Ravel™
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The most expressive and realistic software piano ever made.
Universal Audio's first acoustic instrument model, Ravel, is a breathtaking emulation of a Steinway Model B grand piano.* Building upon UA's industry-leading physical modeling techniques, Ravel goes far beyond other piano plug-ins and sample libraries with its unprecedented realism and resonant dynamics.
Exclusively for LUNA Recording System, Ravel gives you an immaculately captured, iconic studio grand piano recorded at United Recording Studios (formerly Ocean Way Studios) by famed engineer Allen Sides with his vast collection of vintage mics. Purpose-built for modern music productions from pop to rock, R&B to hip-hop, and more, Ravel gives you album-ready sonics and inspiring playability.Now You Can:
Play and record the most organic, responsive, and expressive software piano ever made
Harness UltraResonance™ technology for unparalleled realism, dynamic sensitivity, and timbral characters
Easily mix between close and room mics, expertly placed by Allen Sides at United Recording
Animate your tracks with unique reversed-piano sounds that can add thrilling textures and haunting atmospheres
The Ultimate Model of a Model B
The 6' 11" Steinway Model B is the most recorded studio piano for a reason, delivering the ideal, mixable studio grand sound as heard on countless modern hits, across every genre. Its rich tones blend perfectly with drums, bass, electric guitar, and other surrounding instruments — never muddying up mixes and instead giving you a balanced, mix-ready piano track every time.
Introducing UltraResonance™ Technology
Sympathetic string resonance — or the phenomenon of undamped strings and the soundboard vibrating in response to other strings being played — is often the Achilles’ heel of virtual pianos. Using proprietary modeling and sampling techniques, UA's exclusive UltraResonance technology exactingly recreates these complex interactions, giving you the airy, evolving palette of harmonics that allows notes to melt into each other. From soft muted notes to languid, pillowy nuances, UltraResonance™ sets a new benchmark in resonance and realism.
Simple Control of Perfectly Placed Mics
Designed to give you a professional, record-ready sound right out of the gate, Ravel's easy-to-use interface lets you sculpt your piano sounds with three pairs of hand-chosen vintage mics from famed engineer Allen Sides' mic locker. Featuring only the controls you need, Ravel ensures you'll never get lost in confusing menus. Easily tweak Ravel's Volume, Tone, and a microphone Close/Room slider, letting you go from intimate tones to a lush room sound, and everywhere in between.
More Modern Textures
Looking to add drama, suspense, or other left-of-center timbres? Ravel's Reverse feature lets you easily add unique atmospheric piano sounds. Use the Mix control to add in subtle reverse textures to your normal piano playing, or go completely "backwards" for all kinds of fun. You can even “play the control” for surprising real-time performance changes.
*All trademarks are property of their respective owners, and used only to represent the instruments modeled as part of LUNA software.Customer Reviews
S. Shaw
May 22, 2020
A decent piano overall
Ravel has a special sound that I've never heard on other piano instruments, probably because of the way UA models the resonance of strings. But it lacks a bit of authenticity compared to my...
Read MoreR. Keefe
May 20, 2020
Sounds amazing but..
This Piano is fab. Lovely rich bottom end and is eminently playable. Its really does make you play in a slightly gentler way thus getting more out of the tones. However.. as its Luna only...
Read MoreJ. McGuire
May 13, 2020
4.5 out of 5 stars - The Best Software Piano on the Market
Don't let the overall rating fool you- the Ravel is the first software instrument for LUNA, and arguably shouldn't even be listed among the standard UAD Plug-Ins you know and love. So,...
Read MoreM. Bentel
May 12, 2020
Inspirational
The moment I start playing i felt like writing, its amazing its a piano, its a lot cheaper than the model its emulating and the mics and studio time to record one, I bought the Luna bundle,...
Read MoreP. Mansson
April 14, 2020
Very Realistic
Sounds great and Very Realistic, my new go to piano1
Read MoreJ. Lucas
April 14, 2020
Sounds amazing, but...
This piano sounds amazing and is very tempting but the fact that it is Luna exclusive is very limiting for the price. If I pay this much for an instrument, I want to have the flexibility to...
