# Help me choose a piano library please :3



## LA68 (Oct 10, 2022)

Hey,

Normally I mostly do folk guitar-ish stuff and electronic music, but I've enjoyed just messing around with the piano as a solo instrument lately. I'd like to spend some more time (and money) exploring that.

So, I've been using Mini Grand up until now, and I was actually quite happy with it...But then I got curious and downloaded the Pianoteq demo (still don't know why), and now I feel like something is missing. PT sounds great, there is so much more detail. The problem is that I'm never going to buy it because I do not use anything that requires online activation, so Pianoteq and anything Kontakt is off-limits, which reduces the number of libs to choose from greatly. iLok is okay.

The only thing I really know about my preferences is that I'm generally leaning towards instruments with a bright, clear tone (or what I perceive as such). This seems true for both the guitar as well as the piano for me. Not sure if it helps, but out of the Pianoteq instruments my favorite was the Steingraeber by quite a margin. Anyone aware of anything close to that one?

Have a great day, everybody


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## doctoremmet (Oct 10, 2022)

Maybe try one of the Synthogy pianos?


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## zzz00m (Oct 10, 2022)

Noire for Kontakt. Oops, that's off-limits!

The Sonivox Eighty Eight is the only other one I can recall other than Air Mini Grand that is iLok based. I believe that UVI uses the iLok system as well.

The free 1928 Vintage Grand Steinway from Soundpaint. *Online activation via Soundpaint online downloader.

XLN Audio Addictive Keys. *Online activation via XLN online installer.

Arturia Piano V. *Online activation via Arturia Software Center.

Waves Grand Rhapsody. *Online activation via Waves Central.

*Up to you if you wish to avoid online activation, but that is the way the industry has been headed for some time. That condition will exclude some very good software.


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## bosone (Oct 10, 2022)

what is the problem of online activation? i would suggest NI Noire as well!


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## zzz00m (Oct 10, 2022)

You could take a look at Pianobook, which has some sampled pianos in the free Decent Sampler format.





Pianos – pianobook







www.pianobook.co.uk












Decent Sampler Plugin [FREE] - decent|SAMPLES


A FREE sampling plugin that allows you to play samples in the Decent Sampler format. Available in VST, VST3, AU, AAX, and Standalone for Mac, Windows, Linux, and iOS.




www.decentsamples.com


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## ZeroZero (Oct 10, 2022)

This one has a long free trial and has been half price for a while now. I really recommend it, it's better than PianoTeq (IMO) its a modelled Paino and very expressive. I have used it for practice for over ten years, I cant find anything better and I have tried very hard https://www.truepianos.com/


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## CGR (Oct 10, 2022)

For the type of music you describe, I’d suggest the following:

Production Voices Estate Grand (sforzando version) - a bright and clear piano with 3 mic sets:









Estate Grand for sforzando - Production Voices


The Production Voices' Estate Grand Piano is a beautifully hand-sampled Kawai GS60 6'9" grand piano with three different microphone perspectives including a mono-capatible M/S (mid-side) microphone perspective. It was recorded with care and with only the finest equipment at a country estate in...




www.productionvoices.com




A free/donationware version is available also:​




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Estate Grand LE for sforzando | Production Voices







www.productionvoices.com





Wholesounds Baldwin Parlor Grand (runs in the free UVI workstation). Bright & clear, with 4 mic sets including a close pair, side pair, narrow-image room pair, and a separate mono mic:





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1954 Baldwin Parlor Grand — Whole Sounds







www.wholesounds.com




Both these pianos are smaller grands, which have less of the fundamental frequencies in the bass region that the larger grands have, which can muddy up a mix. They both maintain great clarity in a mix with other instruments, and have plenty of dynamic range to play with.


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## CGR (Oct 10, 2022)

Also, both the sforzando player & UVI workstation player are free, cross platform and stable.


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## glyster (Oct 10, 2022)

I like pianoteq. I have also heard VSL sampled pianos are pretty good. Ilok is also online activation.


