Steinberg The Grand 3 Operation Manual
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Cristina Bachmann, Heiko Bischoff, Marion Bröer, Sabine Pfeifer, Heike Schilling Thanks to: Matthias Klag, Michael Ruf The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. The software described by this document is subject to a License Agreement and may not be copied to other media except as specifically allowed in the License Agreement. No part of this publica- tion may be copied, reproduced or otherwise transmitted or recorded, for any purpose, without prior written permission by Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. Steinberg, The Grand, VST and ASIO are registered trademarks of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. Windows, Windows Vista and DirectX are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries. Macintosh, Mac and Mac OS are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Pentium and Intel Core are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. All other product and company names are ™ and ® of their respective holders. Release Date: June 29, 2009 © Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH, 2009. All rights reserved.
4 The Grand 3 Table of Contents 5Welcome 5Key command conventions 6How you can reach us 6Installation 6The USB-eLicenser 7System requirements 7Installing The Grand 8Register your software! 8Getting ready to play 8Setting up The Grand as a VST instrument in Cubase 8Using The Grand in an AU compatible application 9The Grand standalone and ReWire 10Missing content 11The content 11The recording of The Grand 11The models 12Parameters 12General plug-in controls 15The Model page 16The Equalizer page 17The Ambience page 18The Control page 19The Options page 21Additional controls when using The Grand as a standalone instrument 24Performance issues 26Using MIDI controllers 26MIDI controllers 27Automation parameters 28Index
5 The Grand 3 Welcome Congratulations and thank you for purchasing The Grand 3 by Steinberg. Both its previous versions have established The Grand as one of the leading virtual piano instruments worldwide. Now in 2009, The Grand is returning with a third version to claim its rightful place at the forefront of virtual piano software on the market today. With the purchase of The Grand 3 you have chosen a pre- mium virtual piano suite which comes with five virtual pi- anos perfectly recorded to meet your demands, providing stunning sound quality unrivaled by current standards. The Yamaha C7, Bösendorfer 290 Imperial, and Steinway D grand pianos plus the classic Yamaha CP80 Electric Grand, as well as the charismatic upright piano by Nordiska Pianofabriken have been recorded to offer you an entire palette of virtual piano greatness. Thanks to the incorporated intelligent sample architecture and latest recording technology, The Grand 3 does not simply play back samples, but responds to your individual playing behavior as well as adding natural full-length sus- tain and decay, distinctive pedal and hammer noises, and key thumps in order to recreate the sound of acoustic pi- anos so perfectly. And it doesn’t stop here. To further en- hance the effectiveness of your system, both ECO Mode and RAM Save technology featured in The Grand 3 help you to reduce the RAM consumption and improve CPU performance. Whether you are a musician, arranger or composer, The Grand 3 is certainly your first choice when it comes to breathtaking authenticity, extraordinary dynamic response and the breadth and depth of tones only made available in this virtual piano software conceived and designed by Steinberg. Based on the same technology used by REVerence, the world’s first VST3-based convolution reverb processor al- ready featured in Cubase 5, The Grand 3 enables you to make your piano sound as if you were playing in an ancient cathedral or in a live music venue – simply at the flick of a switch. You also get an algorithmic reverb with more than 60 reverb presets to round out your options, giving you absolute freedom to explore your acoustic environment.The standalone version allows you to use The Grand 3 without a host application – a great choice for performing live. It has two additional features: the quick-idea scratch pad, which lets you instantly store spontaneous ideas, and the metronome. Please don’t forget to register on MySteinberg in order to gain access to online support offers and additional exclu- sive services. And check out the The Grand 3 community at Cubase.net, our online forum, for tips and other useful information. We wish you a lot of musical inspiration! Your Steinberg The Grand Team Key command conventions Many of the default key commands in The Grand use modifier keys, some of which are different depending on the operating system. For example, the default key com- mand for Undo is [Ctrl]-[Z] under Windows and [Com- mand]-[Z] under Mac OS X. When key commands with modifier keys are described in this manual, they are shown with the Windows modifier key first, in the following way: [Win modifier key]/[Mac modifier key]-[key] For example, [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Z] means “press [Ctrl] under Windows or [Command] under Mac OS X, then press [Z]”. Similarly, [Alt]/[Option]-[X] means “press [Alt] under Win- dows or [Option] under Mac OS X, then press [X]”. Please note that this manual often refers to right-clicking, e.g. to open context menus. If you are using a Mac with a single-button mouse, hold down [Ctrl] and click.
