Hi gals and guys,

I am a keyboardist, not really a pianist, but for many years of playing with vst's and trying all major piano librairies I always turn back to my favorite piano software "TruePianos" from 4Front. It has been around for many many years but still the greatest IMO. It is light (588 Mb.), loads fast as stand-alone and sounds great and realistic for a modeled piano software.

The interface is dull but simple. It as six different flavors and many presets. My favorite is the "Diamond Module" with the jazz preset.

I have a 1956 Willis baby grand in my living room but honestly, playing TruePianos with my headpnones in my humble little studio is really inspiring.

I wanted to share my personnal opinion about this great software and would like to ear your comments if you had a chance to try this piano and if you are using it.

And for the skeptics, watch this video from the vendor's web site.

Thanks !

 

Last edited: Jan 15, 2017

Hello.
True Pianos sound good indeed, I used all the versions, one of them is available in a well-known daw. I used that Amber quite a lot.
I also had TheGrand2, beautifully modelled piano. And the giant 40 gb Italian Grand from Synthogy. Which sounded impressive.
But... I found Pianissimo from Acoustica, a few hundred mega vsti, it also comes in a daw, and it is THE piano to play. It feels like a real piano, and sounds incredible. Even with unweighted, spring-mounted keyboards. I highly recommend it.

 

Yes it is included in Cakewalk Sonar since a while with the Amber module.

 

Ravenscroft does it for me. I can't live without true staccato, full sustain, sympathetic res and half pedaling... Ivory used to be my go to, but I can hear the fade outs on release during staccato... Biggest gripe I have with all sampled based libraries are thier lack of a mono source.

 

I like this one

Kawai Ex Grand aka Kawai Ex Pro. Needs Kontakt and eats a lot of RAM but it's worth it. Sounds really natural in my opinion.

 

Thanks for the info on TruePianos. I thought it was just me that thought it sounded really good, and in all honesty the vst is rather small in comparison to others. Kind of makes me scratch my head of how it can sound so good to be so small.

 

Jesus. What's the deal with that grown ass man trying to look like a 5yo lol????

 

C. Bechstein is still killing the others for me. 8Dio 1928 for ambient/emotional. AIR Mini Grand for sketches.

 

the bechtein sounds great, thanks!
still like the Alicia keys yamaha from ni.

 

Actually, I used to love Alicia's Keys but now I see how different options are often better. From NI, I like The Giant for ultra bright and massive piano, as well as Grandeur for general piano playing. Grandeur was my goto for a while. But yeah... didn't see a good competitor for the Bechstein - that realistic damper noise after you release the sustain pedal is something I've yet to see in other libraries. It's quite heavy though - about 20 gigs and huge maximum polyphony (set to 5000) means all the strings keep resonating, but it really taxes your HDD. To the point of "with a bigger session, even my SSD struggles"

 

+1 for Bechstein, my go-to right now, just beautiful, sits in my template along with HZ and Pearl (love these also... and some others).
TruePianos was the first library I ever tried, didn't last long though. I don't like modeled pianos, they sound nothing like real pianos. I practiced a lot during my studies on Yamaha Clavinova which is also modeled...really don't like those either.

Yes, modeled pianos are very playable, balanced response, every key the same as others, it's easier...but man, real pianos are NOT that playable at all. Even the best ones have their-own quirks, but they have greater dynamic nuances, greater expression, tone, etc. Modeled pianos are simply fake in sound and touch, but ofc some people like that, and that's fine.

 

I still haven't found a go to piano that I can live with. I find that the Bechstein that is my Kontakt library is ok, and I have been toying with Cinematic Studio's piano a few times and am trying to aclimate my ear to it's sound.. Modeled pianos sink my boat as they just don't have the realism thing down yet but have gotten better since I tried TruePianos years and years ago. Most libraries that I have heard or played have had a decent higher register but give it away as the notes start to vibrate slower and slower. The sound to my sensibilities begins to audibly become phasey, nasal and buzzy. I have a piano that is close to a hundred years old and the mechanics are jangly, loose and I don't particularly enjoy it's sound. I just have it so that it is accessible to my daughter so she can bang from time to time when it suits her as it is in eyesight from different rooms in the apartment. She uses it for mostly as a music stand for her violin practice books, but every once in a while creates interesting chord progressions. I would never use it to record with though I have composed a bunch of songs on it.

 

I'm in pop stuff and XLN additive keys gives me all i need

 

I have tried the XLN Addictive Keys also and found the upright to be ok. I was spoiled for a year to have been able to play a beautiful mid 1980's black Yamaha C3 grand that was perfectly placed in a 1200 sq.foot room with marble floors, a 20 foot ceiling with 2 walls of 15ft glass windows overlooking a big old swimming pool. Everything else so far falls short of my expectations. There however was a piano in a "brokestube" near me that had a super duper super sweet sweet sound and that was played the shit out of with keys that were scalloped from decades of being twinkled. I should have jumped all over it and would have if I was younger and more impulsive. My wife would have been a bit upset so I thought better of it. I still think about it 8 years later every time I play a piano or a piano library version. 1200 Swiss Francs was too streep at the time. Dreaming about it takes me half way there. At university there was this humongus old Borsendorfer concert grand in an auditorium that I would play. I bribed the janitor with Johnny Walker Red and had access when I wanted. It sounded dark and mysterious. The action however was so stiff that my forearms became rock hard from the workouts and my hands would absolutely ache after like 20 minutes. It was a piano for Stevie Ray Vaughn Liberaci I guess.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Jan 16, 2017

For Sampled libraries I LOVE Mercury which is the absolute best to date, a Fazioli that sits in a recording studio in London that used to belong to Freddie Mercury, but for a more computer friendly practice piano i like Pianoteq, they have a physical modeled Piano that plays like the real deal

 

I love spacey pianos so I have to say The Gentleman by NI.
Back in high school it was the A Grand Piano preset in NNXT with RV7000 set to FilmScore.

I have this somewhat old and very cheap Sony GPX 5.1 system that I still sometimes connect to my Komplete 6 with TRS to dual RCA for Main 1/2 out for front and rear, left and right. I plug the center and sub (which has no volume control; on/off only) to the headphone out (insane, I know) which does have independent volume control and set to only 10-15% powerfully drenches the entire signal with low end. Then my monitors to 3/4 out.
I make a circle of speakers on the floor with the sub at my back and monitors a little further out and play the Ambient Space Piano preset in Omnisphere.

Like I said. Spacey.

 

EXACTLY ! I love TRUE PIANOS , best and most stable out there ! So easy to load up and go without the drama of Kontakt.

 

I like your comments and your various experiences. You should write a book man, seriously !

 

I enjoy expressing myself creatively using all media. The only thing as yet I haven't tried tackling is film making. Maybe one day I will begin a novel about a fellow who tries his hand at writing for the big screen. Thanks for your support, safranl5020!

 

I, too, have experimented with many sampled pianos, many Kontakt libraries (Alicia's keys, the Giant, Una Corda etc.), some standalone ones (Addictive Keys etc,) and some vsts. Not willing to load Kontakt all the time, lately I prefer using Air Mini Grand. My first impressions weren't so good, but when I tweaked it, I found the sound I like. I load it in Patchwork, together with MH channel strip using the "piano" EQ preset. A template I use for everyday practice.