Fazioli’s flagship concert grand
The world’s largest piano – 308 cm
Recorded on Stage A of Synchron Stage Vienna
Fourth pedal for softer playing
11 mic positions for a multitude of timbral variations
Pre-configured mixer presets
The F308 is not only the jewel in the crown of Fazioli’s acclaimed series of concert grands,
but also of Synchron Stage Vienna’s exclusive collection of pianos.
Designed for large spaces, the F308 found a perfect home in the 540 m2 “Stage A”
that allows its sound to unfold effortlessly,
elevated by the exceptional acoustics of this hall.
Built with Passion, Precision, and Perseverance
With a staggering length of 308 cm (10 ft 2 in),
the world’s largest piano owes its powerful sound and extraordinary harmonic clarity
to the increased string length in the bass and middle range,
as well as to a host of innovations the Italian piano maker
is praised for among musicians and audiences alike.
The Fourth Pedal
The F308 at Synchron Stage Vienna is equipped with a fourth pedal invented by Fazioli,
located to the left of the three traditional pedals,
which lowers the keyboard and raises the hammers to be closer to the strings.
The effect is a decrease in volume of the sound without changing its timbre,
sounding the same overtones and resonances,
with a soft but very clear and transparent sound.
This innovation also facilitates playing soft glissandos, rapid passages, and legatos.
What’s more, by combining the una corda pedal with the fourth pedal
pianists can increase the variations of soft colors the F308 is able to offer.
Superior Sound
Having further refined and perfected the recording
and editing procedures in tandem with our software development,
we truly believe the Synchron Fazioli F308 represents the pinnacle in the art of sampling pianos.
With a total of more than 360,000 samples,
this software instrument boasts breathtaking authenticity.
Our engineers captured the rich resonances of its warm, colorful,
and sparkling sound with an array of phase-aligned microphones.
The signals of 11 mic positions are separately available in the mixer section of the Synchron Piano Player,
perfectly pre-configured with Mixer Presets
such as Concert, Intimate, Player, Pop, Ambience, and more.
As with all Synchron Libraries, you can mix your piano sound in stereo,
5.1 surround or even Dolby Atmos and 9.1 Auro 3D,
or any other immersive audio format.
Of course, the mixer presets serve as great starting points for your own creations
according to your liking or to the acoustic requirements of the production at hand.
The Synchron Piano Player
In addition to creating your sound by mixing several microphone signals,
the free Vienna Synchron Pianos software offers multiple options
for shaping the sound of the piano and your playing experience.
Hosting a high-performance playback engine,
the software provides a full-blown mixer with a broad range of effects
such as EQ, compressor, saturator, algorithmic reverb, delay, chorus, flanger, rotary, and many more.
You may also adjust the volume of body resonances, sympathetic strings,
and pedal noises right in the main Play window.
In the Edit window you can even tweak EQ,
volume, tuning, dynamic range, etc. for each individual key!
The Synchron Advantage
Synchron Stage Vienna is the only scoring stage in the world
that offers clients the possibility to make a choice in advance about
which piano to use in the recording sessions.
Each of the studio facility’s collection of fine concert grands is available as a software instrument
that enables composers and music executives to play and evaluate the sampled pianos
in the comfort of their own studio
and hear a 100% accurate rendition of how they will sound in the very hall
where the recordings will eventually happen –
in stereo, surround and immersive sound formats.
11 Microphone Positions
In order to capture this marvelous instrument in one of the best acoustic environments on the planet,
our recording engineers used multiple high-end microphone arrays,
affording an abundance of options for creating your individual sound.
1. Room Mic (Mix)
2. Condenser - Close 1 (Sennheiser MKH 8040)
3. Ribbon - Close 2 (Royer SF-24)(Full)
4. Tube - Close 3 (Neumann U 67)(Full)
5. Mid 1 (Sennheiser MKH 800)
6. Mid 2 (Neumann M 149)(Full)
7. Main/Room Mic – Decca Tree Stereo (L/R)
8. Main/Room Mic – Decca Tree Mono (Center)
9. Main Surround – Stereo (L/R) (Full)
10. High Stereo (3D) – Stereo (L/R)(Full)
11. High Surround (3D) – Stereo (L/R)(Full)
Sampling Precision
To capture the sound of the instrument with all its subtleties,
our engineers deployed a highly precise motion-control system
based on a solenoid that controls a noise-free “robot finger”.
The micro-controller moves the finger with super-human precision,
providing flexible curvatures for down-strokes and release movements,
the latter corresponding with the preceding note length and various release speeds.