best piano soft synth

RE: best piano soft synth (jshep0102)

Sun, 30 Dec 2007 18:31:27 GMT

Listen to this... Bluethner Digital One - Good luck, Shepl

http://www.proaudiovault.com/

RE: best piano soft synth (tfale)

Sun, 30 Dec 2007 18:24:51 GMT

I have to admit, I like the Steinway D in Kontakt II. However, I just purchased a Kawai EX 100 (9'2) grand, and will probably using accoustic (live) from now on. tf

RE: best piano soft synth (alxi)

Sun, 30 Dec 2007 17:39:14 GMT

i Have tried them all, exept true piano... and my favorite one is Art Vista virtual grand piano without a doubt. I like the fact that it is not perfect. It has attitude !

RE: best piano soft synth (wormser)

Sun, 30 Dec 2007 13:36:03 GMT

ORIGINAL: gmp

I'm still searching for the ultimate piano also. I tried pianoteq recently and wasn't impressed with the sound or the feel. When you play loud there's no bite to it. Although the parameters that you can tweak look nice and would be great if the general sound was better. Also it had that echoed sitting behind the piano in a live room sound, which isn't good for blending with other instruments in a mix.

What I'm looking for is the kind of piano sound that you'd get by going to the best studios and recording a rhythm section. They close mic the piano with 2 mics to get a great focused stereo sound and it's bright enough to cut through the mix with some definition. It's not this solo piano sort of concert hall effect that a lot of these pianos are going for today.

I'm wondering if Ivory will get what I'm looking for, I'm going to check it out sunday hopefully. I play with a lot of expression and dynamics, so I need a lot of velocity layers to capture the tonal changes you get with loud and soft notes.

I noticed the same thing with other pianos.
it seems like the dynamic range is compressed and while the tone changes as you hit the keys harder, the overall "air" or dynamics if you will stays the same. It just doesn't sound or play like a real piano getting loud.

Ivory is the best solo piano IMHO by far.
For a real pianist, nothing even comes close.
It sucks resources though but the sound, especially the new Italian Grand pack is stunning and the playability, even right out of the box with little or no tweaking, is very much like a real piano.

However, the others are fine for mixes, or even solo work depending upon the music.

One that I don't like at all though is NI Akoustic.
Just not my cup of tea so to speak.

I'm waiting for Garritan to finally release their Steinway program.
I suspect that will up the bar a bit if it is on par with Garritan's other programs.
I'm sure Synthogy isn't resting on their laurels though so look for something from them in the future as well.

RE: best piano soft synth (Yogi1975)

Sun, 30 Dec 2007 13:07:16 GMT

Got interested in Truepianos after reading this thread. I'm amazed! I always liked The Grand from Steinberg, but I must say that Truepianos isn't that different, but much more playable! I'm gonna buy it!

RE: best piano soft synth (tparker24)

Sun, 30 Dec 2007 12:11:03 GMT

You can compare the sound of many of the above-mentioned pianos at http://purgatorycreek.com by clicking on the "Digital Piano Shootout" tab. There you can download mp3's of the pianos all playing the same piece.

- Tom

RE: best piano soft synth (subtlearts)

Sun, 30 Dec 2007 05:56:55 GMT

I use TruePianos a lot. It's versatile, quick and easy to find something that works, and sounds surprisingly good for the price, filesize and loading time. Friendly, personal and top-rate service to boot.

For work where piano is more prominent I tend to go with NI Akoustik Piano. It's the best I've personally used, very realistic to my ears and fingers (and I am a professional jazz pianist, if that counts for anything). Since I happen to own it as part of the Komplete bundle, I am unlikely to fork out for Ivory, though I understand it's glorious as well. Personally, if I want better than Akoustik, I will go Acoustic - i.e. the real thing (there's one in my living room, and it's lovely!).

Although, that BlÃ¼thner One has me intrigued, I'll admit that, mainly because I have a deep and abiding love for BlÃ¼thner pianos. Again, I'd rather have the real thing though...

ORIGINAL: Jim Roseberry
BTW, For those that don't know this, Akoustik and Elektric Piano both stream a LOT more efficiently when loaded into Kontakt 3. You can achieve far more polyphony without glitches.

... and there, I've learned something new and useful from the forum today. Good to know, thanks (again) Jim!

RE: best piano soft synth (gmp)

Sun, 30 Dec 2007 03:04:33 GMT

I'm still searching for the ultimate piano also. I tried pianoteq recently and wasn't impressed with the sound or the feel. When you play loud there's no bite to it. Although the parameters that you can tweak look nice and would be great if the general sound was better. Also it had that echoed sitting behind the piano in a live room sound, which isn't good for blending with other instruments in a mix.

