Synthogy announce details of Ivory II upgrade pricing

Following the unveiling of Ivory II at NAMM, the brand new Ivory II product line will consist of the following;

Ivory Grand Pianos II £299*
Ivory Italian Grand II £125*
Ivory Upright Pianos II £195*

Ivory II Upgrade paths will be made available to all current users and will be priced as follows;

Ivory Grand Pianos II upgrade – £59*
Ivory Italian Grand II upgrade – £29*
Ivory Upright Pianos II upgrade – £49*

All upgrades will include a new set of DVDs with the newly expanded sample libraries, the Ivory II engine software, and an Ivory II manual.

Grace Period for recent Ivory purchasers

Anyone purchasing any Synthogy products on/or after Nov. 01, 2009 will be eligible to receive a FREE upgrade** to the Ivory II version of that product.

Anyone who purchased the Ivory 1.7 Upgrade for $149 at any time, will be eligible to receive a FREE Ivory Grand Pianos II upgrade**.

*Prices are subject to change.

**Shipping and handling charges apply.

NAMM 2010 – Synthogy Announces Ivory Version 2

Synthogy has announced that it will introduce its next generation of Ivory piano products in 2010. Dubbed Ivory II, the powerful new custom engine for Synthogy’s line of virtual pianos will provide exciting new features, an all-new GUI, and further expanded piano sample sets to provide performers with more expressive detail than ever. A host of new piano-related features have been added to the Ivory II engine. Principle among these is Sympathetic String Resonance, a sought after but elusive characteristic of real pianos that Synthogy approaches in a completely new and unique way to realize the true complexities and subtleties of sympathetic string excitation.

Ivory II also addresses Synthogy’s most frequent customer requests with features like Half Pedaling, Lid Position, Pedal Noise, and Tuning Tables to deliver the most detail and control available in a virtual piano. Additional features like Timbre Shifting, Parametric EQ, and new Synth Layer control offer powerful new sound sculpting capabilities for custom piano programming and sound design.

At the heart of Ivory II are Ivory´s legendary pianos. Each Ivory piano, in every Ivory product, has been further refined and developed to include more velocity levels (up to 18 per piano), more soft pedal samples, more release samples, withgreater fidelity and refinement than ever before, to surpass Ivory´s already unmatched playability.

“Ivory II represents the most significant design enhancement to Ivory´s custom piano engine since its introduction,” remarks Synthogy co-founder Joe Ierardi. “Thanks to improvements in computer technologies and drive capacities, we can finally put all of our innovations to work to give our customers a better-than-ever playing experience. After years in the making, we believe that Ivory II is a worthy successor to the legacy established by our original Ivory product, which set the course for all other virtual pianos to follow.”

Synthogy’s current products include Ivory Grand Pianos (£229), which features a Yamaha C7, Bösendorfer Imperial, and Steinway Model D grand piano, Ivory Italian Grand (£119), and their most recent release Ivory Upright Pianos (£195), which includes four vertical instruments spanning a wide range of sonic characteristics. All Ivory products operate as stand-alone or as plug-ins within AU, VST (Mac/PC), and RTAS (Mac/PC) hosts.

The Ivory II upgrade will be offered on all three of Synthogy’s existing products in the spring of 2010. Upgrades for existing customers will be offered, with details to be announced at a later date.

Click here for more information on Synthogy products

Click here to find out more news from the 2010 NAMM show

Save 15% on all Ivory virtual pianos!

Synthogy is one of the world’s leading developers of virtual piano software whose product line has become the industry standard for music producers and composers all over the world.

Experiencing the sound quality, realism and responsiveness of Synthogy’s Ivory virtual pianos makes it easy to understand why they appeal to all levels of performer – from amateur players to accomplished virtuosos, and for a limited time we’re making it easier for you to experience them yourself with our end of summer promotion…

Right now, we’re offering customers a 15% discount off all three Ivory products. This special offer, which could save you up to £33.75, applies to a limited quantity of stock so customers are advised to order quickly to avoid disappointment!

The three award winning products include…

Described by Keyboard Magazine as ‘the de facto benchmark for virtual pianos’, Synthogy’s flagship product – Ivory – is a groundbreaking Grand Piano Virtual Instrument featuring 40 Gigabytes of stunning, new samples of the Steinway D, Bosendorfer 290 and Yamaha C7 Grand Pianos.

Ivory Italian Grand features the extraordinary Italian 10 Foot Concert Grand Piano impeccably recorded in the famed Concert Hall at SUNY Purchase College. The Italian Grand is one of the world´s most expensive and exclusive concert grands; handcrafted and well known for its expressive dynamics and full bodied character.

Released in August 2008, Ivory Upright Pianos presents the unique, intimate sound of four upright pianos – Modern Upright, Vintage Upright, Honky Tonk Upright, and the Tack Piano. These pianos were selected after an exhaustive search among hundreds of vintage uprights and, thanks to Synthogy’s meticulous attention to detail, the unique personalities of these instruments have been captured to a ‘T’.

Click here to view all Synthogy products

Help us interview Jordan Rudess and win!

Fans of Progressive Rock keyboardist Jordan Rudess will no doubt be aware that he is a long-time fan and friend of Synthogy – one of the world’s leading developers of virtual piano software. Their Ivory product line which includes Ivory Grand Pianos, Ivory Italian Grand and Ivory Upright Pianos, has become the industry standard for music producers and composers all over the world. In fact, Jordan loves the sounds so much he recorded his recent solo album ‘Notes on a Dream’ entirely with Ivory!

We’ll be interviewing Jordan Rudess in October for a special Time+Space online feature and we’re giving you the chance to ask the questions!

Send your question/s for Jordan to us and we’ll pick the ten best for the interview. The entrant for each question that is picked will receive a special Time+Space 25% discount code and the winning question (picked by Jordan) will win all three Ivory products plus a copy of Notes on a Dream signed by the man himself!

So, get your thinking caps on – what questions have you been dying to put to Jordan that other interviewers have neglected to ask? We’re looking forward to receiving some original and imaginative entries!

Click here for full details

Jordan Rudess records new album entirely with Ivory!

Progressive Rock Icon Jordan Rudess recently released “Notes On A Dream”, an all new album of solo piano music recorded entirely with Synthogy’s Ivory pianos.

This solo album features Jordan’s piano arrangements of some of Dream Theater’s favorite ballads as well as three original, progressive piano pieces. When asked why he uses Ivory, Jordan said:

“Ivory is put together in a way that is just so musical. When I play it I really feel this consistency throughout the different range of the instrument. When I hit low notes I can feel that special kinda magic you get when you sit down at a 9 foot Steinway piano and you hit the bass and you feel that kinda round feeling and it resonates. Well, when you play Ivory throughout some decent speakers, you can get that kinda pleasure from it.“

See Jordan discuss his use of Ivory in creating the album in this exclusive video interview.

“Notes On A Dream” is available on CD or via digital download from Jordan’s website here.