The Bardstown Bosendorfer Imperial Grand and sampled instruments
The Bardstown Bosendorfer Imperial Grand is totally unprocessed and exhibits the pure and natural sound of the real Bosendorfer Imperial Model 290 that was sample recorded. Unlike all other sampled pianos that are available, no noise reduction or filters were used on any of the samples in the Bardstown Bosendorfer. Noise reduction and filtering have negative effects on any sampled piano that will result in a sampled piano with less life and gusto, though this sound is desirable for people doing music where they want this softer and more mellow warmer sound. You can always add low pass filtering to a sampled instrument, but if it is processed permanently in the samples, you can never remove it.
The customer has complete flexibility and control over the Bardstown Bosendorfer by having a Bosendorfer Imperial Model 290 with either its full natural pristine sound with full character, or with custom filtering that is easily applied in any sampler in order to achieve a soft darker sounding piano with warmth. On any real piano, you do have natural variations of sound and character from note to note, and the Bardstown Bosendorfer provides this desirable character in its pristine unprocessed state. Over the years, many people have become accustomed to playing and hearing sampled pianos and keyboard pianos that have been extensively processed, and as a result some people have become conditioned into thinking that this is the way a piano is supposed to sound. If desired, this sound is easily achieved with the Bardstown Bosendorfer by applying low pass filtering.
Considerable care was taken during the sample recording process of the Bardstown Bosendorfer Imperial Grand using the very best recording equipment and techniques in order to insure that no noise would be present in the samples, so that no destructive filtering or noise reduction processing would be required. The Bardstown Bosendorfer was sample recorded in a performance hall using DPA B&K 130 volt 4012 cardioid mic's and Millennia HV3B preamps. The extensive editing process, which took over a year, was done one note at a time by hand without the use of any destructive batch processing. The end result is a sampled piano that truly plays and sounds like the real Bosendorfer Imperial Model 290 that was sample recorded. All notes at all velocities and articulations of pedal up, pedal down, and release note off, were chromatically sample recorded without pitch shifting any notes or using filters to produce additional fake velocity layers, such has been done on other sampled pianos claiming to have eight to sixteen velocity layers. Any of these destructive processes, such as filtering, noise reduction, and pitch shifting, do have negative effects on the sound of a sampled piano.
As I stated in a preceding paragraph above, there is no filtering or processing in the Bardstown Bosendorfer Imperial Grand. You get the pure natural sound of the real Bosendorfer Imperial Model 290 that was sample recorded, which sounds absolutely beautiful as it is in its pure natural state. The Bardstown Bosendorfer was fairly close mic'ed in order to capture the full detail and character of this piano. On sampled pianos that have been mic'ed from a distance you do not hear the full character and detail of the instrument, and distant mic'ed pianos sound rather mushy by comparison and do not sit very well in a mix with other instruments. With a sampled piano such as the Bardstown Bosendorfer Imperial Grand Model 290 that has been closely mic'ed, you have a piano that not only sits extremely well in a mix with other instruments and sounds amazingly beautiful as a solo piano in its pure and natural unprocessed form, but you also have a soft and mellow sounding piano for soft solo classical, soft new age, and soft ballad music, by easily applying your own low pass filtering and ambience in any sampler.