Another award-winning collection for the legendary Ivory II series of virtual pianos, Ivory II Studio Grands features two classic studio grand pianos recorded in iconic studios.
Synthogy traveled to some of the world’s most legendary studios to capture two exceptional Studio Grands: a Steinway® B Grand Piano at Power Station New England in Waterford, Connecticut, and a Bösendorfer 225 Grand Piano at Firehouse Recording Studios in Pasadena, California.
The result is a most welcome addition to the Ivory II family. Ideally suited for studio recording, Ivory II Studio Grands offer the remarkable treble range, dynamic depth, richness, and character that these 7’ pianos are known for.
Whether you’re new to the Ivory II experience, or a long-time user, the quality and pedigree of these world-class studio instruments are a must-have addition to your recording or live arsenal.
Steinway® Model B Grand: “The Perfect Piano”
The Steinway B is one of the most recorded pianos in history, and one of the most frequently requested piano models from Ivory customers. Its unique balance of size and power makes it an extremely versatile instrument for all styles of music. The ideal studio instrument, it's no wonder that Steinway refers to it as "the perfect piano".
Steinway® Model B Grand: Selected, Prepared, and Tuned by Steinway & Sons®
This particular Steinway B was hand-selected with the kind cooperation of Steinway & Sons® at the Steinway factory in Astoria, New York. One of Steinway's own top concert technicians prepared, regulated, and voiced the instrument expressly for the sampling session, and provided on-site tuning throughout the entire recording session.
Steinway® Model B Grand: Expertly Recorded at Power Station NE
The recording venue chosen for the Steinway B was the classic tuned live room of Power Station NE, a nail-for-nail acoustic replica of the famed Power Station/Avatar New York. With Synthogy's team providing their expertise, they painstakingly captured every nuance of this remarkable instrument in exacting detail.
Bösendorfer 225 Grand: Featured on Grammy Winning Recordings
Recorded at Pasadena, California’s Firehouse Recording Studios, the Bösendorfer 225 Grand Piano possesses a deeply resonant tone and a balance in all registers that never sacrifices clarity.
Slightly longer than most studio grands at 7' 4" and with four additional keys in the bass, this instrument has a distinguished place in the history of recorded music, having appeared on numerous Grammy® winning and Grammy-nominated recordings.
Bösendorfer 225 Grand: Captured in the Historic Firehouse Recording Studio
The Bösendorfer 225 sessions were held in the state-of-the-art Studio A room at Firehouse Recording Studios in Pasadena. The venerated sound of this instrument perfectly captured in this historic room.
All Ivory II products come with the award-winning Ivory 2.5 engine and contains the full complement of Ivory II’s features such as Harmonic Resonance Modeling, Half Pedaling, Lid Position, Pedal Noise, and Tuning Tables to provide even greater detail and control. Additionally, features like Timbre Shifting, Parametric EQ, and new Synth Layer controls offer powerful new sound sculpting capabilities for custom piano programming and sound design.
Ivory II Studio Grands includes up to 24 discrete velocity levels with Sample Interpolation Technology for ultra-smooth velocity and note transitions.
Sustain Resonance was introduced in Ivory version 1 as a groundbreaking new technology to reproduce the complex interaction between strings, harp, and soundboard. It has since become an industry standard among Virtual Pianos.
Whether you're looking for a tight, clean response or want that extra saturated sustain, there are 11 different resonance styles to choose from.
Ivory II premiered with Sympathetic Resonance, yet another new resonance technology that does not rely upon triggering additional samples, ordinary sine waves, or recordings in any way. Rather, Sympathetic Resonance selectively reproduces the complex harmonically-related overtones common between notes that are struck and notes that are being held, in the same manner that undamped strings ring in a real acoustic piano. This brings an unprecedented level of realism.
Soft Pedal (Una Corda), Release Samples that are triggered by note length and velocity, Pedal Noise, Half-Pedaling response curve, Timbre Shift to add some real drama, Key Noise to adjust intimacy, Lid Position, Shimmer for some extra sparkle, User-editable Tuning Maps, Release time, EQ, Ambience, Chorus, Synth Layer... and more!
Whether you purchase a new Ivory 3 product or choose to update to Ivory 3 for free, this library will load seamlessly into the Ivory 3 engine while providing full backwards compatibility with your Ivory II projects. Ivory 3 supports newer hardware, adds an integrated Mix Desk with Compression, Delay, and M-S processing, and much more.
PC / Windows
Hardware Requirements
Minimum Hardware
- 2.0 GHz Quad-Core CPU
- 1.5 GB RAM
- 112 GB free hard drive space
- Hard drive speed of at least 7200 RPM
Recommended Hardware
- 2.4 GHz Quad-Core CPU"
- 2 GB RAM
- 112 GB free hard drive space
- iLok key optional
Software Requirements
- Any AAX, or VST 2.4 plug-in host, or the included Ivory Cantabile application
- Windows 8/10 (32 or 64 bit)
Macintosh / OS X
Hardware Requirements
Minimum Hardware
- 2.0 GHz Quad-Core CPU
- 1.5 GB RAM
- 112 GB free hard drive space
- Hard drive speed of at least 7200 RPM
Recommended Hardware
- 2.4 GHz Quad-Core CPU"
- 2 GB RAM
- 112 GB free hard drive space
- iLok key optional
Software Requirements
- Any AU, AAX, or VST 2.4 plug-in host, or the included Ivory Standalone application
- Mac OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) or newer
UI & DSP Engine
- Unified Interface
- DSP Engine: Ivory 2.5 Engine
- 112 GB Core Library
- 24 Velocity Levels
- Assignable MIDI Controls in the Ivory Standalone App
- Dozens of User-Adjustable Presets
- Intelligent Preset Browsing
Response Control
- High-Resolution MIDI Velocity Response
- Timbre Interpolation
- Sample Interpolation Technology
- Session Velocity Curves
Resonance Modeling
- Sympathetic String Resonance (Harmonic Resonance Modeling)
- Soundboard Sustain Resonance
Microphone Control
- Single Stereo Microphone Position Control
Layers
- Synth Layer Controls
- Up to 8 Synth Layers
Sound Sculpting
- Shimmer (unique control over sustain and decay)
- Half-pedal Control / Half Pedaling
- Lid Position Control
- Mechanical Key Noise Control
- Stereo Width and Perspective Control
- Timbre Shifting
- User-editable Tuning Tables
Pedal Effects
- Pedal Noise Enhancements
- Realistic Damper Pedal Response
- Real Release Samples
- Real Soft Pedal Samples “Una Corda”
On-Board Effects
- FX - Chorus
- FX - EQ
- FX - Ambience
- Parametric EQ