Eight years after the first "The Grand" arrived Steinberg have reached version 3. There's a lot more competition around these days, with everyone having their own massive piano sample to tempt serious players, and The Grand 3 certainly brings Steinberg back into contention. Along with the Steinway D they've got a Yamaha C7 and the ubiquitous Bösendorfer 290 Imperial plus an electric piano, the Yamaha CP80 and an upright called the Nordiska Pianofabriken whatever the heck that is. It certainly brings along a wide palette of sounds in a single package of an alarmingly huge 88GB's of samples.

So what's so special about it? Hard to say exactly, i had a bit of a play at LIMS with a beta version and it did look fabulous, although it took quite a while to load, but that's not too surprising. But of course in a show environment it was really hard to know if it sounded any good. I really loved the original - it sounded better than anything else out there for a good few years so i know that Steinberg has the potential to create something astonishing but for now we'll have to wait and see. Scheduled for release in the autumn maybe we'll get the chance to review it at some point. In the meantime the price is expected to be €349, here's the promotional blurb:

The breathtaking authenticity, the extraordinary dynamic response
and the breadth and depth of tones make The Grand 3 the first choice
for every discerning musician, arranger and composer. With its sustain
and sostenuto pedal support, subtle mechanical noises, true resonance plus two microphone positions
providing optimal tone and spatial positioning in the mix, The Grand 3
is the most ambitious and innovative development in virtual pianos to
date. Needless to say that all pianos have been sampled with up to 20 different full-length velocity samples for each key.

The Grand 3 comes with a convolution reverb based
on the same technology used by REVerence, the world’s first VST3-based
convolution reverb processor already featured in Cubase 5. It also
includes many small details like the customizable tuning editor, a 4-band EQ for quick sound shaping plus the idea scratch pad, which helps composers store spontaneous ideas by automatically recording anything played, and a metronome in the standalone version.

Key features at a glance

• Five top-flight piano models in one VST instrument
• Astoundingly authentic piano sound that comes courtesy of three of the world’s finest, most expensive concert grand pianos
• Full-length sustain samples, no loops, with every key sampled individually at varying velocities
• Unrivaled dynamic response
• Amazingly
  authentic sustain pedal resonance, damper and hammer emulations,
  velocity adapts individually to suit your touch, style of play and
  keyboard’s response
• Powerful options for tweaking tone and variable room simulations

http://www.steinberg.net