What I'm looking for is the kind of piano sound that you'd get by going to the best studios and recording a rhythm section. They close mic the piano with 2 mics to get a great focused stereo sound and it's bright enough to cut through the mix with some definition. It's not this solo piano sort of concert hall effect that a lot of these pianos are going for today.

I'm wondering if Ivory will get what I'm looking for, I'm going to check it out sunday hopefully. I play with a lot of expression and dynamics, so I need a lot of velocity layers to capture the tonal changes you get with loud and soft notes.

RE: best piano soft synth (OldGeezer)

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 20:37:16 GMT

I don't know about Kontakt 3, but when I bought Kontakt 2, I was surprised by the quality of some of the instruments on the sample libary CD that came with it, including two really sweet sounding grand pianos (not lite or cut-down versions of instruments like many of them are) -a "Steinway D" at 500MB and an "August Foerster" at 1.4GB. Each with variations of FX such as convolution reverb. I'll admit I'm not a piano guy, but they both sound beautiful to me, so if you decide to buy Kontakt in order to load piano sample libraries, check out the included keys first. I wonder if the same pianos were included with Kontakt 3.

RE: best piano soft synth (AdamFH)

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 20:04:23 GMT

:p Is there a best guitar/bass soft synth thread? If not, is there a great guitar/bass soft synth?

RE: best piano soft synth (davidvector)

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 20:03:00 GMT

Thanks for the tips on True Pianos - much appreciated. It's definitely enjoyable to play solo and I can see finding uses for it. It's probably going to be hard for it to supplant the Double Platinum Rock Piano as my favorite for rock/electronica mixes though, I think. The ILIO piano library may be ten years old now and only take up 128MB in Kontakt (rather paltry by today's standards), but it just seems to have a certain "magic" in a mix that I haven't quite heard yet from anything newer I've tried. The low notes don't just go "thud" like the low notes on so many other sampled/virtual pianos seem to...they go "BANG!" It cuts through great and the midrange isn't "boxy" and leaves ample room for other instruments. It's not a sound manufactured with EQ...that's just how the piano ILIO sampled for the library naturally sounded (it was the same Steinway that Elton John used to record many of his '70s hits). Not a sound you'd want to use for solo classical pieces, mind you. But it seems like I keep trying new things and then going back to it. It just seems to do something in a mix for me that nothing else does so far.

RE: best piano soft synth (Jim Roseberry)

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 17:10:59 GMT

I use NI's Akoustik Piano and it's very good.

But the absolute best I've played/heard is Ivory.
Just incredible...

BTW, For those that don't know this, Akoustik and Elektric Piano both stream a LOT more efficiently when loaded into Kontakt 3. You can achieve far more polyphony without glitches.

RE: best piano soft synth (losguy)

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 16:49:12 GMT

ORIGINAL: davidvector
but for the most part it sounds pretty good and it's cool that it doesn't chew up a ton of RAM or stream samples from disk. During normal playing, I'm never going above 25% on one of my 4 cores (while the other 3 are at 10% or less).

I really love how fast it loads. It's really the right approach for today's processing power. It looks like your process load is already very manageable, but if needed, there is a setting to reduce max polyphony to save some CPU.

I've always found it hard to get piano sounds I like, because so many of them are better suited to classical music and sound too dark to cut through a mix of any density.

You may want to try the Diamond model with the Rock or Blues preset. For added brightness, follow it with an EQ plug (Sonitus is fine) with a high shelf at about 2-3K, boost to taste. You might also want to add a highpass at about 30-60 Hz, depending on the surrounding material.

It seems like EQ shaping works better on certain pianos, ones that feel like their harmonics are lined up properly (otherwise, it's just like boosting junk). I've found TruePianos to respond very well to EQ and other FX as well, like reverb. It's probably the same property that makes it sit so well in a mix.

RE: best piano soft synth (davidvector)

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 15:58:24 GMT

I downloaded the True Piano demo today...wasn't even aware it existed until I stumbled across this thread. I'm liking it a lot so far. I don't know if I'm entirely sold on the top and bottom octaves, but for the most part it sounds pretty good and it's cool that it doesn't chew up a ton of RAM or stream samples from disk. During normal playing, I'm never going above 25% on one of my 4 cores (while the other 3 are at 10% or less).

I've always found it hard to get piano sounds I like, because so many of them are better suited to classical music and sound too dark to cut through a mix of any density. In the past I had used the ILIO Double Platinum Rock Piano (ported over to Kontakt from my old Kurzweil) to layer with other pianos to give them some edge and brightness. It's looking like True Piano might be a viable alternative, but I'll wait and see how readily it slots into place when it comes time to mix something.

