Simple question really. In the £150 mark, which piano is best?

Or should I get the Sonic Reality piano collection? I already have Sonic Synth and I use its C7 to death, but a couple of times recently I've heard The Grand in use and been very impressed. I have Lounge Lizard so the Piano Collection has slightly less of an appeal to me.

I have a 2.53GHz PC and 1.5 Gb of RAM, so power is not a problem. Pure quality is what I seek...

I also have HALion but don't trust it enormously.

There's a discussion of this subject, along with mp3's, on the Northern Sounds forum.

Have you heard the piano in Garriton Personal Orchestra (GPO)? Surprisingly good, given the size. Very good. But I'm less interested in classical piano than many people who buy the piano libraries. There are demos of that piano at Northern Sounds, too.

I you want rock, PMI do a C7. 16-way, 24-bit...

Trojan Badger wrote:

I have a 2.53GHz PC and 1.5 Gb of RAM, so power is not a problem.

I would not bet on that

I just got PMI last week an even with 2Gb of RAM I cant load the 'oddles-o-levels-pedal-sus-wet-dry-phase-of-the-moon' uber-patch that comes with it

The more normal layered patches do sound wonderful though.

Come to think of it:

You might like the Plugsounds keyboard collection, too. Not huge pianos--between 100 and 200 megs, but if you tweak them you can get sounds. If you know of a hosting\ftp site that will let me post a 20 meg wave sample, I'll be glad to send it to you. (My ISP won't let me send emails that large.)

(I don't have the Sonic Reality pianos. I like the demos, but I worry that these pianos would be constrained by the huge limitations in Sampletank 1, the player that comes with them: you can't control ADSR. Sampletank 2 lets you control everything, but I understand there are some issues with it, and it would add to your expense by another several hundred dollars. Maybe they'll be rereleased with a Sampletank 2 player that gives us the basic controls. (ADSR control seems basic, to me, for any samples.)

I've got the PMI Bosendorfer 290 in giga, and it's gorgeous. They also do a hefty Steinway D, but there's also a very nice Steinway D by them called the Post Pristine Piano that's on sale for $75. http://www.postpiano.com

and, if you want, you could try to win one of these 3 lovely pianos in our x-mas competition on [ sectionz.com ]

Askign what's the best piano is like asking what's the best car. Well, what do you want? Bright? Mellow? Rock? Classical? Telling us 'best' and your budget, tells us nothing, honestly. Let the thread go on long enough, I'm sure every piano will be recommended that's out there. It's like asking what's the best Virtual Analog synth on here. Only you know the character of the sound that you're after, and only you can answer for yourself what is best. My only suggestion? For realism, size is nto something you can skimp on for piano samples. To me, personally, I haven't found anything under 800 megs in size that I liked. I own Steinway D. I like it, but I'd like a Yamaha C7 too.

Devon

Exactly Devon. That's why I reccomend something like the Post Pristine Piano for $75 (giga, nice and cheap, sounds great, etc). It's a Steinway D which is shiny, but it's easier to mellow out a shiny piano than it is to shine a mellow one.

There's also Kevin's Kawai piano for $35 still at www.themusicdifference.com that's very pretty and works well. Just lack of velocity layers. For $35, it's hard to go wrong with that piano. That's dinner and the movies price right there.

Devon

or, you could buy sfz+ for $60, and then get the 900+MB Maestro Concert Grand (giga) which is free, and sounds great IMO.

I am doing the same analysis. I purhased sfz+, but the site with the Maestro piano has been down. I have not been that happy with the big Akai piano I downloaded from the ftp site, the pianos that come with Sonic Synth (not the piano erom) or the pianos on my K2000, JV-80, or TG-500.

I downloaded the Splending Piano soundfont, but I haven't tried it yet (my DAW is currently down). How do you think that compares?

JeffN

Well, OK to tie things down a bit, the C7 that I use all the time seems to me to be a bit harsh and over-bright. Yes, you can EQ that kind of thing away: But then I heard The Grand at a friend's and was stunned by it's "quality" - deeper, brighter, less harsh, filling: And then I started listening to "Up" by Peter Gabriel and was amazed by the mellowness and warmth of his Bosendorfer.

