Synchron Concert D-274

Steinway D - pianosound to the highest perfection

The D-274 is the flagship model of world-renowned piano manufacturer Steinway & Sons. This beautifully hand-crafted instrument with its laminated wooden housing and its poured iron frame has not changed much since it was first developed at the end of the 19th century. With a length of 274 cm (almost 9 ft.) and a weight of almost 500 kg (1,100 lb.), the Steinway D-274 continues to play a significant role in the global music industry. An estimated 90% of all concert grands on the world’s stages are Steinway D-274 models, delighting its players and audiences alike.

The reasons are obvious: Especially when competing with orchestras, the D-274 impresses with its tremendous assertive sonic volume and power – which is not surprising considering its soundboard of almost two square meters (21.5 sq.ft.)!

Leading artists of all eras have appreciated playing a D-274, from Sergei Rachmaninoff, Vladimir Horowitz, Arthur Rubinstein, Glenn Gould, and Alfred Brendel to today’s top-notch pianists, such as Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Emanuel Ax, Hélène Grimaud, and Lang Lang, just to name a few.

Assertive, Ambient Sound

Our very own D-274 is a “Hamburg Model” and was hand picked from eight Steinway D models by Stefan Mendl, founding member and pianist of the Vienna Piano Trio. In a city rich with glorious instruments, it is ranked among the best sounding grand pianos in Vienna, and has been endorsed by all artists who have had the opportunity to play it. The instrument enjoys permanent, climate-controlled residency at Synchron Stage Vienna, which is characterized by its particularly warm, intense, and natural ambience. The hall has lent its acoustic signature to numerous international productions, from classical chamber music to international, large-scale orchestral film scores.

Sample Precision

To capture the D-274 concert grand with all its subtleties, our engineers developed a highly precise motion-control system based on a solenoid that controls a noise-free “robot finger”. The micro-controller moves the finger with super-human precision, providing flexible curvatures for down-strokes and release movements. The MIDI controlled system delivers more than 100 velocities and various release samples, depending on the preceding note length and various release speeds.

This innovation represents the pinnacle of our long-term sampling robotics development. An earlier version of the robot finger was used for sampling the Celeste found in our Synchron Percussion I Collection.

Customize Your Personal Sound

In addition to the multitude of options from mixing various microphone signals, the D-274 concert grand comes with our free Vienna Synchron Pianos Software that offers multiple options for shaping your sound and the playing experience. Hosting a high-performance playback engine, the software provides a musician-friendly user interface that allows for quick and easy timbral control. Create your sound intuitively by filtering particular key ranges or even single keys, adjust the body resonance of the instrument or add just a pinch of algorithmic reverb to refine the overall sound.

Steinway D - Presets

• Room Mix - (Standard Library): Ready-made, resource saving presets with as few microphones as possible. The “Room Mix” Channel contains a mix of all available microphones from the Full Library.

• Decca Tree Multi Mic - (Standard Library): The classic sound of a Decca tree stereo recording features a more slender sound with less diffusion compared to the “Room Mix” Presets.

• Surround to Stereo Downmix - (Full Library): These presets include all available room microphones with various runtime delays, creating more diversity in the perception of room depth.

• Surround - (Full Library): Designed to send the microphone signals to your available surround channels.

11 Microphone Positions

With over 4,000 samples per key and almost 20,000 samples per microphone position, the Synchron Steinway D boasts breathtaking authenticity. In order to capture this marvelous instrument in one of the best acoustic environments on the planet, our recording engineers used multiple high-end microphone arrays, affording an abundance of options for creating your individual sound.

Mikrophone positions

• Standard Library: Room Mic (Mix) | Kondensator - Close 1 (Sennheiser MKH 8040) | Mid 1 (Sennheiser MKH 800) | Main/Room Mic – Decca Tree Stereo (L/R) | Main/Room Mic – Decca Tree Mono (Center)

• Full Library: Everyone above PLUS Ribbon - Close 2 (Royer SF-24) | Röhre - Close 3 (Neumann M149) | Mid 2 (Sennheiser MKH 8040) | Main Surround – Stereo (L/R) | High Stereo (3D) – Stereo (L/R) | High Surround (3D) – Stereo (L/R)

Key Features

• Over 4,000 samples per key for maximum authenticity, liveliness, and feel.

• Recorded in the natural ambience of one of the best recording halls in the world, Synchron Stage Vienna

• Utmost realism, capturing all of the instrument’s nuances with our proprietary precision sampling technology

• Hyper-realistic playing feel

• Multiple microphone positions – for a multitude of timbral variations

• Intuitive, customized Synchron Pianos software with high-performance playback engine

• Six pre-configured presets: “Concert”, “Intimate”, “Player”, “Pop”, “Ambience”, “Mighty”

• Soft (una corda), sostenuto, sustain pedals

• Half-pedalling and re-pedalling

• Sympathetic resonance

• Body resonance

• Dedicated release samples, depending on played release velocity

• Detailed pedal sounds for soft and sustain pedals, depending on pedal speed

Library Content

• Standard Library: Samples 99.735 | Download Files Size 31,7 GB | Installed File Size 118,0 GB

• Full Library: Samples 219.417 | Download Files Size 71,4 GB | Installed File Size 266,3 GB