Testman
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Best sounding Piano?
Hi all,
I need to record some real nice classical piano parts. Any recommendations on the best sounding piano module.
Gigastudio? The Grand? Any others? What is the best???
Thanks,
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Middleman
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RE: Best sounding Piano?
2005/07/31 11:31:56
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The never ending search for a simulated piano....
I researched for months, tried at least 100 samples and ended up with the Bosendorfer 290. It sounded the most real to me stand alone. The problem in the end was that it does not fit in many mixes.
The key to a great sounding piano is the dry sounding ambience. There is always a slight room sound even with the driest samples. This colors the piano sound making it difficult to match up to a mix of other instruments. I wish somebody would just do a close mic piano and provide ambiance as an option, similar to what the Drumkit From Hell Superior folks have done with their drum software. I can add in a room mic, or eliminate it as needed. This makes the samples highly useful and variable from mix to mix.
I have my hopes up for the Windows version of Ivory coming out, hopefully this year. It is only Mac now. This one gets all the raves from the Mac crowd.
That said, the recommendations you hear over and over are the Old Lady, The Grand and the Bosendorfer. As you are doing classical and perhaps stand alone, the Bosendorfer may work for you.
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Nathan Shane
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RE: Best sounding Piano?
2005/07/31 12:07:58
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Much like everyone else, I too spent much time online downloading samples and trying to determine what is the best sounding piano. The problem is, there seems to be more than one best sounding piano, so it depends on what flavor of piano sound you like. For my first purchase, I ended up going with the East West Bosendorfer 290. Since I already own Kontakt 2, I like to be able to pull all these Kompakt Virtual Instruments into that for further tweaking. However, Native Instruments just announced at NAMM an upcoming piano instrument that has my attention. Check out the info link below. http://www.native-instruments.com/index.php?id=snamm05p_us
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Testman
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RE: Best sounding Piano?
2005/07/31 12:24:31
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The Bosendorfer 290 is for what sampler? I was thinking of buying Gigastudio 3, will this work?
Thanks,
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tor
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RE: Best sounding Piano?
2005/07/31 13:23:50
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You don't need one, it comes with an interface by Native Instruments, same engine as Kontakt, with Direct-from-Disk streaming capabilities.
Peter Gabriel also uses the Bosendorfer 290, live too, on his Growing Up tour.... It sounds great, but fortunately, I have the real thing in my studio, so I don't need it.
But as a substitute, I guess this is one of the best...
I tried it on a few occasions, and with a good keyboard with the necessary controlling abilities and the right pedals, it's almost as playing a real piano....
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sergiobklyn
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RE: Best sounding Piano?
2005/07/31 13:41:08
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Mitch_I
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RE: Best sounding Piano?
2005/07/31 14:15:43
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Dimension, which ships with Project5, has several nice pianos, including a couple of 230MB ones. I think they're really impressive; people in the Project5 forum have said a lot of good things about them.
Also GPO ships with a nice 250MB grand piano that I like a lot.
Mitch I.
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thunderkyss
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RE: Best sounding Piano?
2005/07/31 14:35:12
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Jimtoonz
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RE: Best sounding Piano?
2005/07/31 15:29:41
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Go here: http://www.purgatorycreek.com/ and click on digital piano shootout. A large number of solutions, both software and hardware, are featured playing the same MIDI piece. It will give you some ideas about what might work well for your music.
post edited by Jimtoonz - 2005/07/31 15:34:49
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techead
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RE: Best sounding Piano?
2005/07/31 20:27:12
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Guyunique
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RE: Best sounding Piano?
2005/07/31 20:46:33
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I would have to say the Roland Fantom X or XR, if you have the budget.
I have never used a piano plug in/soft synth but I am sure those are good as well.
I don't use soft synth, they take a lot of power and to me never sound good, just my views.
Patrick, Minnesota.
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CP
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RE: Best sounding Piano?
2005/08/01 00:21:15
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I really like the realism achieved by GigaPiano. It does have to be EQ'd to sound a little fuller, in my experience however.
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Brandon Ryan [Roland]
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RE: Best sounding Piano?
