Ivory 3 American Concert D

Name: Ivory 3 American Concert D
Price: 199 USD
Author: Synthogy

by Synthogy · Keys · Sampled concert grand piano

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Ivory 3 American Concert D is a sampled 1951 New York Steinway D concert grand, played through Synthogy's Ivory 3 engine.

Its RGB engine blends timbre continuously with velocity, and it costs $199 on sale (normally $249).

Best for: Keys & Synths, Acoustic Instruments. Genres: Jazz, Acoustic & Classical, Pop, Ambient & Cinematic.

Keywords: grand piano, sample-based, dark, 50s, cinematic, smooth, strings.

What it does

Ivory 3 American Concert D is a sampled 1951 New York Steinway Concert D (serial CD 121), recorded at the Françoys-Bernier Concert Hall at Le Domaine Forget in Charlevoix, Quebec. Synthogy notes the piano's plate is signed by Glenn Gould, Rudolf Serkin and other concert artists, and it runs on the Ivory 3 engine.

RGB engine: Real-time Gradient Blending gives continuous velocity-to-timbre changes on every strike, with no audible switching between layers.
MIDI 2.0 ready: up to 65,536 timbre levels per key with high-resolution MIDI 2.0 velocity.
Velocity tools: Dynamic Shift and Equal Energy controls, velocity curve design and a global velocity curve.
Four mic positions: stereo mic positions with phase and polarity control, plus stereo width and perspective controls.
Resonance: Harmonic Resonance Modeling for sympathetic strings, soundboard sustain resonance and a Hammer Strength control from soft to hard.
Pedals and mechanics: half-pedalling, real release samples, real una corda (soft pedal) samples, pedal noise and lid position.
Voicing: Shimmer for sustain and decay, timbre shifting and user-editable tuning tables.
Mixing desk: insert effects and an aux bus with compression, delay, chorus, parametric EQ, ambience and mid-side processing.

It has been offered on sale, with upgrade pricing for Ivory II American Concert D owners; it is compatible with Ivory II presets.

Source: Synthogy product page

When to use it

Ivory 3 American Concert D is a single, deeply sampled vintage Steinway, built for players who want a realistic concert grand with continuous velocity response. Compared with Keyscape, it covers one piano rather than a wide keyboard collection, but goes much deeper into that one instrument. Unlike Pianoteq 9, it is sampled rather than physically modelled. Against Garritan's Abbey Road Studios CFX Concert Grand, it gives a darker, fuller American Steinway character instead of a Yamaha concert grand.

Best for: solo and accompaniment piano where you want a dark, full concert grand tone and nuanced dynamics.
Genres: classical, jazz, ballads, pop and cinematic.
Look elsewhere if: you want many keyboards in one product (Keyscape), low CPU use (Pianoteq 9), or a dry, intimate piano with no ambience built in.
Tip: if CPU spikes on older machines, update the plugin and DAW and lower the voice count below 60.

What producers say

A respected review gave it an award for its tone and expressive engine, while some experienced piano users on forums found it less natural than they hoped.

MusicPlayers.com rated it 3.7 stars with a WIHO award, praising the darker, fuller tone and bass "rumble and bite", the smooth RGB blending and the mixer.
Criticisms (MusicPlayers.com): CPU spikes on an 8-core Intel i9 until updates and a lower voice count fixed them; an Apple M3 Max ran it smoothly.
PianoClack forum users praised the playability and full automation, but several found it "cold, synthetic", disliked the release samples and resonance, and said they would not upgrade from Ivory II.

Where to buy

Best Service: $199
Synthogy: $249

Tutorials and reviews

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