So my rock´n roll account is almost empty. Every hour spent messing with the sampler is equal to 5% less of your inner Keith Richards and so far I ´we spent 2 days. Messing with samplers and their interface is reminds me of all the bad things in life. Autosampler is a crash maschine with 16 velocity layers and Audiolayer is if put nicely very temperamental with importing and has no manual. Early trials sounds very promising - I think I have Salamander beat already - but my god it´s a hassle. Meanwhile I have downloaded Mainstage and tried their autosampler feature that make a VST in to a Exs24 instrument.
Thanks for all the posts!! I will try to free Salamander from Auria with the download.
These tools can give you a lot of control while we wait for even better ESX24 options and a potential Virsyn AudioLayer Update that might expand the choices. Of course, this exercise in tweaking can be time consuming but with little effort you can fix anything if you have enough samples in the folder to work with. Anything nearby in pitch will get adjusted to cover the offending note. What I like about AudioLayer is if there a particular note (tied to a specific sample wave file) that annoys you, then you can work on that sample or map another sample to the note in question. MIDI FX that allow you to control the "velocity" map of your controller can push the volumes down too and help you play "softer" and bring out the low volume tones even with a cheaper controller that doesn't have 3-level key sensors to interpret a light touch. You might also slope back the attack on the "instrument volume" page and get more of a softer hammer sound that a classic German Dark piano would typically be set up with by the technician. It's an effect I'd never have thought to apply to piano but when I did it was amazing how the frequency spectrum shifted to the darker, softer style of the German Grands. If you use too much it will stop sounding like a natural piano but just a touch works wonders. that brings up the resonance of the bass end and tends to cancel out most of the higher frequencies. Phasers mix multiple copies of the same audio source shifted slightly. Using the AudioLayer FX tools (EQ and just a touch of the Phaser) can reduce the highs and make them dark and intimate. These adjectives are loaded with personal meanings that we might not agree on.
FX in AudioLayer and additional AUv3 FX Apps. None of them come across as intimate but I think FX can really help. Salamander and the Yamaha C5 are pretty bright. So if you would, which of those pianos might fit the OP's request for "not overly bright, but rather dark, intimate " piano?