Best Piano as UVI Workstation based - and non iLok - and Pianoteq too?

[BlackWinny]

Otherwise in the kind "workstation" and without any iLok or alike... you can find very good pianos in Korg M1 and in Korg Wavestation.

They are very cheap ($50/€36 each one).

They embed more than 1.500 presets each one (among them very nice pianos).

They use all the original sysex of their hardware original keyboard (and with the same quality)

And they are compatible Win-32, Win-64, and OSX.

You can hear many demos of their piano presets here:

• M1 Piano
• Wavestation Piano

Myself I use Pianoteq now, but I'm a lover of the Korg Legacy Collection, and the piano presets of these two Korg products are really wonderful!

[lfm]

If you're looking for straight pianos, I'd go with the Acoustic piano package with the purchase (D4 and K2) and pick up the Blutner as your freebie for buying now.

But I'm in love with the U4 - we cannot control these things, can we?


Mellow and forceful at the same time.

But I'll check the Blütner, I like dotted characters since we in sweden have plenty of them and rings too, åäöÅÄÖ.

Thanks for input.

[lfm]

Otherwise in the kind "workstation" and without any iLok or alike... you can find very good pianos in Korg M1 and in Korg Wavestation.

They are very cheap ($50/€36 each one).

They embed more than 1.500 presets each one (among them very nice pianos).

They use all the original sysex of their hardware original keyboard (and with the same quality)

And they are compatible Win-32, Win-64, and OSX.

You can hear many demos of their piano presets here:

• M1 Piano
• Wavestation Piano

Myself I use Pianoteq now, but I'm a lover of the Korg Legacy Collection, and the piano presets of these two Korg products are really wonderful!

Interesting idea - thanks. Will check it out.

[Turello]

http://www.vst4free.com/get_plugin.php? ... i_-_32.zip

http://steplton.ho.ua/Samples/VarishaPi ... ection.zip

http://www.vst4free.com/get_plugin.php? ... _32bit.zip

http://www.vst4free.com/get_plugin.php? ... o_-_32.zip

Here are 6 free (Maize Sampler based) Pianoforti that meet all the requirements...

[EvilDragon]

- and some things I don't like - policy that Stage version does not load part of presets bought fully. Only parameters supported to be tweak in that version which is close to none.

Something is wrong with this picture regarding policy against customers. That engine on Stage version is not loading and sound worse.

Stage does NOT sound worse at all - sounds the same as Standard or Pro. It's just not for tweakers, it's for players, that's why it's made simpler with less stuff to tweak. (Fun fact, previously it was called Pianoteq PLAY, but it got renamed in version 4.)

Less tweaking is enough punishedment as I see it. You buy an addon for same price as anybody else but don't get all parameters into your engine.

As mentioned above - if you don't want to just play, but tweak as well, your minimum entry point should be Standard, not Stage.

- some I do like, like std version can load presets made with Pro version without limitation. So if there is some sharing going on one could benefit fully from that. I don't know how that works - I hope with same licensed instrument one can share share presets for it.

Yes, tons of presets are shared, there's an .FXP area on Pianoteq website where you can download presets made by other users and check them out.

Some things I do not understand - why is standard version able to tweak something like unison width and string length - but you cannot on note by note basis. What good is that? I read that as you can make instrument overall adjustments only.

You can adjust the detuning and volume per note basis. There has to be something left for PRO version, don't you think? Rest assured, there is plenty enough of what you can do with Standard to completely change the tone of the piano model.

[lfm]

- and some things I don't like - policy that Stage version does not load part of presets bought fully. Only parameters supported to be tweak in that version which is close to none.

Something is wrong with this picture regarding policy against customers. That engine on Stage version is not loading and sound worse.

Stage does NOT sound worse at all - sounds the same as Standard or Pro. It's just not for tweakers, it's for players, that's why it's made simpler with less stuff to tweak. (Fun fact, previously it was called Pianoteq PLAY, but it got renamed in version 4.)

From manual:
[2] In PIANOTEQ STAGE, preset loading is limited to parameters that are present in the
interface. Presets built with PIANOTEQ PRO can be loaded in PIANOTEQ STANDARD
without any limitations.

Maybe I overinterpret this text, but it seems to me it got to sound different if not all parameters are loaded but those in interface.

All parameters in the preset should be loaded into the engine, obviously - or it will sound different. They state that all sound the same - and I cannot see this is true if the note above is true.

Some things I do not understand - why is standard version able to tweak something like unison width and string length - but you cannot on note by note basis. What good is that? I read that as you can make instrument overall adjustments only.

You can adjust the detuning and volume per note basis. There has to be something left for PRO version, don't you think? Rest assured, there is plenty enough of what you can do with Standard to completely change the tone of the piano model.

I get that things are more tweakable in Pro - I just try to understand what I'm buying not to feel robbed and tricked once doing the purchase.

