Reason Pianos Refill or TruePianos or None?

[vinayk]

Hi guys,

I know that by asking this question I may get an interesting mix of responses - but here goes!

I've finally got the money together to order Reason 4 - and will be placing that order tomorrow, and seeing as i've found a great price for the academic version on ebay, I even have enough money left over to buy Reason Pianos (and can probably get reduced shipping on the two products).

From its website - and the demo songs online it sounds great to my ears - I have also played with the truepianos demo (and am downloading the latest) - which sounds nice to me - but I didn't like all of the variations. I don't really know what the new third model sounds like?

The other benefit of the reason pianos - is that then all my composing with the exception of acoustic instruments/voice can be done in reason - and I can then just use reaper to do the rest. Truepianos on the other hand has to be used in VST form (which can be done.. its not hard to have reaper open for rewire)

I have already ordered (and should be recieving in the next couple of days) a Kawai CL25 digital piano - which has a decent sound to my ears - but only has headphones out (no line out.. dunno if it's any good for recording), and a single useable piano sound - I do like its key weighting however.

So what I wanted to know is - should I purchase the Reason Refill - splurge a bit on truepianos... or just try and use my digital pianos sounds/wait until I have money saved up to buy ableton live (which has an included multigigabyte piano) at the start of next year?


Some opinions would be greatly appreciated. If I am ordering the Reason refill i'd like to do it while I order reason to save a considerable amount on shipping! And of course i'd like to order Reason soon - SO that I can PLAY!

Thanks,
Vinay

[Hybernation]

Hi guys,

I know that by asking this question I may get an interesting mix of responses - but here goes!

I've finally got the money together to order Reason 4 - and will be placing that order tomorrow, and seeing as i've found a great price for the academic version on ebay, I even have enough money left over to buy Reason Pianos (and can probably get reduced shipping on the two products).

From its website - and the demo songs online it sounds great to my ears - I have also played with the truepianos demo (and am downloading the latest) - which sounds nice to me - but I didn't like all of the variations. I don't really know what the new third model sounds like?

The other benefit of the reason pianos - is that then all my composing with the exception of acoustic instruments/voice can be done in reason - and I can then just use reaper to do the rest. Truepianos on the other hand has to be used in VST form (which can be done.. its not hard to have reaper open for rewire)

I have already ordered (and should be recieving in the next couple of days) a Kawai CL25 digital piano - which has a decent sound to my ears - but only has headphones out (no line out.. dunno if it's any good for recording), and a single useable piano sound - I do like its key weighting however.

So what I wanted to know is - should I purchase the Reason Refill - splurge a bit on truepianos... or just try and use my digital pianos sounds/wait until I have money saved up to buy ableton live (which has an included multigigabyte piano) at the start of next year?


Some opinions would be greatly appreciated. If I am ordering the Reason refill i'd like to do it while I order reason to save a considerable amount on shipping! And of course i'd like to order Reason soon - SO that I can PLAY!

Thanks,
Vinay

Apples and Oranges, really...

The Reason Piano Refill is amazing. The guy as SampleTekk did all of the sampling and editing for them, which makes a big difference....SampleTekk makes the best "streaming" piano libs (Kontakt/Giga) out there. Reason Pianos really surprised and amazed me, I've been very happy with it. When I'm working in Reason, I am not even tempted to rewire it in so I can use TruePianos or Kontakt2 and one of the SampleTekk librarys.

That said, TruePianos is a gift from above. It's SO easy on resources and sounds GREAT in a mix. The latest model is a "rock piano", at least to me. I use it all the time for tracking in Sonar and Reaper. I still usually (though not always) will replace it with a Kontakt/SampleTekk piano for final mix.

One last note, the best combinators in Reason Pianos take up a full 1GB of memory...there are some "lighter" ones too of course. For best results, you need at least 1GB (2GB is better) to do complex Reason songs with RP and other large samples (2GB for sure to use RP and Reason Drums together!).

[aleph75]

Hello:
I think your Kawai is like my old Yamaha P60, which have One only output,
this output make the two jobs, headphones or line out with a Y cable.
That solutions is zéro resources CPU. And Kawai souns are really good.
That is a question about matching levels, attenuation, etc.
I have Truepianos and for me is the better of all software pianos in playability and also in sound,with the near future update with sympathetic
resonance and maybe half pedaling it will be a must, or maybe Pianoteq,
but for me the sampled pianos era is over, like the era of sampled brass
is over (Wallander Instruments)
I replaced the P60 for a P120 (richer in connexions) and play Truepianos
with the Yamaha P120 is a real joy!

[vinayk]

Thanks for the responses guys - I went ahead and ordered Reason 4 and the Piano refill. My PC has 2gb of RAM, and is a dual athlon 3600+ - so I figure it should run it ok. The price was right - and shipping was cheap for the both of them at the same time. (Infact I got Reason 4 academic + reason pianos ordered from the US - for the same price as Reason 4 academic alone in Australia - shipping was a bit extra of course).

The main reason that i got the kawai board was that the souds were good enough to practise (for when I didn't want to turn on the PC) - so I think i'll be set for now!

I'll wait until my piano skills improve a good bit before looking at things like truepianos - i'll have to pick up a new macbook/pro next year before I have to work in a rural area for 10 weeks... and want to purchase ableton live early next year (when i'm earning something) - so I think I can definately make do with the piano samples that i'll have for now! It's somewhat good for me to only have one program in which to do most things - it saves time wasting switching between programs etc. Of cousre for real instruments i'll have to use Reaper/revalvermkII anyhow... but thats do-able!

In one more week i'll finish uni for good - and will have a good month to sit and music away! Can't wait!

Thanks again,
Vinay

[Great Galactic Ghoul]

The guy as SampleTekk did all of the sampling and editing for them...

Missed this thread entirely when it would have still mattered to the OP...however, the above is interesting. I didn't realize someone from Sampletekk was involved in Reason Pianos. Sweet. That might explain why I like the Refill in question as much as I do. I don't currently own any Sampletekk libraries, but I'd certainly love to get my hands on a few in the future. Evidently I already have a "lite" version of a few of their pianos and didn't even know it.

To the OP (albiet too little, too late...):

I quite like Reason Pianos. I'm especially fond of the Steinway D in that collection and it has become my default/go-to of late. The Yamaha C7 is OK. The Steinway K (upright) is wasted on me, but that's purely a matter of my personal preference for the sound of grand pianos over uprights.

I've also found the presets to make good starting points and with varying amounts of relatively minor tweaking I can usually get the sound I'm after. All of the mic positions that are included and the ability to mix and match them gives some nice flexibility and sonic character. YMMV...

[vinayk]

Hey great galactic ghoul...

Late is still good for that sorta info!

My box has shipped - so should arrive within the week - I guess for me... being a hobby musician - I just needed something that would work - and not have me thinking "why didnt i get *insert plugin here*" instead... at the time the price was right... and so I ordered...

it does however make me feel much better to know that some ppl are finding it useful!

I got my kawai cl25 today - and its lovely to play.. the keys feel great.. .and it sounds great too (well as good as it needs to)... the midi connection was a breeze... so when the refill comes.. i should be in sampled piano heaven!

One more week of hard work on a website i'm doing... then its 6 weeks of relaxation! and music! then full time work.. but i wont think about that just yet!

have fun
vinay