Sound Magic Piano Thor NEO Hybrid Modeling Horowitz Steinway. Piano Thor. NEO Hybrid Modeling Horowitz Steinway. Developed by

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1 Piano Thor NEO Hybrid Modeling Horowitz Steinway Developed by

2 Operational Manual The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not present a commitment by Sound Magic Co. Ltd. The software described in this document is subject to a License Agreement and may not be copied to other media. No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced or recorded, for any purpose, without prior written permission by Sound Magic Co. Ltd. All product and company names are trademarks of their respective owners. Sound Magic Co. Ltd dsdmastering@gmail.com support@soundemon.com 206, Min 4, People Daily, ChaoYang, Beijing P.R.China Version 1.0

3 Index Artificial Intelligence Assistant Tool 4 Quick Start 8 Registration 9 Dynamic Setting 10 Design Setting 13 Mixer Setting 14 Reverb/Environment Setting 16 Using Presets 17 MIDI Automation and MIDI Learn 18 Stand-Alone Mode 19 Using Add-ons 20

4 Artificial Intelligence Assistant Tool (A.I) Artificial Intelligence Assistant Tool is provided as VST plug-in and standalone version. To run it under standalone mode, just run Artificial Intelligence Assistant Tool.exe. To use it as a plug-in, just try to find Artificial Intelligence Assistant Tool under your VST instruments. Test your pedal support In this test item, A.I will test your hardware pedal support to the four pedals of Supreme Piano 2. Especially for sustain pedal, A.I will also test whether your pedal support half pedaling. To run the test, simply press your pedal and A.I will detect the signal and hold the results. Test your Keyboard Dynamic This test will test your keyboard dynamic response with your playing preference. Step 1: Press the button named click here to calibrate to start the test Step 2: Follow the on screen instruction. You have to play 9 notes with different velocities. These 9 notes could either the same note, or different notes. Start from FFF (The maximum velocity, 127), then ff, f, mf, m, mp, p, pp, ppp (The minimum velocity, 1) After you played the 9 notes, result will be shown on screen, telling you which

5 velocity curve is best fit for your situation. Step 3: Press the button named click here to finish calibration to stop the test You also have to notice that this test also test your max and min velocity and will warn your if they are too soft or hard. Test support of piano legato After you play any note, the result will come out. Thus we suggest you can run this test together with Keyboard Dynamic Test. No need to do this test separately. Forge your Freeform Velocity Response Curve and Pedal Controllers. One feature of A.I is to let you forge your own freeform velocity response curve and pedal controllers. To forge your own curve, you have to click on the curve first, then a point shown. After that, you can drag the point to your desired location. To setup your own pedal controllers, just select your desired controller number

6 from down drop list. After you make adjustment, you have to turn Revise MIDI Signal? Button on. You can also test keyboard dynamic with your own curve setting again to see whether it works. Get suggestions on Softness, Brightness and Warmness You can see the suggestions on softness by click the button named softness, then a slider will appear, move the slider to your appreciate degree; you will have a detailed suggestion on softness. Select the right piano for specific music style

7 On this screen, you can select piano by click their tags, then a description of their timbre and music style suggestion will appear on the same screen.

8 Quick Start Piano Thor is easy to use. Here are some quick steps to getting Piano Thor running. If using as a VSTi: Run your DAW host program (such as Cubase). Most host programs will automatically find any new plug-ins, including Piano Thor. If your host does not automatically locate Piano Thor, seek the Preferences for an option such as "Find New VST Plug-Ins," or take a look at your owner's manual. Piano Thor should show up as Piano Thor on your DAW s VST instrument list. If using in Stand-Alone mode: Run Piano Thor, either using the Piano Thor desktop icon, or selecting the Start Menu in Windows and choosing All Programs-> Piano Thor. By default, Piano Thor in stand-alone mode can be controlled by any MIDI input. It will use your default audio device. To adjust your audio device and latency settings, select Devices->Wave.

9 Registration Piano Thor must be registered before it could sound. You have to enter keycode into the text box. First, please find the text box named Enter Your KeyCode Here Then paste the keycode into the box Press Enter, you will see Authorized to XXXXXXXX If the text box still shows the keycode, it means the keycode is not correct, You need to contact customer service to get a new keycode. What if YOU enter the keycode incorrectly? The only solution for this problem is for the customer to delete the Windows Registry Entry. Click "Start" on the windows desktop. Click "Run" and type in 'regedit' then press enter. A window will appear. Click the 'Edit' tab and select 'Find..." and type in "SupremePiano2"then press enter. Right click on the folder highlighted in the Left window and select 'Delete' and click 'Yes' to confirm to delete this item. Close the window. Load the VST and it should show " *Enter Your KeyCode Here * " If it does not show this message you should follow the above procedure again taking care to follow every step.

