Steinway library

[HCMarkus]

Anybody care to weigh in on Uprights?

[mhschmieder]

In my view, uprights are an entirely different topic as they have completely unique concerns and usages. I recommend a new topic for uprights.

VI Labs is having a sale right now, which includes not only the excellent (and unique) Ravenscroft but also their trio of grands (including an American Steinway). I will likely buy these soon, being the fool that I am, just because Ravenscroft is miraculous and the audio demos for the others are really the only ones that sound realistic to me besides Pianoteq (and more so, due to timbre matching, but not necessarily as playable or as good with pedaling etc.).

http://www.vilabsaudio.com/truekeyspianos

A bit more expensive than some of the other options, but worth it. I do think galaxy does a decent job though, and that their pianos, when on sale, are usually good bang for buck like Sampletekk's.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Real pianists don't play uprights. Lol

[Shooshie]

Anybody care to weigh in on Uprights?

No.

However, when moving my first upright, an old 1890s beast, two friends and myself all got hernias. They ARE heavy! I was all of 22 years old, and we were stupid about moving pianos. If not for the stairs, I could move one myself these days. It's about balance and wheels.

Shoosh

[musicman691]

Anybody care to weigh in on Uprights?

No.

However, when moving my first upright, an old 1890s beast, two friends and myself all got hernias. They ARE heavy! I was all of 22 years old, and we were stupid about moving pianos. If not for the stairs, I could move one myself these days. It's about balance and wheels.

Shoosh

Was it one of those with the big mirror on it? Most awkward piano I ever helped move had one; had some real tight turns to get it out of the seller's house onto our truck and the walls were real tight. House was one of those real old Trenton row homes.

For those that wonder about moving a grand piano it's relatively easy. The three legs come off as does the pedal lyre so you just have a skinny but longish shape. Only one dolly needed; sometimes on a D we used two dollies. Up and down stairs was a nightmare; one time we had one get loose on us and it slipped down the stairs and through the wall into a guy's apartment. Or the time my boss hired a crane to take one out through a window in a high-rise apartment building that didn't have a working freight elevator.

[mikehalloran]

I have a scar in my right palm from moving an upright.

I wouldn't give 2¢ for our Knabe spinet—even if she did get her Master's degree practicing on it. But we get it tuned every year… I don't want to talk about it.

The church where I worked through 2007 has this huge upright made in San Francisco around 1900. I think it's a Fisher but not that it matters. Back then, you sourced your wood locally and had everything else shipped by rail. This is why there were hundreds of piano companies that disappeared by the Depression. My wife loves it; I think it's a lot better than the POJ grand that someone donated without asking for her input.

There are times when an upright VI could come in handy for certain sound track work when trying to evoke a certain era. I bought one from Wavefactory for $5—I liked that it was out of tune but disappointed that it was made so electronically. I was hoping that they sampled an actual out of tune piano. Still, I can see times when I will use it in, say, a tv commercial accompanying something for comic effect.

PSP's free PianoVerb plugin has a de-tune effect that can work for that. This may be what Wavefactory used on that upright that I bought.
http://www.pspaudioware.com/plugins/rev ... pianoverb/

[mhschmieder]

Uprights are a different sound. Great for reggae. Other stuff too. Helps with the "bubble" in reggae.

I still don't want to pollute this thread with advice on uprights, because I would feel impelled to share what I know and it would get very lengthy and thus would distract entirely from Steinway Grand. Suffice it to say that uprights are mechanically very different instruments from grands -- with the mild exception of upright grands. They also vary almost as much as church organs, and in ways that grand pianos don't (from one another). Almost a family of instruments, yet related to a grand.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Let's talk giraffe pianos. Yes, that's a real thing. I saw one at the Metropolitan in NYC. A grand harp placed vertically against the wall (to save space) and an upright action. Cool piano and great idea but the harps couldn't take the tension without the massive support structure required and last I heard there wasn't a single one that wasn't really screwed up. I bet it'd be possible with modern technology but not popular enough to mess with. Google them.

[musicman691]

Let's talk giraffe pianos. Yes, that's a real thing. I saw one at the Metropolitan in NYC. A grand harp placed vertically against the wall (to save space) and an upright action. Cool piano and great idea but the harps couldn't take the tension without the massive support structure required and last I heard there wasn't a single one that wasn't really screwed up. I bet it'd be possible with modern technology but not popular enough to mess with. Google them.

I wonder if that's what NI sampled for the Giant:
http://www.native-instruments.com/en/pr ... the-giant/
Interesting sound but not a lot of use for it; will never take the place of a Steinway upright like the Traditional K-52 - bigger soundboard than most grands. And yes - there is quite a variation in uprights just like there is in grands.

[HCMarkus]

Anybody care to weigh in on Uprights?

No.

