300 Grand
$149.00
AVAILABLE NOW!
300 Grand is Production Voices’ latest and most ambitious piano sample library to date.
Experience a modern 9 foot performance grand piano sampled in a real concert hall providing an immersive audio experience with the precision and control of a multi-track recording.
300 Grand is an exceptionally high-quality piano sample library for Native Instruments Kontakt Player, consisting of nine microphone perspectives and over 100,000 samples of a Yamaha CFX grand piano recorded in a world-class recital hall.
From big bold forward sounds to lyrical pianissimos with natural ambience and everything in-between, 300 Grand has it covered.
300 Grand is ideal for Studio Production, Stage Production, Film Score Production, Practice, Performance and more!
9 foot performance grand sampled in a concert hall. Provides an immersive audio experience with the precision and control of a multi-track recording.
300 Grand starts with pristine modern concert grand piano in a concert hall optimized for piano performance then deep samples it with premium microphones, varied mic placement, and quality preamps into a software instrument that is joy to practice, perform and record with.
Mac or PC that meets the minimum requirements for Kontakt Player.
Recommended:
16 GB RAM or more.
256 GB SSD or larger.
Installation requires a minimum of 110 GB of free SYSTEM drive space to install using Native Access to an external drive (some systems may require more free space). To install to an internal SYSTEM drive, 170 GB of free space is needed for installation. After installation, the product size is just under 73 GB and the additional required space is recovered.
MANUAL
See VIDEOS tab for video tutorials.
DOWNLOAD INSTRUCTIONS (After Purchase)
300 Grand uses Native Access software to register and install the library.
The Redemption/Serial Key is provided in your purchase receipt and email.
STEP 1. Download and install the Native Access app from here:
https://www.native-instruments.com/en/support/downloads/
STEP 2. Launch the Native Access app and create a Native Access account to use the downloader or login if you already have a Native Access account. This account is separate from your Production Voices account. The account keeps track of your purchases and keeps your licenses in one spot for future downloads and upgrades.
STEP 3. Copy and paste your License Key (shown in your confirmation email) into Native Access by clicking “Add a serial” button in the top left-hand corner. Your Production Voices product will show up in Native Access and an “Install” button will appear below or beside the product depending on the view.
STEP 4. Click INSTALL and choose a destination. 300 Grand requires up to 185 GB of free space to install (much less if using a non-system drive), but once installed the needed space is around 72 GB (Native Access shows 67.70 GB but this depends on how your drive is formatted) and the remaining hard drive space becomes available again. A solid state drive is recommended (It’s actually a necessity).
DOWNLOAD TIME: 300 Grand is a large library! It may take a long time to download it. Some users have reported over 3 hours to download and install. Your download time will depend on how busy the Native Access server is, the speed of your internet connection and how fast your computer is.
LAUNCHING 300 Grand:
STEP 1. Launch either Kontakt Player or Kontakt (if you own Kontakt).
STEP 2. Select the LIBRARIES tab to see the available presets.
STEP 3. Load a preset. We recommend the “300 Grand.nki” preset to start. All the other presets have more velocities, but some of the features may be disabled to get a higher velocity count. Please read page 5 of the manual for an explanation of the different presets.
PRODUCT TUTORIAL VIDEOS:
Tutorial videos are available in the Videos tab on the product page.
300 Grand Compact to 300 Grand Upgrade Pricing Policy:
The FULL purchase price of 300 Grand Compact will either be credited (as a partial refund) to your 300 Grand purchase or discounted at checkout using a requested upgrade coupon.
To receive upgrade pricing, users must have purchased 300 Grand Compact before July 25th 2022 directly from Production Voices retaining an email receipt or invoice number and purchase (or plan to with coupon) 300 Grand within the first 30 days of product launch.
METHOD 1: PURCHASE AND REQUEST PARTIAL-REFUND
The FULL purchase price of 300 Grand Compact will be credited (as a partial refund) to your 300 Grand purchase to anyone who purchased 300 Grand Compact before July 25th, 2022 who updates to 300 Grand by August 31st 2022.
To redeem your credit, use our CONTACT form to send both your 300 Grand Compact and 300 Grand purchase order numbers within 14 days of 300 Grand purchase.
The same email address has to be used to upgrade.
It may take up to ten business days to process the upgrade pricing.
METHOD 2: REQUEST AN UPGRADE COUPON CODE
Use our CONTACT form to request a coupon code to see an instant discount at checkout. Please provide either your email or 300 Grand Compact order number when contacting.
We try to process upgrade coupon requests as quickly as possible (usually within a day), but it may take a few days to catch up on all upgrade coupon requests.
