What Piano Soft Synths Are You Guys Using?

I have been reading that NI acoustic piano soft synth samples and Ivory are the best "computer pianos." What are you guys using and recommending? My preference is more of a warm, jazz type piano sample, I don't care for a bright or harsh piano sound.

 

My Casio PX-200 has a nice warm acoustic sample, but I don't think it is going to be as fine as one of the new sampled or modeled pianos.

 

Please let us know what you think, thanks

 

katt

I'm using Ivory. The Steinway is my fave. I'd recommend it highly.

 

Check out the audio samples at Synthogy.com.

 

The software samples are going to sound better then your Casio.

pianoteq for sonar

 

reason pianos for reason.

 

I don't have huge hard drives ie the biggest is 40GB so I needed compact decent piano's.

 

For a modeled rather than a sampled piano pianoteq is excellent and doe's the job. Reason pianos imho stand up really well to some of the huge piano library's out there. Dimension pro and halion also have some decent piano's in them if you are prepared to put in a little work

 

tris

I use Akoustik Piano and the Reason Piano refill. Both are excellent.

Can I use Ivory on live gigs with my MacBook 2.2GHz, 2GB RAM, 160 GB HD and play 4 sets in a jazz gig bar or is it only for recording? Will it work in GarageBand?

i use pianoteq, cause it only takes tens of megabytes. and the "chamber piano" preset is soooo suited for classical pieces.

 

it works wonders with my AMD sempron with 512MB on vista

Pianoteq ftw. The best thing invented IMHO. Modeling softsynths are definitely the future.

 

I use M1 jazz preset myself, and when I need to cut through the mix, M1 rock

I have Kontat, and sampletekk puts on regular sales, so.... I have a number of pianos in Kontakt format: White Grand, Black Grand, Old, Lady, Rain piano. It also means that you need more HD space.

 

Oh and the Virtual Grand Piano (VGP) is also good.

pianoteq

 

Bechstein for rocky stuff

Erhardt when piano is featured

(these are both pianoteq presets)

I just downloaded the Pianoteq virtual. Very impressive and it's like 18 MB, not GBs like Ivory. The demo is good for 45 days but they disabled about 10 notes that are silent when you play them, I think black keys. I was amazed at the sound and different piano options, mellow, jazz, classical, rock, etc. And it worked flawlessly on my MacBook. It's a bit expensive, but it's cheaper than buying a grand piano.

 

Pro Gear catalog has a Bosendorfer 290 sampled piano that I never heard. Anyone tried this one out? katt

My mentor LOVES ivory.

 

Im just annoyed untill I get the damn baby grand set up and not leaning disassembled against the wall... Until then, piano doesn't exist in my world...

How would one of these soft synths sound controlled by my digital piano ?

 

Is the sound better than my CLP-820 ?

if you click on the link in my sig and listen to the ralph and monty track that is reason piano's refill with a little eq and reverb but that is all I did to it

Auger, a sampled piano plug-in would sound incredible. They are getting better every year, more realistic and user friendly, most Mac/PC laptops are fine for triggering the apps. Download the Pianoteq demo and see what you think

 

katt

TruePianos is another modeling option, they combine physical modeling and sampling. Sounds pretty good to my ears, and it's much cheaper than Pianoteq, it's $180 and they offer 50% off for students. They announced there will be a major update by the end of the summer, you're entitled to any updates for a year after you buy it.

Ok I have just done a second ralph and monty for comparison. Its the pianoteq file recorded dry using the m1 jazz preset recorder using pianoteq's own recorder and then converted using fairstars converter.

 

Again click on the link in my sig

Nasty hiss in the recording, B2D75....

I Know f***** warc*** that the wife installed has really screwed up the pc at he mo I have had to offload everything bar pianoteq stand alone and some freebie converters. I am going to be building a dual 2.6 Ghz pc at the end of the month specifically for audio. I just wanted to stick a demo up there as the ones the compnys provide are normally eq'd and honed till nice and shiney not just rough and ready.

 

It was okay before upload very strange that. I will try to fix

 

Have taken it down for now soundclick screwed up the upload (methinks that nearly took out a speaker)

Wait'll you see my demos.......We'll see.....I'll probably be in a hurry to get them up too, without much QC.

 

OR

 

I could go to the other extreme, and painstakingly go over each little detail and never post anything.

Ok all fixed i promise not to take any more speakers out. It turned out to be the flippin converter all along not soundclick just reconverted it using a freebie off the net.

 

if i listen too much before I upload I get all over perfectionist and i would never get anything out. So I just grab a beer and a fag hit record and just go for it. It helps not having any powerhouse editing all I can do is record and convert.

 

Anyway please listen and see what you think to the piano's tone not to the awful playing

 

tris

I love the dissonance.

 

The piano tone is nice. A little muted maybe.

 

Don't downplay your playing, you're good. Very expressive.

 

I'm gonna DL it this weekend too, and AB it with my Clavinova. My experience with the Clavy is it sounds good through the speakers, with all the wood vibrating, but doesn't translate well when input straight to a DAW form the outs.

Yeah I used the M1 jazz setting. It didn't sound right with the classical piano.

 

Ok I have upped a portion of river flows in you by Yiruma using the Grand C2 Concert piano (please excuse the goof at the end Kids are a pain in the backside when you are trying to record)

An Update. I downloaded Truepianos and Pianoteq demos and I think the Truepianos is the sound I'm going for. There are no effects on the demo, but I add them inGB. Pianoteq is cool too. Truepianos has great blues piano setting, great for gospel and rock

 

katt

i have used them all and bluthner digital model one has the best tactile response ......although pianoteq is quite good.

 

ivory is too brittle

Pianoteq for the win. To me it sounds way more expressive than truepianos.