favourite piano vst ( libary )

[sleep1979]

I only have xln audio upright piano which is nice and I got it free from focusrite , ( its very nice to my ears I can make it soft bright etc , I also have the id8 ones in reason I don't use them ( I have intro so no radical piano ) I got the free spitfire labs piano which sounds nice but some of the samples play short I think , so the question is all these more expansive library's , that cost way more than what I got are they worth it ?
like native instruents spitfire etc the waves piano is always cheap how good is that etc and what's your favourite piano vst or rack for that matter cheers peeps

[jayhosking]

I'm currently quite fond of the XLN pianos, using both the upright and the grand. They have a lot of flexibility and I generally like the tone of them.

The Waves grand rhapsody is fine. I don't find it very much fun to use the GUI but simply playing it feels alright. That said, it competes in some ways with the XLN grand, so I don't really reach for it since I got Addictive Keys.

I can't speak on the NI pianos, but I'm sure someone else can.

The Arturia pianos in the V Collection really aren't my thing. They sit pretty well in a mix but have an artificial thing to my ears. That said, there are other members of this board who seem to love them.

The Reason Pianos refill, especially the upright, continues to be a piano I reach for.

But more than any others, I love the tone, the response, and the predictable unpredictability of the Emotional Piano RE. Despite having access to some pristine and beautiful pianos, I continue to sit down and just play Emotional Piano.

Hope that helps.

[sleep1979]

I'm currently quite fond of the XLN pianos, using both the upright and the grand. They have a lot of flexibility and I generally like the tone of them.

The Waves grand rhapsody is fine. I don't find it very much fun to use the GUI but simply playing it feels alright. That said, it competes in some ways with the XLN grand, so I don't really reach for it since I got Addictive Keys.

I can't speak on the NI pianos, but I'm sure someone else can.

The Arturia pianos in the V Collection really aren't my thing. They sit pretty well in a mix but have an artificial thing to my ears. That said, there are other members of this board who seem to love them.

The Reason Pianos refill, especially the upright, continues to be a piano I reach for.

But more than any others, I love the tone, the response, and the predictable unpredictability of the Emotional Piano RE. Despite having access to some pristine and beautiful pianos, I continue to sit down and just play Emotional Piano.

Hope that helps.

i made a soft tone with xln audio upright , that re was on offer for a while its got a bit more expensive now i did like it when i tried it emotial piano that is

[sleep1979]

I love my xln audio upright tbh focusrite gave me a code to choose one and I went for that as I like the sound of an upright more than a grand piano

[Steedus]

I'm very much an amateur in every way, but I picked up the Waves Grand Rhapsody Piano for $29 during their regular sales and found it to be quite nice in certain situations. It has a formant adjustment which can produce some very nice soft/muted sounding pianos (my personal favourite kind). Similar to Radical Pianos' Character knob but seems to affect the sound more. I also have XLN Upright

[sleep1979]

the only thing i dont know is are there more expensive libarys better than xln audios upright ? i mean on my digital piano the onboard sound is crap ( chase piano got it for 100 so i use xln when i play ) all these ni pianos and spitfire audio are they better ? , xln is normally about 80 quid which seems cheap compared to others ( i got mine free which was amazing) i disregard ones that use kontakt full and not player ( because i'm not interested in kontakt ( too pricey ) i'm happy with my xln , that spitfire audio free soft piano wasnt better for me and niether is reasons idb (which comes from reason pianos apparently according to selig i noticed the sim myself after playing a friends reason pianos next to it , so who has one of them big libarys like hans zimmer piano or olafur arnalds piano or ni pianos are they any better than xln just interested in knowing is all cheers

[sleep1979]

I'm very much an amateur in every way, but I picked up the Waves Grand Rhapsody Piano for $29 during their regular sales and found it to be quite nice in certain situations. It has a formant adjustment which can produce some very nice soft/muted sounding pianos (my personal favourite kind). Similar to Radical Pianos' Character knob but seems to affect the sound more. I also have XLN Upright

i can make my xln soft by turning the knobs to soft and the tone all the way left

[AzureEyes]

Arturia Piano V2
NI The Giant
Spectrasonics Keyscape


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[ljekio]

Best Service: Galaxy series
FAZIOLI Grand Piano
Prepared Piano

[jimmyklane]

Arturia Piano V2
NI The Giant
Spectrasonics Keyscape


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I disagree with your first one. Arturia Piano is awful, IMO.

OP, have you thought of using a refill? Reason Pianos is older but the three pianos (a Steinway and a Yamaha Grand as well as a Steinway upright) have multiple mic selections and room tones, as well as built in combinators that make for very easy tweaking.

I’ve owned it for years, and as I own a piano and have played for many years, I feel good about recommending them to you. They sound great!

[QVprod]

Arturia Piano V2
NI The Giant
Spectrasonics Keyscape


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I disagree with your first one. Arturia Piano is awful, IMO.

Have you tried V2? the first version was awful but V2 actually sounds pretty good for a modeled piano.

