Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Garritan CFX frustrating me

Hi Guys.

So I know the CFX is very well regarded here and for good reason.

It hits all the right boxes ...well mostly ..


At the moment however for whatever reason, not sure if my ears are ageing or what, I can't seem to really get into it at all due to the overwhelming amount of resonance .

And no matter how much I fiddle with the settings, it doesn't go away.

To me it's so much resonance I can barely hear the actual piano.

Any pointers on what I'm doing wrong feel free to let me know.

Is there any way to make it more dry?

Thanks in advance

1. Disable any reverb (no need at all for it).

2. Turn down (or turn off) the "Ambient Mics" slider in the Main tab. This is assuming you're not using the "Player" mic perspective.

Those are the two big ones, I'm not sure how much drier it can get (another thing to try is the different Close mics between the Classic/Contemporary perspectives, one might be drier than the other).

See if these ideas help

http://forum.pianoworld.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/3115386/garritan-cfx-hiss-fix.html

I recently noticed that the resonance is significantly greater through speakers when compared to headphones. It's like it has a built in room reverb and you're adding your own room to the mix. Are you using speakers or headphones? If speakers, try reducing the ambient mic all the way down.

Yep, if you're using speakers the resonance is going be worse because you are adding early and late reflections from the recording itself to the ones in your room. In addition, though this shouldn't affect the garritan too much, if you have your speakers against a wall, especially in a small room, you will have significantly more bass energy than in the recording.

Aside from turning down the ambient mic setting, try messing with the room release/decay knobs. Even the close mics have a lot of room sound in them so turning down the decay helps cut some of that off.

Thanks for all the responses. I’m actually using a pair of studio monitors believe it or not.

Will try turning down the ambient mics and fiddle a bit more with the settings to see if I can lose all this room resonance .

Considering the noire because of this tbh.

bet you've tried changing Audience/Performer mode. Mine stays in Performer mode 99% of time. And I do what Gombessa recommends too.

It's just the ambient mic you need to lower, also there are 2 dials in settings that make a massive difference, if they are past half way or more they add lots of reverb/ambience, they are the first 2 dials i believe in the piano setting tab part. Turn those both right down, personally all the ambience makes the piano come alive to me so i keep everything quite high in terms of ambience as I find it more enjoyable to play. However the default classic cfx preset is very ambient/reverb focused, unnaturally high, but I like that.

This discussion raises an important question of audio mastering:

Given a track, recorded with Garritan CFX, what is the best way to make it sound well in headphones, in external monitors, and in any reasonable audio device, like a professionally mastered track?

This Helped. Thanks

Funny thing is the unnatural ambiance is growing on me lol

But for certain piano pieces it’s a bit much .

Not accustomed to playing as tho I’m in a concert hall but I imagine Garritan mimicked that

Can’t picture ever using the garritan with studio monitors tho the additional room reverb from the physical room the speakers are in would probably be overwhelming

Will stick to headphones for the time being .

As a classical pianist, I love the ambient microphones and the concert hall like effect it gives me. I'm preparing for a concerto competition at school now, and this software can give me the likeness of playing in a hall, which is better than just practicing in a practice room, IMO.

It's a question of approach.
I prefer dry samples whth a good separate reverb.
Sometimes you just want to hear an intimate sound.

The following is the dryest you can really do and still sound nice. Also make sure ot chose default Player preset, select performer perspective and turn off reverb :

Yeah, the CFX has fundamental that is a stronger than expected. It's a very warm sound.

Thank you very much for this preset. Wonderful

Karoloydi: any reason for setting the master slider so low? Shouldn't it be set at least at the same value as the highest partial slider? I would put the master slider between 0 and 5, or otherwise you are simply decreasing the output to the speakers and potentially reducing the signal to noise ratio.

Thanks for that screenshot will definitely try it. Cfx is abating the purchase more vst fever lately lolll.

Between modern U and CFX I think I’m good.

Been cheating on piano with a little bit of guitar lately too

I feel so bad lol


Thanks for the replies guys very useful

Oh, that's a long story.

Basically I have 2 instances of Garritan playing at the same time. One instance is standalone version playing via my Korg LP-380 audio and another instance as a vst in Cubase playing through my monitor speakers. The cubase version is the one playing at a lower volume. The LP-380 is the one playing at regular volume.

The LP-380 speakers are under the keyboard, so it sounds weird that the piano sound comes from under your legs. When I add the cubase instance it sounds more like a real piano.

Ok, that explains it... Thanks...

Why is the master turned down ???