Read More -
Key Features:
Exacting model of the legendary studio grand piano, the Steinway Model B
All-new UltraResonance™ technology captures all of the complexity, overtones, and sonic beauty of true "damper pedal down" and "soft pedal" behaviors
Recorded at United Recording Studio by multi-Grammy winning engineer Allen Sides using his personal collection of mics and preamps
Flexibly adjust between close mics sound and a beautiful room sound
Reverse feature for easily adding atmospheric backwards piano sounds to your creative palette
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Customer Reviews
Ravel
K. Gnos
Sustain Pedal way too loud
I bought the Ravel before testing it thoroughly. I find I cannot use it because the sustain pedal sounds are way to loud, and I could not find a setting to make them softer or turn them off. Until that is fixed, it is useless for me.
S. Shaw
A decent piano overall
Ravel has a special sound that I've never heard on other piano instruments, probably because of the way UA models the resonance of strings. But it lacks a bit of authenticity compared to my favorite concert grand VI. I think it will work great in a denser mix, but not really when playing solo. Still, a great value when purchased with the creator bundle.
R. Keefe
Sounds amazing but..
This Piano is fab. Lovely rich bottom end and is eminently playable. Its really does make you play in a slightly gentler way thus getting more out of the tones. However.. as its Luna only it just isn't feasible for me. Please make it non-native and then it will be my go to piano. For now, I will have to be content with messing around with Ravel Lite.
Great job on the piano though UAD.J. McGuire
4.5 out of 5 stars - The Best Software Piano on the Market
Don't let the overall rating fool you- the Ravel is the first software instrument for LUNA, and arguably shouldn't even be listed among the standard UAD Plug-Ins you know and love. So, let's get this out of the way: Yes, it requires LUNA to run. You can't pop it into Console and record in Pro Tools or Logic via the Console Recall Plug-In. I also wish it was possible, and knocked off half a star. But that is just the way it was built and is the extent of the Ravel's downside.
On the plus side! The Ravel is leaps and bounds better than any software piano I've ever played. And that covers (what feels like!) all of them! I have others where I've said: "Wow, that's close to a grand piano sound!" Ravel is different. It sounds pretentious to say, but I can't think of a better way to describe it: Ravel "feels" like a grand piano. The sound, response, overly limited and straightforward controls, and even the nuances you get when playing a real Model B; they're all there. Still using the same old MIDI controller, it gives such a realistic experience that you have to try it to appreciate fully.M. Bentel
Inspirational
The moment I start playing i felt like writing, its amazing its a piano, its a lot cheaper than the model its emulating and the mics and studio time to record one, I bought the Luna bundle, because i loved the authentic sound, I wish i had a bigger keyboard to really get the full benefit , I haven't heard a better piano , if you want a piano for piano this is the one
P. GARREAU
Good but...
I have a Nordstage2 keyboard 88. Even if I follow unconditional UAD (hard and soft) the sound of Ravel is very good but I do not return any added value to the library of my Nord knowing that the sound banks are free.
M. Galesi
Great potential, too limited
This piano sounds like no other virtual piano before! stunning and very realistic. However, like mentioned before, the fact that is LUNA only, the limited controls and the few glitches present don't justify the cost. Would be great to see it available for other platforms and possibly still running as a native plugin.
P. Mansson
Very Realistic
Sounds great and Very Realistic, my new go to piano1
J. Lucas
Sounds amazing, but...
This piano sounds amazing and is very tempting but the fact that it is Luna exclusive is very limiting for the price. If I pay this much for an instrument, I want to have the flexibility to be able to use it live as well as in the studio. And live for me means having either MainStage or Ableton compatibility.
R. Callahan
Good stuff
Overall the samples of this piano are fantastic and playability is great right when it opens. I do wish there were additional controls and settings for things such as pedal noise. But I know this will only get better with updates. Nice work Universal Audio!
J. Ducasse
Nice... but limited
Very good Grand piano, sounds great but still needs some control improvements. So, kind of an expensive dedicated virtual instrument for now, specially considering some other massive concurrents in this field that are much more versatile. I’m sure it’ll improve and get cheaper in the future. I’ll wait...
B. Robb
So Close to the real thing.
This is an amazing sounding piano. I can't believe it. It feels very much like a studio grand and the micing is impeccable.
You can tell it was rushed to release. The damper sound is super weird and loud and there is not control over it. Recording at 96 KHZ is not practical at this time it starts to break up. Would like control over that. I can't wait till this gets cleaned up cuz it's gonna sound so good.
