Get a UAD-1 Card and put the following plug ins on the piano track.

Pultec EQ
LA2A compressor

You will be there.

MM

thanks Paul and everyone. Agreed about the quantization thing. I do it all in realtime though so it's not a problem. May not be a one-take, but if I do segments, I do them until they feel real good, or I scratch it and start all over. Of course, you probably mean when you are playing with metronome or track, then often the tempo changes are good to add. I usually need to de-humanize not humanize. (<G>)

Nice to hear from you again-think I haven't heard from you since my first post when I joined at the end of January. I will post a link for you all to hear and criticize. Am considering the UAD. One of my colleagues is trying to talk me into it-I've just recently spent a lot on various things and am considering a 01X, Mackie or something 24/96 to route my modules and external effects through to stay in the digital realm. (different subject-don't go there <G>). What I ended up doing is using DSP Aural Activator/Steinberg Magneto for enhancement, and am seeing whether Waves C1 or RCL is the best compressor. Even slightly overcompressing the signal really makes the piano harsh and I lose my subtleties as a player and makes it sound hard. I can try getting that PSP verb-don't even try to explain cross modulation to me-too big of a word-as I've explained in other posts, I am definitely player first-the technical is just to get me there. I greatly admire all of you guys that can do all that stuff. Maybe I should do the performance and send a donation to your facourite charity for making me sound good, but I think I have come up with a pretty good sound. I had forgotten I had those DSP FX because I never loaded them into my new set-up.. I already have someone master my work for me. I can do it, but it seems I always run across somebody that loves it and is better than me so I'd rather trust them. I want to learn as much as I can but I was never into programming synths-I'm a "tone friek", but usually stick with pads/strings from various collections and my Triton, Bass Legend basses, B4, EVP 73. Of all the reverbs I've heard, still nothing compares with my external DP/4 or Lexicon. I'm not fighting technology-just waiting to have my ears convinced Anyway, I appreciate all your help. Will include a snippet of pre and post process in another post later.

Thanks

Nice to hear from you again-think I haven't heard from you since my first post when I joined at the end of January.

I've been a bit busy putting my company thru a merger.

I am definitely player first-the technical is just to get me there. I greatly admire all of you guys that can do all that stuff.

Unfortunately, now I'm the opposite, very much admiring the 'real musicians' <g>

do you have a snippet of some piano work you've done that I could here?

Interesting thread guys. I've got two things to add:

1) I don't really like the sound of recorded pianos .. period. A nice 7' Steinway in a nice room can sound marvelous in the right hands but I've never heard anyone capture that magic on a recording. It just goes flat. Some things just don't seem to record. Pipe organs are even worse. I think that some of my dissatisfaction with sampled pianos (and the Bozy 290 is the best I've heard) is actually just that it is a recorded sound, if you see what I mean. We need to be comparing sampled with recorded, not sampled with live.

2) An awful lot of the sound of a piano is the noise of the fingers hitting the keys ('upper noise') and the keys hitting the key-bed ('lower noise'). These two can sometimes account for 60% of the overall sound energy produced (if my memory serves me right). Although this may sound rather far-fetched, it's easier to believe if you've ever played a largish grand which has had its hammers removed (!). The noise as the keys crash into that giant sounding board (ie the piano) is huge.

These noises account for a lot of the difference in the tone that different players produce. They account for things like the brilliance of a very fast (high) finger staccato (lots of upper noise giving much added percussion to the start of each note), and the energy of a really muscular FF (lower noise).

A guy called Jozseph Gat (sp?) did a whole load of measurements of this sort of stuff and they're summarised in a book called "The Technique of Piano Playing". I used to have it but some guy walked off with it. Always happens.

Anyway, I'd imagine that modelling a piano you would have to take account of these upper and lower noises, otherwise it might sound a bit strange. It's not just vibrating strings.

Does that qualify for a bottle of Chateauneuf? I accept any first-growth Clarets too.

Cheers, Ian.

Michael,

I'm looking forward to hearing your results. Good luck!

-Gary

I was a bit disappointed with The Coakly Pianos vol 1. Very expensive only a few patches.. Although, they were getting close.. Anything like that taken a bit further with more than 5 or 6 patches?

Brad

I used to have the PSP Pianoverb. It's great if you want to add mud to your sound. ; ) Naw, it's not that bad, but I certainly wasn't impressed enough to ever use it. Hence the phrase "used to have."

-Alex

So, The Coakley Pianos are the best still? or PMI (Michiel Post) Bosendorfer 290.? Cuz There are vol's 2, and 3.. I just don't wanna fork over 300 bucks..

Sorry Michael, The "veal" quote is from The Godfather. I always loved that scene.

But If you are in New York go to
Dominick's on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx.. That's really the best in the city. It's so tender you could cut it with your fork. Great restaurant.. No menu, no check.. The waiter asks you what you'd like and tells you what stuff is good today. . Afterwards he comes over, points to each person and tells them how much their meal was. No check.

Best
Brad

if there is a way to get your email address I can send you a snippets of something I've recently done. THere is a great difference-the Bosendorfer is much better. The velocities especially. You can go from soft to hard-of course it is VST/DXI so you will have best results at 2.9 if your card and CPU will handle it. In answer to middleman, yes, the multiband helps a lot, and something like an aural activator that has a drive that you can kind of "stretch out the middle". I also added Maxxbass and lowered the original bass on the piano and that had cool results because it makes the soundboard and thump come alive. Sorry, I've been trying to get to my website so I can post songs but have been going from deadline to deadline with my projects. But I will email you the intro to a song (Midnight Clear-Christmas) so you can hear it in a real application played by a "normal" comping musician. It'sdifficult to recommend things because our tastes are so different. I'm going to start a thread on that-called "3 things I'm sure of".