Unison width I interpret as number of strings sounding for each note, a bit of a doubler effect kind of.

I'll check out if there is a separate demo for each version, then I can really see what I buy. Or I will have the same situation as with Wallander Instruments again, you think you buy one thing and get another since demo does not resemble any of the buy versions.

Either way, thanks for your thorough explanations. Modartt should hit you with a free selection of instrument for free.

[lfm]

http://www.vst4free.com/get_plugin.php? ... i_-_32.zip

http://steplton.ho.ua/Samples/VarishaPi ... ection.zip

http://www.vst4free.com/get_plugin.php? ... _32bit.zip

http://www.vst4free.com/get_plugin.php? ... o_-_32.zip

Here are 6 free (Maize Sampler based) Pianoforti that meet all the requirements...

Thanks, will check it out.
64-bit though is the hosting, and don't trust bridging that much.

Had a SampleTrank 1 Piano Collection which is quite good, but screw up any host if bridging.

[FLWrd]

For UVI, the VI Labs pianos sound fine, but they require an iLok. They're also pretty big. The best piano plugin, IMO, is XLN's Addictive Keys Studio Grand. It might not be the top choice if you pick a specific feature, but overall it's great. It sounds good, it's very light on resources, tweakable and affordable.

[lfm]

For UVI, the VI Labs pianos sound fine, but they require an iLok. They're also pretty big. The best piano plugin, IMO, is XLN's Addictive Keys Studio Grand. It might not be the top choice if you pick a specific feature, but overall it's great. It sounds good, it's very light on resources, tweakable and affordable.

Thanks.

I've got AK, and look for something multisampled. Love the upright piano. Tried to emulate with velocity a filter to get a softer tone at light touch but don't really succeed. Not even their support could explain how it works or had a preset that do this. The correspondence with velocity and filter cutoff was not really documented, I spent some hours going extreme but when to normalize this to the amount you want, I failed. You had some strange relationship between to cutoff knob and what you hear. Seem to be a awful lot you can do in their interface but lacking documentation how the different knobs and settings work.

This thing was really easy to do in SampleTank 1, it was thought out exactly how you want it. Turn the knobs for cutoff and velocity and you were done in a minute. Maybe I'll check out how ST2 or ST3 free player, if there is one, and if it can load and work with ST1 format and license.

[EvilDragon]

Maybe I overinterpret this text, but it seems to me it got to sound different if not all parameters are loaded but those in interface.

All parameters in the preset should be loaded into the engine, obviously - or it will sound different. They state that all sound the same - and I cannot see this is true if the note above is true.

You are overinterpreting this. All piano models sound IDENTICAL between Stage/Standard/Pro. It is true that the custom presets made by a Standard/Pro user won't sound the same in Stage - but that isn't a dealbreaker as far as I'm concerned. Each model comes with its own base presets which can be quite different, too.

I get that things are more tweakable in Pro - I just try to understand what I'm buying not to feel robbed and tricked once doing the purchase.

That's why there's a demo of Standard. Try it and see if it's worth your cash. I think it is - if you liked the audio demos, which you seem to have.

Unison width I interpret as number of strings sounding for each note, a bit of a doubler effect kind of.

Nope. Unison width has to do with detuning between each triplet/duplet of strings (lowest keys on the piano have just one string, a bit higher up you get 2 strings per key, and some more higher up until the end of the keyboard you have 3 strings per key). It's for getting that honky-tonk detuned piano sound. Not for doubler effect thickening.

I'll check out if there is a separate demo for each version, then I can really see what I buy. Or I will have the same situation as with Wallander Instruments again, you think you buy one thing and get another since demo does not resemble any of the buy versions.

IIRC only Standard is in the demo. Which is perfectly fine, I would say. There are videos on Youtube about Pianoteq Pro and what you can do with it as far as individual note editing of 28 (or so) physical parameters is concerned.

Either way, thanks for your thorough explanations. Modartt should hit you with a free selection of instrument for free.

No worries. Just a disclaimer - I do beta testing for Modartt, so I've gotten my fair share of NFRs (all of them)

[Turello]

@lfm: they are also 64 bit versions too!

[lfm]

You are overinterpreting this. All piano models sound IDENTICAL between Stage/Standard/Pro. It is true that the custom presets made by a Standard/Pro user won't sound the same in Stage - but that isn't a dealbreaker as far as I'm concerned. Each model comes with its own base presets which can be quite different, too.

Tiny bit unclear still - presets does not hold stuff like model settings and mike positions and stuff?
Only external effects or similar - if so there is not much point exchanging presets?

You say that models sound the same, but not presets, so....I guessed that a preset was a model, all settings on it, mikes and the lot.

[EvilDragon]

Presets contain the piano model used and all tweaks done with parameters available on a particular version of Pianoteq.