Kill me but why not just use free MDA Piano or free 4Front Piano?

With reverb and especially in the mix with other elements how you will be able to distinguish it from the real one?

Answer me or die All of you filthy audiophiles LOL

 

Last edited: Jan 25, 2024

i'm using ravenscroft275 & pianoteq 6 stage. love them both

 

i've owned pianos, I'd rather have a simulation. they never go out of tune for starters..

 

Well, only if you want them to.

 

I agree. The Pianoteq is very responsive as you would expect from a physical model approach, but I am far more moved by the sound of countless other much simpler sampled pianos out there.

As to my take on the best available.. there are so many, the spectrum of quality is broad but I think tends towards being generally excellent these days. The piano, the room and the mics all contribute to the vibe across numerous piano libraries and the most flexible among all these libs are shoulder to shoulder in my opinion .. theres just not that much in it. On the other hand you have more characterful libraries that present a very strong image of a single instrument. And so, depending on what you are trying to do, the character pieces may feel superior simply because they exude, by there very uniqueness, a sense of presence and realness.

I'd add, at the risk of seeming like some kind of philistine, that many lower-memory pianos still cut it in terms of realism and playability. It's simply not necessary to have a piano note sustain for a full three minutes to appear realistic in anything but the most pedantic of tests.

 

Last edited: Jan 24, 2024

A lot of the old Sampletekk pianos hold up today... 4 velocity layers some of them...

 

Yeah, if you put your hands on a particularly special piano.. struck one chord and let it ring out. Thats potentially the connection and love you have for the sound in any number of piano libraries. I guess if you are a concert pianist then other aspects of a library might be more urgent for you.. but for me and the way I play and the music I construct, it's more the sound than the playability that is foremost. Because I'm primarily a programmer of music rather than a fluent musician ( a great player might be merely using tech to record the brilliance of the moment) I'm more focused on how the sound is, the quality of the ensemble of notes struck in a chord.

 

Blind Test
Which one from those examples is the real piano?
7 Examples:










sǝןdɯɐxǝ ǝsoɥʇ uı pǝsn ouɐıd ןɐǝɹ ou sı ǝɹǝɥʇ - ouɐıd ɐpɯ ǝǝɹɟ sı ɥʇuǝʌǝs souɐıdǝnɹʇ sı ɥʇxıs ouɐıd ǝǝɹɟ sı ǝʌıɟ oʇ ʇsɹıɟ :ɹǝʍsuɐ

 

I've never understood people so obnoxiously overconfident about plugins or gear. I get it, you like it, but... without a doubt? Really? Have you extensively tested the hundreds of piano VSTs? No? Then maybe you're not so sure, chief.

Anyway, you can't go wrong with Imperfect Samples. Braunschweig sounds incredible.

 

See, that's the thing... any "real" piano we might hear there is still recorded- it's a sample! So what, in this context, is a "real" piano?

All we're really looking for here is something that subjectively hits all the right buttons for us individually.

 

And even that old Rain Piano on gigasampler was simply beautiful. Okay, it could have done with far more round robins purely because it was so characterful - but we work around those problems. Maybe not the ultimate players piano but if you wanted to create a mood that it spoke to then of course it was a great choice.

 

Real piano in this context of which one is hardware equipment and which one is vst or sample.
Which one sound the best?

 

Who knows... I just gave my phone right now. Maybe later at home

 

To me it sounds like the same piano recorded through different perspectives or possibly the same piano through different IR.

 

Realistic means nothing: every type of piano needs a scenario to be placed. An example: best piano for house is Korg M1, but then try to play Chopin with M1: cops will break into your studio to arrest you

 

It's a good point - right tool for right job. But the OP is asking what piano sounds the most like a real piano so that is pretty clear in terms of criteria ; What piano library/instrument sounds the most like a real, organic piano. Of course theres subjectivity and all that but I think we can agree that it's a reasonable question quite beyond other notions of what might or might not be desirable qualities in a piano sound.

After all, it's what the OP asked.

 

A)they're all the same piano with different processing
B) they're sll shit (no offense)

Is that an M1??

 

Arturia's Piano V + AA Lava + Altiverb is a combination that i like, because i can craft a hundred of different tones from this.

 

I have been playing the piano since I was 5yo: what I immediately understood when I was a child is that no two pianos sound the same. The character of the instrument depends on the type of its structure: half upright full upright, baby grand piano, Concert grand piano. The brand and price of the piano also make a difference, not to mention the room in which the instrument is placed. In short: it is difficult for me to think of the "Reference Sound" of a piano. When I install a new vst I scroll through the presets and, depending on the sound I listen to, I feel like playing in a different mood.
No: in my opinion there is no such thing as a “realistic” piano

 

This is always a headache to find a right piano sound... having a lot of libraries still I couldn't achieve good sound for this piece:

https://on.soundcloud.com/RD9SN