KVR Audio

soulata · Post by **soulata** » Mon Nov 12, 2007 6:44 am

Hi,

Sampletekk bought PMI and is now offering quite a lot of PMI and Sampletekk pianos via download.

What do you say about the cheaper options such as "Old Lady"? There are quite a few for 50$ which is fine with me.

Anything else I should consider?

thanks

k

Gregjazz · Post by **Gregjazz** » Mon Nov 12, 2007 6:53 am

Sampletekk has some awesome discount sales pretty often. I'd wait around for one of those, unless you need a piano library right away.

Out of all their pianos I have, I actually like the 7CG Jr piano. It has a really great velocity response and well as very nice, realistic release samples.

morelia · Post by **morelia** » Mon Nov 12, 2007 6:54 am

soulata wrote:Anything else I should consider?

I got white grand and it is easily the best piano sound I have. But on my AMD2000XP with 1gb, I can barely get 3 note polyphony. So yeah, it's big.

Gregjazz · Post by **Gregjazz** » Mon Nov 12, 2007 6:59 am

All I have are the light versions of a bunch of their pianos. Actually, even as light versions, they are pretty extensive, large libraries.

koolkeys · Post by **koolkeys** » Mon Nov 12, 2007 7:15 am

I have the Black Grand Close, Old Lady, and the 7CG jr and all I can say is that nothing compares. The Black Grand Close includes around 6GB of samples, so it's big. Old Lady is pretty large as well. Actually, most of their pianos are. And they are HUGE value for the price, IMO. Even without a discount sale.

Brent

z15 · Post by **z15** » Mon Nov 12, 2007 7:33 am

koolkeys wrote:I have the Black Grand Close, Old Lady, and the 7CG jr and all I can say is that nothing compares. The Black Grand Close includes around 6GB of samples, so it's big. Old Lady is pretty large as well. Actually, most of their pianos are. And they are HUGE value for the price, IMO. Even without a discount sale.

Seconded. I have Black Grand Close, TSO, WG Jr. and Rain Piano and all of them do get a lot of use... Still thinking of getting Old Lady to accompany those since it seems to sound quite different & lovely.

dougsyo · Post by **dougsyo** » Mon Nov 12, 2007 1:10 pm

I have four Sampletekk pianos
7CGjr (Yamaha C7, probably my favorite)
Emperor (a PMI Bosendorfer 290, but not the one EastWest packaged)
Old Lady (PMI vintage Steinway)
Rain Piano (upright with "character").

I paid $25 or less for each of these, over several group buys. I also have several other products of theirs.

Which one to choose probably depends on what sound you're looking for - probably four is overkill for me, since if I had a piano in real life, I'd make whatever I had work (If I played I'd probably be looking at TruePiano or Pianoteq but that's another issue).

Doug

beej · Post by **beej** » Mon Nov 12, 2007 1:19 pm

Thirded (fourthed? fifthed?)

I have Old Lady (gorgeous) and the White Grand. At those prices, it's a crime to use crappy soundfonts or built-in Rompler pianos. I have a few other non-Sampletekk pianos as well, but overall I'd say Old Lady is my favourite to play...

I bought Old Lady for $50, and picked up the White Grand in one of their discount sales - too cheap not to buy really...

soulata · Post by **soulata** » Mon Nov 12, 2007 7:20 pm

Thanks everyone.

I'll definetly download a few demo mp3s and see how they compare to the included Kontakt 3 pianos.

Has anybody made a comparison among those?

I'm mostly interested in the cheaper options (rain piano sounds great but I'm looking for a grand piano, not the upright - I'll have a real upright here in a few days, just need to move the monster)

That leaves me with Old Lady, Steinway D, Estonia, Emperor and C7.

Still a lot to choose from. Any opinions on those?

btw, how does it all comapre to Ivory, NI Acoustik, various East West offerings, ArtVista?

thanks

k

dougsyo · Post by **dougsyo** » Mon Nov 12, 2007 7:52 pm

The "PMI Bosendorfer 290" is the same as The EastWest PMI Bosendorfer with the Kompakt player, but different from the Emperor. IIRC some describe the PMI 290 as "darker" than the Emperor (which I have) but I can't justify two Bosendorfers.

Old Lady and Steinway D are both Steinways, although I prefer the Old Lady of the two. I never really considered the Estonia as I already had Emperor, Old Lady 7CGjr and Rain Piano, plus SR Piano Collection (which is nice if you want lighter instruments and the Sampletank engine). With all of these (and the pianos in DimPro), I've never considered Acoustik Piano or Ivory, esp since I don't play. just sequence.

