Recording - January 2015 - 59

ambience predelay controls, and 3-band EQ with sweepable
mid for each output pair. Finally, the Advanced window has controls for polyphony, stretch and alternate tunings (using standard
Scala files), velocity response, and technical data for users curious about memory usage and the like.

The product is sold on a USB drive that contains an ultra-compacted lossless data archive which uncompresses to the complete set of full-quality audio samples. The installer works like a
charm, taking a bit over an hour to do a full install on my USB
3.0 5400 RPM external drive.
One warning, though: the installer uses confusing language
about choosing an "install drive", sometimes meaning the drive
where the application and plug-ins go (your system drive) and
other times meaning the drive where the samples go (ideally not
your system drive). You'll get a popup warning about making
sure your "install drive" has enough space for the samples, and
only then will you be prompted to choose an external drive for
them. Just click OK to get past the warning and choose your
sample destination and you'll be fine.
The player and its interface
The CFX Concert Grand interface is beautiful and easy to
understand. There are five windows: Main, Piano, Studio,
Advanced, and Info. On all five, the two mixer channels for the
Close and Ambience/Player signals remain visible, as do the
onscreen keyboard and pedal indicators. The Main window
has a pretty picture and the Info window has copyright and registration data; the real work is done in the other three.
The Piano window has open/half-stick/closed lid control and
dials for sympathetic and sustain resonance, release volume
and crossfade, and pedal thump. The Studio window has a set
of switchable effects: a fantastic-sounding convolution reverb
with 12 rooms from Jazz Club to Deep Space, a simple
Saturation control to dirty up the sound, stereo perspective and

The playing experience
From the Fender Rhodes and Hohner Pianet to the first 12-bit
sampled pianos to modern disk-streaming systems, pianists have
striven for decades to find the elusive Holy Grail of a keyboard
that feels and plays and sounds like a real piano without being
a real piano. With CFX Concert Grand, Garritan has taken a
leap forward in a number of areas.
It all starts and ends with the sound, and this piano sounds
simply glorious. It's responsive, dynamic, and nuanced, with that
special bright richness of character that I expect from a really
good Yamaha grand. I was astounded by just how good the una
corda samples were; too many keyboardists forget that using the
una corda pedal is not the same as turning the volume down
and rolling off the treble a little. Dialing in sympathetic resonance and pedal thump gave just the touch of added realism the
samples needed, and I spent hours just playing for the joy of it.
The software has an extensive MIDI map, where most parameters can be manipulated remotely from a MIDI control surface. (All parameters can be track-automated inside your DAW,
of course.) Velocity response is highly configurable and it's easy
to dial in a good match between controller feel and piano
response, whether you're playing a nicely weighted hammeraction controller or a semi-weighted portable model. The engine
supports a triple piano pedal, a nice touch since the sostenuto
response of the CFX Concert Grand is beautiful; about all a really finicky player would miss is the ability to half-pedal, as
damper control is either on or off.
The Perspectives and Studio controls take things to another
level. Simultaneously easy to understand and highly musical, they
give you control over multiple mics and positions, tonal adjustments, and ambience in a manner familiar to any studio user.
While the Compact version of the CFX Concert Grand was
eminently playable and streets ahead of much of the competition, I really fell in love with the Full version, especially in Player
perspective with the binaural Player channel turned way up.
With headphones, the playing experience was completely
immersive and a real delight.
Final thoughts
Not every single aspect of the piano-playing experience is
under direct control in CFX Concert Grand, but Garritan does
give us a lot of power, and more importantly than that, it's presented in a way that's easy to use, clear to understand, and reasonably easy on one's computer considering its power. My test
Mac, a 2.3 GHz quad-core i7 MacBook Pro with 8 GB RAM,
had no trouble playing a Full version of CFX Concert Grand with
128-note polyphony and a 64-sample buffer size inside Ableton
Live 9.1.6; CPU peaked at about 25%.
The magic and sparkle of that Yamaha piano in Abbey Road
Studio One is there to be teased out of the keys... it's a really
special experience for those of us who don't get to record there
ourselves.
Special thanks to Dr. Richard Shore, Musical Director of the
Musical Theatre program in the School of Theatre Arts and
Dance at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, CO-
and occasional Recording contributor-for technical and artistic
consultation on all matters grand-pianoish.
RECORDING January 2015

Recording - January 2015

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