EastWest DKFHII and Piano

I'm thinking about purchasing two EastWest products:

The Drumkit From Hell 2 plug-in and the Bosendorfer Grand Piano Virtual Instrument ...

I'm wondering if those are both compatible with Sonar 3 and if I can use them in my DXI synth setup ...

Anyone have experience with these?

Thanks,

Andrew

I use dkfh 2. It is very ram greedy (even with direct form disk). I think I am happy with it. It works like any other VSti (and Dxi, I think)

If you feel like it, check it out in the mix of my new piece, "Surfing The Solar Winds" at www.soundclick.com/jeffreynaness

jeffn1

I checked online and they are both DXi2 compatible ... does Sonar 3 have DXi2???

Why is this all so frickin' confusing?

I have the Bosendorfer 290. My experience is that it is the best sounding soft sampler out there. When I listened to all the demos this was my initial reaction. So I bought it.

Putting it in a mix has been difficult however. Stand alone, it sounds like the real deal but it just has not mixed well with drums, guitars etc. Which leads me to providing some advice. The best sounding piano sampler is also layered with ambiance from the room and this is what causes problems in a mix. The ambiance is difficult to match or worse, sticks out like a sore thumb from live or other soundfonts, samples etc. So, you need to find a piano that has little or better yet, no ambient noise, not even a little. The Bosendorfer samples, even the dry ones, still have a little room bounce which make it hard to blend.

Find a decent sounding piano sample that has the least ambient ringing as possible and these will make it easier on putting it in the mix.

All that said, when I want stand alone or very basic arrangements with few instruments and primarily acoustic in nature, the Bosendorfer 290 sounds like the real deal. In the original room of the recorded sounds with which you must try to blend the rest of your instruments.

ORIGINAL: andrewfoshee

I checked online and they are both DXi2 compatible ... does Sonar 3 have DXi2???

Why is this all so frickin' confusing?

I use both the Bosie and DFH2 in Sonar, Andrew, as well as several other Kontakt/Kompakt-based instruments. They work perfectly.

ORIGINAL: Middleman

I have the Bosendorfer 290. My experience is that it is the best sounding soft sampler out there. When I listened to all the demos this was my initial reaction. So I bought it.

Putting it in a mix has been difficult however. Stand alone, it sounds like the real deal but it just has not mixed well with drums, guitars etc. Which leads me to providing some advice. The best sounding piano sampler is also layered with ambiance from the room and this is what causes problems in a mix. The ambiance is difficult to match or worse, sticks out like a sore thumb from live or other soundfonts, samples etc. So, you need to find a piano that has little or better yet, no ambient noise, not even a little. The Bosendorfer samples, even the dry ones, still have a little room bounce which make it hard to blend.

Find a decent sounding piano sample that has the least ambient ringing as possible and these will make it easier on putting it in the mix.

All that said, when I want stand alone or very basic arrangements with few instruments and primarily acoustic in nature, the Bosendorfer 290 sounds like the real deal. In the original room of the recorded sounds with which you must try to blend the rest of your instruments.

A grand piano has always been to put in a mix, it´s so full that it don´t leaves space for anything else.
It´s should be eq´ed quite thin if you wan´t it to blend with more than to other instuments.
So i don´t think it´s about the ambience, it´s just that it´s a large instrument.

Well, I agree you need to thin the piano EQ wise, depending on the mix. But if you try and match an acoustic bass, cello etc with the sound of sampled piano, it does not sound like they were recorded in the same space. It is very difficult to match the room bounce for even a few instruments. Many of the sampled pianos have this slight ring after the initial tone that is hard to match. This ring creates a perception of room size, distance from nearby objects etc. This is hard to match up if you are creating the illusion of a jazz ensemble, classical peice or even pop musical performance. It comes off strained sounding.

The best way to measure the various piano samples is to compare the dry tone samples. If you can even drop the demos into an existing mix, you get a better idea of how they work out.

My whole point is, what sounds incredible by itself sometimes does not work in an ensemble peice. I have wasted a lot of money figuring that out.

You´re right middleman.

I was only thinking in contest of a drum bas guit setup, Pop rock thing.

thanks for all the help guys. good insight middleman ...

i just ordered the Bosendorfer 290 and Artist Drums ... anyone used Aritst Drums? I heard it was what I would want for my styel of music. I hear DKFH2 is more hard rock oriented. My stuff's more light percussion oriented ...

Any opinions?

Andrew