Alicia Keys is actually 6.98 GB once unpacked and installed, and mind the fact it sounds a bit softer than other piano libraries out there. 8Dio 1928 Steinway Legacy Scoring Piano is 11.2 GB, so I guess out of the scope of your question. If I were to suggest something, go for The Giant - 4 GB and sounds great, with lots of air and clarity - great sound on lower keys!

 

Thanks, but this question is from 2013 today there is a lot of libraries of many kinds... And I upgraded my pc with 2TB disks so I have no problems with space.

 

Still loving and I most playing with Malmsjo Grand Piano (GIGA)

 

anyone try una corda - how do you like it?

 

8 Dio yes, but the 1969 Legacy Steinway. and exactly 4.90 g.

 

Una Corda is an excellent library, but very experimental.

 

There are a few that, under certain conditions (Kawai VPC1 controller and LCD open back earphones) can fool even great pianists. Hammersmith is my favorite to play and listen to among them. With a nice covolution reverb and an exiter to bring out the right amount of overtones it is as enjoyable to listen to as almost any recording made. With LCD open earphones that is. Playing it on Kawai VPC1 with a fine tweaked response curve corresponding to the piece/part you are playing is almost like playing the real thing.

 

I worked a lot with Roland's Piano 1d, from xp50 onwards, that was on virtually all their subsequent synths. On mixes, Piano 3 from their early 90's 16bit synths, it had that sparkle that could cut through thick orchestrations. I recently found Acoustica's Pianissimo and it sounds absolutely great. Very inspiring, I like it better than The Grand2 from Steinberg. And it's just under 300MB. Synthogy Ivory's Italian Gee sounds really great, but it's an elephant, memory wise. A great piano needs at least 24/96 pcm to be correctly heard. And a super clean sound system. Not every music lover has them. Most people use cd's, mp3's, mp4's, flac's, etc. Low quality. So, being more pragmatic pays off. I'd get a Pianissimo every time, it sounds good even for classically trained pianists. More than that... it would be art for the sake of art. Which is always nice, of course.
I think a very good midi keyboard, comfortable and expressive, is just as important as the piano library itself.

 

Last edited: Sep 20, 2016

Nice thanks, yes wasn't sure if it can do "normal" duties also, thanks!

 

I used 'Alicia's Keys'. It's good sounding but it's a signature sound not a "free" sound. I go for NI The Grandeur and NI The Gentleman. Both have snapshot presets for different uses. Additionally I use Spitfire's Feld Piano and Dream Piano by DAT. Both have a cinematic touch.

 

like gracia

 

I could not agree with you more in that it is depending on individual taste and type of music for which you intend to use it.

 

NI's old Akoustik Piano library sounds pretty good (and is a relatively small library). The piano library included with PT 12 also isn't bad. I have the new Waves Grand Rhapsody HD, which at least theoretically sounds pretty detailed, but I'm noticing some weird "shimmy" on the release samples, almost like a tremolo. I thought it might be that the library might need to be defragmented, even though it's on a SSD, but I defragged the drive and still hear the same choppiness on the release samples and decays. I'll be updating Waves shortly to see if it's just a glitch in the VI itself.

 

Can't stand these, same with Vienna and New York grands - they just feel like 80s sample keyboards, playing a M1 or something

Definitely! AIR Mini Grand is great, used to be my go-to for quick sketches, now I've realized there are better ones and I use them, but not a bad option

Can't stand the poppy compressed sound with crazy forward mids, just feels like listening to someone playing Nexus instead of feeling like sitting in front of a piano. I very much enjoy NI Gentleman, Grandeur, as well as Bechstein, all Kontakt.

 

even after all these years, still haven't found a piano as good as East West Quantum Leap Piano.

 

berlin motherfuckers

 

Signed up here to answer your question:

This is my go to lib, it's by far the most responsive lib i played in my lifetime.
https://www.vilabsaudio.com/Ravenscroft-By-VI-Labs (and it's one sale now)

I also dig the C7 from Spectrasonics keyscape, but that does not come near the 5GB max requested.

 

8DIO 1928, 1969, Keyscape

 

This is a bit of an old thread but since someone already revived it I will add my own input...

I am quite fond of Native Instruments The Grandeur. It only occupies ~4.9 GB and has a nice buttery smooth kind of sound that I look for in a Steinway Model D piano library. I still remember Native Instrument's first foray into piano sample libraries with Akoustik Piano and their new pianos are a vast improvement over those.

Best Service's Galaxy Vintage D (~5.07 GB) would be a close second.

I have both of 8Dio's Steinway piano libraries and both are almost unplayable in my opinion, unless you are willing to go into the midi file and do some heavy editing. The velocities aren't recorded/mapped that well and it feels like it suddenly jumps from pianissimo to forte with no gradation in between. This is more prevalent in the Legacy 1928 Steinway Scoring Piano but is noticeable in both libraries. The 1969 Legacy Piano is too brittle and harsh in my opinion also, it may fit well in a busy pop mix but doesn't have that smooth sound I expect from a Steinway.

I find myself using hard drive clogging monstrosities (48-196GB per library) for piano libraries these days though so very seldom use my smaller sample libraries anymore.

When I get the motivation one of these days I will create a comparison thread where I record some midi files through all of my piano libraries (about a terabyte of them) with all of their microphone perspectives and upload them to SoundCloud so people can hear the differences. It is amazing how even the same model piano can create such different sounding sample libraries