10 When you click a knob and hold the mouse, the readout will appear. Dynamic Setting Max Vol: The Maximum of Volume - the higher the setting, the louder the sound in MAX velocity. Moving the slider upwards will make the sound louder while downwards will make the sound quieter. MIN Vol: The minimum of Volume - the higher the setting, the louder the sound in MIN velocity. Moving the slider upwards will make the sound warmer, but it will lose dynamic if you move it upwards too much. Moving the slider downwards will make the sound more dynamic, but it will make the low velocity too low in volume when you move it too much. Vol DIFF: The Volume difference Between A0 and C8 at MAX velocity. Upward will sound harder while downward sound warmer. Vel curve: Different response curve of Velocity. You should click the arrows to switch or click on the middle and a drop-down list will appear. Velocity Curve also means the relationship between Velocity and Volume. Linear: This type of response means the Volume changes with constant rate as Velocity changes. Exp: this type of response means Volume changes slowly first and then gets faster as Velocity increases. Inv. Exp: This type of response means Volume changes fast first and then gets slower as Velocity increases.

11 Exp2: This type of response means Volume changes more slowly at first and gets faster as Velocity increases. Root: very close to Exp type, but with a smoother changing curve Inv. Root: very close to Inv. Exp type, but with a smoother changing curve Exp+Root: very close to Exp2 type, but with a flatter changing curve S_Crv: This type of response means Volume changes as an S shape as Velocity changes. It changes more slowly in both ends and gets faster while in the middle range. S_Crv2: This type of response means Volume changes as an S shape as Velocity changes. Changes are slowest in both ends and fastest while in the middle range.

12 Inv.S_Crv: This type of response means Volume changes as an inverted S shape as Velocity changes. It changes fast in both ends and gets slow while in the middle range. SR VOL: The amount/volume of Sympathetic Resonance. REL VOL: The volume of Release sound. Hi Decay: The volume of hi notes decays, Hi notes often decays faster than bass notes

13 Design Setting Sustain: The amount of sustain resonance effect. The more, the longer or larger sustain feeling it has. This setting affects the sustain pedal down sound much and give it more reverb feelings. Soundboard: soundboard can influence how long a piano sound can last and how quick it will decay in Volume. The higher this value, the longer the sustain and decay the piano will have. Lid Position: The position of the lid. Highest value means the lid is fully open while lowest value means the lid is closed. Soft Pedal: This control determines how much the soft pedal will influence the volume. The highest value means no influence on volume while lowest value will have an obvious influence on volume. Harmony: controls the harmony content of the piano. Increasing or decreasing harmonic will result in a different sound. You may even turn the piano into another piano completely through this control. Overtone: controls the harmonic slider s mode. When in off (black) mode the Harmony knob is used to adjust main harmony content (mostly the 2nd harmonic). When in (red) mode, harmony knob is used to adjust higher harmonic content (3rd harmonic and above). HD Velocity: When on, the piano will have up to velocity layers and every notes sound unique. HD Velocity will also response to CC#88 controller. Humanize: How much humanize in velocity variation. Under the most humanize, it will be very hard to play the same velocity for the variation jumps too much. Release: The release time of the sound, range from 0.3 seconds to 2 seconds. Hammer: The Hammer hardness decides whether the piano sound hard or soft. Tuning:Tuning is the act of making minute adjustments to the tensions of the strings of a piano to properly align the intervals between their tones so that the instrument is in tune. In all systems of tuning, every pitch may be derived from its relationship to a chosen fixed pitch, which is usually A440. Tuning can adjust fixed pitch ranging from 415Hz to 466Hz.

