Top tier piano VST-s in Cubase sound dull , quiet and muddy (Keyscape, Noire, VSL Bosendörfer, Garritan). by Buffer size 512, if i boost gain in EQ to desired level then i get artefacts (Rattling etc). By recording and output its all the same .
Though on Youtube all of them sound Loud and clean like my real e-piano.
Are there any suggestions?
I don’t have Keyscape, VSL, or the Garritan piano you’re likely alluding to (I only have their Basic Steinway), but I do have NOIRE, and I’d noted early on in my use of NOIRE, especially the Felt Piano instrument, that it seems to default to having lots of noises turned on (and more loudly than my taste would have in most contexts). You can control those settings on NOIRE’s Piano Edit Page:
From memory, I’m thinking turning down release samples was a key thing I had to do, and also either making sure pedal and mechanical noises were either off or turned way down, depending on the needed context. Of course, their felt piano is (intentionally) dull sounding and noisy compared to the non-felt instrument – that’s pretty much the point of it.
I’ve noticed with some of my other virtual pianos that there does seem to be a trend toward exaggerated noises, sometimes as default settings, lately. But most also let you control the level of such artifacts and/or have presets that don’t make those stand out so much. I think the idea is probably to make you feel like you’re up close and personal in the room or something, but, short of a style that wants that, it makes for needed tweaking to fit the instruments in mixes.
In terms of “quiet”, a lot of Kontakt-based instruments tend set the instrument’s output volume at -6 dBFS (I don’t recall if NOIRE does), I think with the idea of making a more useful level if you’re mixing multiple instruments together (though I’d rather deal with that in Cubase). You can change that in Kontakt directly, or using Cubase’s Pre section Gain (which is, I assume what you mean when mentioning boosting gain in the EQ). Of course, when you turn up the level in either place, you’ll be turning up any noises in the instrument, too, which is why adjusting those noises in the instrument itself is needed if they aren’t to your liking.