KVR Audio

t5wGl · Post by **t5wGl** » Sun Mar 08, 2009 4:26 am

If you could help me decide by sharing your adivce I'd appreciate it.
I am looking for my first software based piano. I have already read the thread about the best piano plug in, but I would like some specific opinions because piano is my main instrument.

Which one do you think is the best / best value?

PianoTeq v. 3 = $270
TruePianos = (Normally $180 / $130 for me as a Sonar user)
Ivory = ($319 Big fan of the Yamaha C7)
Steinway Piano in Garritan Personal Orchestra = ($199)
Kontakt = ($450)
M-Audio prosessions Grand piano = ($79)
Other

Thanks

C-note · Post by **C-note** » Sun Mar 08, 2009 4:32 am

I have pianoteq, Truepianos, Kontakt and East west. Truepianos is by far my favorite.

t5wGl · Post by **t5wGl** » Sun Mar 08, 2009 4:39 am

C-note wrote:I have pianoteq, Truepianos, Kontakt and East west. Truepianos is by far my favorite.

Wow really...can you tell me why it is your favorite? The demo is not available for windows 64 bit so I can't try it out before I buy it (if I go with TP). Anything you can share would be much appreciated.

Thanks

t5wGl · Post by **t5wGl** » Sun Mar 08, 2009 4:42 am

C-note wrote:I have pianoteq, Truepianos, Kontakt and East west. Truepianos is by far my favorite.

I was listening to the demos at TP's website and the diamond version seems to have that high end bright sound like the Yamaha C7...would you agree? The reason I ask is because the Yamaha grand is my favorite of all the grands, so I would of course love to have a sampled C7 or something close to it.

Jay-Producer · Post by **Jay-Producer** » Sun Mar 08, 2009 5:34 am

Synthogy 'Ivory Grand Pianos' - Contains Bosendorfer 290 Imperial Grand & Steinway Concert D Grand & Yamaha C7 Grand. (for Ivory) iLok key needed (£30). £250

This is the best around by far unless you buy a real Bosendorfer piano which will cost you your life!

t5wGl · Post by **t5wGl** » Sun Mar 08, 2009 6:15 am

Jay-Producer wrote:Synthogy 'Ivory Grand Pianos' - Contains Bosendorfer 290 Imperial Grand & Steinway Concert D Grand & Yamaha C7 Grand. (for Ivory) iLok key needed (£30). £250

This is the best around by far unless you buy a real Bosendorfer piano which will cost you your life!

Well now...I can't really afford that now can I.

Would you happen to know how well Ivory stacks up against true pianos?

Those are the two I am leaning heavily towards.

Jay-Producer · Post by **Jay-Producer** » Sun Mar 08, 2009 6:21 am

t5wGl wrote:
Jay-Producer wrote:Synthogy 'Ivory Grand Pianos' - Contains Bosendorfer 290 Imperial Grand & Steinway Concert D Grand & Yamaha C7 Grand. (for Ivory) iLok key needed (£30). £250

This is the best around by far unless you buy a real Bosendorfer piano which will cost you your life!
Well now...I can't really afford that now can I.

Would you happen to know how well Ivory stacks up against true pianos?

Those are the two I am leaning heavily towards.

When I tested out all the piano plug-ins, romplers etc this is by far the best around mate. It is very realistic and I would highly recommend it. Check out the audio examples, you'll be impressed. NOTHING will compare to a real Bosendorfer piano mate. Worth the money yes, so save up and get that bundle of pianos in one package. Awesome sound collection.

MarkRM · Post by **MarkRM** » Sun Mar 08, 2009 6:28 am

I've used KVR as a resource for a long while, but just joined as I think this is the first time I've been able to contribute much. I went through the exact same process as you a while ago, the piano being my main instrument too, and eventually bought TruePianos. It was definitely the best at the time. However, very recently, I've come to prefer PianoTeq, for a number of reasons. Version 3, I think, sounds amazing. Comparing that to TP, I find that TP (with some modules more than others) can sometimes be a little obvious with how it emulates the different tones that come with lower velocities. I can actually hear the low pass filter working. With the new PianoTeq, I can't hear this at all. It sounds beautiful and responds wonderfully. Plus with PianoTeq you get a bunch of cool add-ons. Also, PianoTeq seems to get updated quite regularly, while TP, since I bought it, hasn't had a huge amount of development, and I've recently found out I'll have to pay to upgrade to TP 2 (while PianoTeq owners got their recent major upgrade for free). I don't know, at the moment, I'd love it if PianoTeq offered a crossgrade or group buy. I guess I'll just see how TP 2 sounds - otherwise I'm seriously considering jumping ship.
FWIW, I'd steer clear of things like Ivory - even if it does sound slightly better (which I don't actually think it does), the difference in sound would not be worth the difference in resources.

Jay-Producer · Post by **Jay-Producer** » Sun Mar 08, 2009 6:31 am

MarkRM wrote:I've used KVR as a resource for a long while, but just joined as I think this is the first time I've been able to contribute much. I went through the exact same process as you a while ago, and eventually bought TruePianos. It was definitely the best at the time. However, very recently, I've come to prefer PianoTeq, for a number of reasons. Version 3, I think, sounds amazing. Comparing that to TP, I find that TP (with some modules more than others) can sometimes be a little obvious with how it emulates the different tones that come with lower velocities. I can actually hear the low pass filter working. With the new PianoTeq, I can't hear this at all. It sounds beautiful and responds wonderfully. Plus with PianoTeq you get a bunch of cool add-ons. Also, PianoTeq seems to get updated quite regularly, while TP, since I bought it, hasn't had a huge amount of development, and I've recently found out I'll have to pay to upgrade to TP 2 (while PianoTeq owners got their recent major upgrade for free). I don't know, at the moment, I'd love it if PianoTeq offered a crossgrade or group buy. I guess I'll just see how TP 2 sounds - otherwise I'm seriously considering jumping ship.
FWIW, I'd steer clear of things like Ivory - the difference in sound is not worth the difference in resources.

