustable sympathetic resonance polyphony
- Repedal and True Pedal Action options for realistic sustain pedal control
- Half Pedal option is sample-based and fully customizable
- Sampled muted articulations with percussive attack and short decay
- Adjustable MIDI response and dynamics
- 37 convolution reverbs with deep adjustments
- 2500 release samples per mic, including true staccato
- Complete imaging control with Stereo Width , Tone , and Timbre Shift
- Settings panel contains numerous presets and supports micro-tuning
An early version of this update has been available to all customers since July 1, and now we’re rolling out the final release that includes a few more fixes and improvements, including our Extended Sympathetic Resonance feature which allows more resonance samples to be heard in more playing instances. Model-based virtual pianos will often have this, but we believe the Modern D is the first fully sample-based piano that has this feature.
The complete list of changes and improvements is below. This update is free and we encourage all Modern D customers to update to this latest version, even if you have the early 1.1 version. The download is available right now in your VI Labs account. Just replace your existing ‘Modern D.ufs’ file, and update UVI Workstation to 4.0.1 if needed, and that’s it! We listened to your feedback, and this 1.1 update includes many fixes and improvements, so we at VI Labs hope you enjoy the fresh new and improved Modern D!

