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Recommendation for a decent piano sample set/plugin?

Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2012 10:46 pm
by Mage2k
Hi folks,

I've recently ordered a Yamaha KX8 that I intend to use for learning to play piano and keyboard (I'll be taking lessons). As it's strictly a midi controller I'm now going to be looking for a solid piano sample set or plugin to go with it. It doesn't have to be free. Anyone have any strong recommendations?

Re: Recommendation for a decent piano sample set/plugin?

Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2012 3:02 am
by heisenberg9
Native Instruments Concert Grand which uses the Kontakt engine. Will run out of Live or any other DAW. I have tried the Reason Pianos which obviously run out of Reason. They are OK. The multi micing technique is more of a gimmick. Although there are a few well done "Producer Patches" done up. I haven't tried Pianoteq although their performance videos are pretty convincing.

If you can score an old copy of Native Instruments Komplete 3 or Komplete 4 it has a whole suite of 3 concert grands done up nicely. It contains the Concert Grand sample package mentioned above. The pianos in Live are no comparison to the above mentioned sampled grand pianos.

The pianos in Logic are so so.

BTW, I had a MOTIF XS 8. The Native Instrument Grand Pianos are WAY better than the ones in the Yamaha workstation.

Good luck in your search.

Re: Recommendation for a decent piano sample set/plugin?

Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2012 4:44 am
by gjm
Mage2k wrote: Anyone have any strong recommendations?
Have you looked into the Ableton Partner Instruments? (presuming you want to stay with Live as the host) There are 4 pianos to choose from. I am very happy with mine.

Re: Recommendation for a decent piano sample set/plugin?

Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2012 4:46 am
by jestermgee
If you are into Ableton, the Suite version has some half decent piano instruments. Otherwise I would have to recommend Kontact. If your coin stretches far enough, the Alicia Keys patch package for Kontact is pretty good BUT it consumes huge amounts of ram so it would be hard to fit in other instruments along with it unless you freeze the track

Re: Recommendation for a decent piano sample set/plugin?

Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2012 6:04 am
by Mage2k
Thanks for the recommendations, folks.

I just spent some time listening to the demos of Ableton's Partner Instruments pianos and Native Instruments'. Of the Ableton lot I liked the Studio Grand West Village the most but, damn, I think the NI New York Concert Grande sounds pretty freaking awesome. I listened to some demo samples by Imperfect Samples and they sound damn good, too.

The keyboard doesn't get here until sometime Friday and I'm headed out of town for the weekend with the girlfriend so I won't be pulling the money trigger on anything here before the beginning of next week so if anybody has any other recommendations for me to check out before then let me know!

Re: Recommendation for a decent piano sample set/plugin?

Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2012 6:07 am
by Vios
SOUNDFONTS!

Google "grand piano sound font" etc. Use the SFZ VST player. I have a link to where you can download it from my website, otherwise you can google it. Live can import/play sound fonts, but for some reason the quality is never the same as using SFZ.

This One is pretty good.

I think this is your best free option. It's worth trying before you invest some serious cash in some more software.

Re: Recommendation for a decent piano sample set/plugin?

Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2012 9:35 am
by crumhorn
I have a copy of Ivory Pianos which is brilliant but I generally end up using the Ableton EIC grand piano for the sheer convenience. It sounds fine to my ear.

Re: Recommendation for a decent piano sample set/plugin?

Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2012 10:06 am
by rozling
Imperfect Samples do some nice stuff, erring on the side of pianos with character. I have the Basic version of the Hohner White Baby Grand and it's really nice. I also have Alicia's Keys and can recommend it.

Personally I'd recommend going for something that's compatible with Kontakt as then you're not limited to just using Ableton. Also Kontakt is very configurable in terms of how it caches/streams your samples, in case you do get limited by your hardware.

Re: Recommendation for a decent piano sample set/plugin?

Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 4:20 pm
by illsub1
Galaxy II Vintage Steinway D is awesome!!!

Re: Recommendation for a decent piano sample set/plugin?

Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2012 4:30 pm
by Komodovaran
The Ableton pianos aren't really that good.

Re: Recommendation for a decent piano sample set/plugin?

Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2012 6:51 pm
by akm
Did such research not long ago and found out that it seems that VSL Vienna Imperial is the King Of The Hill, but it is too expensive. The second bestest best piano, much more reasonably priced piano by my opinion is Vintage D from Galaxy Pianos - very realistic, easily tweakable, excellent for all general purpose use (also check other pianos from Galaxy). And the last to mention is a very good piano library from Imperfect Samples, the Fazioli Concert Grand - very beautiful sounding but quite specific, for limited tasks.

Re: Recommendation for a decent piano sample set/plugin?

Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2012 7:21 pm
by redglass
illsub1 wrote:Galaxy II Vintage Steinway D is awesome!!!
Thats my favorite piano too!

Re: Recommendation for a decent piano sample set/plugin?

Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2012 2:04 am
by Mage2k
If anyone's interested, I just decided to go with the Galaxy Vintage D after seeing multiple recommendations for it and, just after playing with it for 30 minutes and still barely able to play a C or Am scale with two hands at the same time, I have to say, Wow!

Re: Recommendation for a decent piano sample set/plugin?

Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2012 4:09 pm
by anybody human
Mage2k wrote:If anyone's interested, I just decided to go with the Galaxy Vintage D after seeing multiple recommendations for it and, just after playing with it for 30 minutes and still barely able to play a C or Am scale with two hands at the same time, I have to say, Wow!
Nice. I'll have to check that out.

I was going to recommend one of the four E-Instruments pianos. I have the Studio Grand East Village and really like it. In case anyone else is interested, here's the Partner Instruments link:

http://www.ableton.com/library/manufact ... nstruments

Re: Recommendation for a decent piano sample set/plugin?

Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2012 6:03 pm
by Saxer
for practising i highly recommend truepianos.

it´s the only piano i know that reacts fast enough to feel like playing a piano.
it contains different piano models, the default loading is "atlantis": don´t use this, it´s too slow also!
the best of the models is "sapphire ped" for my taste. it really feels direct and fresh while playing, much better than spamples.

you can try it for free. other pianos might sound better, but the feeling is the best i know.


http://www.truepianos.com/