Toontrack Orchestral Grand EKX

Colossal in anything from size and musical scope, the grand piano is the unequivocal centerpiece in any orchestral setting. With its limitless expression – resonant, wild and untamed while ever-so articulate – it can take on any thinkable musical scenario, from the roaringly loud to the velvety frail. In this EKX expansion for EZkeys 2, we’ve taken arguably the grand piano of grand pianos and, to add, placed it in one of the most flawlessly crafted studio rooms ever built and utilized the absolute best the world has to offer in terms of recording technology to capture it. The result is an immaculate grand, breathtakingly epic in any and all respects imaginable.

The instrument in question is a Steinway* D-274, one of the world’s most heralded instruments of its kind and a top pick for concert halls around the world. Measuring 274 centimeters in length, this majestic and one-of-a-kind colossus is a marvel of engineering and craftsmanship involving 12,000 individual parts assembled with utmost detail. To capture it, where better to turn than the main hall at Galaxy Studios – the very room in which the core library for Superior Drummer 3 and several other Toontrack libraries were recorded. Boasting 330 square meters and a daunting floor-to-ceiling height, it has an ambience tailored for natural but controlled reverberation. To offer flexible use in anything from the full-scale and orchestral down to the intimate and scaled-down, the recording setup included an array of 19 individual microphones. In the final product, these mics are used to give you mix-ready presets showcasing the instrument in a wealth of different mic configurations and timbres. In addition to the sounds and the presets, a basic collection of MIDI unique to the product and tailored for the instrument is included.

If you’re looking for one exquisite EKX that bridges the entire scope from the nuanced and subtle to the expressive and majestic, this is it.