Notice just came in my email. Not much information about it – but pics show a totally new UI. Anyone gonna bite on this one?
Why not use a speciality of modern internet technology, called “link”?
Also true for your posting… 
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Thought this was obvious
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It seems that there is not only a new Ivory III engine, but also a new German D plugin! As the Ivory 2.5 American Concert D is currently my favorite piano plugin (at least when played on my Kawai VPC1 controller), I wonder If they could please me even more with the new German D. It seems that the Ivory III engine will be available as an update for former Ivory II products. Not sure what it exactly brings. For the moment only the Mac version is available.
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One of the key differences is that it was sampled with additional mic placements so you can dial in some ambiance, and each mic has its own EQ and compression. The new engine apparently blends sampling with ideas from modeling to achieve almost infinite velocity/timbre, and perhaps improvements to hammer strength and sympathetic resonance.
Ivory is already my #1 piano plugin for live performance because it sounds so good and it happens to be CPU-friendly. Play using expressive gestures and it faithfully reacts like a piano. If you turn on sympathetic resonance (bump it up to 1 or 2 dB gain) it uses a bit more CPU but it makes a big improvement to the sound, putting it on par with Keyscape in my opinion. With a wide range of configuration options and several piano models to choose from, you can dial in the tone you are looking for.
I will get it and hope that the new engine is just as friendly on the CPU!
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It also happens to be RAM friendly, its loads very quickly in GP and uses the sample from the disk, but it is quite heavy on the drive (talking from the 2.5 version). I really would like a modeled piano, but each time I play one and play the American Concert D after, I know that it won’t be possible for me. I will probably « have to buy » this new German D 
Seems interesting. Combining sampling + physical modelling approach seems to be the way to go for many great keyboard plugins (I never get tired of praising Acoustic Samples plugins), so I’m glad to see Synthogy also going for that. Couple of new mic placements is also a good addition, keeping up with the competitors.
I’ve had the original Ivory II Grand Pianos for a long time and I used to practise with it quite a bit as a student, but when doing live-stuff I gravitated more towards other plugins and hardware sounds. In a denser/louder live-context the Ivory II needs quite a bit of tweaking in order to make it cut through solidly (not saying it’s not possible though). I’m used to Yamaha C7 cutting through anything easily, but with the Ivory samples it wasn’t as easy as I’d have hoped.
The old GUI was also pretty ugly (IMHO) and outdated compared to alternatives.
For comparison, Pianoteq looks prettier, loads quicker, feels great and dynamic and is very easy to make cut through BUT even at version 8, is still missing that magical “something” on the attack that the sample-based alternatives like Ivory can deliver, especially in the higher register. So neither gigantic sample libraries nor a very good physical modeling like Pianoteq have managed to offer “the perfect piano plugin” for my rather strict standards. Not to say “very good piano plugins” aren’t good enough for my current needs, I’m happily gigging with Pianoteq and AS C7 
I’d love to try out the new Ivory, but it seems unlikely since Synthogy has never offered demos or trials and I don’t know anyone in my area (Helsinki) using Ivory. The upgrade price is too high for just trying out.
So if any of you ends up using the new version and likes it a lot, try to write a convincing review/sales pitch (or alternatively, just tell me it isn’t worth it)
Edit: just a fun example about how context is everything when it comes to sounds: last year when playing on a Queen-tribute tour I decided to try out some E-Mu Emulator II piano samples, since Spike Edney played Emulator on the Magic tour (you can hear Spike playing with that sound during the breakdown at ~04:20).
Seven samples, no velocity layers, maybe 600-800 kilobytes in total. Sounds great in the context, when watching those Queen videos I sometimes feel that the Emulator sounds almost better than Freddie’s grand piano…
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