FEATURES
300 Grand (Kontakt Player version)
- 9 microphone perspectives
- Ambisonic 3D sound control
- 72 GB of samples after lossless compression
- 24 bit 96k source samples converted to 16 bit 44.1k with GoodHertz conversion
- Round-robin pedal noise samples with normal and loud settings
- Sampled key up mechanical noises from the actual keyboard action
- Sympathetic Resonance with on/off and volume controls
- Recorded in state-of-the-art Concert Hall
- Lynx Aurora & Apogee A/D converters used
- Premium API, Focusrite ISA 828 and Millennia HV-3D/8 microphone preamps used
- Up to 36 velocities pedal up per key
- Up to 36 velocities pedal down per key
- 16 velocities release samples
- Advanced half-pedal control with catch
- Native Access installation
“This is the new reference for Kontakt-based pristine, non-character grand piano emulation.” – P.D.R. – VI Control Forum User
MADE FOR KONTAKT PLAYER
300 Grand is made for Kontakt Player. Simply put, purchase 300 Grand and no additional sampler software needs to be purchased.
300 Grand is Production Voices first licensed sample library for Kontakt Player. This means no additional software is necessary to use 300 Grand and existing users of Kontakt will have the library show up in the Library tab. 300 Grand is also compatible with Kontakt 5.8 and Kontakt 6 and above.
Native Instruments has an upgrade path from Kontakt Player to Kontakt. Users that upgrade or already have Kontakt 5.8 and above can access Production Voices other sample libraries for Kontakt such as Concert Grand and Production Grand 2.
NKS COMPATIBLE
300 Grand has a comprehensive NKS map that includes several pages of controls. Every microphone perspective can be turned on and off from an NKS controller. Every volume of the 9 microphone perspectives can be controlled with NKS. Every parameter has a value that can be seen on the NKS screen. The microphone volumes are displayed in dB. The EQ for each section can be controlled with values that make sense: Hz and dB.
There is no better way to control 300 Grand than with an NKS compatible controller. For extra realism, consider a weighted 88 key NKS controller.
SONIC POSSIBILITIES
Most piano sample libraries pre-mix the microphones used to sample the instrument into what is considered the most commonly used piano sound, which is usually a more direct sound combined with some microphones a little further out from the instrument. This makes the instrument memory size smaller, uses less polyphony and narrows the choices. If you want a more distant sound, you would add artificial reverb to the sound.
300 Grand can do this as well. Our presets are setup to quickly give you that typical direct polished piano sound, but because the microphones are not pre-mix and merged, 300 Grand will use more voices (polyphony) to get this sound, but it allows 300 Grand to vastly increase the piano sonic pallet.
The real benefit to multi-mic sample libraries, such as 300 Grand, is that you get every sonic possibility from intimate close sound on the strings to distant hall sound and everything in-between. 300 Grand is purposely setup from left to right on the mixer to go from direct, less ambient to more naturally ambient microphone perspectives. There is no need to simulate the sound of the piano in the hall as the true samples from the hall are available.
Each microphone perspective also brings its own flavour based on the mic type and placement. The Coles ribbon microphones just outside the piano are an excellent example of character being brought into the sound. For modern music production, these ribbon microphones are perfect for adding character and warmth. For classical purists, the uncoloured sound of the distant microphones would give a truer piano sound.
“…the piano library sounds fantastic.” R.C. – 300 Grand User
AMBISONIC 3D SOUND
The ambisonics channel provides complete 3D sound of the piano allowing users to rotate the sound direction from any spherical direction 360 degrees up, down, left or right. The virtual microphone can be pointed at the piano or the room or anywhere in-between. The ambisonics channel was recorded using a Soundfield microphone. Ambisonics is the most flexible audio format allowing for a single mic through to 5.1 surround sound and beyond! The ambisonics output can be mapped to your digital audio workstation for external ambisonic processing in plugins such as Harpex and SurroundZone2.
Film and game composers as well as sound designers will appreciate the ability to put piano sounds into virtual reality worlds in full ambisonics or surround sound with very little effort compared to traditional sample libraries.
PREMIUM MICROPHONE SELECTION
Microphone selection and placement makes all the difference to a quality recording. Audio engineers the world over have relied on the sound quality and tone of standards such as U87, 414 and Coles microphones. The signal path for the sampling of 300 Grand represents the best of the best from microphones to preamps and to converters. It’s a bold claim, but rings true in the sound of 300 Grand.
- Neumann U87 – Hammer
- Rode NT2A – Inside
- Neumann M149 – Outside
- Coles 4038 Ribbon – Outside
- Soundfield MK V – Outside lid
- Crown SASS – Binaural Player position
- AKG 414 XLS – Stage
- Schoeps ORTF – Hall
- Sennheiser Omni – Hall
STUDIO GRADE MIXING CONSOLE
9 Microphone perspectives are impressive on their own, but how 300 Grand handles these sonic choices puts you in the engineer’s seat when you are not on the piano bench. The mixer is a full complement SSL emulation with SSL simulated EQ and compression on every channel. Get the same control as if the piano were recorded on different tracks in a recording studio. Album quality production is the goal with 300 Grand’s mixer section.