2005/08/01 00:34:45
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I've got the Bosendorfer 290 which is really nice. the thing is that different pianos sound right or wrong depending on the context of the track. In fact, I've found the Dimension piano had a particularly nice sound on a song I'm working on currently. I put it in there as a placeholder until I decided on a piano, but found that it fit better in the mix than some of the "bigger" pianos I have.
post edited by Brandon Ryan [Cakewalk] - 2005/08/01 00:39:56
"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel." WG SONAR Platinum | VS-700 | A-800 PRO | PCAL i7 with SSD running Windows 8 x64 | Samsung 27" LCD @ 1920x1080 | Blue Sky monitors with BMC | All kinds of other stuff
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Guest
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RE: Best sounding Piano?
2005/08/01 00:42:49
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i agree that the dimension pianos are good for stock purposes. The PMI 290 is OK .. but I think I like
that way the "old lady" sounds ... Ed_Mcg used that on something I was using the 290 on and it
wasn't quite so aggressive . sounded fuller and lots of nice harmonics.
jeff
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Brandon Ryan [Roland]
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RE: Best sounding Piano?
2005/08/01 00:45:09
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ORIGINAL: jmarkham
i agree that the dimension pianos are good for stock purposes. The PMI 290 is OK .. but I think I like
that way the "old lady" sounds ... Ed_Mcg used that on something I was using the 290 on and it
wasn't quite so aggressive . sounded fuller and lots of nice harmonics.
jeff
Yes the old lady sounds really good. I don't have this one, but all the samples I've heard make me want it. 
"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel." WG SONAR Platinum | VS-700 | A-800 PRO | PCAL i7 with SSD running Windows 8 x64 | Samsung 27" LCD @ 1920x1080 | Blue Sky monitors with BMC | All kinds of other stuff
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JonD
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RE: Best sounding Piano?
2005/08/01 01:10:29
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agincourtdb
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RE: Best sounding Piano?
2005/08/01 07:29:10
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The Steinway D + Harmonics that comes with Kontakt 2 is pretty great. I've been using it exclusively since K2 came. I also have the PMI Bosendorfer, which sounds great but is frankly a little unwieldy to use.
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jsaras
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RE: Best sounding Piano?
2005/08/01 09:06:42
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HERE is the best piano soundfont I've encountered anywhere. The price is right 
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WFTurner
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RE: Best sounding Piano?
2005/08/01 09:40:07
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ORIGINAL: techead
Project5's Dimension synth has some piano samples that I like. I have also downloaded a large but free piano sample set which I like very much (it is in Giga format but plays well in VSampler) from http://audioshots.com/auditorium/viewforum.php?f=25&sid=f0cba4e1418332ba5f2801ee73cb69d2 (you have to register and login but this is all free).
That's one hell of a free piano. It unpacks to 936 mg but worth every free DLing minute. Absolutely brilliant. Thanks for the link, 
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David
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RE: Best sounding Piano?
2005/08/02 00:45:33
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ORIGINAL: jsaras
HERE is the best piano soundfont I've encountered anywhere. The price is right
I agree ! Thanks for the link.
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playivorys
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RE: Best sounding Piano?
2005/08/02 07:32:16
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Testman, My experience always leads me back to William Coakley's Piano. The new volume V (the Hamberg Stein) is awesome and plays with so much control with my controller. He supports alot of formats don't know which you need. What you can't beat is the service too he follows up every piano to ensure it setup correctly. Hey just give him a call he also answers any questions you have. See his ad in Keyboard Mag or website www.williamcoakley.com. Steve
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Paul G
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RE: Best sounding Piano?
2005/08/02 08:35:37
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ORIGINAL: jsaras
HERE is the best piano soundfont I've encountered anywhere. The price is right
Thank you for this Jonas. It sounds nice and bright. I intend to try it out in a mix shortly. Thanks Paul
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boten
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RE: Best sounding Piano?
2005/08/02 10:28:39
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BTW, I've also searched in the past for good piano samples until I bought GPO. The full Steinway patch is amazing, it is very well equalized, giving excellent freq response and also fits almost in any type of mix. I've been using it for Classical, and Jazz music and it is great for both.
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hv
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RE: Best sounding Piano?
