Piano VST

I returned the Swissonic mentioned earlier, and went big with an FP-90. The key feel is great, triple sensors let you replay a key after hardly letting it rise again at all. Very expressive. Now I'm even more broke. But happy.

I have a new appreciation for modeled pianos now. Previously, the expressiveness wasn't too impressive for me. I put that down to not having the right keyboard for it. Though as always, the modeled instruments lack something that the sampled ones have. But the sampled ones also lack the sheer variety of sound and expression control.

I'll probably wind up getting Pianoteq someday which previously I found too off sounding compared to the sampled instruments.
 
I returned the Swissonic mentioned earlier, and went big with an FP-90. The key feel is great, triple sensors let you replay a key after hardly letting it rise again at all. Very expressive. Now I'm even more broke. But happy.

I have a new appreciation for modeled pianos now. Previously, the expressiveness wasn't too impressive for me. I put that down to not having the right keyboard for it. Though as always, the modeled instruments lack something that the sampled ones have. But the sampled ones also lack the sheer variety of sound and expression control.

I'll probably wind up getting Pianoteq someday which previously I found too off sounding compared to the sampled instruments.

Don't wander in here very often but...Pianoteq 6 gets a very good rep in the latest issue of Sound on Sound.

Dave.
 
I’ll add to the chorus (heh) for pianoteq. I initially got it because it didn’t require tons of disk space (it didn’t use samples). But I use it now for basic piano and especially electric pianos, I love how those things sound.
 
The FP-90 is like Pianoteq in a way, since it's modeled rather than sampled. I didn't appreciate the sound at first but then I got to tinkering with the Piano Designer and I like it enough now to practice on it directly.
 
We were doing some edits of a range of our piano material, some with a real piano (Yamaha C3) and some with Pianoteq 5 and 6 and working on one piece, we thought we heard a slightly creaky pedal release, and later discovered that was the Pianoteq, not the real one. Fooled the pianist who spent quite a bit on the C3!
 
I figure I'll definitely get it sooner or later.

I might pick up Keyscape someday too.

I've been using Keyscape for almost 2 years now and know it inside out.

I've recorded demos of pretty much every keyscape preset here:
YouTube

When it comes to "Acoustic Pianos" only, it's hard to choose a particular library. Some are really bad but there are many good ones out there. When it comes to everything else though, Keyscape is the best. I've yet to hear better EPs, Clavs...etc.
 
That's quite a piano story with that Yamaha!

I'm not much of an electric piano fan. If I ever get Keyscape it'll cover me for life most likely. I will listen to those preset demos in a bit! :) Have you listened to 8dio's Cp70 and compared it to Keyscape's? The first demo they had for it impressed me a great deal.

Let's see. . great to hear these demos! Thanks! Hmm, it looks like only a niche of the sounds of Keyscape are my kind of sounds. I wonder if the Omnisphere integration would make up for that for me and let me do a lot of worthwhile experimental work with it all. :)
 
Yes, I've listened to 8dio's CP70. You know how there's a sweet range where everybody's CP kind of sounds good? As soon as you get out of that comfort zone that's where you really hear the difference. The same goes for Piano libraries as well. The mid register is ok, but then when it comes to highs and lows ...that's where most libraries fail. I have my go to patches on Keyscape and can never get tried of them. It's hard to explain. The only REAL issue for keyscape was that you had to always use a host. With the latest update they finally came up with the standalone version. Phew!
 
Yes, it wasn't long ago I noticed with most library there's a range that's just right and then the rest which isn't quite up to it at best.

And then too if we're talking sample libraries in general, a lot of non-velocity sensitive libraries I've discovered to my surprise. It makes a good piano VST all the more appealing. Then I think -- maybe I should be experimenting with effects more and pianos.

I am having a lot of fun with my FP-90 and Arturia's Analog Lab tonight. I don't think I'll even miss the aftertouch in the long run. I'll get a ROLI for that, or perhaps when I'm flush again, Touchkeys.
 
Every once in awhile I think I might get the 1928 Steinway from 8dio, though I've heard some complaints about it. But otherwise I'm pretty set for pianos now.

I just keep at it with Arturia's Piano V and Sonivox 88. Totally neglecting the built in sounds of the FP-90 lately, though perhaps in future I'll try running some effects on them to see if I can making them sound a bit better.
 
Which did you like best and least then?

Since you asked:
I don't know if I had a favorite (I do have the Arturia, AIR, NIs and ToonTrack). A lot of them sounded good. I'm not a pianist (been referred to as something that sounds similar, though). I have owned or had custody of some EPs, but not acoustic pianos. When I play a piano, real or virtual, I don't have the stringent performance requirements that a pianist would have but there just is something about the sound of pianos that is captivating and inspirational to me. Usually a "good" one will make me drift into the memory of a favorite song and just make me want to play it more. Listening to samples only works for me on the former, so---no real favorites.
It's unfair to judge it just on the samples alone but he one that I wasn't nuts about in this shoot-out was the Waves unit. I thought it had synthetic quality to it. Maybe over-driven or over-emphasized mids? Just something about the lack of clarity with the chords. I think it reminded me of preset on a Yamaha EP that I owned and eventually fell out of love with.

Paj
8^)
 
Haha that's pretty funny Paj. There are only two VSTs I've ever bought so far that I've decided were mistakes. Thankfully I've been pretty careful. One of those is that Waves Grand Rhapsody piano.

I didn't listen closely enough to the demos, and got the wrong impression from them. I'm not much for warmer pianos like that, I prefer cooler ones.

On the bright side it was pretty cheap.
 
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