the giant by native instrument...any opinion?

[Giusmex]

hi guys

i recently purchased this brilliant plug in from NI ( it is a very nice sampled piano)...just wanted to know if someone of you already has it, or any opinion on hot to best benefit from it ( in terms of effects, etc etc)


Thanx

[DarkStar]

This might be of interest:
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=350169

[fisherKing]

it's an upright?? what's the point of that? i always thought upright pianos were for people who A: cannot afford a grand (or baby grand), and/or B: people who have no room for a grand (or baby grand).

next up: sampled bar piano (complete with cigarette stains and missing keys).

seriously, if it sounds good...good. but give me a grand piano (and then offer an 'upright' preset of that).

[EvilDragon]

The world has seen enough grand pianos.

[Kaboom75]

It's a Klavins stand up integrated into a wall based on a Klavins 370 grand.

It's 12 feet tall 2 tons and has twice the sound board of a concert grand the longest string is over 3m http://www.galaxypianos.com/the-giant.html

The real thing

[standalone]

it's an upright?? what's the point of that? i always thought upright pianos were for people who A: cannot afford a grand (or baby grand), and/or B: people who have no room for a grand (or baby grand).

next up: sampled bar piano (complete with cigarette stains and missing keys).

seriously, if it sounds good...good. but give me a grand piano (and then offer an 'upright' preset of that).

Fail.

"The original instrument is the Klavins Piano Model 370i. The 'i' stands for integrated - this huge upright piano is built into the wall of a room, effectively securing the soundboard. Over three meters high and weighing over two tons, the Klavins Piano Model 370i provides a soundboard that's roughly twice the size of a typical 9' concert grand piano soundboard."


So it's more grand than a grand.

But, talking about the sound of normal upright pianos, many people like it more than that of concert pianos. For example:

http://www.imperfectsamples.com/website ... tpiano.php


And why a bar piano when you can have a yatch piano?:

http://dulcitone1884.virb.com/ships-piano


And...missing keys?:

http://www.soundiron.com/instruments/pi ... nny-piano/

Who use all those libraries? Mainly people who makes a living with music.

[JJBiener]

it's an upright?? what's the point of that?

I used to have a full-size Steinway upright. It was a work of art in its own right and the sound was amazing. Not all uprights are created equal.

[fisherKing]

i love the missing keys idea; too many keys & you'll be playing too many notes. how many notes in a pop record anyway? 3? 4?....

[ghettosynth]

it's an upright?? what's the point of that? i always thought upright pianos were for people who A: cannot afford a grand (or baby grand), and/or B: people who have no room for a grand (or baby grand).

next up: sampled bar piano (complete with cigarette stains and missing keys).

seriously, if it sounds good...good. but give me a grand piano (and then offer an 'upright' preset of that).

So, first, I am NOT a piano player. A good friend of mine is, however. He's nobody you'd know, just one of the many people who have been classically trained since their youth and who could have had some career in classical music if other things weren't more compelling.

At any rate, in his opinion, there is some advantage to an upright for certain works owing to the differences in the mechanism and the help of gravity. In addition, because of this, they do, in fact, sound different. So, it strikes me that this piano is designed to fulfill three primary goals: 1) to be the premier upright piano for people seeking the upright sound without the compromises forced by the weight and height restrictions of a typical upright 2) to fit into places that can accommodate 20 or so vertical feet, but not 15 or so horizontal feet, and 3)to be a visual work of art as well as a substantial instrument that stands out as a statement for those looking for some combination of the above goals along with a way to stand out beyond the typical black grand.

If money and space were no object and I wanted to throw money at a ridiculous piano, it would be my choice.

In some small way, all of these goals are reasons to sample it. Certainly, it will sound different to the trained ear (not mine) and for those seeking the ultimate upright sampled piano, this is probably it.

As far as honkey tonk bar pianos, they are certainly worth sampling for the same reasons that you sample a piano in the first place. I'd be far more interested in a great sample of a worthy beat up honkey tonk pinao than "the giant." Just because they are common, doesn't mean that I can get a sample of it easily or get a pristine sample library to sound like one.

