Native Instruments Piano Advice? Alicia's Keys v. Komplete Pianos

[AKJ]

Thanks for the recommendations.

Right now I'm looking into
Galaxy II Vintage D (and the Galaxy II Imperial Grand),
Piano in Blue,
and Ivory II. Ivory seems overpriced though, and I'm on the fence about its sound.

There's also the white grand: http://www.sampletekk.com/wgresource.php


EDIT: I hadn't taken velocity layers into consideration.

The Vintage D says:

13 modeled velocity zones for a wide and smooth dynamic range

Does this mean that it's fake? I'm looking for the most realism with out resorting to Vienna Imperial and the like. I also checked on some Vintage D reviews, and it seems that it lacks in the Sympathetic Resonance department, and has velocity jumps.

A LOT of people are praising Truepianos as well.

What would work best?

don't think that more velo layers will always deliver a better sound/playability. In fact, the more zones, the more difficult it becomes to make all consistant. That said, I have no idea how many real zones they have in the Vinatge D. What I can tell is, that it is very playable and that there is quite a difference from low to high velos with - imo - smooth transition. There is a slider for sympathetic resonance. I never felt the urge to set it to 100% (which means: for me it's more than enough). Notice: the Galaxy pianos are not the sampled üianos with most layers or biggest in size: they are just some of the best sounding and what makes them unique is the amount to which you can shape the sound. It's almost if it were a physically modeled instrument. (In fact, e.g. TruePianos, gives less options in sound shaping and it definately sounds worse)

cheers, akj

[paulbreeze]

don't think that more velo layers will always deliver a better sound/playability. In fact, the more zones, the more difficult it becomes to make all consistant.

SampleTekk's White Grand (and White Sister) for one has 16 pedal down + 16 pedal up + 4 release samples per note. To get consistant values they developed a system called SLH .

[synchronizer]

So I suppose it's Galaxy Vintage D versus Ivory II (just Italian), Sampletekk White Grand, and Piano in Blue.


Wow is this tough.

[paulbreeze]

maybe of interest ...
http://www.northernsounds.com/forum/sho ... mpare-post

[synchronizer]

Well thank you everyone, I've basically narrowed the product down to Galaxy II Vinatge D and one of the sampletekks.

There's one more thing---I was considering not getting a piano at all, and looking into the VSL flute instead. A couple of my next songs will be utilizing both piano AND flute, so this is the trickiest part of my decision. If anyone has time, would he or she please listen to a couple of my incomplete demos? They are the beginnings of my next pieces. Maybe I can work from there.

Jade Jungle 4-the composition is already done, but I'm overhauling it. Drums are placeholders, piano is one of the Kontakt grands, has the NI funk guitar, mm bass, and 3rd party violins. Spitfire Labs Dulcimer. It will DEFINITELY need flute beyond the demo because this is supposed to give off a tropical vibe. I'm not sure if the Kontakt flute is nearly enough, since the flute will act as a sort of "second" lead.

http://soundcloud.com/synchronizerman/j ... experiment

Indefinable: it will use a LOT of piano with violin padding, plus woodwinds to soar above the chorus and eventual solo/breaks.

http://soundcloud.com/synchronizerman/indefinable-ver12

I need both

[AKJ]

Didn't you get KH Diamond? This has a very good flute inside. But you should use the old patches not the TVEC3 ones for woodwinds (until they get fixed). The old ones, for some strange reason (filter applied?), sound much much better.

for Sampletekk: the white grand has a quite different character to the vintage d, so it would be the best choice. Imo, the White Grand Jr. is well sufficient - at least this was my decision and I did not regret getting the light version.

[synchronizer]

I didn't find the flute in Diamond very appealing at all to be honest. I'm not sure if every note is sampled (this is great importance- every note must be sampled. I regret not being able to get Concert Strings II), and I appreciate having all of the articulations at my fingertips. Without reverb, the ends of Diamond's notes sound incomplete.

What makes you choose the White Grand over the Vintage D? The Vintage seems to have a lot of controls, and I fear that the White Grand may be limited. I happen to like little reverberation or none at all.

A note about Diamond and Concert Brass II: The instruments are very RAM and disk intensive, even more so than LASS appears to be. This means that I can't even use it nearly as much as I'd like, landing me back at square one, or two.