I recently did a piano/vocals only track and found the C7 too cold, I know the Bosendorfer would do a better job on that: I've done tracks that suit the C7 better (funky jazz stuff, some trancy-dancy pop stuff, rock stuff), the question is can the Bosendorfer work with that or can The Grand be warm enough to do Norah Jones-esque jazz type stuff?

I appreciate I was being a bit vague. Trouble is, I'm so eclectic with my own writing and my tastes that I would really like one piano to cover everything. One piano to rule them all and in the resonance bind them...

Hi Trojan Badger,

I got the Bosendorfer Light Version which is only about £60ish. It is effectively half the full sample set. I got the dry version which still has a little bit of abience on it. But I think it sounds very nice indeed. I basically chose it because it sounded like the best all-rounder from what I had read about it. For that price you can't lose. Also with the dry version you can add your own reverb.

I am sure that Mike Post will do you a very honestu pgrade if you wish to get the full version too. Miond you though Halion is not the best option for running it in mind. But it is all I have at the moment.

Like Devon says though it is very subjective at the end of the day. But I did find the Bosie Light version to be a good introduction.

enjoy

Harry

Get this great Piano for free !

http://exce.ath.cx/~route909/download.html

1.2gb unpackt Giga format.
Convert to sf2 then use sfz for playback.

http://www.rgcaudio.com/sfzfaq.htm

Have fun !

Anyone tried these - the Rain Piano looks different (maybe good for jazz or rock?)

http://www.biggagiggas.com/About%20Rain%20Piano.htm

speaking of "anyone tried", has anyone tried that holy grail piano thing for giga?

smart wrote:

speaking of "anyone tried", has anyone tried that holy grail piano thing for giga?

I looked at it, and became disinterested in it based on the fact of how small it was, and that it came from Akai roots, from what I remember. It's been probably at least a year since I looked at it, so I might be a little off.

Devon

Soundspectral wrote:

Get this great Piano for free ! http://exce.ath.cx/~route909/download.html

Yeah The Maestro Concert Grand was located up there, but that link doesn't work anymore. This is due to bandwidth problems. Luckily I downloaded it just in time. I find this one the best sounding free piano.

is there any other place where one could download that piano?
i always planned to get it but always thought "tomorrow"

Hmmm. I wanted to download that too. Is there anyway that one of the sites that let you download free giga samples will allow people to download it form their site?

Jeffn

Or should I get the Sonic Reality piano collection?



Cant speak to you're other inquiries but a big fat NO to Sonic Reality pianos. They're nothing more than the briefest of samples w/ sine-waves attached to the tails.
Extremely flacid-Avoid.

Ouch - I actually think the piano collection is a pretty pack of different things for a mere $99.

Sad the Maestro is gone, maybe try later again...

http://www.tunesmithpub.com/~dere/ClavinovaGrandPiano1.sfpack

http://www.tunesmithpub.com/~dere/ClavinovaGrandPiano2.sfpack

Theseare also quite nice !

127mb and 79mb

Hope now you can have fun !

I think The Grand is more suitable for classic music.

I am really kicking myself over the Maestro. I downloaded it a couple of weeks ago but needed to free up some space and rather than burning it to CD I thought, no, I'll just download it again in a few days and its bloody gone down on me.

hope this is a temp thing...

Jonathan1977 wrote:

I think The Grand is more suitable for classic music.

Its quite universal, more like a pop/rock piano.
Just give it a try.

There are a variety of jazz, classical, ethnic, and pop, demos of the Bardstown Bosendorfer Imperial Grand Model 290 on the mp3 demo page of our web site. You may want to check these out on this page...

http://www.bardstownaudio.com/frames/mp3.html

All the best,

Kip McGinnis
Bardstown Audio
www.bardstownaudio.com

smart wrote:

or, you could buy sfz+ for $60, and then get the 900+MB Maestro Concert Grand (giga) which is free, and sounds great IMO.

Stupid OT question - does sfz+ play giga files? I thought it was just a soundfont player. Gets a LOT more interesting if it handles giga files too.

Hey trojan, I am receieving my bosen. sometime next week. I will let you know my honest opinion when I get it all installed and whatnot......knowing me, I will put up a demo right away

SRF, I do not believe it does support giga

Mighty_Hero wrote:

Hey trojan, I am receieving my bosen. sometime next week. I will let you know my honest opinion when I get it all installed and whatnot......knowing me, I will put up a demo right away SRF, I do not believe it does support giga

It's in the development version, I believe.

