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GSi - VB3

 

UVI Ravenscroft seems great, i haven't tried it yet, only heard it in the demos and liked it.
Personally i more than get the job done with The Grandeur (Kontakt).

 

SonicCouture's Hammersmith. It's a motherfather.

 

I love piano in blue from Cinesamples. Almost unusable in any project because of the noise in the samples, with the sustain pedal on it adds up to an insane amount.

That being said it has that smooth tape touch i haven't felt on any other piano. Gives me the feelz when i play it more than any other piano

 

I use Galaxy II Pianos, mainly the Vienna.

 

I am classicaly trained pianist (25 years of playing the piano...and not just one xD), also was a piano teacher for 8 years... also play modern, pop, blues and jazz...now composer for video games.

My go to piano, for playing, working, goofing around, is PEARL (I can't believe it's not mentioned here ...though, I haven't tried the Vienna and VI Labs grands, but demos sound really good), it sounds great, sounds real, and it's a joooooy to play, fat fat fat sound, hate those thin vi pianos. And ofc I hate pianos that doesn't sound and feel real.

For music mix, it depends... Emotional Piano, 8dio 1928 Stainway, PEARL, Piano in Blue (for jazzy music is fantastic...also BigSwing Grand)

I really want to love hammersmith... but it is so stiff sounding, and a bit thin. There is no warmth I'm expecting from it, I guess. And I am trying to use it all the time, always ending picking something else. I mean, all the michrophones, fantastic package, but somehow doesn't work for me :/ And it's funny cause, PEARL is YAMAHA, and I don't really like real yamahas...now, I guess, I love the sound of the real good ones ... and hammersmith is stainway, and real stainys are magic (sry for bla bla blas xD :P)

 

Last edited: Jan 12, 2016

Well, classical pianists have been fighting for years to decide if Japanese pianos (cheaper) could live up to the prestige of a famous German-american brand (über-expensive). The Japanese brand, more advanced in terms of design but less prestigious, changed its piano cords manufacturer to the same German cords as the other famous Piano maker. The result being a piano chosen by great pianists playing at the Chopin competition.

To be short: it's a matter of taste, and specific needs for your song. You may want great low end or singing top end, you may mix it or not, you may need powerful dynamics or not, you may need processed sound or natural or antique, etc...
So, sorry to say that you WILL need a lot of libraries... Different instruments, different recordings, different processings...

 

VI Labs Ravenscroft 275

and almost equal impressive alternative
Garritan CFX Concert Grand

Those two are some of the most realistic sounding, others may sound sweet, epic and emotional with wow effect at first, but most of those are a bit fake in term of realism.

 

At the moment I am loving Native Instruments' The Gentleman. Add a touch of reverb to it and it can sound like it was madeforHans Zimmer scores!

 

I second that !

 

Make that 3. Pretty sweet.

 

classically trained.. and master of the... stain-way ???

 

Favorite acoustic pianos I've tested (all for Kontakt):

- Native Instruments: The Grandeur, The Gentleman, The Maverick, Alicias Keys, The Giant.
- Best Service: Galaxy II Vienna Grand Imperial, Galaxy II Steinway Model D.
- Imperfect Samples: Ebony Concert Grand Complete Edition.
- Impact Soundworks: PEARL Concert Grand.
- 8Dio: 1969 Steinway Legacy Piano.
- Cinesamples: Piano in Blue.
- Soniccouture: The Hammersmith Professional Edition (my favorite).
- Spitfire: Audio Orchestral Grand Piano.

Light, but less sound quality:

- XLN Audio Addictive Keys.
- Toontrack EZkeys.

 

What I like with XLN is the huge sound variety.
They have some really unconventional presets far away from the typical piano sounds.
That's also the case for Galaxy Vintage D, btw.

 

Hahaha, I am a dumbass, am I? xD :P Although, I acually wrote down the name of that brand maybe three times in whole my life,...haha, and every time I made that typo. :D Maybe that's because I never stared at that logo, always acually played the damn thing.

 

indeed you must be a man (or monkey ?) of intense focus.. considering that most of those pianos have the
moniker "STEINWAY" written in large letters just above your fingers.... can i just say...

 

hehe it's "STEINWAY & SONS" ...son ;)

 

You are totally right, especially for production, having a bigger piano pallete is a great advantage. And I didn't know the thing about cords...so, yamaha is using the same cords as steinway? Nice I acually didn't ever think about yamahas as a cheaper ones, just different.

About Chopin competition, I think that in every bigger competition there are at least two brands you can choose from...usually steinway and yamaha, more recently kawais also. They all feel different (Yamahas usually have a bit better playability, steinway greater tone/sound), and it wouldn't be fair for someone who's practising on one brand to suddenly play on another (although, one pianist should be able to change brands easily...still, subtle differences are involed here, and you don't play around with those when the high stakes are in, like in chopin competition, you were practising for that for 6 months minimum).

 

well well.. throw up one of your "pieces" for us sometime son !!!

and no... I'm no talking about your banana...

 

Uff...There are two things to considering...as a keyboard player, and as a producer if you want to say it so!

I tested almost everything, almost! I used piano libraries since the early times of Gigapiano (very good in that time) and, to find the right balance between sound and playibility, the list get down fastest, because everyone is different and the perceptions of what do you want, what do you need, changes totally from, for example, Emotional piano to The grandeur!, but...I don't want to expand all the models than people are guiding you ..except one than it don't makes me feel good never (8Dio 1969) the rest are very useful, but...

With all in mind, sound, playability and one of the most important things, price, no doubt! to me I choose UVI VI labs.The model? you should test it in the demos's, but, I can sure you it's a wonderful sound, a lot of details than really are there, you feel! the sense to play a piano and its price is ridiculous...

As I said, I used many of the pianos related before, but...American grand etc of VI labs gives me the right feel.And the demos always sounds good...but people playing like this one, gives you an idea of overall...

Good luck!