[RickJ]

Hello to all,

my first post here after watching a while. As far as this piano is concerned, from the demos, it doesn't sound any more special than the other pianos made by Galaxy, the makers of this piano. It seems to me more a gimmick than an advance from NI. I don't feel they actually captured the size of this piano in the sampling, if that were in fact possible. Just my $.02...

[fisherKing]

i can get this same sound by taking my sampled steinway grand, and rotating the soundfield, until is sounds like the piano top is against the wall. voila!

(also, mounting my monitors on the floor facing up creates a similar effect)...

[glokraw]

As far as honkey tonk bar pianos, they are certainly worth sampling for the same reasons that you sample a piano in the first place. I'd be far more interested in a great sample of a worthy beat up honkey tonk piano than "the giant." Just because they are common, doesn't mean that I can get a sample of it easily or get a pristine sample library to sound like one.

Nicky Hopkins playing an old bar sounding piano for Quicksilver.
But those days are gone forever.

Some people have an upright, then press it against a wall, or a grand on a hardwood floor, a baby grand on thick shag carpet, an old spinet in the garage.
I doubt very many piano owners ever thought about the room it would sit in first.
Cheers

[DocAtlas]

it's an upright?? what's the point of that? i always thought upright pianos were for people who A: cannot afford a grand (or baby grand), and/or B: people who have no room for a grand (or baby grand).

next up: sampled bar piano (complete with cigarette stains and missing keys).

seriously, if it sounds good...good. but give me a grand piano (and then offer an 'upright' preset of that).

So, first, I am NOT a piano player. A good friend of mine is, however. He's nobody you'd know, just one of the many people who have been classically trained since their youth and who could have had some career in classical music if other things weren't more compelling.

At any rate, in his opinion, there is some advantage to an upright for certain works owing to the differences in the mechanism and the help of gravity. In addition, because of this, they do, in fact, sound different. So, it strikes me that this piano is designed to fulfill three primary goals: 1) to be the premier upright piano for people seeking the upright sound without the compromises forced by the weight and height restrictions of a typical upright 2) to fit into places that can accommodate 20 or so vertical feet, but not 15 or so horizontal feet, and 3)to be a visual work of art as well as a substantial instrument that stands out as a statement for those looking for some combination of the above goals along with a way to stand out beyond the typical black grand.

If money and space were no object and I wanted to throw money at a ridiculous piano, it would be my choice.

In some small way, all of these goals are reasons to sample it. Certainly, it will sound different to the trained ear (not mine) and for those seeking the ultimate upright sampled piano, this is probably it.

As far as honkey tonk bar pianos, they are certainly worth sampling for the same reasons that you sample a piano in the first place. I'd be far more interested in a great sample of a worthy beat up honkey tonk pinao than "the giant." Just because they are common, doesn't mean that I can get a sample of it easily or get a pristine sample library to sound like one.

One thing to consider is that in 'normal' pianos (from spinet to grand), the bass strings are MUCH thicker than the others, to keep the size of the instrument managable. One side effect of this is that the bass strings are a lot stiffer than the rest of the piano, and way they vibrate begins to approximate a metal bar rather than a string; this results in some non-harmonic overtones that clash with the middle and upper notes. This is one of the reasons pianos usually require stretch tuning.

With the much larger size of the Klavins, the bass strings can be thinner, which should help a lot with this problem. I've never had the chance to play one, but I'd love to hear a note-by-note comparison between it and an ordinary sized piano. I suspect the difference may be too subtle to hear in the demos of The Grand, but I bet you can notice when sitting down at the real thing. How well that translates into a sampled piano, playing through monitors, I couldn't say.

[foosnark]

I'd pay a few bucks (but not many) for a decent sample set of the warped, wonky, perpetually out of tune upright piano my mom had. It had some lovely weird sounds with the sustain pedal held down.

But then, I too am warped, wonky and perpetually out of tune.

[glokraw]

I'd pay a few bucks (but not many) for a decent sample set of the warped, wonky, perpetually out of tune upright piano my mom had. It had some lovely weird sounds with the sustain pedal held down.

But then, I too am warped, wonky and perpetually out of tune.

There is a very enjoyable piano in Karmacomposers 'Monstrous' soundset-synth.

It nicely captures the older piano feeling, without disrupting songs themselves.
Worth the small price, all by itself found at

http://www.supersynths.com/