SampleTekk's Summer Sale is here!

SampleTekk's Summer Sale starts June 27 and ends on July 27.  Great discounts on their piano samples and other samples.  

I definitely am going to buy White Grand/White Sister bundle.  I already own their Old Lady and Emperor, one of their Yamaha C7's and the Bosendorfer 290, but have been waiting for this sale to grab the White Bundle.

What other instruments do you guys recommend from them?

You've already got a Yamaha, a Steinway and two Bosendorfers. I'd say you've got the essentials covered, except...the only thing lacking from your collection is a snappy rockin' upright. 

I've been thinking about the Vertikal Pop for awhile now to fill that role. Similar in tone to the Vertikal Jazz mentioned above, but close-miked for when you want something more up front with less ambiance. 

Good choices! I can't remember which clip it was, but there was one of the WG in a rock/pop context where it sounded excellent. The WS is nice to have so you can mix them, but you'll like what you're getting. Report back on the Black Grand! Would be very curious how you feel it compares to the Old Lady. I'm tempted (as you were) simply for the improved GUI, but am curious how it sounds and plays.

bitflipper

I suspect that by getting the White bundle that I could avoid getting Ivory II.  

 At these prices, you could get half the Sampletekk catalog for less than the price of Ivory II! 

Yeah with these Summer Sale discounts, I have or will have all I want in Acoustic Pianos.  Per is also really good with returning, old customers and has been great when I needed to re-download the Old Lady recently (her multis got messed up).  Thanks Bit for this lead several months ago.  I also really like the demos of the White Grand on their resource page http://www.sampletekk.com/wgresource.php; the Jazz demos sound great and while it is bright, it is not harsh. Further, I value Trevor Rabin's endorsement; he knows prog rock and scoring.  The SampleTekk Black that i am getting is the new "refined version" of their Black Grand with a much, much nicer GUI that can control the resonance, eq, reverb if needed, and has velocity curve adjustments.  As some have indicated elsewhere, the sound quality of PMI/SampleTekk samples is excellent, the price also excellent, but the old default stock Kontakt GUI's need to be updated; that is one reason I am getting this version of the Black.  

I've had The Old Lady and Emperor since 2005, it was PMI productions back in those days.

Is there anything that I am really missing from SampleTekk's sale? Really only interested in using it for Jazz tunes.

Also have Alicia's Keys and Art Vista grand piano in samples and a Korg Oasys and Kurz K2661 that have some pretty good piano sounds that sit well back in a mix.

Kind regards,
Rick

rtucker55


I've had The Old Lady and Emperor since 2005, it was PMI productions back in those days.

Is there anything that I am really missing from SampleTekk's sale? Really only interested in using it for Jazz tunes.

Also have Alicia's Keys and Art Vista grand piano in samples and a Korg Oasys and Kurz K2661 that have some pretty good piano sounds that sit well back in a mix.

Kind regards,
Rick

Take a look at the White Jazz demos (White Jazz and White Jazz II and also Stella) on this page:  http://www.sampletekk.com/wgresource.php.  I like the way the White Grand sounds for jazz.  Granted it does not sound as warm as Alicia Keys, but it does not come across nearly as brittle as a Yamaha C7.  The White Grand seems pleasant, although clear without being harsh (at least to my aging/vintage ears).   However, these adjectives are always a matter of individual preference.

Discounts are calculated when you check out. If you're a previous customer, there is a discount code that brings the discount up to 60%.

I was unaware that Sampletekk had any products that required Kontakt 5. This is something new. And it sucks because there's no frickin' reason for it, no Kontakt 5-specific feature that any piano library needs. Just part of NI's plan for global domination, I guess.

bitflipper

I was unaware that Sampletekk had any products that required Kontakt 5. This is something new. And it sucks because there's no frickin' reason for it, no Kontakt 5-specific feature that any piano library needs. Just part of NI's plan for global domination, I guess.

Yeah--I agree.  Here is the link to their new piano that requires Kontakt 5: http://www.sampletekk.com/proddetail.php?prod=STDELIVER-039-KONT.  You know, I just looked at that page again and can't find where it says Kontakt 5 specifically.  i found out when I tried to load it and it gave me a warning that it requires a new version of Kontakt; so i read the pdf file and it said there that it uses Kontakt 5.   Also surprising is that it is actually only 1.29 gigs in sample size, which is pretty small compared to other piano products SampleTekk sells.  Supposedly it uses the new Kontakt 5 scripting and smaller/refined samples to produce a version of their Black Grand that is more flexible, more tweak-able in tone, resonance, etc....  But I did not really want to go to Kontakt 5 right now.  I will now have to be careful and keep the Kontakt 4 and Kontakt 5 libraries separate.

The reason its is K5 specific is it dose not need a full version of Kontakt. As a Kontakt (4) owner it would have been better for me if it did require the full version of Kontakt. But it makes it useable for non Kontakt owners.

