That's a nice piece there that you wrote. I'm fairly certain that if you played it an octave lower it might just be the sound that my own ears would more enjoy, as well as a little bit slower to be able to bathe in the emotionality of the composition. It feels a bit rushed to me.

 

@Audioguydaz @Trurl
Answers (You need to select the whole text using "ctrl+a" to see it):

Example 1 - (Free) 4Front Piano + Ableton Hybrid Reverb
Example 2 - (Free) 4Front Piano + Ableton Hybrid Reverb (different settings)
Example 3 - (Free) 4Front Piano + Ableton Reverb
Example 4 - (Free) 4Front Piano + (Free) Airwindows Reverb
Example 5 - (Free) 4Front Piano + (Free) Leslie Sanford Reverb
Example 6 - 4Front TruePianos + (Free) Leslie Sanford Reverb
Example 7 - (Free) MDA Piano + (Free) Leslie Sanford Reverb

All of them played from small bluetooth speaker.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Jan 26, 2024

Clip Clop Keys by Poni-Instruments https://www.poni-instruments.com/

 

Pianoteq is lovely to my ears. There are many instruments beyond the stock one. I wouldn't say it sounds the most like a "real" piano because it's so perfect, but it sounds great . . . . next time I record I might throw RC-20 on it.

 

the ear listens

the brain hears....

 

For me, the new SRM Sounds Piano feels like sitting at a real piano in a quiet balanced room. The signal to noise ratio is in completely new territory and it really shows during the long tails of the notes. There are two versions one with a closed top and one open. The mic choices and the simplicity of mixing the options are fantastic in my opinion. The velocity layering and round robin options are what you expect from a Kontakt piano in 2024.

https://srmsounds.com/products/max-richter-piano

 

From what I've heard in demos the VSL pianos sound extremely close to a real piano. Garritan is quite good as well. Pianoteq just seems so cool and is incredible technology. Would love to pick that up someday.

 

The VST's are much easier to move around when vacuuming.

 

There is a feature on Pianoteq v8 that enables users to choose a piano condition from Mint to Worn. It's kinda cool with Worn being a bit Lo-Fi. I think it's a great VST with a small footprint, i.e., no samples. Between that and AAS' Lounge Lizard . . . I have acoustic and electric keys covered with physical modeling.

 

Pianoteq gets some things right that samples really struggle with. But it's missing some kind of... I don't know... glue. There's some overall interaction between the parts they haven't nailed. While I greatly respect what it does I find samples can have vibe and Pianoteq just doesn't.
Except the upright, that piano slays. And the age slider is super cool. The pianos do sound more realistic when not 100% pristine.

 

Is he trolling with the prices?
Also the title is misleading. He is not comparing expensive vs. cheap sound but only guessing the brand name and price.
This is huge difference

 

If you gave me to play a Gibson, a Martin, a Taylor and a Lowden acoustic guitar I could do the same as well as tons of other folks that have played them for any time at all too. They each have a particular sound to them, but the range of price of pianos would, as we have seen, would be a hard guess to anyone.

 

Yes, I know. It helps to make it sound a little bit more acceptable. But still it can't reveal the poor one dimensional mid range and the highs that sound like a toy piano.

 

Embertone Walker 1955 Concert D maybe?
But usually I use piano VSTi/Kontakt from 8Dio that sounds so realistic for my ear.

 

Well that's a feature that is there at least from version 5.
And yes, it renders Pianoteq absolutely undiscernable from a worn out real piano.

I'm not a pro piano player but I played on at least 50 different real pianos, vertical, grands, Yamaha, Kawai, Steinway, Weiss, and I must say that many times it was not a pleasant experience: clunky, noisy, pedal run too long, and even out of tune but this one is a feature that I don't dislike much (actually I like it).

In this respect I can say that modern libraries and virtual pianos coupled with a good weighted keyboard are the best options you can get if you are not a pro with bells and whistles and/or a lot of money of course.
I'll upload some solo example.

This is the right thing to do when you want to test ears (impossible to say if real piano or not), but I can say that while audio examples and quality vsts are not so easy to discern, if you go in a shop and with closed eyes try to recognize real pianos from digital ones, you'll probably get the right answer and this because of the amplification acoustic features of the piano, that in most cases are not so good (in many cases even bad).