Great to hear! Quite curious what you'll come up with (as you may have discovered already, the CA93/CA63 have one more user memory space, so no worries if you happen to have a top-9)...

After playing my new CA93 for a couple of days now (love it!), here are my first (non-professional) impressions of the layered sounds (and I've tried them all! ):
8 available spots are for sure not enough! There must be a 9th one somehow but I don't know how to store it.
BTW A nice trick with visitors: play your favourite piece on the standard grand piano sound and ask them if they like it: they all do (so far). Then play the opening bars of Rach's 2nd Concerto (that's all I can play from this piece btw ) with the Brutal Bösendorfer patch to make them fall of their chairs.
In general I like 'heavy touch'.

My 8 spots are at the moment occupied with:

1. Steinway normal touch CA 93. For classical pieces this is by far my favourite. It has the most complex sound spectrum IMHO and gives you the opportunity to easily change colour, from angry to sweet, brilliant patch!
2. Bösendorfer. Impressive but difficult to play pianissimo with the light touch, not a very subtle patch IMHO, but still nice
3. Shigeru Kawai very wide-ranging, nice and clear piano sound, but again, difficult to play ppp.
4. The brand new EX to the Max very deep basses, nice discant (trebles), I use it with heavy, not heavy+ (too easy to play soft with that)
5. Red Piano Niiiice, I love playing Elton John, Billy Joel etc.... Put on some weird glasses and you're there. Great patch!
6. Supertramp 'Dreamer' Wurli sounds just like them
7. Heavy amped Rhodes has cost me a glass already
8. Hollywood Strings play two quick notes (D & F for instance) in the basses and you have the 'Jaws' theme!

Seriously, this is impressive stuff and a great plus to the basic sound library of the CA63/93
I find this thread highly informative and amusing at the same time. May it long continue! TADUTCHMAN
If only I knew what stretch tuning does???

...fulfilling all of the criteria as stated here at once:
http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1509389.html#Post1509389

Thanks a lot for your feedback, vabejas! If you want to save your user memory settings, just check out Chapter 10, page 53 of the user manual, it's quite easy (once you know it). Following in the footsteps of Pinipon, you are hereby the second CA93/CA63 owner to be promoted to:

Kawai CA93/CA63 custom presets reviewer
That's some incredibly quick pioneering, having owned your CA93 for only a few days!

Thanks again! Some related info on stretch tuning is given here:
http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1534373.html#Post1534373
If I recall correctly, CyberGene also commented on stretch tuning in this thread.

Stretched tuning is basically a tuning where the highest notes are tuned slightly higher than the mathematical values and the lowest notes are similarly tuned slightly lower in order to compensate for certain string irregularities (where higher overtones are not an exact factor of the fundamental but get slightly higher) and thus provide better overtone matching which arguably creates better sounding intervals. You can easily hear the difference if you play simultaneously the middle C and one of the higher C-s or E-s (for a major third across octaves) and switching between wide and normal. Stretched tuning sounds more lively when playing solo piano but can cause you troubles when played in ensemble with other instruments because it's mainly string instruments that posses that irregularity.

In short: use stretched (wide) when playin solo and equal (normal) when playing with other instruments.

Thanks for your detailed explanation Cybergene, I'll try it out, still learning all this.

Thanks for that TAD, I'll check it out!

Wow, really? I accept!

After seeing and hearing this guy live in Antwerp by coincidence yesterday, for a short moment I thought of the DIRTY UPRIGHT ROCK preset:

Hi TAD,

I like the C7 and RX-7 patches but the EX TO THE MAX R1.0 is a really gorgeous sound and goes directly to my favorites: I like to play it with half-open and open lid

+1

I think all CA93/63 owners agree with that: an "USB Settings Loader" would be a very useful feature, brings an added value to the instrument and has been requested for several months ago but unfortunately Kawai will not develop this feature maybe Kawai James could tell us something about it...

Well, I'm obviously not going to promise anything, however let's just see what happens in 2011.

James
x

Hello,

after some background discussions with TADutchman I would like to share with you a PDF document collecting all
Kawai CA93/CA63 Custom Dual Voice Mode Presets.

I will update the document on a regular basis and provide the updates in this thread. I'm aware of the Google Docs document another user posted earlier, but for me it was more convenient to have a proper printout in my hands while sitting at my piano.

Looking forward to your feedback either via PM or within this thread.

ripe_md

Update: Now it's linking to commercial-free box.net. I will use that one also for future updates.

Thanks for your initiative, ripe_md. This compact presentation format comes in quite handy!

me too! I like your doc, it's very useful to have all settings for fast reading and it have piano and e-piano separated sections: nice job
another tool to enjoy the features of our instrument...

Hi, for some reason I couldn't download your pdf. The site gave me an error in german when I tried to use a free account...

Otherwise, the google docs documents can be printed on 1 page containing all the settings (just use print or "download as pdf" to get a printable pdf). However, it is incomplete.

Cédric

Back from a few days skiing guys, thanks a lot for the pdf ripe_md! very useful document.

I wish you all a great 2011 with lots of CA63/93 presets, love them!
Jasper

The BRUTAL BASS BÖSENDORFER is indeed not intended to be subtle in any kind of way, more like blowing everything else out of the water, so let's keep it that way!