I can understand NI only licencing new products for the latest player. I do find it annoying that they have made all Native Instruments old products K5 only however.

So the player is free, whats the problem?  Well what sucks is K5 is offically Windows 7 only. It runs fine on my Vista PC and happily coexists with the full Kontakt 4 - BUT! I am reluctant to spend money on products that are not supported on my DAW 



On the potential upside, for a non Kontakt owner there is a possibility that NI will run a cross grade offer where this product will entitle you to a discount on the full version of Kontakt. I got a big discount a while back because I had bought Steven Slate drums in a No Brainer.

Our 50% sale are now on! A bit delayed I'm afraid.... There are a plethora of multisampled instruments that you can check out, and a LOT of pianos! Our latest release, the Black, that has been discussed a bit in this thread, comes with a Kontakt licens. This means that you can download the free Kontakt player and register the piano for unlimited use. This piano has some features that allows us to both increase the playability and decrease the size. We use something called "True Resonance", a technique we have developed that allows us to make a piano that response in a very natural way. The Black features things as three pedal support, sympathetic resonances, real time pedaling and uses up to 14 velocity layers. But, there's also a lot of other instruments then pianos. Rhodes, Wurlitzer, Pianet, Recorders, Brass, Synths, Percussion and others. www.sampletekk.com

Here is a long winded critique of SampleTekk's Black for Kontakt 5. 

I played around last night with the new Black and was generally impressed. The new GUI allows for tailoring the tone of this Steinway D based instrument. It is intuitive in that most users will know what reverb, eq, velocity do. For me, this new GUI makes this SampleTekk instrument much more usable and capable of getting the tone, ambiance and resonance for example. I could dial in with ease a warm and gentle piano, or a bright powerful and clear rock piano in seconds.

Velocity Section--It was very easy to adjust the velocity curve to my taste (three curve options) and then dial up or down the velocity sensitivity knob to fit both my finger pressure, my midi keyboard (M-Audio ES88-- not the most sensitive model) and even adjust it for the particular song. So if I am playing a gentle piece, I can dial back slightly to help get that just right; if it is a rock mix, you can dial it up to make sure the tone is forceful. This is very helpful for those of us who are not the best pianists.

EQ Section—This is a simple three knob eq, one band EQ. One controls the frequency (20-20k), one controls the Q (from a sharp peak to a more gentle curve), one band for gain. I used the more gentle curve and with just a little gain boast, could turn this Steinway tone into a much more bright, edgy instrument, or by focusing the frequency toward a lower midrange, can make this Steinway tone warmer, darker.

Pedals—there are three pedals (sustain, sustenuto, una Corda) all which have midi learn. I just used the sustain pedal, but the options are there, as well as a button that allows half pedaling.

Reverb—there are three knobs—one for pre-delay, one for size, one for amount. There is also a picture which has the type of reverb. At first, I could not figure out how to change the reverb type (I should have read the manual first). Eventually I found that by click/hold & drag, I could drag the picture up or down and this rolled up or down through the reverb types. There is a gold plate, a room, a digitial and one or two others. I was surprised at the limited number of types here. I expected the choice of different concert halls, cathedral, clubs, etc. I was also surprised that the room reverb was very subtle even with the amount and size dialed up. The digital reverb, however, can be dramatic and create a wash if desired. Another surprise was that by dialing up or down the size of the reverb I would get a an annoying zipper sound. BTW, I have an I7 2600 CPU with 16gigs of ram so this is not CPU or RAM related.

Voicing-Intellisave—this button allows you to save CPU resources if needed. I did not try it.

Body Section—Here there are three controls. One is for “shimmer” which is SampleTekks term for string resonance. One is for “sympathetic resonance” which dials in the amount of resonance yo get when you play and hold a chord with the left hand, and play a melody over the top of it with the right hand. This control sets the amount of resonance heard on the unplayed, undamped strings. Finally there is a control dial for room ambiance. When dialed to the left, there is no room, just a close mic'ing effect. When dialed to the right, there is more room ambiance. With all these controls the effect is subtle and nuanced., not dramatic.

Noise—There are two dials for adjusting the amount of hammer noise and pedal noise. These are nice for solo piano work where you might want to hear the sound of the hammer release or the pedal release. The effect can be none or dialed up where it is very noticeable.

What's missing? Well I was surprised that there were no pop-up widows or hover type windows over the dials when they were adjusted. So there was no way of knowing the specific amount from let's say 1-100 or in decibels or the frequency that was being selected. I could not know what frequency I was selecting on the EQ or what amount of pre-delay in milleseconds in Reverb, or the amount of gain in either decibels or from 1-127, or the amount of resonance from 1-100 was dialed up. The absence of having some kind of numeric hover or popup window meant that there was no way of dialing in that exact amount the next time I used it. This is a feature that needs to be update. BTW, it is one that is found on the some competitors' products like NI's NY Grand for example, which has a similar GUI.

