VI Labs Ravenscroft 275 Virtual Instrument

The Ravenscroft 275 virtual instrument is a stunning recreation of arguably one of the best pianos in the world. The Ravenscroft Model 275 has unparalleled dynamic response and tone that will handle a wide variety of applications, such as jazz, pop and classical, and just about anything else you can imagine.

The technology behind the Ravenscroft Model 275 virtual instrument is similar to the technology behind VI Labs' True Keys Piano Suite with a few exceptions and tweaks. More samples, an extra microphone position, extra velocity layers, and new features, such as Silent Strikes and Muted Notes, elevate the Ravenscroft Model 275 to a whole new level. The Ravenscroft virtual instrument features four discrete phase-aligned microphone positions. A new "Room" microphone position has been added to give users access to additional depth and character. It works well for music production as well as composition.

Microphone Positions
Four mic setups are included with the Ravenscroft 275 VI and were chosen to meet a variety of tonal choices and are able to mix well together. The Full patch loads the Close mics by default. You can load the additional mic samples by clicking the Load/Unload button, and once loaded, each sample group can be turned on and off with the On/Off button without having to load or unload the samples. The volume slider allows for mic mixing. The graphic gives a good indication of the physical location of the mics during sampling.

Advanced Settings
The Ravenscroft 275 virtual instrument was designed to bring you the sound of one of the finest grand pianos in the world. It features an easy to use interface that gives you deep control over many mechanical aspects of the real piano as well as microphone selection and mixing plus MIDI responses. The library contains five patches: a full patch in which all samples and mic setups can be loaded, and four separate single mic patches for quicker loading. Once a patch is loaded, click on the Preferences button at the top right corner to open the main interface.

Complete Sound Control
The bottom corners of the interface contain the Stereo Width and Channel Flip functions, Tone control and Timbre Shift on the left with Reverb level and selection on the right.

Controllers
The section below mic mixing allows additional samples to be loaded as well as adjustments to pedal setup, polyphony and dynamics controls. This is where you enable pedal features like una corda, half pedaling and, sostenuto and the mute strikes.

Pedal Action and Resonance
On the right portion of the interface, you’ll find controls for the Pedal and Sympathetic Resonances as well as True Pedal Action and Repedal functions.

MIDI and Tuning
There are two extra panels that let you control the MIDI response as well as the tuning.
To customize the MIDI response from your controller, click on the "Open MIDI Panel" button at the top right next to the Preference Panel button. This brings up the MIDI panel which is a powerful tool to customize how the Ravenscroft 275 responds to your MIDI input. You can also customize the tuning of the piano and apply microtunings or simply tuning presets.

Presets
To save your own presets, UVI creates a snapshot of the entire Workstation and all your settings as a UVI Multi file with .uviws file extension. You must first enter the Multi view by clicking the Multi view button in the top center of the UVI Workstation. Look for the wrench icon on the far left and choose "Save Multi" to save your preset. You can then load this file at a later time with all your settings intact. Choose "Load Multi" to load your preset, or double-click one of these files on your computer hard drive, and UVI Workstation will launch and load the Multi automatically. Keep in mind that if you save a Multi with many sample groups loaded, it may take some time to fully load the library with your settings.