It will never sound exactly the same. For one thing, you can't fit 20 GB of sample data into a 2 GB bag. (Even the smallest Garritan CFX with a single mic perspective is about that big.) For another, mere sampling is not going to capture things like sympathetic resonances (which vary with which notes you play) and partial pedaling.

[quotePost id=116055]Has anyone "cloned" a piano VST with SampleRobot for Montage...? Like Garritan CFX, etc...
After putting it into a Montage library - does it sound the exact same?
Or does it sound "flatter" and not as expressive...?
[/quotePost]

I have cloned the Synthogy Ivory C7 VST piano with SampleRobot for Montage and it plays & sounds pretty much identical ... if anything it sounds better, because there were a few choice notes from the original samples that weren't quite as good as the others. For whatever reason the acoustic piano that they used to record the samples had a few notes that were slightly dull and didn't sound quite as good as the others, so I went through all of them and found the best places to stretch notes and fix any that weren't quite as good. On average I used/sampled just a bit more than every second note, but it wasn't in perfect order of every second note. In a few sections it worked out to having 3 semi-tones in a row since all those original samples were the best notes. So I basically cherry picked the good notes and let them stretch over any notes that weren't perfect. (not perfect as in, if I didn't listen and compare them, I would not have noticed that some notes were better than other...so it is quite subtle and those notes really aren't that bad, but the stretched version is slightly better)

I started out with 8 layers, which took a bit of testing to find the best velocities to set each layer to be auto-sampled at.
Then, after capturing the the sampled layers, I cut/shortened each of the notes' lengths down individually so that they stopped and didn't continue to the full 30 seconds that I sampled them at. I basically turned the volume up and found the point where I could barely hear the note. The lowest notes were the longest (~25 sec), and kept decreasing up to the highest notes, which stopped around ~4 sec depending on the note.
Choosing the specific notes and then editing the length of each one for 8 layers, saved a great deal of space.

In the end, the 8 layers was about 850MB in size, so I decided to try 5 layers instead, which is about 550MB. I used the preset "CFX Stage" piano, replacing the preset CFX samples with the right 5 layers (out of the 8 layers, after a bit of testing). Thankfully a several of the 8 layers I sampled were nearly indistinguishable from the layer above or below it, so the 550MB 5 layer piano is virtually identical to the 8 layer one.
I then tweaked each Element's Amp Level, Level/Vel, Offset, as well as their Amp EG Decay & Release, and the Filter Cutoff, Cutoff/Vel & FEG Depth, Depth/Vel, so that the custom C7 samples blended seamlessly. I also tweaked the Velocity Limits for each Element, but did not veer much from the Preset CFX Stage settings.
Getting these tweaks right was key, because it allows the layers to be in the correct velocity limit range, but more importantly allows each layer to blend perfectly such that you can't hear any different between them at points where they meet (i.e. the highest velocity hit on Element 1 before it switches to Element 2, and the lowest velocity hit on Element 2 before it switches down to Element 1)

So after getting the new 'base' C7 Performance set to where I wanted it, which is equivalent to having the VST with the lid closed (which is how I sampled it in SampleRobot), I named it "C7.Grand" (no EQ'ing on any Element or PART). Then I adjusted the EQ'ing of the PARTs in the Performance and saved as various other Performances (C7.Dark, C7.Concert, C7.Studio, C7.Stage, C7.PopRock)

When comparing against my Synthogy Ivory C7 VST piano, the only difference in how they sound and play, is that the Montage C7 piano is slightly better (but only when comparing side by side, otherwise it would be impossible to tell the difference). And I mean ever so slightly, because of the choice notes that I allowed to stretch over from the best adjacent notes I chose to sample, making the in-between ones a touch better than the original VST.

In addition, I also used a blend of the Montage's 'Damper Resonance' effect (less/dryer than is used on the Montage) along with the "Epic Grand" C7's 'EG Sml Res' resonance waveform for sympathetic resonance, which sounds more realist than either the Montage CFX presets' & the Epic Grand's resonance (the only good thing I could find on the Epic Grand C7 library that was of any use, as the Epic Grand pianos are not very good C7 pianos...the Synthogy Ivory C7 blows it out of the water, and now I essentially have that VST as a library on my Montage). I have since customized all the CFX pianos that I like, and added the same 'Damper Resonance' effect with the Epic Grand resonance sampled Element. I also did the same to my 'Synthogy American Grand' Steinway Montage piano library as well, which made that library more realistic to an actual grand.

One more important tweak I've done with all the pianos' Key Off samples, was to take the Key Off sample Element from each library, place it in it's own PART (PART5), then burn another PART (PART6) with a straight regular Piano sample element with the PART Output set to Off, and configured the KeyOff PART (PART5) EnvFollow6 with Dogleg Curve Type, Uni Polarity, ratio -29, Param 1 & 2 set to '0' and applied it to the KeyOff Element 1. This way, the longer you hold the note, the KeyOff reduces in volume over time, so you don't get an overly loud KeyOff...it basically maintains the appropriate key off volume, especially if you hold the sustain for 10 or more seconds.

Here is the final product - 8 Performance Library that I saved and used ("C7.Grand" being the main/base Performance):
https://soundcloud.com/dclowe/sets/montage-c7-piano-library

________________

*As for setting up my Windows 10 PC for sampling the VST piano without leaving the digital realm, here is the article I used to setup the digital environment so that I could capture it straight from the VST piano into SampleRobot:
http://blog.ultimateoutsider.com/2015/03/recording-virtual-instruments-with.html

This is the software that I installed as per the article:
LoopBe1 (Nerds.de):
https://www.nerds.de/en/loopbe1.html
setuploopbe1.exe

ASIO4ALL (Michael Tippach):
http://www.asio4all.org/
ASIO4ALL_2_14_English.exe

VB-CABLE Virtual Audio Device (VB-CABLE Driver):
https://www.vb-audio.com/Cable/index.htm
VBCABLE_Driver_Pack43.zip

impressive!

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