6 The Grand 3 How you can reach us Clicking the Steinberg logo in the top right corner of The Grand opens a pop-up menu where you will find items for getting additional information and help: •On this menu, you can find links to various Steinberg web sites. Selecting one automatically launches your browser application and open the page. On the web sites you can find support and compatibility information, an- swers to frequently asked questions, links for downloading new drivers, etc. This requires that you have a browser application installed on your computer, and a working Internet connection. •When you choose the Help item, an online version of the documentation opens. •You will also find a menu item for the registration of your product. For further information see “Register your software!” on page 8. Installation The USB-eLicenser Many Steinberg products, including The Grand, use the USB-eLicenser, a hardware copy protection device. The Grand will not run without an eLicenser containing an ac- tivated license. The USB-eLicenser The USB-eLicenser is a USB device on which your Stein- berg software licenses are stored. All hardware-protected Steinberg products use the same type of device, and you can store more than one license on one device. Also, li- censes can (within certain limits) be transferred between USB-eLicensers – which is helpful, e.g. if you want to sell a piece of software. The product package of The Grand contains an activation code, which is found on the Essential Product License In- formation card within the product package. To make unlim- ited use of your version of The Grand, you must manually download a license to an USB-eLicenser connected to your computer, and activate your permanent license using the activation code. The License Control Center (which can be found on the Start menu on Windows systems or in the Applications folder on a Mac after installation of The Grand) is the place where you can check the licenses installed on your USB- eLicenser, and activate new licenses. To do so, launch the License Download wizard of the License Control Center and follow the instructions. •If you are using other copy-protected Steinberg pro- ducts, you may want to transfer all licenses for your appli- cations to one USB-eLicenser, thus using up only one USB port of your computer. To transfer licenses between USB-eLicensers, launch the License Trans- fer wizard of the License Control Center and follow the instructions. !Please read the following section before installing The Grand. !The USB-eLicenser is a separate product, and is not included in the product package of The Grand.
7 The Grand 3 System requirements To use The Grand, your computer must meet the following requirements: Windows • Windows XP (SP2) or Windows Vista • Pentium/Athlon 2.0 GHz dual core mobile (2.5 GHz recom- mended) or dual core 2.0 GHz processor (3 GHz recom- mended) • 2 GB RAM (3 GB recommended) • Up to 32 GB of free hard disk space • Display resolution 1024 x 768 pixels (1280 x 800 pixels recommended) • Windows DirectX compatible audio hardware (ASIO compati- ble audio hardware recommended for low-latency performance) • DVD-ROM drive with dual-layer support • USB port for USB-eLicenser (license management) • USB-eLicenser • Internet connection for license activation • VST2, VST3, AU (tested in Cubase SX3, Cubase 4, Cubase 5, Nuendo 4, Ableton Live 8 and SONAR 8), or ReWire compat- ible host for use as plug-in or ReWire slave-device Macintosh • Mac OS X 10.5 • Power Mac G5 dual 2.0 GHz or Intel Core Duo 2.0 GHz pro- cessor (Intel Core Duo 2.66 GHz recommended) • 2 GB RAM (3 GB recommended) • Up to 32 GB of free hard disk space • Display resolution 1024 x 768 pixels (1280 x 800 pixels recommended) • CoreAudio compatible audio hardware • DVD-ROM drive with dual-layer support • USB port for USB-eLicenser (license management) • USB-eLicenser • Internet connection for license activation • VST2, VST3, AU (tested in Cubase SX3, Cubase 4, Cubase 5, Nuendo 4, Ableton Live 8 and Logic 8), or ReWire compatible host for use as plug-in or ReWire slave-device Installing The Grand The product package of The Grand contains several DVDs for installation. Since The Grand provides a large amount of content, more than one DVD is needed for the installation process. Please have all DVDs ready, because you will be asked to remove one DVD and insert the next one during the installation. Proceed as follows: 1.Insert the first DVD into your DVD drive. An interactive start screen appears. If the interactive start screen is not opened automatically or if you have a Macintosh computer, you can man- ually open the interactive start screen by double-clicking the file “The_Grand_3_Start_Center.exe” under Windows or “The Grand 3 Start Center.app” on a Macintosh computer. 2.Follow the instructions on screen to start the installa- tion of The Grand and browse through the additional op- tions and information presented. If you don’t want to install The Grand via the interactive start screen, follow the instructions below: Windows 1.Double-click the file called “Setup.exe”. 2.Follow the instructions on screen. Macintosh 1.Double-click the file called “The Grand 3.mpkg”. 2.Follow the instructions on screen. !The installation process may take some time. To keep it short you might want to start by installing only one model. During the installation process you also have the possibility to select the content you wish to install. You can add more models or content later by restart- ing the installation process. !The installer of The Grand allows you to save the content files on a different hard drive than the pro- gram files.
