The Model D grand piano was sampled from a Hamburg-made 1939 Steinway D274 grand coda piano. This particular piano has been in use in various venues in Italy and has been played and praised by many top-level international classical and jazz players.

This piano's age guarantees a true vintage character and tone. It has been properly cared for over the years through routine maintenance and restoration by highly-skilled Italian piano technicians.

It resonates with all of the great music played through it during its lifetime. Chocolate Audio sampled this piece of history in a medium-size hall surrounded by a plethora of microphones.

Chocolate Audio didn't settle for a single pair or even a limited selection of microphones. They wanted to make sure to capture the essence of this piano by using the very best microphones available. In that way the sampling and editing process had the best chance to preserve its soul, something which was hard to achieve. It is for this very reason, they used many more microphones than was initially planned to capture every nuance.

These microphones, used either alone or combined with others, gives you the widest possible variety of tonal colors you might need from a top-notch concert piano. To preserve the delicate tonal balance, they carefully phase-aligned all of the microphones.

The Mixer provided in this package opens up many different sonic possibilities. It gets you quick results with just a few controls for adjusting Volume, Panning, Width, Reverb Send as well as Mutes and Solos. You also have effects such as a 3-band EQ with adjustable frequency centers, a Preset Compressor & Tape Emulation and an IR Reverb.

Chocolate Audio's approach to sampled Instruments is to let the musician in you create, free of technical hassles. You just play. The learning-curve was reduces to a minimum, this is always a priority when they design their Instruments. But if you want to customise and refine the sound to the upmost, their multi-layer user interfaces allow for it, giving you the best of both worlds.