However, when moving my first upright, an old 1890s beast, two friends and myself all got hernias. They ARE heavy! I was all of 22 years old, and we were stupid about moving pianos. If not for the stairs, I could move one myself these days. It's about balance and wheels.

Shoosh

Before my Studio 1.0 burned to the ground, I had a very nice Steinway upright built in 1899 given to me as a gift. It wasn't until after the fire, when the only part of that piano remaining was the incredibly heavy cast iron harp, that I understood the discontented - nay, downright threatening - stares the piano movers had thrown in my direction when they were struggling to maneuver the beast into my studio.

I'll start a new thread, as it appears I might gather some good info.

FYI, I prefer the sound of a grand and am very happy with Ivory II's Steinway grand However, there are applications where a grand sounds TOO good, particularly in some of the current stripped-down pop stuff where the slightly clangorous tone of an upright is right at home.

[musicman691]

FYI, I prefer the sound of a grand and am very happy with Ivory II's Steinway grand However, there are applications where a grand sounds TOO good, particularly in some of the current stripped-down pop stuff where the slightly clangorous tone of an upright is right at home.

Or the brightness of a Yamaha grand

[mikehalloran]

I found this list of freebies. Most are in Kontakt, many are in SFZ. There are at least three Steinways in here. I have not explored this at all.

http://bedroomproducersblog.com/2010/07 ... oy-pianos/

[Shooshie]

FYI, I prefer the sound of a grand and am very happy with Ivory II's Steinway grand However, there are applications where a grand sounds TOO good, particularly in some of the current stripped-down pop stuff where the slightly clangorous tone of an upright is right at home.

Or the brightness of a Yamaha grand

I love Yamaha Grands. Especially the Disklavier 7'. Well regulated, of course.

Yamaha uprights are probably the best uprights I ever played. Yamaha did a lot of innovation on the upright action, and you can tell. Would love to have one, but my little Baldwin is surprisingly good.

Interesting factoid... when I practice piano — whether Chopin, Bach, Beethoven Skriabin, etc. or a Real Book — I would rather play even my Baldwin studio upright than the best Ivory piano I own on my Kurzweil 2600. But when I play for a recording or for someone in the room, I prefer the latter. Not sure why that is. The real action is just better for learning and exercising the fingers, even though I get a better sound out of Ivory.

I understand about upright sound in a recording; I just wish there could be a grand in every household. Grand pianos are such marvelous instruments.

Shoosh

[musicman691]

FYI, I prefer the sound of a grand and am very happy with Ivory II's Steinway grand However, there are applications where a grand sounds TOO good, particularly in some of the current stripped-down pop stuff where the slightly clangorous tone of an upright is right at home.

Or the brightness of a Yamaha grand

I love Yamaha Grands. Especially the Disklavier 7'. Well regulated, of course.

Yamaha uprights are probably the best uprights I ever played. Yamaha did a lot of innovation on the upright action, and you can tell. Would love to have one, but my little Baldwin is surprisingly good.

Interesting factoid... when I practice piano — whether Chopin, Bach, Beethoven Skriabin, etc. or a Real Book — I would rather play even my Baldwin studio upright than the best Ivory piano I own on my Kurzweil 2600. But when I play for a recording or for someone in the room, I prefer the latter. Not sure why that is. The real action is just better for learning and exercising the fingers, even though I get a better sound out of Ivory.

I understand about upright sound in a recording; I just wish there could be a grand in every household. Grand pianos are such marvelous instruments.

Shoosh

Oh man you just hit another soft spot in my heart and something I've been looking for a s/w library of - a Baldwin piano. Early on Billy Joel used one and I've been trying to capture that sound. Not sure but I think he's using Steinways now.

[Shooshie]

Oh man you just hit another soft spot in my heart and something I've been looking for a s/w library of - a Baldwin piano. Early on Billy Joel used one and I've been trying to capture that sound. Not sure but I think he's using Steinways now.

Well, if you've got a Steinway, I'll trade you! Or a Yamaha. My Baldwin is a cheap upright. I have to say, though, that it holds a tuning better than any upright I've owned, which isn't saying much considering that the previous ones ended up in the junkyard. And it has a good action. Very even, very responsive. I think that's interesting, too, because it's a simplified action. I don't know exactly what they did, but one look and you can see that it doesn't have all the parts that are in a Yamaha or other good upright. Baldwin has always been the rock-n-roll piano, but I don't know if that applies to uprights or not. I own this piano because of space limitations, not choice. It's a full-sized keyboard, but the cabinet is very streamlined and small. A neighbor had it and was selling it at the very time that my previous upright was falling apart. I bought it for a whopping $65, rolled it down the street and into my driveway, and got it in the house in about 15 minutes, total. I tune it every year, an it's amazing how well it holds its pitch. Nevertheless, I've got "grand fever." I can't stand my piano because it's not a freakin' grand! I'd settle for a battered Steinway 7 footer out of a practice room if I could get it.

Shooshie