any recommendations on sampled Grand Pianos..?

[tonester]

Ivory.

+1

[cloudsplitter]

Yes....Ivory Italian Grand it is.......that is just to good of a deal to pass up.....not to mention the incredible sound quality....amazing

[Frodo]

Ivory II is on its way next month, if I recall. I'm looking forward to it.

[Dan Worley]

I know it's been mentioned but I thought I'd supply a link. I'm a big fan and wannabe owner of EWQL Pianos. Mmmmm.

http://www.soundsonline.com/product.php ... tid=EW-171

c-ya,

Dan Worley

[cloudsplitter]

Dan...those sound incredible to.......!!!

[danworks]

It really depends which kind of music you're dealing with. Ivory (Steinway version) is great if you use it on small ensemble, like a trio or quartet, or for solo performance. Another great piano, still for small ensemble or solo parts, is the BDMO http://www.proaudiovault.com/index.htm.

On pop-rocks tracks I usually use the White Grand (Sampletekk) or the Steingraber (Akustik Piano - NI), both quite compressed. Their "nasal" characteristic let them to speak out easily in a pop-rock mix.

If you do a lot of writing on a MacBook, PianoTech and TruePianos are the best choices.

At the end I've got many piano libraries cos like other instruments, one is never good enough for everything.

[mhschmieder]

Can one piano do? Not really. I love Pianoteq's flexibility as it covers so much ground, but there are times when I reach for a sampled piano. Ironically, I go against the grain and use sampled pianos sometimes when the piano is in the background, whereas most people do the opposite as they so much want a recognizable piano brand sound for soloed parts.

Recent Pianoteq updates have moved it closer to "recognizable brand" sound vs. simply "a great sounding piano of unknown make". As a result, I am now almost exclusively using it even in cases where I might have used sampled pianos before. the Yamaha YC5 add-on is a case in point, as it just falls into the mix with no work.

Otherwise, I remain curious about the Ivory update, as Fazioli (Italian Grand) already showed a huge leap beyond their original three pianos. And I have a friend who works for them, own a Kurzweil digital keyboard, and have tremendous respect for everyone associated with Kurzweil and its many spin-off companies. They aren't far from MOTU, by the way.

I sometimes use Vienna's Bosendorfer library for orchestral piano, when it isn't soloed. It may just be that it works so well in that context because it is being blended with similarly recorded instruments, so I don't know how well it would work for people who otherwise do not own any of Vienna's libraries. I got it during a huge discount so it was low-risk. Even so, I like its timbre the best of the current Bosendorfer libraries, even if it isn't quite as rich in the velocity layer department as EWQL Pianos and a few others.

Many people swear by the "mix-ready" sounds of the various PMI and Sampletekk pianos. They are definitely affordable, and there's also a lot of praise for Galaxy's pianos, which include a couple of lesser-known makes of piano, giving it a unique quality. I couldn't get musical results from the dumbed-down version of PMI Bosendorfer that comes with EWQL Goliath, but I doubt that's a reflection on the library vs. the "kitchen sink" principle.

[jresende]

+1 Truepianos.
Add one Limiter or Exciter plugin and voilá: a good Piano sound.
I used to use Ivory too , sometimes.
Best wishes!

[zed]

Let's face it. None of the virtual pianos quite cut it.

Having said that, the pianos I use most regularly are the TINY sized pianos that are in my SampleTank collection and eSoundz library. They are not greatly expressive, but many of them have a charm and character that sounds better (to my ears) than most of everything else mentioned so far in this thread.

If you join the latest IK Multimedia Group Buy, you can pick up the Piano Collection for $5. That is a bunch of pianos for $5. They are not all good. Some of them I would never use. But there are a few that are quite useful, and sound closer to what I want to hear than more detailed pianos available elsewhere.

And that's the catch... there are no velocity layers and such. So they might not be for you. They are small and simple, but some of them have nice natural decays and sometimes really sweet room sounds.

I have NI pianos, Ivory, EW piano, Miroslav piano, PSP pianos, and others. And yet I still tend to use my SampleTank pianos (and my MOTIF-Rack pianos) 95% of the time.

If someone would release a detailed piano that actually sounded the way I wanted it to, I would be all over it. Alicia's Keys sounds pretty good... but it is not a sound you could use for everything.

[zed]

I should probably add that I don't play classical or jazz piano. I use it mostly for pop and rock, so that might explain why I am satisfied with less expressive virtual instruments and consider their basic tonal charm to be the most important characteristic.

[Shooshie]

I should probably add that I don't play classical or jazz piano. I use it mostly for pop and rock, so that might explain why I am satisfied with less expressive virtual instruments and consider their basic tonal charm to be the most important characteristic.

Rock? Heck, all you need is a Baldwin sample, then compress the you-know-what out of it!



Shoosh
PS: I spent many years doing rock on Yamaha Disklavier Grands. Pretty darned good sound, if you ask me. Hard to beat having a Disklavier in your studio.

[jresende]

I am recording with one Steinway( full) and I am playing live this month on one
Yamaha 1/4 . The show is Acoustic rock and blues , the Yamaha sounds very good.
At home studio I really like Truepianos and Ivory.
All the best!

[amplidood]

I'm in love with Alicia's Keys. I get more pleasure out of hearing it than anything I've played thus far.

[cloudsplitter]

[quote="amplidood"]I'm in love with Alicia's Keys. I get more pleasure out of hearing it than anything I've played thus far.[/quote]

I haven't listened to the Alicia Keys yet....I am really digging the EWQL pianos though......having said that..I am not a piano player by trade...I mainly want a versatile piano library for musicsions who come here to record...as it is a bitch getting a grand piano up the stairs and through the doorway...!!

[Kubi]

I'm in love with Alicia's Keys. I get more pleasure out of hearing it than anything I've played thus far.

Same here.