14 Scala Tuning System:On the left side of tuning there is a button called mode which could let you choose default or tuning by clicking it, if you choose tuning, a new window will appear to let you choose Scala file. Each Scala file saves one temperament and you can choose 4 temperaments through list box on the left Tunings - Displays four slots that can receive tunings for the current synth patch. Click a radio button to select a target slot for one of the button actions Load, Clear, Settings - Get/Save Browser - Shows the contents of a.scl file selected by the Browse button from a normal Windows file navigation screen. The contents of the browser pane can be edited to rename a tuning or adjust a scale. Clicking the Load button runs an internal process that translates the scale to cents and places it in the selected tuning slot of the current patch. After a tuning has been loaded, clicking its radio button will show the cent values for the tuning in the Browser pane. Per Tuning Settings - Click the Settings Get and Save buttons to control the following parameters independently for each tuning: Start Key # - Midi keyboard key number (1-127) of the first note of the selected tuning. Start Pitch (Hz) - Starting pitch in hertz of the first note of the selected tuning. Key Intervals from Tuning # - Specifies which tuning among the 4 slots of the current patch is the source of modulation intervals for the selected tuning. Say the selected tuning is slot 1 and slot 3 has a thirteen note scale that spans a little over an octave. Saving a setting of 3 for the slot 1 tuning means that modulation intervals for the slot 1 tuning are derived from the thirteen steps of tuning slot 3. (If a new tuning is loaded in slot 3, slot 1 modulation is taken from the new tuning.) Global Settings - These settings are shared by the four tunings at the patch level, although it is probably more useful to treat them as unchanging

15 from patch to patch. They specify the midi channels and key number center points for signaling key or scale changes in real-time. So if the key change channel is 16 and the center point is midi key # 60 (middle C), playing note #63 modulates to the 3rd scale degree of the modulation source tuning. The number of scale degrees in the modulating tuning is applied as a modulus, so for a twelve note scale starting at key #60, pressing key #80 plays sets the new root to the pitch of scale degree eight of the modulating scale (80-60 = 20, and the remainder of 20/12 = 8). Playing below the center point descends from the top degree of the modulating scale. Key Noise: The amount of mechanical noise of the piano keys and hammers. It could change the piano sound from bright to dark. Pedal Noise: The noise sound when you press the sustain pedal. Increasing the value will let you hear the noise sound louder. Piano Legato: The range of piano legato, the more rightwards, the more effective of the aftertouch influences the legato length.

16 Mixer/Microphone Positions Setting In this category, you can adjust three microphone positions. Player, Audience and Reverb/Room Player: Adjusts the volume of microphones in this position. The microphones are placed in the pianist s position. In this position, the piano sounds like exactly the same as when you sit and play it. Audience: Adjusts the volume of microphones in this position. The microphones are placed behind the pianist s position, closer to an audience position. In this position, the piano sounds like you are sitting in the 1 st or 2 nd row while the pianist is playing. Reverb/Room: Adjusts the volume of microphones in this position. The microphones are placed far away to capture the room reverb. In this position, the piano sounds like it is very far from you. This control also determines the volume of reverb/environment effects. SR Attack: The attack time of the sympathetic resonance Rel Attack: The attack time of release sound

17 Reverb/Environment Setting Please note the amount of environment effects is determined by reverb/room slider in microphone position. So if you want environment effect, do not forget to bring up the room slider. R.Size: The size of the whole space Damp: Dampening is any effect that tends to reduce the amplitude of the sound. Predamp: This dampening happens before the sound enters the dampening unit. Decay: Decay time of the reverb tail sound in seconds Diffusion: The Diffusion of material of the environment Density: The density of environment. It controls how much air the material can absorb. Spatial: Adjusts the spatial density of the Room Reflections (1=Unity) Reverb Type: Different type of environment, such as medium halls, large halls or vocal halls.

18 Using Presets There are a total of 16 factory presets for users to customize. Just click the black box and a down drop list will appear, choose your prefered presets by clicking on it.

19 MIDI Automation and MIDI Learn All sliders and controls can be assigned to MIDI controllers individually. You just need to right click on it, and at the popup menu choose Edit. Also, MIDI learn and unlearn can be activated by choosing from the popup menu.

20 Stand-Alone mode Record to wave file In Stand-Alone mode, you can record performances into wave files. To do this, you need to click the record button as shown below: Then when you want to save to the wave file, you need to click the stop button: A dialog will appear: Click the yes button to save your wave file. Adjust tempo/speed Clicking this icon will bring up speed/tempo menu. You can set your tempo here. Switch presets Click on the arrow to switch presets one by one. If you want to choose a preset quickly, you can also use the menu: PlugIn->Programs 0-15 and choose the presets you want to load.

21 Using Add-ons Add-ons are provided as separate VST plug-ins which can work together with the piano. Different add-ons have different features. To choose your add-ons, please visit our add-ons store on supremepiano.com. The address is below.