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## Cdnalsi (Oct 12, 2022)

Pianoteq. I don't get the online activation thing.


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## GtrString (Oct 12, 2022)

Spitfire Originals, 29£, done.


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## LA68 (Oct 12, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> Maybe try one of the Synthogy pianos?


Thanks for the suggestion. It's quite pricey, but I really like the C7. For now that's the favorite of all the suggestions in this thread.



zzz00m said:


> Noire for Kontakt. Oops, that's off-limits!
> 
> The Sonivox Eighty Eight is the only other one I can recall other than Air Mini Grand that is iLok based. I believe that UVI uses the iLok system as well.
> 
> ...


I'm not sure why you're mocking me. It's a decision I made for myself some time back, I sold the stuff I had (including XLN Audio products and some Kontakt libraries) and moved on. Of course I have a lot less to choose from now, but I didn't complain about that. I'm not trying to convert anyone either.

If "the industry" thinks online activation is the way to go, then so be it. For me it's not acceptable, and the only thing I can do because of that is not give them my money and look for alternatives. 



glyster said:


> I like pianoteq. I have also heard VSL sampled pianos are pretty good. Ilok is also online activation.


I'll check those out, thanks. iLok is different from "normal" online activation though if you use the dongle. Different in a way that I'm okay with. If it was just machine activations, I'd not like it either.



CGR said:


> Wholesounds Baldwin Parlor Grand (runs in the free UVI workstation). Bright & clear, with 4 mic sets including a close pair, side pair, narrow-image room pair, and a separate mono mic:


Thanks a lot for this suggestion. Strange GUI, but it sounds very nice. I also like that the dev offers a demo version. The Estate Grand is also fine, but I prefer this one.


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## CeDur (Oct 12, 2022)

By 'online activation' you mean being online all the time or even one-time being online to activate the product? If I remember correctly even activating Mini Grand requires the latter.

I also like bright pianos.

VI Labs Ravenscroft is pretty bright and licencing is iLok based - not sure you can use dongle though, in my case it was machine based. It's quite expensive, but at least once a year they have some kind of 25% or even 50% off sale.
VSL CFX can be warm or bright, it's super clean and it's one of the most detailed library released. VSL is iLok based, but it's either 100% online or dongle - no machine activation. The most expensive one, but one should expect some sale around end of the year.
Garritan CFX - very well known and highly regarded top piano library. It runs in ARIA engine, another incarnation of free sforzando. Activation is offline.


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## Markrs (Oct 12, 2022)

LA68 said:


> PT sounds great, there is so much more detail. The problem is that I'm never going to buy it because I do not use anything that requires online activation


You can do offline activation with Pianoteq.

"*I have no internet connection on the computer. How do I activate my licence?*

You can perform the following steps yourself unless you have limited knowledge of computers (in that case, please let an experienced person help you): Choose manual activation. The activation program will give you a URL. Note it down and visit the URL using another computer connected to the internet. You will then obtain an activation key. Copy this and save to a file. Transfer the file in some way to your music computer. Open the file, copy the text and paste it into the activation program as instructed."





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Modartt: F.A.Q.







www.modartt.com


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## Markrs (Oct 12, 2022)

zzz00m said:


> Arturia Piano V. *Online activation via Arturia Software Center.


You can do offline activation with Arturia.



https://support.arturia.com/hc/en-us/articles/4405748248594-How-to-activate-on-an-offline-computer-



Arturia V uses Pianoteq engine (possibly the Version 2 or 3) which Arturia has licensed. They have then created their own Piano presets rather than using Pianoteq's.

Also worth noting that I believe you can get Piano V for free via Arturia Labs lite via Soundbetter (sign up with a fake email, then go to member benefits and your will see the code to use with Arturia). The lite version gives you less presets than the full version or Analog Lab, you also have limited parameters to adjust the sound compared to the full version of Arturia Piano V. 









