With Augmented Piano, UVI has delivered a Piano with a massive collection of prepared articulations, some I have never heard in a software instrument. The 24 articulations and FX allow for some great customization while the 164 presets give composers a great starting point at hearing just what this library has to offer.

At the time of posting Augmented Piano was on special intro price of $99 from
UVI: http://bit.ly/_UVI_
It normally sells for $149.00.

Demos and official videos of Augmented Piano by UVI here: http://bit.ly/2HDSRQ3

 

It seems like a helluva toolkit for everything under the sun piano, from non-phasy sounding traditional piano samples to a plethora of sound effects that might, had this been available in his day, turn Edgar Allen Poe from a writer into a film sound track composer.

 

The bells and whistles of this compilation of 0's and 1's is interesting but completely unnecessary...but maybe they figure $149.00 or even $99 is a stretch for a decent straight piano. My feeling is, really, what's the point? A fucking Ebow on a piano string? I spent plenty of time in a real recording studio and we fucked with the grand piano probably .001% of the time. How many of those experiments ended up on a track...0%. The guy spends the majority of the demo on the "augmented" aspects of the software so I assume that's the major selling point. If I felt I needed those kind of sounds they can be had with strings and stuff I already have. When this comes around to Audio wareZ I'll probably give it a run but not for the plunks and things but because I liked how the piano sounded.

 

Imho, the topic is really interesting, and there's no good quality prepared piano in the sample library market, the best one was produced by 8dio. Ircam made another one, but it was not so great. I don't want to be rude, but when I listen to the demo, this one seems the worst ever made. So disappointed, so many great things could be done with this thematic. Maybe next time!

 

Of course there are good quality prepared pianos in the market, just check Soniccouture Extended Piano, Sound Label Piano Attack and Big Fish Audio John Cage Prepared Piano.

 

Still haven't heard anything better than Soundiron's Emotional Piano. Keyscape's C7 grand comes really close. This sounds horrible though.