Virtual Piano

[davewalton]

I have done some research on the Quantum Leap Pianos and they sound amazing as well. Considering my system below, does anyone think the East West Quantum Leap Pianos would be too demanding, systems wise, for my set up?

27" imac, 8gb ram, 1tb, 2.93 ghz quad core, Duet, SG Pro X 88-key piano/controller, Motu Fastlane, Logic Express 9

You basically have the same specs as I have (in a PC) and it's no problem running the QL Pianos. As a matter of fact, I can use all three mic positions (getting a nice blend between the three) with no problems. That includes using other VI's as well although not too heavily. Personally I *really* like the QL Pianos.

[musicliner]

Before you spend some serious money on other stuff, check SampleTank's library called Piano Collection 2.

Currently is on sale for $10 (yes, that's correct - ten bucks).

I have posted several examples on my blog:
http://georgesolo.com/2011/11/want-some ... lection-2/

and that's just a fraction of sounds you get ( around 680 MB in total). Very inspiring.

Cheers,
George

[matto]

While 10 bucks is indeed a bargain, it should be pointed out that the Sampletank piano collection isn't anywhere near today's "state of the art" of piano samples represented by pianos like Ivory II, Sampletekk, EW Pianos, Alicia's Keys, Sound Iron's Emotional Grand or 8Dio's Legacy Steinway (the latter 2 of which would be at the top of my list if I were looking for superb pianos right now) - and I'm sure I'm forgetting some...

That's not to say good music can't be made with the ST Pianos, it's just that when you compare the best ST Pianos which pretty much any one of the aforementined companies' offerings, the difference will be quite staggering...it's really a whole different dimension.

If you use a reasonable amount of piano in your music, investing in a few quality pianos is well worth it...which one is "the best" is largely down to personal preference so make sure you spend plenty of time comparing demos.

I own 7CG, Black Grand, White Grand, Emperor and Old Lady from Sampletekk and all of the NI K8 Pianos (Vienna, Uprights, Berlin, New York, Alicia's Keys and the Kontakt 5 stock pianos and have used all of them at one time or another (my most used ones being Black Grand and 7CG)...and I'm seriously considering Emotional Grand and/or Legacy Steinway...

I personally wouldn't consider EW Pianos because I dislike the Play engine and only load it for those libraries where there are no real alternatives, and in the world of pianos there are plenty. But that's just a personal preference.

matto

[mazz]

Emotional Piano is really great, IMO as is Cinesamples' new "Piano In Blue" which is the piano that was in the famous studio in New York where Kind of Blue and countless other classic recordings were made. I just used Piano In Blue on a "sad, emotional" piece and it's mellowness and warmth really captured the vibe I was looking for. I've use Emotional Piano on several pieces where it is used to play melodic or arpeggiated things in conjunction with orchestral sounds or moody electronics and it works really well for that and even for some exposed stuff it's performed excellently.

IMO EP and Piano in Blue are good if you already have an "all around" piano library already because they tend to be slanted towards a certain vibe and aren't as versatile as something like Sampletekk 7CG (which is another of my go to pianos).

I've enjoyed the pianos that come in Komplete 8. I don't have the super high end version of that collection so I can't speak to Alicia's Keys but I have enjoyed the New York Grand and the Upright Piano libraries.

I'm with Matto on the EW stuff, I only load Play if one of the libraries that I have has a sound I absolutely need (like the Django guitar in Gypsy!!). I think the "brute force" method that EW uses is a valid method but it's just really resource heavy. EW pianos would probably be nice for solo piano stuff and very exposed parts, but IMO the other libraries that have been mentioned would do a great job on pieces where the piano is "in the mix".

Yet another opinion!!!

Happy Shopping!

Mazz

PS: If you have Omnisphere, check out the moody pianos in there as well. I've used the plain vanilla moody piano soaked in 'verb on several things. Again, for that vibe, it's really evocative and effective.

[Mark Kaufman]

I thought they had finally smoothed out that Play engine. Guess not. Great sounds, always...but I've always had trouble with Play.

[mazz]

I think it's smoothed out, but it's still a bit of a hog and nowhere near as easy to use or flexible as other things out there. Strictly as a player, once things get loaded up it's pretty OK, but it's a closed system so there's no third party development as incentive to improve the product beyond the scope of their products. I guess as much as I love some of EW's sounds, I'm nowhere near the fanboy I was at the beginning when I bought the Platinum library for Kontakt. I had high hopes for Play and bought Gypsy almost the day it was released and liked a lot of the sounds in it but was constantly frustrated by trying to get the Play software to behave. Kind of left a funky taste in my mouth I suppose.

[mojobone]

BTW, the previously posted link for CVPiano is busted. This one still works: http://www.vst4you.com/pages/vst%20inst ... piano.html

[matto]

I thought they had finally smoothed out that Play engine. Guess not. Great sounds, always...but I've always had trouble with Play.

It has certainly come a long way in the years since it was first released, when, as many were joking, it would have been more appropriately called "Stop"
So far it's been working pretty well for me under 64bits the few times I've loaded it up.

To my mind (and I'm certainly not in the minority among professional composers) it's just not a very elegant system. Having to constantly switch back between a "browser" and a "player', not seeing what's loaded at a glance, the lack of a proper buss architecture for the fx, inability to see what's going on "under the hood"...these are just a few of the things that slow me down and/or eat up unnecessary resources.

In my new orchestral template, I'm running 18 fully loaded instances of Kontakt 5 on a single i7 Slave computer and so far I'm having no problems. I can't imagine doing this with Play...this is despite the fact that K5's scripting engine is much more sophisticated...and heavily utilized by LASS 2.

To me K5 just seems a lot more efficient and user friendly. By comparison Play is like a high maintenace girlfriend...very pretty to look at but always kind of a pain in the neck...

I also agree with mazz that one of the reasons Kontakt is so sophisticated is that the 3rd party developers are pushing NI to ever greater programming heights...in a sense you have a whole community of developers (and power users) helping NI figure out how to make the software better and better...which is something that's not happening with Play.

[Mark Kaufman]

Having to constantly export a massive MIDI track to audio gets pretty old when you're still trying to compose the dang thing...

[herminga123]

I thought they had finally smoothed out that Play engine. Guess not. Great sounds, always...but I've always had trouble with Play.

It has certainly come a long way in the years since it was first released, when, as many were joking, it would have been more appropriately called "Stop"
So far it's been working pretty well for me under 64bits the few times I've loaded it up.

To my mind (and I'm certainly not in the minority among professional composers) it's just not a very elegant system. Having to constantly switch back between a "browser" and a "player', not seeing what's loaded at a glance, the lack of a proper buss architecture for the fx, inability to see what's going on "under the hood"...these are just a few of the things that slow me down and/or eat up unnecessary resources.

In my new orchestral template, I'm running 18 fully loaded instances of Kontakt 5 on a single i7 Slave computer and so far I'm having no problems. I can't imagine doing this with Play...this is despite the fact that K5's scripting engine is much more sophisticated...and heavily utilized by LASS 2.

To me K5 just seems a lot more efficient and user friendly. By comparison Play is like a high maintenace girlfriend...very pretty to look at but always kind of a pain in the neck...

I also agree with mazz that one of the reasons Kontakt is so sophisticated is that the 3rd party developers are pushing NI to ever greater programming heights...in a sense you have a whole community of developers (and power users) helping NI figure out how to make the software better and better...which is something that's not happening with Play.

I am SUCH a newby that I don't even know what you guys are talking about when referencing the "play engine." Are you referring to the interface?