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soundbetter.com


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## Colin66 (Oct 12, 2022)

LA68 said:


> Hey,
> 
> Normally I mostly do folk guitar-ish stuff and electronic music, but I've enjoyed just messing around with the piano as a solo instrument lately. I'd like to spend some more time (and money) exploring that.
> 
> ...


It's a no-brainer. Soundpaint. Free engine. Free piano.
Plus you might like some of the other instruments, the engine allows you to do a lot more with them, other than play them 'as is'. As I say, it's free for the engine and a great piano so literally nothing to lose.








Free Engine v2


TESTING




soundpaint.com


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## LA68 (Oct 12, 2022)

CeDur said:


> By 'online activation' you mean being online all the time or even one-time being online to activate the product? If I remember correctly even activating Mini Grand requires the latter.


Thanks for the reply. My mistake, I should have said it more accurately: I don't use anything that needs to be activated through a Challenge and Response mechanism and is tied to your machine. Not even if it's free, no matter how good.

The reason why I'm somewhat okay with iLok is that once the license is on the dongle, that becomes a non-issue. I wouldn't use it at all if it was only machine activation or Cloud either.

I'll check out your recommendations.


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## zzz00m (Oct 12, 2022)

LA68 said:


> I don't use anything that needs to be activated through a Challenge and Response mechanism and is tied to your machine. Not even if it's free, no matter how good.


As several folks have asked, why?


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## LA68 (Oct 12, 2022)

zzz00m said:


> As several folks have asked, why?


Look, I got some great advice this thread, which I'm happy about. But I just don't understand why me not wanting C/R is such a big issue that I need to explain myself to people.

The bottom line is that I think it's customer unfriendly. The same reason I wouldn't ever buy a MacBook or even use it when offered for free by my employer. They are nice to work with, don't get me wrong. But I find the idea of a laptop that's intentionally made to be unrepairable / unupgradable by the user reprehensible. So I don't buy it. I'm happy with my Lifebooks.

Back to plugins: I refuse it out of principle as well. Because in the end I'm at the developers mercy when it comes to using the product that I bought (finer details aside). What if the company goes under? It happened before. What if they get some funny ideas about their older products like NI had a while back?

Some other examples of what I didn't like previously.

- I can't freely swap hardware because the plugins likely will deauthorize
- I need to keep track of authorizations when reinstalling the OS or they might be lost (and yes, I do that every now and then and it happened before)
- I ran out of auths, had get to beg the dev through email for more auths and couldn't use the product in the meantime, which was a few days.
- I ran out of auths, support helpfully pointed out that I can solve this by buying more activation tokens in their store. Admittedly this was a long time ago, but still.
- I dislike the amount of "online installers" on my system, especially when I have to install one just to authorize a single plugin
- I had multiple random deauthorizations within a few days, which is wonderful if you want to keep the computer offline. This was XLN Audio btw.

Is this something I should just be okay with as a customer, especially when other companies demonstrate that it's possible to offer their software without any of this? When people using pirated software actually have a better experience than me as a paying customer?

With a simple serial number / keyfile I just copy and paste it and it's done. The software will work as long as the OS supports it, even if the company is long gone and I don't have to explain myself to anyone even if I decide to reinstall windows on a weekly basis and buy a new GPU every month. And with the iLok dongle it's close enough in the sense that once the license is on the dongle, I don't have to worry about most of this for as long as the dongle works.

Now, you can think I'm an idiot or whatever, but I really would prefer if we could leave it at that and keep this thread from further turning into a discussion about copy protection mechanisms.


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## zzz00m (Oct 12, 2022)

LA68 said:


> Now, you can think I'm an idiot or whatever, but I really would prefer if we could leave it at that and keep this thread from further turning into a discussion about copy protection mechanisms.


OK, thanks for explaining. No disrespect intended, just wanted to understand why you initially put limits on the acceptable suggestions for a better library than you were using. Carry on!


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