IMHO for pop and a tad brighter sound, I'd go for a C7 (7CG, 7CGjr or another C7), for something more subtle I'd get Old Lady.

Doug

tfishbein82 · Post by **tfishbein82** » Mon Nov 12, 2007 8:06 pm

soulata wrote: I'll definetly download a few demo mp3s and see how they compare to the included Kontakt 3 pianos.
Has anybody made a comparison among those?

I haven't upgraded to K3, but when compared to the K2 pianos... well, there's no comparison. Sampletekk pianos blow them away.

soulata wrote: I'm mostly interested in the cheaper options (rain piano sounds great but I'm looking for a grand piano, not the upright - I'll have a real upright here in a few days, just need to move the monster)

That leaves me with Old Lady, Steinway D, Estonia, Emperor and C7.

Still a lot to choose from. Any opinions on those?

If you want a Steinway, I'd go with Black Grand. For a cheap version, Black Grand Medium Ambience version.

For a Bos, I prefer Emperor. Both are actually PMI pianos - which was overtaken by Sampletekk about a year ago.

I can't really comment on 7CG, because I have TBO - which itself is an excellent Yamaha (31 freakin' velocity layers!!).

All in all, I don't think you can go wrong with Sampletekk. Quality is great, price is cheap. Also, Per (the dude behind Sampletekk) takes care of customers. Good service, unreal special offers, and site-wide 50% group buys at least once a year.

soulata wrote: btw, how does it all comapre to Ivory, NI Acoustik, various East West offerings, ArtVista?

Sorry, I don't know. Suffice to say, I haven't felt the need to try these products, after having Sampletekk pianos.

soulata · Post by **soulata** » Mon Nov 12, 2007 8:15 pm

Since there are so many demos it'll take me some time to go through most of them. Anyway, I'm not in a hurry and could probably wait for some kind of a special offer - there was 50% off last year just before christmas and maybe it could happen this year as well

(that'd certainly push me into buying more than one piano library)

@ Sampletekk vs Kontakt 3 - I think Kontakt 3's got the same pianos as K2 (I+ll check - I have both). Foerstner and the upright.

thanks for suggestions and keep them coming (I'll post my findings later this week).

k

tfishbein82 · Post by **tfishbein82** » Mon Nov 12, 2007 8:36 pm

Go to http://www.sampletekk.com/bgresource.php, scroll to near the bottom and download a Kontakt demo version of Black Grand. A full two octaves and all C's

jeffn1 · Post by **jeffn1** » Mon Nov 12, 2007 8:44 pm

I think I might recommend going with the original Sampletekk pianos over the PMI. Although both types are excellent, my impression is the quality control on the original Sampletekk pianos is a little better than the PMI (I have heard some individuals samples in the PMI libraries were not perfect; I never heard that about the Sampletekk pianos).

I think you can't go wrong with the Black Grand medium. It gives you options with some of the velocities missing if it is too ram intensive.

jeffn1

koolkeys · Post by **koolkeys** » Mon Nov 12, 2007 8:46 pm

Just to be clear, Kontakt 3 actually has MORE pianos than K2 did. It still includes the two old ones, but also adds an upright and one more grand piano. The upright wasn't in K2, IIRC. But maybe I'm wrong. I have both libraries, but I am pretty sure that there are double the pianos in K3, at least from what I have found.

Comparing them to the K3 pianos just isn't fair to the Sampletekk ones. The K3 pianos are indeed great for being part of the included library. But they aren't as detailed as the Sampletekk ones. The Sampletekk pianos IMO compliment the ones in the K3 library. They all have a different sound, and as a piano player I'm never done finding new sounds. So if you ask me, it's worth buying Sampletekk pianos regardless of what you already have because they WILL find a way into your songs.

I also much correct myself. I don't have Old Lady. I have the Emperor Grand. Not that it matters, because I love it regardless.

Now, I seem to be getting different views from people who own the 7CGjr. I think it's a dark sounding piano, and it's my least favorite among the ones I have because it doesn't seem to sound as good or be as playable as the other ones. Maybe it's just me?

The thing with Sampletekk is that once you become a customer, you get fantastic deals. You get emails all the time with new offers and extended offers.

Good luck.

Brent

Piano library advice - Sampletekk