Mighty_Hero wrote:

Hey trojan, I am receieving my bosen. sometime next week. I will let you know my honest opinion when I get it all installed and whatnot......knowing me, I will put up a demo right away

I'd love to hear that. And could you send me the MIDI when you're done? Then I can run it through my mate's place who has The Grand and compare...?

Don't ignore the Plugsound Keyboard collecton, a VSTI with a set of often good instruments. May not do everything you want, but you can do a lot with its Acoustic Grand Piano, Rock Piano, and Jazz Piano patches. Between 100-200 megs each, and they need some tweaking (reducing the volume of some bass notes for clarity, extending the decay on the amp envelope--the usual stuff for piano samples), but they have a lot of presence without being overly compressed, and I imagine they're looped, but onnly after 6 seconds or so, so you get a good natural sound when sustaining notes. About $70 at Guitar Center. I can't imagine anyone being dissappointed with these pianos at this price.

My only wish is that they had a genuine pp layer and that about one note in each set had been sampled a little more carfully. (Nothing major--what may be a slightly early reflection on one note, a little bit of hiss on one note that you only notice if you play it 3-4 times in a row and the sound builds. But very, very nice, this set. I've spent many hours with it. Would upload a demo wav file if I had a place to post 20 megs...

Jake Johnson wrote:

About $70 at Guitar Center. I can't imagine anyone being dissappointed with these pianos at this price. I Would upload a demo wav file if I had a place to post 20 megs...

I could imagine being disappointed at any price range (I'm not referring to the product you're talking about though.) Piano sound is just too much like a love affair. The sound ahs to excite you if you really want to play it. I remember my friend would play piano for HOURS when he picked up the Steinway B piano for Giga. Warm, rich, cold, dampened, whatever piano sound you like. I know I can't stand to play the GigaPiano any more for example. It's the tone of it I don't like.

And why a wav file? MP3 it to 192khz, that should be around 2 to 2.5 megs.

Devon

Yesterday i had the opportunity to test the Bardstown bosendorfer, the PMI bosendorfer and The Grand side-by-side at a friend's house.

I didn't like the Bardstown at all. To my ears, it sounded flat, unaccurately mapped and there was a nasty distortion on most louder notes. My friend ran the bardstown in kontakt, so maybe the distortions were a kontakt problem, but anyhow: I didn't like the character of this instrument.

If you are after a bosendorfer, you should go for the PMI one. It runs inside the kompakt engine and everything goes smoothly (on a moderate Athlon XP 1.7 with 768 MB RAM). There are many presets for dry and wet recorded samples and different reverb, chorus, filter etc. settings. In contrast to many other people, I don't find the Bosendorfer (at least PMI's) sound particularly mellow. The basic patches sound quite "wirely" with a sharp, bright attack. Not everyone's cup of tea, at least not mine. Sure, you can use the filter inside kompakt to smoothen the sound, but then the instrument looses its character. I also found the stereo image quite irritating (the right channel is somehow overemphasized, even for the low notes).
The PMI might be useful for some pop/context, but I definateley wouldn't use it for jazzy/classical tunes.

So, my conclusion ist that I'm gonna stick with The Grand, which is still the most faithful represention of a grand piano. It doesn't offer the tweakability of the PMI bosendorfer but it sounds much more homogeneously and less artificial. Or maybe it is just that I prefer the Kawai sound over the Bosendorfer sound.

Fette Töle

Fette Töle wrote:

I didn't like the Bardstown at all. To my ears, it sounded flat, unaccurately mapped and there was a nasty distortion on most louder notes. My friend ran the bardstown in kontakt, so maybe the distortions were a kontakt problem, but anyhow: I didn't like the character of this instrument.

Or a volume problem. A piano that distorts? Come on, you know there has to be issues elsewhere in your system. And was it the Kontakt Native format or a different format that Kontakt was loading in?

Devon

Have you checked Malmsjö Acoustic Grand? I don't have it (yet), but the demo sounds very nice.
http://www.artvista.net/Malmsjo%20Acoustic%20Grand.html

I have started to warm up to the pianos in Sampletank2, deffinitly for jazz.