# NI Noire vs Woodchester comparison



## muk (Nov 24, 2019)

Hi everyone,

here is a piece that I made with the Fracture Sound Woodchester piano. I wanted the intimacy of a felt piano, but I wasn't completely satisfied with the end result. For one, the Woodchester piano library has a prominent hammer sound on each note. I alleviated that with a dynamic eq as good as I could. It was a lot of work in the mixing and mastering stages. In the end I was not completely satisfied. It sounded duller than I'd have wished for, and slightly muffled.

Fast forward to this week. I bought NI Noire. I'm not completely familiar with it yet, but so far I am happy. I worked on this piece with my new library. It was quicker than with the Woodchester. Mixing and mastering was comparably easy. And I am very happy with the end result now.

So here are the two versions. Each one I tried to make sound as good and to my taste as I could. 'Sunt lacrimae rerum reprise', first with Noire, then with Woodchester:


NI Noire:









Sunt lacrimae rerum reprise Noire.mp3 | Powered by Box







app.box.com





Fracture Sound Woodchester:









Sunt lacrimae rerum Piano.mp3 | Powered by Box







app.box.com





I would be curious to hear which one you all prefer, and any other comments and findings you have. Thanks for listening.


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## brenneisen (Nov 24, 2019)

(where is this music from?)


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## muk (Nov 24, 2019)

brenneisen said:


> (where is this music from?)



Sorry, I didn't mention that clearly: it's a piece that I wrote myself.


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## josephspirits (Nov 24, 2019)

The more pianos we get the harder it is sometimes to choose, but it also helps make us realize what we like and what we don’t I guess.

I think I prefer the woodchester in this case. I just got noire yesterday, and I do like it, but will need more time with it to see how it compares for me. Something about the native instruments pianos always feels less complete when I’m playing them than when listening back, which is another thing altogether.

my go to is the spitfire grand felt from the composer toolkit, but I understand why that may be too mellow for some. For me it is the one that I could play without tiring of, and come up with one idea after another. that’s also a grand compared to the woodchester uptight though. The grand felt just feels the best for me.

I like having all these great options though because I feel like each one makes you write differently. And I do like noires two options, pure and felt, and the brightness it seems to have compared to the olafur felt.

there is a realness and clarity to the woodchester that I really like, and it never seems to get too muddy.


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## brenneisen (Nov 24, 2019)

muk said:


> Sorry, I didn't mention that clearly: it's a piece that I wrote myself.



beautiful!

it'd sound amazing with words and a choir


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## muk (Nov 24, 2019)

Thank you!

You are right, that's a good idea. If I find a suitable text I could make a choral piece out of it.


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## CT (Nov 24, 2019)

I enjoyed this piece very much when you shared it a while ago, as well as the string version. 

Noire is the clear winner for me. Absolutely beautiful sound. I prefer it to the more specialized "cinematic" sound of Woodchester.


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## muk (Nov 24, 2019)

Thank you miket. It's the same for me. I prefer the version with Noire by quite a bit.


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## Loïc D (Nov 25, 2019)

Bought Noire last week.
Incredible piano, I can’t stop playing since then.
Noire is much more versatile than Woodchester (which I love too).


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## 5Lives (Nov 25, 2019)

I prefer Woodchester for this piece - didn't like the "muffled" sound of Noire here. For a felt piano, I absolutely love Olafur Arnold's one with Spitfire. It's pure magic.


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## transverb (Nov 26, 2019)

Very beautiful piece. Currently making this decision - going to be a difficult one. The Noire does sound more 'muffled' in comparison (I wonder if EQ / Tone might change that) but the Woodchester hammers are a bit strong. Thanks for posting.


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## ism (Nov 26, 2019)

wnodchester for me.


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## Vin (Nov 26, 2019)

Woodchester for me as well.


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## artomatic (Nov 26, 2019)

I have both. There are many options in shaping Noire's sound. In this case, it does sound more muffled.
While I do love Woodchester, I've used Noire more because of its versatility and the variety it offers to shape its tone.
But then again, I love Olafur's as well.


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