Got any other dilemmas for me to solve?

I'll send you one of my 10 mixes in the next month for you to look at.
God, I totally hijacked this thread-but hey-I think you got the piano info you needed.

Sorry anyway testman.

I'll try it later today and see how it compares with the one I have. I tried it before and thought it was good, but then I found thos other one over at KVR. SOrry, no link-I posted it a few months back-will dig it up.

Cheers

ORIGINAL: jsaras

HERE is the best piano soundfont I've encountered anywhere. The price is right

Many, many thanks, Jonas! For that price it's absolutely amazing!

werner

A couple of tips I wanted to add to this thread because it has such a relevant title.

1. Overall hardware synths, racked or keyboards, still rule the day on piano sounds. The only exception I would add would be the new Giga when put on a dedicated machine. This mainly because the disk streaming technology just works. The Bosendorfer 290 almost gets there but you must have at least 1.2GB of Ram before it smooths out and the little pops go away. Still, its a lot of money for one of many available sounds a piano can have.

2. Even the two samples provided here have limitations. They take forever to load which is the problem with most software based pianos, the good ones anyway.

If you need it quick, and place in a moderately dense mix, purchasing even a couple of used synth boxes still makes more sense to me. Loading time goes away and there is so much cpu not being eaten up by a soft synth.

You can get a lot more sounds for the money in hardware when you consider the software approach is going to take a couple hundred dollars of ram, plus at least $600-$800 in software, as much as a $1000 overall, to get a nice range of just 2-3 software pianos.

My two cents.

ORIGINAL: michael japan

Giga Steinway is on Moments Spent With You. Oops never posted-if anyone want to hear it bad enough let me know and I'll post or provide a link or send to you.

Would love to hear that one Michael.

Thanks for the sfz link Jonas!

ORIGINAL: Middleman

1. Overall hardware synths, racked or keyboards, still rule the day on piano sounds.

Yes, Middleman is right. You need a proper piece of hardware for realistic piano sounds... so here we go: http://fr.audiofanzine.com/produits/index,idproduit,62326,mao,bontempi-b3.html



cheers,
Chris

ORIGINAL: stephenlnoe


@Everybody- How do you install the sound font? I don't know how to utilize the piano font listed above.

Thanks..

Save the soundfont/s on your drive. In your host program(I use Sonar), improt and open up the soundfont player of your choice. Select 'import' (or whatever the player calls the command), and select the soundfont you want to play. Import and jam away.
It's simple, and some of the free soundfonts are very good. For a free player, check out the SFZ player(Google it)... it's simple, free, and works. VSampler will also import soundfonts... and many other formats.

ORIGINAL: stephenlnoe

Thanks Sonic, worked like a charm.

Glad to help!

ORIGINAL: jsaras

HERE is the best piano soundfont I've encountered anywhere. The price is right

This is a nice mellow one. Beautiful. I spent Monday, Tuesday and today in the hospital composing and tinkering with this one and
the big one from audioshots and both are splendid.

ORIGINAL: Middleman

A couple of tips I wanted to add to this thread because it has such a relevant title.

1. Overall hardware synths, racked or keyboards, still rule the day on piano sounds. The only exception I would add would be the new Giga when put on a dedicated machine. This mainly because the disk streaming technology just works. The Bosendorfer 290 almost gets there but you must have at least 1.2GB of Ram before it smooths out and the little pops go away. Still, its a lot of money for one of many available sounds a piano can have.

2. Even the two samples provided here have limitations. They take forever to load which is the problem with most software based pianos, the good ones anyway.

If you need it quick, and place in a moderately dense mix, purchasing even a couple of used synth boxes still makes more sense to me. Loading time goes away and there is so much cpu not being eaten up by a soft synth.

You can get a lot more sounds for the money in hardware when you consider the software approach is going to take a couple hundred dollars of ram, plus at least $600-$800 in software, as much as a $1000 overall, to get a nice range of just 2-3 software pianos.

My two cents.

Just to throw in my two bits, I LOVE my new Roland RD-700SX digital piano. The keyboard is smooth as silk, the piano samples full and rich. Here is a sample.

You really think so, Michael? I'd listen to both again.

Sonic, what speakers are you using?

Anyway, I just did a couple of instrumentals and I went back to my P120. The dynamics are so nice-from nothing to loud-it's not always the tone but the playability.

hey Steve. 1:00 a.m. here and up at 7:00. Quickly, I will post a demo tomorrow-not about to go to the studio now and go through the soundclick/mp3 connection. I hope this doesn't sound spoiled, but since you have so much good outboard gear and a better table than me I'll mention it:

The P120 and the PF100 are 2 very different animals.
I'll post something on the songs forum tomorrow.

Have a great day Steve.

Michael

ORIGINAL: stephenlnoe
@HV-I like the piece but the piano is much to bright to be a Yamaha concert grand.

That is nice and mellow sounding. They often often dress up the felts much brighter for stage and recording work, though. You're wife's a very good pianist, btw.

Here's mine doing a 2-piano piece ( Christmas Is Coming ) that uses 2 different libraries. The first piano you hear is the Bardstown Bosendorfer. Joined in by the Sampletekk White Grand. Recorded in Sonar (of course).

I've used the EW Bosendorfer a lot and it's a bit darker. As are the PMI Bosendorfer and Old Lady and the Sampletekk Black Grand. I know it's a matter of taste, but I've been going for a little more brilliance lately. Probably get over it as soon as the ears stop bleeding.

Howard

The Steinway D + Harmonics that comes with Kontakt 2 is pretty great. I've been using it exclusively since K2 came.

That is a cut down version of the Old Lady. There is an update for that on the updates page at Post Piano.

http://www.postpiano.com/support/allUpdates.php?id=169

"Best sounding Piano" is an acoustic piano with a MIDI player. YAMAHA Disklavier MarkIV is an "all in one" package. QRS Pianomation and Pianodisc Opus7 are add-ons to an existing acoustic. These are all advertised to take type 1 MIDI files. I heard one performance with the MarkIV from a MIDI file I made. It's still easy to tell the difference between an acoustic and a synth. True, the MarkIV listed for $28-29K, but that's what it takes. I wonder how many studios have such instruments ?
Regards,
Jim Ritchie