KVR Audio

Lazerbacon766 · Post by **Lazerbacon766** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 2:06 pm

Im just looking for a good affordable variety of piano sounds, I have piano 162 and I love it, but I don't want to use the same piano for each song. I would really like variety, but I don't want to pay for anything super expensive. Any suggestions?

Echoes in the Attic · Post by **Echoes in the Attic** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 3:24 pm

Addictive Keys is a very affordable piano library. It has three pianos (one electric, one grand and one upright), but it has a ton of presets with very different sounds, from vintage to studio to sound design weirdness. They simulate different pics at different positions so there's a lot of variety in the presets. Might be worth checking out.

rod_zero · Post by **rod_zero** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 3:50 pm

The native instruments new piano libraries: the grandeur, the maverick and the gentlemant.

Cheapest on the market for three pianos.

BERFAB · Post by **BERFAB** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 4:33 pm

I like the pianos included in Halion 5. Fit right in the mix, and there's some great variety.

Sampletank 3.3 also has a ton of very good sounding pianos, both electric and acoustic, covering grands,uprights, treated and everything from Wurlies to Rhodes etc.

The NI pianos have always been reliable, but having to load up Kontakt every time to use them is a pain.

-B

Echoes in the Attic · Post by **Echoes in the Attic** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 4:37 pm

BERFAB wrote: The NI pianos have always been reliable, but having to load up Kontakt every time to use them is a pain.

-B

Just curious why you find it more of a pain to load up pianos in Kontakt then in something else?

For example if I want to load a piano in Kontakt, I open Kontakt, then open the piano preset. If I want to do the same in Addictive Keys I open Addictive Keys and then open the preset I want. It seems the same to me.

Or I save a DAW preset of a piano I'll often want to call up and it's one click regardless of plug-in.

rod_zero · Post by **rod_zero** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 4:44 pm

The only thing I dont like about NI pianos is that the "instrument settings" can't be saved and you have to tweak them everytime.

bharris22 · Post by **bharris22** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 4:54 pm

Do you absolutely need a sample-based piano? If not, I would definitely recommend Pianoteq Stage. It has tons of flexibility (even the Stage version), has a very small footprint and sounds great - very responsive. Should be able to get it for close to $100.

beltrom · Post by **beltrom** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 5:33 pm

Not sure if you're interested in free ones...

http://bedroomproducersblog.com/2010/07 ... oy-pianos/

The Bigcat link is nice f e...

Kontakt, Sforzando and tx16wx would let you play most of them.

onnodevisser · Post by **onnodevisser** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 8:07 pm

+1 for Pianoteq stage .

ImNotDedYet · Post by **ImNotDedYet** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 8:25 pm

Pianoteq is awesome and will give you a bunch more options than a sampler IMO.

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 8:31 pm

A license for UVI Grand Piano Model D is up for grabs for just $10 in the market place now

Pretty affordable !

http://www.uvi.net/en/pianos-keyboards/ ... del-d.html

BERFAB · Post by **BERFAB** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 8:56 pm

Echoes in the Attic wrote:
BERFAB wrote: The NI pianos have always been reliable, but having to load up Kontakt every time to use them is a pain.

-B
Just curious why you find it more of a pain to load up pianos in Kontakt then in something else?

For example if I want to load a piano in Kontakt, I open Kontakt, then open the piano preset. If I want to do the same in Addictive Keys I open Addictive Keys and then open the preset I want. It seems the same to me.

Or I save a DAW preset of a piano I'll often want to call up and it's one click regardless of plug-in.

Kontakt is an extraordinarily (in my experience) "heavy" program regarding resource usage. It takes longer to load than anything I own, on top of which, sampled pianos are among the heaviest of instruments to load in it.

I don't have Addictive Keys, but I do have Addictive Drums 2 which is very light on resources by comparison. Similarly, Sampletank loads easily and its piano patches load in a flash.

The fastest loading (by far on my machine) is Halion 5 (and/or HalionSonic2). This may be due to the integration with my DAW, Cubase 8 (both are Steinberg products), but I'm not really sure. All I know is, Halion 5 has some killer piano patches that load in a flash anytime I get the urge to play.

BTW, my Kontakt frustration isn't limited to pianos. I have some great guitar emulations (electric leads, acoustic strums, etc.) that I often hesitate to load up just because it disrupts my workflow. I have some inferior patches in other vsti's that I use as "mock ups" while recording--I'll later replace them with the better stuff when I'm finishing up.

Cheers
-B

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 9:04 pm

BERFAB wrote:Kontakt is an extraordinarily (in my experience) "heavy" program regarding resource usage. It takes longer to load than anything I own, on top of which, sampled pianos are among the heaviest of instruments to load in it.

And a HDD guzzler

I got Akoustik and Elektrik Pianos, but haven't got round to installing them yet, as I aint got the space

jancivil · Post by **jancivil** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 11:04 pm

BERFAB wrote:
Kontakt takes longer to load than anything I own,

Batch resave.

Fleer · Post by **Fleer** » Wed Feb 04, 2015 2:41 am

A few other beauties around the $99 mark:
- Grand Gold One (ProductionVoices)
- Piano in Blue (CineSamples)
- EightyEight (Sonivox)
- TruePianos (4Front)

+1 for Addictive Keys and Pianoteq

Best Affordable Piano samplers