The SHIGERU KAWAI CONCERT GRAND on the other hand just has to be perfect, it's in the name! Therefore, I've added a preset variation to also accomodate for heavy touch. Just let me know what you think of that: Happy New Year to everybody!

I've waited with sharing this patch until after midnight, otherwise ripe_md would have to directly update the preset list on the day of public release. By the way, please help him (and yourself) by checking for any remaining typos in the preset list, in order to iron them out before the next update.
In case you happen to prefer Google Docs, then you could add some of your favourites to Stilgar's list. Talking about good intentions for 2011.


SHIGERU KAWAI CONCERT GRAND R2.0 - HEAVY TOUCH EDITION

Dual Voice: Concert Grand, volume 7 + Concert Grand, volume 3

1 Basic Settings
1 - 3 Tone control: low 0, mid +1, high 0

2 Virtual Technician
2 - 1 Voicing: dynamic
2 - 2 Damper resonance: 9
2 - 3 String resonance: 5
2 - 4 Key off effect: 5
2 - 5 Touch: heavy

3 Key Settings
3 - 4 Layer dynamics: 9

Reverb: Hall 2

Effect: Delay 2, time 1, depth 5

Hi Pini, glad you like the Christmas gift!

Looking backwards, I really enjoyed working on this 2010 paper together: http://www.attacca.eu/images/settings_CA63_93.pdf

Maybe we could think of doing something like that in 2011 again, with a slightly different focus?

nice one TAD, it really sings with the heavy touch, thanks!

Talking of singing: what about a convincing acoustic guitar? No pitch bends, but still very expressive picking and strumming, playing open voices with sustain pedal!


ACOUSTIC GUITAR WITH BODY R1.0

Dual Voice: Ballad Guitar, volume 7 + Modern Piano, volume 3

1 Basic Settings
1 - 3 Tone control: low +2, mid +4, high +6

2 Virtual Technician
2 - 1 Voicing: dynamic
2 - 3 String resonance: 10
2 - 5 Touch: heavy

3 Key Settings
3 - 3 Layer octave: +1
3 - 4 Layer dynamics: 10

Reverb: Stage

Effect: Tremolo, rate 3, depth 1

I've just tried it, bravo! For sure an improvement on the standard guitar sound, much richer. Guitar sounds are difficult on most DP's. I've tweaked the balance to 2-8 (a bit less piano). If you hit the 6th string (low E) hard, it gives you a nice distorted sound
Another useful preset, thank you TAD!

I've just uploaded my first Youtube video with the Steinway CA93 (so far my favourite) preset.
This is how I did it:
Not liking the result of the internal USB recording, even in WAV mode, I've used my faithful Zoom H2 behind the Soundboard, wav 44hz/16bit, mic height 20cm below the edge, then Audacity, just normalizing, I've synchronized the sound with the iMovie HD vid. The result is to be judged for yourself..., anyway it comes nowhere near to the real thing live.
My playing is a bit rusty as well, having been away from the piano for a long time.
I've chosen this Schumann piece because it stays away from extremes (basses and trebles) so the singing quality of the Steinway patch should come out pure.
Let me know what you think...
Schumann Kinderszenen
I intend to upload more with different settings, to compare the dual voice piano presets (I'm kind of addicted to the Fazioli patch as well) ,
Best regards,
Jasper

Thanks for your video, vabejas! Despite of the obvious H2 recording limitations, your authentic playing style sounds great in combination with the Steinway patch. By the way, I'm curious what the differences would be like if you could also record at the players' position (close to your head)...

Thank you TAD, and thanks for the tip, good idea, I'll try your proposed position with the same piece and preset, maybe the result will be less boomy in the basses.
I have no experience with recording piano yet, just trying different settings. My classical guitar recordings are much appreciated on youtube btw, even with the Zoom H2! Oops, slightly going off-topic here...

Here you can find the latest update to the CA93/CA63 list of presets. It includes the latest presets from TADutchman as well as some minor updates.

I've added a new column to highlight those settings which are new, moved or updated since the last release. It should make life easier to find the modified presets.

Have fun with the presets....

ripe_md, this is a great overview! Thanks for compiling this!

Thank you Ripe-md!Nice work!
Jasper

Good to know that you like the format of the preset list. If you have any comments or suggestions feel free to contact me.

Great stuff, ripe_md!
Let's add some more, first thinking of one of the funkiest pop pianos ever:


DOES BECHSTEIN RING A BELL? R1.0

Dual Voice: Modern Piano, volume 5 + Pop Piano, volume 5

1 Basic Settings
1 - 3 Tone control: low +1, mid -1, high -5

2 Virtual Technician
2 - 1 Voicing: dynamic
2 - 2 Damper resonance: 9
2 - 3 String resonance: 9
2 - 4 Key off effect: 9
2 - 5 Touch: normal

3 Key Settings
3 - 4 Layer dynamics: 9

Reverb: Stage

Effect: Delay 3, time 1, depth 2

All previous and future versions of the Kawai CA93/CA63 Custom Dual Voice Mode Presets Lists are available under this URL.

Please check on a regular basis, as I will update the list as soon as TADutchman shares his newest creations! So it's not longer necessary to make a posting for each update of the list.