MakeMusic Releases “Garritan CFX Lite” Virtual Piano
Compact, affordable version of the acclaimed Garritan Abbey Road
Studios CFX Concert Grand
BOULDER, Colo.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–MakeMusic, Inc., creators of Garritan virtual instruments, announced
today the release of Garritan Abbey Road Studios CFX Lite. This new
instrument offers a compact, downloadable subset of the spectacular
Garritan Abbey Road Studios CFX Concert Grand virtual piano at an
affordable price.
The original CFX virtual instrument was created by placing Yamaha’s
flagship CFX Concert Grand piano in Abbey Road Studios’ historic Studio
One. There it was recorded by renowned engineers, blending the latest
technology with legendary equipment and acoustics.
“When we set out to make a more accessible version of the CFX Concert
Grand, we didn’t want it to be ‘watered-down’ in any way,” said Fred
Flowerday, MakeMusic senior vice president of product strategy. “Instead
of making any compromise in sonic quality, we provided a single, classic
microphone perspective in all of its richness and depth.”
Where the full CFX offers close and ambient mic placement for three
perspectives (Classic, Contemporary, and Player), CFX Lite offers simply
the close-mic’d Classic perspective, provided in all of its
full-bandwidth, remarkable grandeur. The result is a truly incredible
piano, suitable for nearly any system or budget.
The CFX Lite retains the expressive detail of the original by providing
the full power of the Close Classic mic perspective, created to capture
the natural tonal character, clarity and nuance of the CFX. All 20
layers of detail from the original CFX are represented, including
separate sample sets for pedals-up, sustain pedal down and soft pedaling.
The CFX Lite also adds pedaling and other features not found in the
original CFX Concert Grand. These include partial and re-pedaling
functionality plus more than 20 additional impulses captured from Abbey
Road Studios’ legendary outboard reverb equipment.
“I really love the Lite version of the Abbey Road CFX,” said Mirek
Stiles, head of audio products at Abbey Road Studios. “It’s great having
the Abbey Road engineers’ favourite mic array from the original CFX
release, with the same beautiful tones of the CFX in the most famous
recording studio in the world, but in a more accessible, downloadable
package.”
The CFX Lite includes the powerful ARIA player, and is designed to be a
perfect addition to music notation-based programs, like Finale, as well
as to all sequencers and digital audio work stations. It is also equally
at home in live usage as it is in a studio setting.
“The CFX Lite carries on the Garritan tradition of democratizing music
making,” said Gary Garritan, MakeMusic director of instrumental
sciences. “Not everyone can own Yamaha’s flagship grand piano or book
studio time at Abbey Road Studios. But today, nearly anyone can reap the
benefits this remarkable piano and legendary world-class studio have to
offer.”
The CFX Lite virtual instrument is only available as a download, and
retails for $79.95. Audio samples, video and additional information can
be found at Garritan.com.
Those who purchase the CFX Lite and wish to upgrade to the full CFX
Concert Grand can do so for just $99.95.
MakeMusic’s Garritan and Finale products are exclusively distributed
through Alfred Music in North America, India, Australia and New Zealand
and are available through music resellers worldwide.
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About MakeMusic, Inc.
MakeMusic®, Inc. is a world leader in music technology whose
mission is to develop and market solutions that transform how music is
composed, taught, learned, and performed. For more than 25 years, Finale®
has been the industry standard in music notation software, enabling
musicians worldwide to create, edit, audition, print, and publish
musical scores. MakeMusic’s SmartMusic® interactive
music learning software transforms the way students practice. With an
online library of thousands of band, orchestra, and vocal pieces,
students practice with background accompaniment and receive immediate
feedback on their performance. Teachers leverage SmartMusic to
individualize instruction and document the progress of every student.
MakeMusic is also the creator of Garritan® sound
libraries, providing state-of-the-art virtual instruments with the
playback quality of a live performance, and MusicXML™, the
internet-friendly way to publish musical scores, distribute interactive
sheet music, and share music notation with a wide variety of software
programs. Additional information can be found at www.makemusic.com.
About Abbey Road Studios
Abbey Road Studios is the most famous recording studios in the world and
a global music icon. Home to countless landmark recordings and
pioneering advances in recording technology, the legendary studio
complex has a phenomenal history spanning over 80 years, encompassing
celebrated work by many of the world’s most famous recording artists
including The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Frank Ocean, Florence + The Machine,
Radiohead, Oasis, Kanye West, Lady Gaga and Adele. Since the score for
Raiders of the Lost Ark was recorded at the studios in 1980, Abbey
Road has developed into one of the world’s premier locations for movie
scoring. Blockbuster films such as The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The
King’s Speech and Skyfall feature scores recorded there, while recent
projects include the Oscar-winning score to Gravity. Additionally, a
number of high-profile video games such as Halo 5 and Call of Duty have
recorded in-game music at Abbey Road Studios. The Studios house a number
of state of the art mastering suites. Recent projects mastered or
re-mastered by Abbey Road’s award-winning engineers include music from
Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran, Queen, The Smiths, Depeche Mode, New Order, Mary
J. Blige. Abbey Road Studios also offers online mixing and mastering,
audio products for professional and home studio music producers, live
concert recording, archiving and video services. The Studios also host a
select number of special events each year. Abbey Road recently launched
Abbey Road Red, Europe’s only music-focused technology incubator which
supports the endeavours of entrepreneurs, research and developers. Abbey
Road Institute recently began offering vocational diplomas in music
production and audio engineering to students at the studio complex in
London and state of the art facilities in Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam,
Munich, Melbourne and Sydney.
About the Yamaha CFX Concert Grand Piano
The Yamaha
CFX is the culmination of almost 20 years of development and intense
evaluations by many of the world’s most talented piano designers,
artists and technicians. From the outset Yamaha technicians
deconstructed the traditional concert grand concept and began rebuilding
it from the ground up. Every aspect of traditional piano design was
questioned, evaluated, improved and relentlessly tested. Once the design
was nearing completion, multiple prototypes endured thousands of hours
of secret testing at concert halls across the globe. The revolutionary
instrument CFX is entirely hand-built with all materials meticulously
selected and refined to ensure unprecedented music performance in the
most demanding of situations. The CFX is truly one of the finest pianos
ever created. Additional information can be found at www.cfseries.com.
Contacts
MakeMusic Contact:
MakeMusic, Inc.
Sonia Bertek,
612-875-1636
Director of Marketing
sbertek@makemusic.com
or
Abbey
Road Studios Contact:
Starscream
Richard Melville, +44
(0)7545 074631
richard@starscreamcommunications.co.uk
or
Nick
Renshaw, +44 (0)7493 771981
