Sampletekk C7 jr

I already had two of the former PMI sample sets (Sampletekk now have these), the Old Lady (Steinway Model D) and their Bosendorfer 290 and decided to add their Yamaha C7 - but just as the 'stripped down' C7 jr. As with the other sample sets I've purchased before, these sell for around the USD50 mark each and you get the raw WAV samples plus Kontakt patches, not a monolithic encrypted blob of stuff, so you can easily tweak them. So of course other than Kontakt's own copy protection, you haven't got any iLoks or anything to grapple with. I won't purchase iLok-protected software.
 
These are not new sample sets; they've been around for quite a few years. But I've listened to a bunch of fancier (and more expensive) modern VSTs and I still think from the point of view of capturing the true sound of the various pianos, that these are very good value for money, assuming you have some version of Kontakt (or Giga or EXS24) to play them with.
 
The C7 is a beautiful piano for jazz. It's a very intimate sound. Playing Bill Evan's Waltz for Debbie the middle register is soft yet full-bodied and the treble has a crystalline purity. I did feel that the release was a little fast, so tweaked it out to around 600ms in Kontakt from its default of around 150ms.  The Bosendorfer has a wonderful presence and clarity and a steely bass register and the Model D an ethereal middle range with a full bass, when played gently, and if played firmly, becomes quite thunderous; great for a more classical style, with a fair bit of ambience hovering around it.
 
If I only had the money for one of these I'd probably get the Bosendorfer, it's a great all-round instrument. But it is great to have a range of pianos, sometimes the different sounds inspire different compositions. I'd like a Fazioli now, I think, and perhaps a different Steinway, a more modern instrument, (the Old Lady I think is a sampled model D from 1923).