I wonder if anyone would look down this list of mostly rather huge acoustic grand libraries of one sort or another in no particular order. I need to thin down my drive space a bit and was wondering people's opinions on which of the following libraries were thought of as lesser quality or maybe redundant. Not taking in to consideration peoples style taste, just choosing the worst quality of these compared to some of the others in general that I could get rid of to gain some drive space and quite frankly to have fewer but better choices for grands. Anyway I would appreciate some opinions before I go hacking away. It is hard for me to delete any of these since they all sound good to me in their own way, however, some sound very much alike and so may be redundant. Thanks!

Vienna Concert Grand
New York Concert Grand
Galaxy Vienna Grand
Galaxy Vintage D
Galaxy German Baby Grand
Bosendorfer 290
Sampletekk Black v1.2
Upright Piano
Sonicouture Xtended Piano
The Maverick
The Grandeur
The Gentleman
Sonicouture Hammersmith
Pearl Concert Grand
The Giant
Alicia’s Keys

8dio Legacy 1928 Steinway Scoring Piano
Acoustic Samples Academic Grand
Braunschweig Upright Piano
Fazioli Ebony Concert Grand
8dio 1969 Legacy Piano
Sampletek Black Grand MkII
Orange Tree Evolution Rosewood Grand
Cinesamples Piano in Blue
Sampletekk TVBO Studio Grand

 

You, also, eh? I'm likewise currently in the process of paring-down my piano libraries - at least those readily-available to Kontakt by my dedicated Firewire drive. You have many more than I have - or, more pro-level libraries. I have almost as many, but half of them are much smaller (Amore Piano or Fluffy Audio My Piano, for example), or free ones (such as the Ivy Audio Piano in 162, which is 6GB in size). In my opinion, the newer Native Instruments pianos (Gentleman, Grandeur, Mavkerick) aren't as good as the previous NI pianos, so I myself am starting with them, even though their wallpapers look great in the Kontakt browser (like matching volumes of books).

That's as far as my opinion goes; what really matters is your own opinion. It would be interesting to read which piano libraries you abandon or keep, and why you do.

My own strategy in selecting among the piano libraries I have accumulated is to select which is most defnitive yet most versatile toward a particular sound or style: lavishly-nuanced concert grand; punchy pop/rock grand; upright; "weathered" upright; antique/baroque/renaissance piano(forte); bowed/struck/"extended" piano(s). Having too many from which to choose seems like a ridiculous bourgeois luxury, but it does waste too much time, and enable too many erroneous selections. I myself might have to devote several hours to "playing through" all the libraries, by category, to come to conclusions.

 

Hi'

I would say to buy another HD because it will come the day and you will be happy to still have all those nice libraries. A HD cost nothing compared to those libraries. That's the best deal in my opinion.

cheers

 

Truthfully it's not just the space. It really is too much choice.

 

Well, some artist like to use the same instrument for his life, (same Guitar, Violine, Trumpet etc..) while other artist like to try different Instruments, So it goes back to Inspiration!

 

It's a long list.....

 

Heh, I had similar list, little smaller, but I needed more space on HDD, so I deleted the ones I used only once etc.

Sonicouture Hammersmith looks very promising, I'm looking forward to try it.

Here is a list of pianos I deleted:
Galaxy Vienna Grand
Galaxy Vintage D
Galaxy German Baby Grand
Bosendorfer 290
All Sampletekk's
Upright Piano
8dio Legacy 1928 Steinway Scoring Piano
Fazioli Ebony Concert Grand - Favourite for some time, but it has annoying noise while playing.
8dio 1969 Legacy Piano

.. And still I don't regret anything

 

I would keep those (for a plethora of reasons):

Galaxy Vienna Grand
Galaxy Vintage D
Galaxy German Baby Grand

Upright Piano

Sonicouture Xtended Piano

The Maverick
The Grandeur
The Gentleman

The Giant
Alicia’s Keys
Orange Tree Evolution Rosewood Grand

Obviously this is my personal choice and actually reflects the pianos inside the drive where I keep the samples I use the most. The only one missing in your list is Acousticsamples Old Black Grand that I would also include.

 

Got most of em too.. but usually ending up using a piano patch in a non sampled lib.. loads faster, more efficiently, and honestly in the mix... well. maybe im deaf but.. sounds just how I want it..

I dont see the sacrifice to benefit ratio of huge sampled piano's.. when some of the modeled ones are bang on.

 

Lisa there's a difference between different instruments and having so many instruments that you can't even make a decision anymore. We are spoiled for choice and that is as constricting at times as it is liberating. My personal opinion and one I've heard repeated many times by people that know what they're talking about.

 

Hi,

I have The Hammersmith from yesterday. I was very excited to test this monstrous piano library (50GB). I spent the evening trying to configure the velocity levels of SC Hammersmith, I have got a graded hammer action Yamaha MIDI keyboard because I'm a pianist. Default velocity settings were far to convince me. After an hour retouching the curve velocity response and EQ I lost the perspective with some sensations so I decided to invite my wife (pianist too) to check it out. In other channel I put my favourite library: The Grandeur (5GB). She didn´t know which piano was playing but she told me exactly what I was thinking: Very far from a true piano feel. While she was playing The Hammersmith I selected the channel of Grandeur, then she smiled, closed her eyes and kept playing. Hammersmith sounds fantastic and mics possibilities are unbelievable. In spite of that, dynamics level control (playability) is not comparable to The Grandeur or Alicia keys, even if you try both pianos in default settings. All new piano libraries are recorded with excellent mics, pianos and environments, however the dynamic behaviour (pp & ff) are the most common weak point of piano libraries because use to be unnatural.

From that list I have tested all and I would save Best Service Galaxy II Complete (Vintage D is excellent), Alicia Keys, The Giant, The Maverick, The Gentleman and of course the fabulous The Grandeur, for me the most piano-feel alike library today.

Cheers

 

Thanks for the replies. very helpful... *yes*

 

Anyone compare Pearl to Hammersmith? (both pretty huge sizes)

 

When I tried Pearl, I noticed that keys C2 - C3 sounds really weird compared to others.. It's like some samples are missing or unloaded.. very unnatural.

Anyone else noticed ? I have 16-bit version.

 

It is impossible for me to say one or the other without establishing some criteria. They're different pianos (C7 and D4) with different qualities.

 

I can't believe it. It seems like they have ridden my comment in this post a few days ago. Today SC has released an update for Hammersmith that improves what I didn't like of this piano, the velocity response of the piano within the low / quiet range of the samples. It works nice!. From now on I add it to the list of my favorite piano libraries!