Sorry but that sound collection I suggested will eat anything away. Sound quality is better than quantity and what I suggested offers that and some quantity at the same time. But ill give your suggestions another listen to and compare them.

MarkRM · Post by **MarkRM** » Sun Mar 08, 2009 6:35 am

Jay-Producer wrote:
MarkRM wrote:I've used KVR as a resource for a long while, but just joined as I think this is the first time I've been able to contribute much. I went through the exact same process as you a while ago, and eventually bought TruePianos. It was definitely the best at the time. However, very recently, I've come to prefer PianoTeq, for a number of reasons. Version 3, I think, sounds amazing. Comparing that to TP, I find that TP (with some modules more than others) can sometimes be a little obvious with how it emulates the different tones that come with lower velocities. I can actually hear the low pass filter working. With the new PianoTeq, I can't hear this at all. It sounds beautiful and responds wonderfully. Plus with PianoTeq you get a bunch of cool add-ons. Also, PianoTeq seems to get updated quite regularly, while TP, since I bought it, hasn't had a huge amount of development, and I've recently found out I'll have to pay to upgrade to TP 2 (while PianoTeq owners got their recent major upgrade for free). I don't know, at the moment, I'd love it if PianoTeq offered a crossgrade or group buy. I guess I'll just see how TP 2 sounds - otherwise I'm seriously considering jumping ship.
FWIW, I'd steer clear of things like Ivory - the difference in sound is not worth the difference in resources.
Sorry but that sound collection I suggested will eat anything away. Sound quality is better than quantity and what I suggested offers that and some quantity at the same time. But ill give your suggestions another listen to and compare them.

I know that some people think this, but I disagree. I think the sound of Ivory is great, but I don't think it plays as well as either TP or PianoTeq. Plus it's a resource monster. I don't think you can get the nuance of a piano by sampling technology alone. Again, just my opinion.

standalone · Post by **standalone** » Sun Mar 08, 2009 9:01 am

On the affordable-customizable side of live :

http://www.uvisoundsource.com/

http://www.uvisoundsource.com/all-produ ... ucts_id/28

( I-Lock needed )

Aloysius · Post by **Aloysius** » Sun Mar 08, 2009 9:26 am

I purchased all four Absolute Pianos on an impulse. I've been trying to get in touch with these people since:

Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2009 02:25:52 +0000

I've written to every address I can find. Some on more than one occasion!

The lesson to learn from the above is 'buyer beware'. Be sure that whomever you choose to purchase from, actually provides a service, after they've tasted your money.

As an aid . . . if you type the titles of the Piano Softwares you are interested in, into the Quick Plug-in Search... to the right hand side of this page, you'll get a picture of the average user rating etc. The associated USER reviews can be extremly helpful.

Vectorman · Post by **Vectorman** » Sun Mar 08, 2009 12:45 pm

that high end bright sound like the Yamaha C7

That's more the kind of piano sound I prefer too...I like a piano that doesn't turn to mush in a mix, which many of the pianos out there do, being darker and more suited to classical and solo pieces.

I snagged the White Grand from Sampletekk and liked playing it in isolation, but wasn't quite sold on how it fit into a mix for me. Ditto with Truepianos when I demoed it - when I dropped it into a mix, there was something about its midrange I didn't really like, and the bottom octave seemed lacking in balls - the low notes kind of went "thud" instead of "BANG!" Same with the Kontakt pianos - fine solo but not good for a busy mix. I thought about getting EW Quantum Leap Pianos, since the C7 in that collection sounds great in the demos, but that's a lot of money to pay when there's only one piano in the collection I wanted, not to mention the size of those instruments is getting so damned HUGE. Plus not being able to try it in a mix before purchasing, which is the real test if you're not just doing solo pieces.

For now, I'm just sticking with what's been working for me...the old ILIO Double Platinum Rock Piano converted over to Kontakt, with a little bit of the Steinway D from the Kontakt library layered underneath to add a little bit more body to it. It's only 3 velocity layers deep and the combination only takes up around 700MB, but for more aggressive Bruce Hornsby or Elton John-style playing, it sure does the trick in a mix. I guess it should - the piano sampled for the ILIO CD-ROM was apparently the same one Elton John used to record a lot of his classics.

Reverend Rhythm · Post by **Reverend Rhythm** » Sun Mar 08, 2009 1:13 pm

Your going to find that opinions on pianos generally fall in one of two camps: sampled or modeled. At least with the modeled instruments you can try the demos.

I have yet to care for a modeled piano, but others love them. I can say that I don't think there is "one" piano out there.

I use Kontakt and Sampletekk pianos. Well, I also have the old eastwest Bos and VGP. And I don't know that I have a favorite.

BTW, Wusikstation comes with a pretty good piano. It's not bad at all.

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Sun Mar 08, 2009 1:29 pm

One more vote for Pianoteq 3. I mean, you get: low resource usage, tweakability, playability, regular updates, FREE updates (those who bought Pianoteq 1 got their 2nd and 3rd versions for FREE), NO dongles. A great perspective to improve even more, too.

Which software based piano should I buy?