- Panning on every channel
- Solo left or right channels
- Invert stereo image on any channel
- Dedicated pre-fader reverb send per channel
- Multi-output DAW send – Send any channel to DAW mixer
- Fully automatable parameters
- Channel on/off purges samples to save memory
- Mono can sum or be left or right
- Full solo, mute controls
AUDIO DEMOS
REAL CONCERT HALL
300 Grand is sampled from a 9′ Yamaha CFX in a real concert hall. The perfect blend between American D grands and the brighter Japanese pianos, this CFX allows for lyrical piano lines to sing above softer tones. Without a doubt this is a majestic piano with all the signature sounds that you would expect from this model. The tone is not overly sharp or piercing as on some smaller Japanese models, but without completely rounding out the tone the way other concert grands do. The piano is naturally mechanically noisy, as all pianos are, which makes for an authentic piano sound. You get a modern concert grand at your fingertips with all the controls that an audio engineer would have to create finished recordings right from the software!
CUSTOM MADE PRESETS
300 Grand has some amazing presets to get you playing and enjoying the library right off the get go! These presets were crafted to sound great in a variety of styles and make use of the 9 microphone choices.
The Ambisonic Section also contains presets that cover a variety of virtual microphone positions. The sound pallet possible just from the ambisonics alone would make 300 Grand worth the purchase price! There are traditional stereo microphone perspectives such as XY and Blumlein as well as creative microphone placements that add depth to the room sound. There is plenty to explore in the ambisonics inside of Kontakt, but much more to explore when the ambisonics section is used in a DAW such as Pro Tools or Logic.
The reverb section contains 30+ impulse responses, including IRs (reverb samples) from the concert hall the piano was sampled in, all set with the right amount of pre-delay on each. There are also plates, halls and studio reverbs to enhance the piano performance experience. Every mic perspective also has its own reverb send so the sound can be shaped based on what mics you are using.
PRECISION VELOCITY PRESETS
300 Grand has machine precision velocities across the entire keyboard range. This gives you up to 36 velocities per note for both pedal up and pedal down samples. This creates some of the smoothest dynamics in a sampled instrument. We also made the contraversial decision not to normalize the samples. The samples maintain their nature dynamics in relation to adjoining velocities reducing the need to be manipulated artificially with velocity driven amplifier envelopes. This is only possible because of the precise machine sampling and high velocity counts.
We know that sometimes RAM is pushed to its limit and that some users may want to choose a “lite” version of 300 Grand that reduces the load time and memory usage. For these instances, we have provided a handful of different velocity options in 16, 22, 30 and 32 velocity options. These are the lower limit of the velocities available as the 32 velocity option, for example, actual has up to 36 velocities in the upper register.
To maximize the velocities for 300 Grand, we also included presets with 32 to 36 velocities that divide the microphone perspectives into normal and Ambisonics presets. These presets allow us to overcome Kontakt’s maximum sample (zone) limit to increase the number samples and thus the accuracy of 300 Grand. See the manual for details.
“…this is by far the most stunning CFX library…” S.K. – VI Control Forum User
BUY NOW
Receive immediate download codes for NATIVE ACCESS.
NOTE FROM the DEVELOPER
300 Grand is Production Voices’ most ambitious project to date! We set out to record a performance grand in a true performance venue with the best equipment with as little compromise as possible. We captured the true sound of a performance grand and still have samples that excel in other styles of music that require a drier (less reverb) sound. Everything for the sampling session came together to capture lightning in a bottle, so to speak. Sampling sessions require the piano to be available at the same time as the venue is available for ten days or more (which is next to impossible with concerts and events going on) while the producer/engineer was between projects and I was not working on something else. Not to mention having the piano technicians available everyday for tuning and such. We got a few strange looks when we said we needed 24 hour access and would be recording around the clock to get the project sampled in time. With three hard drives full and 10 days of shared 12 hour shifts later, we had our sampling session.
It took months to edit the sessions into something that we could hear for the first time, but the moment I first played these early sample edits, I knew we had something special. The velocity layers were so smooth that I couldn’t believe the sound was coming from a controller. The Coles ribbon microphones just brought out the huge low end of the instrument and the hall mics just added a realism I hadn’t heard before by using reverb alone.
Halfway through the project, COVID happened. No one saw it coming and it delayed everything, but we are all getting used to the changes. In the end, we produced what I believe to be one of the best sampled piano performance libraries ever made. A piano library with more sonic variety from the 9 microphone perspectives than previously available. From big bold forward sounds to lyrical pianissimos with natural ambience and everything in-between, 300 Grand has it covered.
My hope is that 300 Grand inspires your playing, compositions and productions and is right at your finger tips through your practice sessions, live performances and recordings for many years to come.
Jason Chapman – Production Voices
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