Stan Stewart
New Member
Hammersmith is my favorite as well.
Piano Libraries, we have loves, favourites, unloved, but which one is your go to piano library?
- Thread starter Andy Davidson
- Start date
CGR
Pianist, Composer & Arranger
I don't understand the negative comments I've read in various forums about the Alicia's Keys sampled piano. I rate it very highly, and I can only guess that maybe the users which don't get along with it are using a non weighted keyboard, or expect a perfect "air-brushed" sound. To my ears, it's very alive with a warm & rich tone, and I enjoy playing it every time I return to it.
doctoremmet
Senior Member
So, for those wanting to get UVI Augmented Piano (in my top 5 for sure):
Jerry Growl
Composing Music in the Plastic Dark Ages
+1 for Xperimenta Due
The best sampled piano I hear out there is imo the Ravel. (Judged by ear, not by play) For some reason Universal Audio has kept it solely for their Luna platform...
(which is Mac only and needs a Thunderbolt Apollo or Arrow interface)
The best sampled piano I hear out there is imo the Ravel. (Judged by ear, not by play) For some reason Universal Audio has kept it solely for their Luna platform...
(which is Mac only and needs a Thunderbolt Apollo or Arrow interface)+1 for Xperimenta Due
The best sampled piano I hear out there is imo the Ravel. (Judged by ear, not by play) For some reason Universal Audio has kept it solely for their Luna platform...
I was impressed with the Ravel too but I'm not going to buy a mac and a new interface.
cfodeebiedaddy
Active Member
I think Alicia's Keys is just a very different library from many others. I didn't care for it at first because it didn't have the immediately impressive "thunderous" sound or concert hall ambience that grabs you with some other packages. The dynamic range also seemed harder to tweak to taste. But it does sound nice, and it's responsiveness is good. It deserves a better reputation that it has IMO.
Agreed. I can take or leave most of the other NI pianos, but I leave Alicia’s Keys in Kontakt because it loads quickly, plays well, and sounds good. It isn’t my “desert island” piano, but it gets plenty of use because it just works.
Stan Stewart
New Member
Good point. I also like piano (and other) sounds that “just work”. If I have to spend my creativity time to tweak the sound or make it playable, I won’t keep it at the ready. And so, I agree with you about Alicia’s.
FlyingAndi
Senior Member
Actually, this is how I work with synths. I go through the presets and I'm happy if I find something that works (and I'm even more happy if interesting modulations are assigned to modwheel or aftertouch).
Sometimes I feel bad for not digging deeper into doing sound desing with the synths I have (most of these even have a documentation!).
Vstforever
New Member
Synthogy Ivory One was my first piano library, I bought it 20 years ago I believe. I’ve tried Garritan cfx, Keyscape c7, bechstein, pearl, tonehammer, they all sound great but I still prefer Ivory for its sound, versatility and kind cpu usage.
doctoremmet
Senior Member
So a while ago, I posted the lines above. In the mean time Dan has told me about a new dream he’s pursuing. And I’m with him. It’s a cool story which I will not repeat here in its entirety. Let me just politely point y’all to this Kickstarter.
I’ve backed this. Who’s with me? It can be done pretty riskless, by merely “purchasing” one of the already brilliant piano samples he has done. As a particular afficionado of the Baldwin sound, I cannot recommend this highly enough. Sorry to spam you lot like this. But Whole Sounds is not some evil mega corporation, but a one-man operation and very much these instruments are a labor of love. So I figured my “slightly evil” commercial break won’t be too annoying. (I hope! If it was, my apologies!!)
Cheers! Proceed!
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This thread made me dust off my Garritan CFX to install on my recent Macbook Pro 6 core (was previously using on an old octacore mac pro 2.8 ghz and had been a few years since I've used that computer for music) and it FLIES. Loads up in no time and the response is freaking amazing. I got lost in playing it, the Abby Road sound adds so much. The piano itself doesn't have as much color as some of the other pianos I have, but close your eyes and you are literally there playing it in that space. It's taken my top position.
Scalms
Senior Member
Touching on this thread again as the are a number of sales going on. Wonder if anyone can comment on the Xperimenta Due pianos. It has incredible tone, but most, if not all, of the demos have a fair amount of noise. Is this built into the recordings (to add character), or is this fully customizable? I have heard a couple recordings that had limited noise, but wasn't sure if there was a lot of 3rd party processing to remove it. thanks in advance!
andrzejmakal
Member
For now (as I got Full Kontakt finally) it's Signature Grand by Simple Sam Samples.
Walker D by Embertone almost as good.
cheers
Walker D by Embertone almost as good.
cheers
cqd
Senior Member
I tried, but I am not a fan of the due piano's.. everything is pretty much customizable, the noise can be removed..
I was thinking about bumping this thread earlier.. I've been mainly playing the simple Sam for a while now, but broke out the Light and sound concert grand again last night and remembered why I loved it..
It really is just wonderful..
fcangia
Flavio from XPERIMENTA Project
Hi, thanks! probably because the noise in some demo was added from the GUI, and in others you are hearing the previous versions of the piano (recently the samples have been de-noised)
germancomponist
Senior Member
Scalms
Senior Member
thanks much Flavio, it's a steal at the current price