8 The Grand 3 Register your software! We encourage you to register your software! By doing so you are entitled to technical support and kept aware of up- dates and other news regarding The Grand. Proceed as follows: •Click the Steinberg logo in the top right corner of the control panel and select “Register The Grand 3” from the menu that appears. This option is an Internet link that opens the Registration page of the Steinberg web site. To register, simply follow the instructions on screen. Getting ready to play The following sections describe how to use The Grand as a plug-in in different host applications, or as a standalone instrument. Setting up The Grand as a VST instrument in Cubase ÖThe following information refers to the use of The Grand in Cubase. We assume that you have correctly set up Cu- base as well as your MIDI and audio hardware, and that Cu- base receives MIDI data from your external MIDI keyboard. If you want to use The Grand in another VST host applica- tion, please refer to the documentation of this application. Cubase provides two ways of working with VST instru- ments: the VST Instruments window, or instrument tracks. To access The Grand via the VST Instruments window, proceed as follows: 1.In Cubase, open the Devices menu and select the VST Instruments option. The VST Instruments window opens. 2.Click in one of the empty slots to open the instrument pop-up menu and select The Grand. 3.You will be asked if you want to create an associated MIDI track connected to the VST instrument. Click Create. The Grand is loaded and activated, and its control panel is opened. A MIDI track called The Grand is added to the Track list. The output of this track is routed to The Grand. To access The Grand via an instrument track, proceed as follows: 1.Open the Project menu, and on the Add Track sub- menu select “Instrument”. 2.The Add Instrument Track dialog is opened. Select The Grand from the instrument pop-up menu. 3.Click OK to create the instrument track. Click the Edit Instrument button in the Cubase Inspector to open the control panel of The Grand. The Grand has now been set up as a VST instrument in Cubase. For more details about the handling of VST in- struments, see the Cubase Operation Manual. Using The Grand in an AU compatible application You can use The Grand in an AU host application (e. g. Logic). The AU version of The Grand is installed in your AU plug- ins folder and lets The Grand work in an AU environment – without any performance loss or incompatibilities. For Logic Pro 8, proceed as follows: 1.Open the Track Mixer and select the desired Instru- ment channel. 2.[Command]-click the I/O field, and in the pop-up menu that opens select either Multi-Channel or Stereo. 3.In the submenu that appears, select All Instruments and then The Grand. The Grand is now loaded as AU instrument.
9 The Grand 3 The Grand standalone and ReWire The Grand can be used as a standalone application, inde- pendently of any host application. This also makes it pos- sible to use The Grand with sequencer applications that do not support one of the provided plug-in formats of The Grand (i. e. VST and AU), but allow for data exchange us- ing ReWire. ReWire2 is a special protocol for streaming audio and MIDI data between two computer applications. When us- ing ReWire, the order in which you launch and quit the two programs is very important, as the first audio applica- tion launched will capture the audio card resources. Proceed as follows: 1.Launch the sequencer application you wish to use (e. g. Ableton Live, ProTools). If your sequencer supports ReWire, it will provide a way to assign audio and MIDI channels for the exchange of data. See the documentation of your sequencer application for details. 2.Launch The Grand as a standalone application. You can launch the program like any other application on your computer via the Start menu or desktop icon (Win) or by double-clicking the appli- cation symbol in the Applications folder (Mac). You can also double-click the file “The Grand 3.exe” in the program folder (Win). When you now play a sample with The Grand, the sound is streamed via ReWire to the assigned mixer channels in your host application. ÖNote that you are now running two completely sepa- rate applications. When you save your sequencer project, this will include the overall channel and bus configuration, but none of the settings in The Grand!•To retain your The Grand settings, you have to save them as a preset (click the disk symbol to the right of the The Grand logo). You may want to use a file name that indicates that the file contains set- tings created for a particular sequencer project. This way, you can easily reload your settings when reopening a particular sequencer project. For more information, see “Preset handling” on page 12. The Preferences dialog When running The Grand as a standalone application, you can configure the application in the Preferences dialog. To open the Preferences dialog, proceed as follows: •Click the Open Preferences button (the cogwheel sym- bol) to the right of the audio output field. •Right-click in the topmost section of the control panel and select “Preferences” on the context menu. The Preferences dialog has several pages on which you can make the following settings: •On the MIDI Routing page, use the MIDI Input Port pop- up menu to specify a MIDI input. •On the Audio Routing page, use the Audio Output Port pop-up menus to assign different audio outputs. The Grand supports four channels: two front channels (left and right) and two rear channels (left and right). You can assign different audio out- puts for each channel. Selecting an audio output on the pop-up menu maps that output to the corresponding channel. If you press [Shift] and select an audio output, the front and rear channels are set to incrementing audio output ports – e. g. 