it's not the piano as much as your touch me thinks.

Hi Dave,

This was great!

I have a question, did you use True Piano's that came with X1 or did you upgrade it? It comes with 'Amber' iirc. Which setting did you use?

@James

I know what you mean about getting True Piano to sit in a mix. It's tricky but with some EQ'ing it can be done. I use Sonitus and use a tight Q'd highly boosted frequency sweep and to see where the worse problems are, then pull them out completely. Be careful not to have the volume too loud on your monitors or headphones when doing this. :)

That's great Dave!  I'd ask the same question as James.  The true pianos Amber is okay, but not in a leage with some of the others out there.  Some of the pianos from NI are outstanding, like the NY grand.  Alicia's Keys is nice too.  Your playing is superb.  I think that could make most any plugin sound good.

Thanks for all the comments.

For those who asked, I used the included one.  It's called True_Piano X64 1.

Now, I do agree that it can get lost in a fat mix, if not EQ'd correctly, especially the "default" piano.

I'm starting to like how the "bright" piano fits into a rock mix better.  BUT, the "default" and the "wide" pianos are extremely nice in light mixes or as solo instruments, as on my "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", which was "default". 

btw, did Steven Slate have to make his "Sizzle Kit Dry" so damn good?  I feel like I never want to try anything else because it's so clean and authentic sounding.  Good job, Steven.  Thanks.

btw, I have "Akoustic Piano" sitting on my shelf right now.  I bought it a couple years back when I was still using Sonar 4 and my system could not handle it.  I had freeze-ups galore.  I don't reckon I'll even bother to install it on this computer because these X1 included ones are so good.    Thanks again to all.  Every week, I'll upload a new original song.  Keep your eyes and ears open, and please offer honest critique and/or suggestions, if anything strikes you as a fellow musician!  I take them all under "advisement", that's for sure.

First of all - THAT WAS GORGEOUS. I didn't listen to your other music yet, but I am making it a priority to do so. Amazing. Thank you for sharing your God-given gift with us. Secondly, yes, True Piano is outstanding. I'm primarily a guitarist, but I'm a self-taught pianist and I compose music that's a cross between Journey, Dream Theater and 70's-era Billy Joel, but with some Jazz & Classical influence. I LOVE True Piano. I tried all the piano sounds in Dimension Pro and I find that True Piano (the Amber one in X1) fits way better in the mix.

A beautiful performance of a great song.

I can't find "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" or "Song of the Week" on your soundcloud site.  am I being dense or missing it or what?

Reece, this is a pretty old thread.  He's added a lot of songs since then.  Look down farther or on the second page. 

I suck at keys but I still hoped against all hope that it was just my sh**y playing that made true piano sound lifeless, but as others have said your playing is WONDERFUL but your skills would be better showcased on a premium sample set. Since I'm no virtuoso by any means on piano I can't recommend one in any price range but I'm sure others can..Like madame Janet or my brother Jamesyoyo.

I was actually pretty impressed with this, Tony, and since this thread came up again, I thought about putting Sonar X1's up against Ivory, with the exact same piece.  Since I now have X1, I guess I could try that myself...as soon as I can figure out how.  :)  (I've been too busy to learn X1 yet.)  

In the meantime Ivory Grand is (or used to be) only about $169.  I wish I would have bought that right after my first Sonar purchase.  Would have saved a lot of messing around.  Actually, I don't think that cheaper version wasn't available then, but if it would have been.... :)