[QVprod]

The NI pianos from the Definitive Piano Collection are pretty good and very tweakable. They don't give you mic positions per se but you can tweak enough individual components. I also have the Addictive keys grand. Those are what I use most. I have the Waves Grand Rhapsody and it's good but it's just so large in size that I don't bother using it. There are other as well such as UVI Grand Piano collection and Arturia Piano V2 but I prefer sampled pianos over modeled ones and the UVI stuff is just too limited in what can be tweaked.

the only thing i dont know is are there more expensive libarys better than xln audios upright ? i mean on my digital piano the onboard sound is crap ( chase piano got it for 100 so i use xln when i play ) all these ni pianos and spitfire audio are they better ? , xln is normally about 80 quid which seems cheap compared to others ( i got mine free which was amazing) i disregard ones that use kontakt full and not player ( because i'm not interested in kontakt ( too pricey ) i'm happy with my xln , that spitfire audio free soft piano wasnt better for me and niether is reasons idb (which comes from reason pianos apparently according to selig i noticed the sim myself after playing a friends reason pianos next to it , so who has one of them big libarys like hans zimmer piano or olafur arnalds piano or ni pianos are they any better than xln just interested in knowing is all cheers

The thing about Piano sounds is that more expensive does not necessarily mean better. Especially if you're not doing solo piano music. The Han Zimmer Piano is probably overkill for most people (16 different mic positions) and it's price is probably also marked up because of Hans Zimmer's name. The question for you really is does the piano you have suit your needs? If so then you don't need anything else. On the other hand if you want different flavors of piano sound (as different acoustic pianos do sound different) then you buy libraries that have the sound you want.

[sleep1979]

The NI pianos from the Definitive Piano Collection are pretty good and very tweakable. They don't give you mic positions per se but you can tweak enough individual components. I also have the Addictive keys grand. Those are what I use most. I have the Waves Grand Rhapsody and it's good but it's just so large in size that I don't bother using it. There are other as well such as UVI Grand Piano collection and Arturia Piano V2 but I prefer sampled pianos over modeled ones and the UVI stuff is just too limited in what can be tweaked.

the only thing i dont know is are there more expensive libarys better than xln audios upright ? i mean on my digital piano the onboard sound is crap ( chase piano got it for 100 so i use xln when i play ) all these ni pianos and spitfire audio are they better ? , xln is normally about 80 quid which seems cheap compared to others ( i got mine free which was amazing) i disregard ones that use kontakt full and not player ( because i'm not interested in kontakt ( too pricey ) i'm happy with my xln , that spitfire audio free soft piano wasnt better for me and niether is reasons idb (which comes from reason pianos apparently according to selig i noticed the sim myself after playing a friends reason pianos next to it , so who has one of them big libarys like hans zimmer piano or olafur arnalds piano or ni pianos are they any better than xln just interested in knowing is all cheers

The thing about Piano sounds is that more expensive does not necessarily mean better. Especially if you're not doing solo piano music. The Han Zimmer Piano is probably overkill for most people (16 different mic positions) and it's price is probably also marked up because of Hans Zimmer's name. The question for you really is does the piano you have suit your needs? If so then you don't need anything else. On the other hand if you want different flavors of piano sound (as different acoustic pianos do sound different) then you buy libraries that have the sound you want.

think u hit it on the head i dont like the basic sound of the xln audio upright as it is but the tone and brightness is tweakable and i can save many presets , so that piano is the only one i need and use , which is why i'll keep the labs strings but uninstall thier piano xln audio is like a load of different pianos for me aside from rhodes digitals i have a few of them cheers

[jimmyklane]

I disagree with your first one. Arturia Piano is awful, IMO.

Have you tried V2? the first version was awful but V2 actually sounds pretty good for a modeled piano.

Actually, no I’ve never tried V2, but I have always sort of assumed that Arturia doesn’t change much.... admittedly I’ve never compared V1 to V6...so I’m perhaps not being fair to Arturia.

[hurricane]

Have you tried V2? the first version was awful but V2 actually sounds pretty good for a modeled piano.

Actually, no I’ve never tried V2, but I have always sort of assumed that Arturia doesn’t change much.... admittedly I’ve never compared V1 to V6...so I’m perhaps not being fair to Arturia.

Yeah, Piano V was not good, but Piano V2 is a whole different beast. It almost seemed like an afterthought - "oh yeah in addition to the 4 new synths we also kinda sorta updated Piano V to Piano V2 and it sounds way betterer."

Piano V2 is my 2nd favorite piano after Garritan CFX - I even like it more than Pianoteq.

[WasteLand]

arturia piano v2 is much improved, is very playable and the sound is very impressive. and the tweaks you can make, not that many, but enought to make crazy piano sounds.

the dynamic is improved.

[groggy1]

I like Pianoteq the best - but, like Arturia V2, you have to be OK with physical modelling rather than mega-piano-sample.

For mega-piano-sample, I still haven't found one that I like. I feel like the samples sound *great* when you play a single note or chord. But as soon as you start playing a piece, it just feels fake to me. E.g. I love Spectrasonics in-general, but the Yamaha grand piano in Spectrasonics Keyscape sounds totally fake to me once you're playing a real piece. (individual notes sound great, in isolation). In-fact, in Keyscape, I like a lot of the *other* patches (like the electric pianos), but just don't feel the Yamaha Grand sounds great.

I've tried a few other mega-piano-samples, and just was never happy with them