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5, 6, 7, 8. If you press [Alt]/[Option]-[Shift] and select an audio output, the audio out- puts are assigned in pairs to the front and rear channels – e. g. 1, 2, 1, 2 or 5, 6, 5, 6. •On the Metronome page you can make a number of set- tings regarding the use of a metronome: !Note that to use the ReWire functionality, the corres- have these files already, you can download them from www.propellerheads.se. !When you are using a Mac, you have to launch the program in standalone mode once after the installa- tion to activate the ReWire functionality. Option Description Mode Here you can turn the metronome on and off or set it to Count In mode. Accent Activate this to accentuate the first beat of each bar. Level Use this fader to adjust the volume level of the metro- nome. Connections Here you can select a separate stereo output for the met- ronome. Click here to open the Preferences dialog.
10 The Grand 3 •On the General page, activate “Don’t prompt for confir- mation when quitting The Grand 3” if you want The Grand to close without prompting when quitting the program. •On the ASIO Driver page, select your audio hardware driver from the ASIO Driver menu. If you plan to use several audio applications simultaneously, you may want to activate the option “Release Driver when Application is in Back- ground”. This will allow another application to play back via your audio hardware even though The Grand is running. The input and output latency values for your audio hardware are dis- played. “Latency” is the amount of time it takes for your system to re- spond to whatever messages are sent to it. High latency results in a noticeable delay between when you press a key and when you hear the sound. Below the latency values, the sample rate that is set for the con- nected audio hardware is displayed. When you run The Grand, there are several processes fighting for ac- cess to processor time in your computer. The parameter “Audio Priority” allows you to determine which processes have priority: •Once you have selected the driver, open the Advanced page to specify which inputs and outputs should be used and name these. Click the Control Panel button to bring up the control panel for the audio hardware and adjust the settings as recommended by the audio hardware manu- facturer. Missing content There might be situations where a model or a content file becomes unavailable. The reason can be a closed en- crypted partition or a detached removable hard drive, for example. In these cases you will be prompted that a spe- cific VST Sound Library cannot be found. To access the content again, proceed as follows: 1.Click Ignore. The Grand is loaded, containing the content that could be found. 2.Quit The Grand. 3.Reattach the removable hard drive or reopen the en- crypted partition. 4.Launch The Grand. If content files or models are missing for another reason (e. g. if you moved them onto another hard drive after in- stallation or if you have added a hard drive, thereby “shift- ing” the partitions), proceed as follows: 1.In the window with the message about the missing VST Sound Library, click Locate if you want to choose a different file location. A file dialog opens. 2.Browse to the directory where the content is located. 3.Select the file and click Open. All content files that are found in this location become available. ÖIf you have installed the content files on multiple drives, the dialog might open again asking for further content files. •Click Remove if you don’t want The Grand to search for a particular file in the future. This way, you can avoid that The Grand searches for missing content af- ter having uninstalled a specific model. ÖYou can activate the “Do not ask again” option if you want to ignore or remove all missing files at once. Option Description Normal In this mode non-audio processes and audio playback get roughly equal priorities (default setting). Boost In this mode, audio precedes MIDI in priority. Try this mode if audio playback problems occur when playing back MIDI and audio material. !Under Windows, we strongly recommend that you access your hardware via an ASIO driver written specifically for the hardware, if available. If no ASIO driver is installed, we recommend that you check with your audio hardware manufacturer if they have an ASIO driver available, for example for download via the Internet. !On Windows Vista systems, you can also use the Generic Low Latency ASIO driver if no specific ASIO driver is available.