It is a personal preference and there's nothing wrong with Addictive. It is certainly a good value. It has a hard-sounding midrange to my ears, but, again, there is no one single ideal piano and there's always EQ. My suggestion would to to listen to exposed demos of the top offerings. I am sure any of the major packages would serve you well.

To the point, I used to do a lot of work in a studio that produced many gold records. It had a beautiful Steinway on the floor with mics that had DO NOT MOVE on the stands. The mics fed 1/3 octave EQs with a lot of boosts and cuts and signs that said DO NOT TOUCH! So, I guess a real 9-ft Steinway wasn't good enough for them.

Dave King
Hey,
 
I've been using TruePianos for years and have been happy with it, but I've been away from recording for a while and wonder if there are other better options nowadays for affordable, "real" sounding piano soft synths.  What are you using now and what would you recommend?  Thanks!

If you are using the "bundled" TP in CW - then I strongly recommend you try the full version. If not, then other suggestions here are all fine, but bang for buck and in a live situation TP still rocks! I own Ivory and Ravenscroft, and only ever use them as a solo, in ensembles? TP all the way :)

joden
If you are using the "bundled" TP in CW - then I strongly recommend you try the full version. 

Uhhhhhhh see post #8?

I've followed up on your suggestions and spent some more time with TP, and in particular the Atlantis module.  I quite like it using the "Standard" preset and a little tweaking on the dynamics.  I'm gonna go with it for now.  I think it will serve the mix I'm currently working on well.  Thanks!

Have you tried the Atlantis module in version1.95?

joden
Have you tried the Atlantis module in version1.95?

Yup.  That's the one I'm working with on my current mix.  :-)

I had recently a project with demanding piano parts. For this I have tested very many piano synths and the two best to my ears turned out to be our own Truepianos (yes!) and Toontracks EZkeys. You can download a very well working demo at Toontrack site.

Dave King

joden
Have you tried the Atlantis module in version1.95?

Yup.  That's the one I'm working with on my current mix.  :-)

haha, sorry but you did write Amber module in your post before editing

You are correct sir!  My mistake.