Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 7:57 am
Oh, come now! Cut these poor guys some slack.mhschmieder wrote:Man oh man, they must not be very interested in selling "The Big One", if that's the best they can do with the demos! Size isn't everything. I find the demos extremely unmusical sounding, and quite grating on the ears. The notes do not interrelate at all, and the timbre is quite harsh (even for a Bosendorfer).
They're not Rubinsteins! If you skip down to the Beethoven and the jazz and boogie numbers, the demos are a little better. Or go to a different piano page and listen to some of those. The playing of the Chopin Etude with practically no pedal admittedly comes off as a bad idea as performed, but at least you do get to hear the difference between wet and dry, which I think is their purpose. But I have to agree with you that the demos are not up to par. Nevertheless, I find it hard to believe that as critical as you are of all the sampled pianos out there -- including the best ones available -- that the PianoTeq instrument passes muster. With all its beautiful models and extensive controls, it still falls short of sounding like a grand in your living room (or concert hall, or anywhere else). I mean, at some point we have to admit that we are listening within a certain context and that the context is not the same as hearing a real piano in any venue. No Piano VI is probably ever going to give anyone exactly what they're looking for, if for no other reason than the fact that they have to be reproduced by a moving wire coil and speaker cone instead of real strings and hammers, but they come close. The best of Ivory sound like some of the best recordings of pianos, which is what we're using them for anyway. It occurred to me that your speakers/headphones may be contributing to the picture you're getting of these pianos. That may be why we hear these so differently. I can run mine through 3 different speaker sets, as well as headphones, and the experience is quite different for each. Or it may be related to other audio-chain issues. At some point you have to accept the state of the art, be what it may, and move on.
I really can't judge the SampleTekk instruments unless I try them myself, and I don't know if I'm going to feel like biting off that big a chunk just for curiosity's sake. But I do have Ivory and Akoustik Piano, and I think it's safe to say that the state of the art revolves somewhere around that vicinity. It may not be exactly like having a $50,000 grand in your living room, but for my purposes the difference is splitting hairs, and the reward for accepting the small imperfections is a savings of about $49,500. That's a deal with which I can live!
Shooshie