Overall the tone and the simplicity of the GUI makes this instrument a versatile and very tweakable Steinway Grand, and the total download is only 1.29Gigs. It is easy to get a warm tone with some room ambiance, or to dial in an aggressive brighter close mic'ed sound that will cut through a mix. My immediate and initial impression was that it was nice and that I was glad I purchased it; there was no buy remorse with this one, especially with a discount price less than $50. This could easily be a default piano for some if only because it is so versatile and easy to tweak. SampleTekk has moved forward with this new GUI and an easily adjustable tone pallet. They do need to update the dials/knobs so that they reveal precise decible/numeric amounts so that the user knows the exact value that is being selected. Per and his crew need to bring this new GUI system to their other instruments.

SampleTekk White Combo--my first reaction; plus DYI multi.

I was pleasantly surprised at how the White Grand sounded so clear and bright without being brilliant or overly harsh.  Even though I had listend to the demos, we all know that they can be misleading.  I had feared that the close mic'ing of the White Grand might have made it sound too harsh, even brittle, but it was just clear and even pleasant.  I tried it with just a touch of the convolution acoustic piano that is stock with Kontakt4, backed down the wet mix a bit and it was pleasant, warm, but still clear.

I then tried the White Sister, which is the same as the White Grand, but it also has a couple of ambient mics added to the sample pool and in its mix.  It was also nice, not overly ambient at all.  It had just a little additional room sound from the pair of extra room mics.

So what was missing?  Be patient.  I expected to find several, in fact many multis for these instruments and Kontakt.  I already owned SampleTekk's PMI The Old Lady, PMI The Emperor and PMI Yamaha C7.  These came with multis (.nkm files) which included the instrument itself (.nki files) and also separate instrument versions of pedals, sustain, release, resonance, harmonics.  So for example, in the Old Lady a given multi might have four or five instruments (.nki files) contain the main instrument, the sustain, the release, the pedal noice, the hammer noise, each blended to give an overall balance in the multi.  You get the picture.  So I was surprised not to find any of these extra features in either the White Grand or the White Sister.  There were no multis at all!  Rather there was only one .nki file for the White Grand and only one .nki file for the White Sister.  Later I found on the White Resource page two more .nki files for the White Grand, but these were for economy CPU use.  Perhaps given that the White series are designed for pop/rock/jazzs mixes, there is not an expectation that the pedal, hammer, releases and noises will be heard in a lively mix.  So, what is a guy to do?

Be creative--It's make your own multi time.  This absence of Grand White multis (and not any pedal, hammer, resonance, harmonics instrument .nki files at all) inspired me to create my own special multis for the White Grand.  I took the White Grand .nki file. Then I added the pedals, the sustain, the resonance, the harmonics .nki's files from The Old Lady.  I blended them to ear/taste; had them all triggered by the same midi channel; had them all outputted to the same Kontakt output, and VOILA, I now have a custom do-it-yourself White Grand multi.  I figured that since The Old Lady is herself a warm rich Steinway that she might add a touch more of warmth beneath the clarity of the White Grand.  I blended the collection so that the White Grand is dominant, but so that the pedal and hammer releases, the sustains, and the harmonics were just audible, but not dominant.  The result was a very nice SampleTekk instrument.  Of course, many of you are going to think by now that this is what we should do always, anyway--make our own custom multis.  I was just a little surprised at being forced to do so, when after-all the other SampleTekk instruments I had previously purchased had several multis that were good starting off palets.  I always blend, adjust, tweak the knobs for my taste and my uses anyway. 

Thus ends my first day with the White Grand & White Sister and my custom do-it-yourself multi.  Nice day!  Nice instruments.  Nice multi!

Excellent review Cecelius and good tip too.
 
I don't have any of SampleTekk's piano's (yet) and was waiting for this sale to get my first decent piano. I'm not a keyboardist/pianist by any stretch of the imagination , but do like good sounding piano's. I've been using SampleTank's Piano collection (I know....sigh) and also TruePiano when I needed Piano in a track, but it's time to get something better. 

I was thinking of getting The Old Lady or The Emperor as a starting point (for rock/pop/blues/jazz) and would like your opinion on these or any others you recommend?  

Thanks,

The Old Lady is a 1912 Steinway that had been fitted with electromechanical actuators so it could be controlled by a computer (1000 velocity levels!), making it the perfect source for sampling. A "lite" version was originally included in the Kontakt 2 library. The full version has up to 12 velocity layers, the Kontakt version had 5. Tone-wise, the Old Lady has a mellow sound that works well for ballads and solo piano pieces.

The Emperor is a Bosendorfer. Brighter and less ambient than the Old Lady and consequently probably more versatile, certainly more appropriate for rock 'n roll. The next step up in brightness would be one of the Yamahas. I like the Emperor because it's a good compromise between classical and rock tones, and can be used for either.