2005/08/02 11:43:04
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Here's a demo I put together a while back using the GS3 Studio West piano: Belle of Havana, which I believed is a sampled 9 foot Yamaha. Howard
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Sonic
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Sonic
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tmrpro
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RE: Best sounding Piano?
2005/08/02 21:16:46
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ORIGINAL: Sonic
ORIGINAL: Sonic
ORIGINAL: WFTurner
ORIGINAL: techead
Project5's Dimension synth has some piano samples that I like. I have also downloaded a large but free piano sample set which I like very much (it is in Giga format but plays well in VSampler) from http://audioshots.com/auditorium/viewforum.php?f=25&sid=f0cba4e1418332ba5f2801ee73cb69d2 (you have to register and login but this is all free).
That's one hell of a free piano. It unpacks to 936 mg but worth every free DLing minute. Absolutely brilliant.
Thanks for the link,
I'm DLing it right now.
Man, this piano is awsome for free! Amazing...
Yeah, but the free spyware a pisser.... it is called a "PUP" ...pretty ugly...
post edited by tmrpro - 2005/08/02 21:22:11
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michael japan
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RE: Best sounding Piano?
2005/08/02 22:17:47
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love these piano threads. Too bad I didn't save what I wrote on the other 10. Try to answer everone at one-got Coakleys-You can hear it on the demo of "Leave it Up To You" on my soundclick page. My name is "papa"-link isn't working now sorry so can't include it.
B290 PMI-Kompakt Instrument-listen to Midnight Clear.
Yamaha P120-listen to "Sunset at Dawn."
Giga Steinway is on Moments Spent With You. Oops never posted-if anyone want to hear it bad enough let me know and I'll post or provide a link or send to you.
Thanks Jonas- the piano sounds good.
Just downloaded the big one-will run it through a spycheck on my laptop before transferring to my DAW-but I thought the guy explained all that. Just ran a check through Norton and Microsoft-no spyware there. If you take a look at the forum where the download is the guy explains it all.
Windows 10/64 bit/i7-6560U/SSD/16GB RAM/Cakelab/Sonar Platinum/Pro Tools/Studio 1/Studio 192/DP88/MOTU AVB/Grace M101/AKG Various/Blue Woodpecker/SM81x2/Yamaha C1L Grand Piano/CLP545/MOX88/MOTIF XS Rack Rack/MX61/Korg CX3/Karma/Scarbee EP88s/ Ivory/Ravenscroft Piano/JBL4410/NS10m/Auratones/Omnisphere/Play Composers Selection/Waves/Komplete Kontrol
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michael japan
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RE: Best sounding Piano?
2005/08/02 22:29:43
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well gosh everyone-the one Jonas put up is much fuller than the big guy. Which just goes to show that bigger is not always better. I won't go into comparisons of all the other pianos, but I did compare it to the PMI Steinway D Classic and I will now erase both the 16 layer Steinway and the 1GB guy I just downloaded. Love your ears Jonas. Got any rhodes or wurlitzers? I have a real good rhodes that I posted some time back but I would like to have one with tremolo in the interface (I have lounge lizard and EVP 73-but the other one I have is fuller.)
Windows 10/64 bit/i7-6560U/SSD/16GB RAM/Cakelab/Sonar Platinum/Pro Tools/Studio 1/Studio 192/DP88/MOTU AVB/Grace M101/AKG Various/Blue Woodpecker/SM81x2/Yamaha C1L Grand Piano/CLP545/MOX88/MOTIF XS Rack Rack/MX61/Korg CX3/Karma/Scarbee EP88s/ Ivory/Ravenscroft Piano/JBL4410/NS10m/Auratones/Omnisphere/Play Composers Selection/Waves/Komplete Kontrol
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jsaras
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RE: Best sounding Piano?
2005/08/03 00:20:51
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For Rhodes these days I've been using the MrRay73 VST synth plugin along with Effectizer. Both are available for free from www.soundfonts.it I have the massive Scarbee Rhodes library and I like this combo every bit as much and the CPU/RAM hit is minimal. They also make "MrTramp". I like the Wurly sim on my Nord Electro better, but this is pretty decent, especially given the price. Got any other dilemmas for me to solve? Blessings, Jonas
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