Piano VST issues....

[wayout_west]

Hey everybody

So I'm pretty new to synthesis,and am having some frustrating problems with some piano VSTs I downloaded. If you don't mind, I was hoping you guys could help me out, as I'm still new to this and don't quite know what I'm doing just yet

So right now I've just been downloading free VSTs to kind of get a sense of which direction I want to take without shelling a bunch of money out upfront. I downloaded a piano VST, Piano one, which seemed well recommeded on forums and such. Unfortunately, whenever I open it, I can't get any sound out of it, no matter what I try. Thinking the file may have been corrupted in some way, I downloaded another pretty well liked free piano VST, CVPiano, and the same thing happened. In fact, it didn't seem like there was anything in the VST at all, as the majority of the slots on the interface were blank. All the rest of my VSTs work fine. Do I just have horrible luck with piano VSTs, or is there something I can do to fix them?

Sorry for the dumb question, but I've only been doing this since July and am still feeling my way around it

Thanks for the help!

Bryan

[b7uzer]

Hi wayout_west, what DAW are you using and what OS? looks like CVpiano is outdated and is no longer supported. I've never used it, so difficult to say why it does not work, is the dll istalled in the same directory as your other dlls? (usually in 'program files\vstplugins'assuming you're on windows)

also check out mda piano, another great free piano vst: http://www.kvraudio.com/product/piano_by_mda

cheers

[wayout_west]

Hi wayout_west, what DAW are you using and what OS? looks like CVpiano is outdated and is no longer supported. I've never used it, so difficult to say why it does not work, is the dll istalled in the same directory as your other dlls? (usually in 'program files\vstplugins'assuming you're on windows)

also check out mda piano, another great free piano vst: http://www.kvraudio.com/product/piano_by_mda

cheers

Well to be honest b7uzer, I'm not using a DAW at the moment, I'm using a VST host called "minihost" by a company called Tobybear. Since I'm just barely starting out, I'm still just using freeware stuff until I can get a real idea of what I want. I'll put the link up here so you can take a look at it: (sorry the Kvr link is the best i could do as tobybear's website is temporarily closed.)

http://www.kvraudio.com/product/minihost_by_tobybear

Yah I was wondering if the fact the CVPiano wasn't suppoted anymore was a factor in it not working :S As for the operating system, I have thje 32 bit Windows XP, not an amazing set up by far, but it's gonna have to work until I can afford a new laptop :)Thanks for the link to mda piano, I'll give it a try right now

Thanks for the help!

[ObiWonder]

If you're just using freebies try out SampleTank FREE. It has a few pianos and around 200 other sounds for free.

[wayout_west]

I much appreciate everyone's input, I found another piano VST that's working just fine

Thanks for the help!

Bryan

[b7uzer]

Hey Bryan, glad you found a solution,
don't be discouraged by the lack of replies, KVR crowd is usually very helpful and kind

good luck!

[Jafo]

A few short replies (too worn out to make them longer, and you've already found a solution that makes you happy):

VstHost is much better than minihost, and also free.

Nothing wrong with CVPiano, but it takes sound tweaking to work. mda Piano is superb in a mix, but doesn't have the expressiveness needed for solo work. Very few other Vst pianos are worth a damn, but I'm fond of 4Front's free piano -- bizarre, but fun.

Another option is samples. Look up Warren Trachtman's free Steinway soundfonts, and use them in sfz or LinuxSampler. Salamander Grand Piano is also great, and free, but freakin' huge, and sounds much like CVPiano, so there's no real need for it; the same goes for Mats Helgensson's Maestro Cream Piano. The famous Splendid piano, especially in the larger sizes, is excellent.

[lingyai]

CV Piano sounds really good if you follow these steps