[AKJ]

I didn't find the flute in Diamond very appealing at all to be honest. I'm not sure if every note is sampled (this is great importance- every note must be sampled. I regret not being able to get Concert Strings II), and I appreciate having all of the articulations at my fingertips.

What makes you choose the White Grand over the Vintage D? The Vintage seems to have a lot of controls, and I fear that the White Grand may be limited. I happen to like little reverberation or none at all.

A note about Diamond and Concert Brass II: The instruments are very RAM and disk intensive, even more so than LASS appears to be. This means that I can't even use it nearly as much as I'd like, landing me back at square one, or two.

I think you did not get me right. I meat if you want to get a second piano from sampletekk to complement the vintage d, then take the white grand.

regarding the diamond flute: did you load the old or the new tvec3 patch? the tvec3 sounds really bad, the old one is great. and in the woodwinds, the tvec3 brings nothing new or better. the patch patch also has all the articulations. tvec3 just features trills. but imo you get much, much better result if you apply the kontakg unisono-portamenta script to the tvec1 resp vpro-patch. you can play then very convincing trills (and more).

the range of the diamond flute is more than enough: from c3 to e6.

if you need a better flute, you have to search hard.

maybe in xsample woodwinds or the orangetree product. (however, I got the xsample one and they are imo on par)

cheers, akj

[synchronizer]

"apply the kontakg unisono-portamenta script to the tvec1 resp vpro-patch. you can play then very convincing trills (and more). "

I don't know how to do this admittedly. I'm still fairly new to Kontakt. Yes, I require trills, and was going to get VSL's downloadable flute.

As for the piano, i DON'T have the Vintage D. I'm trying to compare it to other pianos to see which one is best. Then I must figure out if I need it more or less than I need the flute.

[AKJ]

ent6er the edit mode, activate the script tab 8if not yet activated), choose the next free slot (should be the second), select the preset factory > performance > unisono-portament.
It will load the script. In the Gui, set the mono mode to on.

I however use the old script of Kontakt 3. If you want, I can send you the patch. However, you have to point komntakt to the flute samples, since I have a completly different folder structure than the original product (for it was unconvenient und unlogical to me).

UI will create a shot demo, to demonstrate the soudn of the diamond flute.

cheers, akj

[synchronizer]

Okay I'll make an attempt...it' 01_Flute_k.nki if I'm not mistaken. I'd appreciate a demonstration very much, thank you.

EDIT: Aha! It works pretty well! I'm not sure what the other flute instruments do though---something to do with the mod wheel.

So, you think I should invest in a piano then. (Vintage D or White Grand).

I still could use a flute with more realistically-formed articulations though. I wish there were some discount.

[AKJ]

lsiten to this:

http://www.power-xs.net/download/diamond_flute.mp3

in what respect is it lacking realism? (I did not even use keyswitches, just used vel marcato and the modwheel x-fade patch, and, of course, the uniso-portamento script. reberb is from kontakt convolution engine)

[synchronizer]

Hmmm... mine doesn't sound like that exactly. Maybe I need to fiddle with it more.
Is there a way to change between flute with script and flute without script?

Where is the modwheel x-fade patch?

In any case, the V-Pro flute does sound nice...although I really don't know how to use it.

This is quite a difficult decision to make. Again, the flute (without advanced articulations) is about 87 dollars. The White Piano is about 120 dollars, and Vintage D is 140. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

[AKJ]

I wouldn't know why yours should sound different. You got the same product.
The is an easy way to work more comfortable with the unisono-portamento script.

just click on edit and the script code will show. after the line on init add the line make_perfview, so it should llok like this

on init
make_perfview

then click on apply. You can also save this edited script and then aply it to anny instrument without the need to manually edit it again.

It will show a new tab on the kontakt gui. Now you can right-click the botton to midi learn. This way you can automate the script. But imo, there is no need to turn it off in a woodwind instrument, since, anyway, you cannot play poliphonic on a real woodwind instrument.

the modwheel x-fade patches should be in your folder. I do not remember how the original name was. As I said, I have a differnt folder structure and renamed the instruments, since kirk#s folder and naming system is just a mess.

[synchronizer]

I could simulate multiple woodwinds at once with less RAM use, but that's another story.

Clearly you think I should go with the piano then. I can't find a direct comparison between White Grand and the Vintage D though.