RE: best piano soft synth (Fred S)

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 14:30:01 GMT

ORIGINAL: mgh

i find it hard to find a decent piano sound too, but then i have a piano...

+1 Unlike some other sampled/emulated instruments, piano is tough. Good luck if your trying to find one that measures up to the one in the living room! Some are better/closer than others, but its really all relative.

RE: best piano soft synth (Fred S)

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 14:24:01 GMT

I have way more of these than I really need. My favorites are True Piano, Sampletekk's Black Grand, and the cheap little Bosendorfer 290 from EW. Ivory sounds great, and I have tried to like it. However, I just can't get it to "play" to my liking. That said, I'm using a CME UF8 and its a bit finicky. The best "playing" virtual piano might be True Piano although it uses a bit more CPU than the rest.

RE: best piano soft synth (eratu)

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 13:16:46 GMT

ORIGINAL: Houndawg

... and have used NI Akoustic Piano for quite some time... really enjoy it. However, I've become less and less impressed with NI as a company overall ...

+1 again

RE: best piano soft synth (Houndawg)

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 13:06:22 GMT

Being primarily a piano player (30+ years) and have used NI Akoustic Piano for quite some time... really enjoy it. However, I've become less and less impressed with NI as a company overall. The quality/stability of their products have really gone downhill -- in my opinion.

Several of my serious composer friends swear by Ivory, but of course it is massive and requires some serious resources.

Personally, I'm looking forward to trying out TruePianos.

RE: best piano soft synth (eratu)

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 13:05:47 GMT

ORIGINAL: garrigus

Native Instruments Akoustik Piano
http://www.digifreq.com/digifreq/newsinfo.asp?NewsID=2627

Scott

RE: best piano soft synth (Dr. Mac)

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 12:37:45 GMT

+10000 for true pianos! Amazing how realistic the piano sounds.

RE: best piano soft synth (Superfly76)

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 12:32:44 GMT

Another TruePianos user here. I don't really consider myslelf to be much of a piano player though so I might not be that credible. My pianist friends are all amazed by it so that's gotta count for something?

RE: best piano soft synth (Indyman)

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 00:36:36 GMT

And another +1 for Truepianos. Sounds great, makes me want to just play it. Nice guy Roel too. I'd buy it again in a second........." />

RE: best piano soft synth (losguy)

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 19:57:31 GMT

I'll pile on another +1 for TruePianos.

http://www.truepianos.com

Great sound, playability, expressiveness, and super-quick loading for a piano in this league! They have modeled the string resonance very well. I've had in-depth exchanges with Roel de Witt over there, and I can say that they are definitely with-it and forward-thinking.

Roel informed me (well, us) on another thread here that they have plans for further engine improvements, including enhancements for more modeling of real mechanisms and nuances. That, plus more piano models ("jewels") and presets. This product is already great and should expect it to continually get greater.

RE: best piano soft synth (mgh)

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 19:16:10 GMT

Wusik.com have released the 'maestro' grand piano for the wusikstation, it's about 4gb i think...sounds ok, i find it hard to find a decent piano sound too, but then i have a piano...didn't like the pianoteq that much...

RE: best piano soft synth (kwgm)

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 19:00:17 GMT

For a free piano, look for a VST called "Jazz Baby". No presets, but it does obey CC# 64.

It's not great, but has a good low end and no high end. Sounds better than the old CP 30 that I lugged to gigs for years, and it doesn't weigh 120#!

RE: best piano soft synth (rictheobscene)

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 18:38:59 GMT

ORIGINAL: Bren Gun

A couple weeks ago I heard a buddy using Reason and some kind of Abbey Road refill. Sounds damn good.

Thank you.

RE: best piano soft synth (rjt)

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 12:49:02 GMT

For a "single piano" plug--I use Pianoteq. However, (admittedly I haven't read all the responses in this thread) it is sometimes helpful to experiment with layering pianos.... I've done that a couple of times, with ok results (I say okay because when I REALLY want a piano, I record the grand in my living room.)

Take care

RE: best piano soft synth (Bren Gun)

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 12:40:32 GMT

A couple weeks ago I heard a buddy using Reason and some kind of Abbey Road refill. Sounds damn good.

RE: best piano soft synth (Spinedoc)

Thu, 27 Dec 2007 18:27:52 GMT

just got true pianos and LOVE it. Especially not having to load large sample libraries! 53MB and great sounding!

RE: best piano soft synth (StimpySon)

Thu, 27 Dec 2007 05:55:55 GMT

I was using the free vst plugin from 4front until I got Dimension Pro for x-mas.

http://www.yohng.com/piano.html