I am using the Arturia Piano V2 and I think it sounds kind of cheap despite being 200$

[lotus2035]

I'm not much of a keyboard player but I did notice the pianos in Arturia V Collection 6 sounded bad to my ears.
I recently picked up a license for Addictive Keys from XLN and the pianos sounded far better.
Anyone else out there who is familiar with Addictive and can compare them to others like Keyscape and Pianoteq etc?

[Stokely]

I can't compare to those, but I bought Addictive Keys (grand, upright and the electric grand as a bundle) as an upgrade over the Logic pro pianos. I think Garritan CFX lite sounds more dynamic--meaning you have more of a range from soft to loud as you play--but there are far more samples in CFX lite so that would be kind of expected. Obviously the programming matters too.

I really like Addictive Keys, and like Garritan, XLN was very friendly and helpful to me when I had questions, and no iLok.

I also have some pianos as part of Komplete and I think the Addictive Keys grand compares pretty well to the The Grandeur. CFX Lite is still my preferred one for a big grand piano sound but I could easily use any of these and be happy. Also, I think both the Addictive Keys grand and The Grandeur are sampled from a Steinway and not a Yamaha, so they are different flavors. I could be mistaken there, I don't get too caught up in that.

Try the Pianoteq demo. It still sounds a bit...off...to me when I play it, but I have to admit the demo tracks are outstanding. Much better players than I am love it. I'd like to get it to play around with, but frankly it's a bit more money than I want to spend without a strict "need", so there'd have to be a big sale.

[BBFG#]

For me;
XLN pianos all had velocity problems in the quieter playing. And even though I liked their CP as being pleasantly different from others and thought the rest of the acoustics were okay as long as they were in the medium to high velocities... I found the electric to be terrible. And all of them seemed to not have as quick of a response as I get from Pianoteq. Keyscape is very interesting, but just like the Arturia pianos, it feels like their "best" purpose is in adding more complexity in Omnisphere. From my experience from KS, the acoustic pianos are not what gives it personality. And much of what else it offers is more specific to comparing with the Roland histories. It does offer more mangling than say, Kontakt, and with quicker, more immediate results, but otherwise it doesn't come close to being used as a "pure" piano part in any meaningful way for my tastes. While I use Pianoteq for acoustics, electrics and other "percussive/plectrum" probably nineteen times out of twenty, I also still use Steinberg's Grand 3 for a more sampled sound with a more even velocity and use the pianos in HALion much as I would the pianos in Analog Lab or Keyscape in Omnisphere.
I eventually dumped XLN AK, but sometimes think about getting the CP again. That is, until one of these threads reminds me what I don't like about it.
Pianoteq gets used in multiple ways for multiple purposes at least 90% of my time. The rest are good plugins, but Pianoteq is what feels like an actual instrument to me.

[lotus2035]

Thanks guys, very helpful and informative.

[v1o]

Just collect sampled pianos. They're plenty on the market some free like (piano book, spitfire labs) and some cheap when they go on sale. More realistic than all modelled pianos.

[SLiC]

I don't think $200 is a a "real price" if black friday's coming up.

No, I suspect most people get it as part as V collection (and often get V Collection in a sale) so in reality you are only paying about 20 bucks for it... its definitely worth that.

[rlared]

I agree the Arturia pianos do not sound good. There are many way better piano VSTs out there. XLN Addictive Keys is good and cheap. The monestary grand that Melda just released is also good.

[cyrb]

Honestly I always thought Arturia V2 had the upper hand over Pianoteq 6 (in terms of first impressions and playability rather than customizability), like I always leaned to it, felt more usable to me. Pianoteq 6 felt dull and artificial to my ears, perhaps requiring heavy editing to get it to sound right. Though Pianoteq 7.5 appears to have been overhauled and revoiced significantly and to my ears now is on par with Arturia V3 at least.

And sorry but the loading times is just not worth it for Keyscape; they should invest into the modelling market and compete because its been absolutely been proven to be practical at this point, at least for pianos. Perhaps not so for guitars.

[bilrobins]

Tried lots. I use Pianoteq most (I think it's great since V7). I sometimes use sampled pianos, mainly spitfire, for a specific sound. CHEERS

[martinjuenke]

Pianoteq rules the waves!

[joemusician]

My 2 cents: Grandeur has the most realistic playback (if you don't play to many bass drone notes unless you tweak down the bass), but Pianoteq feels the most realistic while playing. TruePianos also sounds decent and is also light weight, but sounds a little dated compared to the newer offerings.

[teilo]

I've heard it described this way by pianists (which I am not): The really good sampled pianos sound more authentic, but Pianoteq sounds more alive and expressive.

[Lazarus451]

Just reminding that FREE Spitfire felt piano (named Soft Piano) won a blind felt piano comparison (Andertons) against 100-200€ contenders.

[lotus2035]

Mentioned before in this thread, a reminder to check out 'Decent Sampler' and it's libraries for a whole slew of free sampled pianos and other things.

https://www.pianobook.co.uk/sampler/decent-sampler/

https://www.decentsamples.com/product/d ... er-plugin/

[Adinoff]

Arturia is meant to be synthetic