After spending a few hours with this new piano creation software it's pretty impressive. I would say it's the ultimate learning tool for piano with a lot of really nice midi data to play with. No doubt it will help you quickly build a piano track but it's also a bit strange. I feel like I'm stealing the creative processes of another musician because some of the chord progressions are really close to some music already out in the marketplace. Adele's "Someone Like You" progression is in there and I caught a few other well known melodies or patterns but there are some more generic style things which I think form a better basis for trying something a bit more original.
 
You could experiment for days and still have things to explore which is always the downside of midi libraries. The tone of the piano is really good if you stay away from the effects and also the pedal noise is realistic. It is really easy to drag and drop the libraries and quickly build the track then pull up the chord wheel and try some variations. You may want some other piano sounds however to provide a greater range of matching tones for various styles of music. The midi files however can be dropped into Sonar and you can accomplish this with little trouble if you have some other VST instrument you want to try.
 
I give it a B+ and with some more piano tones it could move into the A category. For those keyboard challenged and even for songwriters that want to get something up on the page, it's nice but as a songwriter it feels like the ultimate creative cheat. Maybe that's a good thing, time will tell.  

Thanks for posting this. I've downloaded the demo but there's something holding me back from trying it - it does seem like cheating. 

I guess they'll do like they do for EZ Drummer and sell add-on midi packs and piano libraries.

I agree.  I have played with the demo for about a week now, off and on.  I like how it can play common rhythms by style.  Boogie woogie is cool.  Also, it shows you straight up what the typical chord progressions are in the various styles.
 
I am also Grateful that someone finally created a program like this that will play simple 4/4 quarter note patterns straight off the midi menu.  I can do that myself in Kontakt or create a MIDI groove in X1 but this is quicker when you just want to hear a simple patterned banged out in robo-style.  Good for repetitive looping / practice with another instrument.
 
Some of the chord inversions leave me wanting.  As a learning tool I wish it had a switchable feature that would allow you to choose straight up chord structures (e.g. Cmaj  as  C-E-G;  Cmaj7 as C-E-G-B  rather than inversions like G-C-E or B-C-E-G)  I guess the fancy inversions mesh better when you drag and drop a lot of patterns, but still....
 
All in all a nice tool.  It's a nice simplified take on the Band in a Box trick.  BIAB has way too many menu options for me to get my head around.  Wish it had a "simple" and "advanced" menu choice in it's preferences.
 
I might just buy this when it comes around on sale towards the end of the year.

I suspect this product will get better with time just as EZ Drummer did. I think the weak point for me at this point is that I find that taking sections from different songs and trying to mesh them together doesn't work very well. There is too much of a difference in style. Also as you change the chords within a pattern it tends to sound strange.  I think what will be a big plus is more generic patterns and piano fills that can be put together as a cut and paste. I am also surprised that they have so many files that are rip offs of hit songs. Drops of Jupiter, Walking in Memphis, Adele and so on. I do think this will improve as they get better at finding the right type of midi files to sell that are useful to us.

Does anyone remember "twiddly bits" from like the 90s. This was just midi keyboard licks. Didn't seem to get much traction. But, to me, the concept is great. I haven't tried the EZkeys but, it seems just a bunch of midi files. But, I guess they are more easily chopped up and used than say BIAB and/or twiddly bits.

It's actually kind of amazing that "music" has evolved to selling minut fractions of a performance. I keep waiting for the Beatles vocals VST to come to fruition.

I wanna hold your walrus yeah yeah yeah.

Man I bought it installed it and it went to the back of the line.

I gotta get into this thing.

For you folks not feeling good about using "someone else's" chops, surely you're not using any of the MIDI clips out out of EZ or Superior. Those are licks someone else played. Oh yeah BTW, don't use reverb either. Jus' sayin'...Me? I'm loving it. As a matter of fact I'm already charging clients for piano bed tracks. YMMV... On edit - there ain't no new licks or chords progressions being played anywhere that haven't been played before.

strikinglyhandsome1


I wanna hold your walrus yeah yeah yeah.

pdlstl


For you folks not feeling good about using "someone else's" chops, surely you're not using any of the MIDI clips out out of EZ or Superior. 

I am and I don't feel bad about it because, well you've heard all the drummer jokes. (ducking)
 
If you use the base chordal patterns attached to the time of the song, it's less of a steal. Hey, I said I feel funny about it, that doesn't mean I won't use it. I mean there was that whole Led Zepplin copyright thing.....