# Piano VST shootout



## zamyen (Oct 31, 2019)

For a recent project I was selecting a piano sound - and thought the files might be interesting for some other composers.

Each piano was normalised in ‘Loudness‘ scale (-16 LUFS) before exporting the comparison.

They are edited together here (allows comparing Pianos like NI The Giant, Maverick, EastWest, Keyscape, OT and Spitfire pianos).


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## José Herring (Oct 31, 2019)

The only ones I have are Maverick and The Grand. Got it with my Komplete purchase. How do you find them?

Personally the only one I really liked in the example was Addictive Keys, but the Maverick and The Grand fared far better than I thought. I will need to give them more attention because I usually just avoid pianos.

Also, wondering if you have Pianoteq? The physical modeling piano seems very good imo.


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## zamyen (Oct 31, 2019)

Yes quite a few composers are using those from NI Komplete, for instance I think Daniel James and Alex Moukala use The Giant in epic cinematic streams, the XLN Addictive Keys sounds quite well mixed and suited for classical/exposed piano as well as the Spectrasonics Keyscape piano.

Unfortunately I don’t have a license for the PianoTeq as with some others- I saved the template and can include them as and when I get hold of them. For instance Noire and HZ piano would be nice to add to the shootout.


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## Reid Rosefelt (Oct 31, 2019)

Patrick Doyle told me he used NI's The Grandeur to mock up his score for ALL IS TRUE.


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## José Herring (Oct 31, 2019)

Yes, I quite like the Grandeur. It just never gets mentioned so I thought my judgement could be impaired on it. You know I tend to like what I have so I don't have to buy anything else.


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## PaulieDC (Oct 31, 2019)

Just my $.02.. Everytime I've pulled up Grandeur I'm surprised, it always sounds better than I expect. Best piano as part of a package IMO. I've tried a bunch, even bought VSL's Steinway and returned it. Upper range was like metal although the tube mic helped that. Ultimately Garritan CFX won me over, but R275 and Grandeur are up there. When it goes on sale I'll jump on Noire because it sounds like an improved Grandeur to me, and for pure fun the Particles things is a sweet bonus. Note: I did a total pop track for someone for a short vid (Drums, bass, piano and vocals) and Alicia's Keys worked best. But I wouldn't use it for Moonlight Sonata.

As much as I'd like to stay with one library, seems like you need about 5 pianos to cover it all. Oh, I bought EW's Pianos, have hardly run them up. Who knows, a couple presets in some of those may be great.

Last thought: your controller and the velocity curve make a huge difference. I've noticed my M-Audio CODE61 always needs the library's velocity curve turned up a tad or it all sounds weak. If you watch demos of Ravenscroft's converted Kawai controller for their R275 patch, it needs the velocity cut back to sound natural. Man, how to manage all this stuff and come to the right setting!


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## José Herring (Oct 31, 2019)

Thx for the tip on the velocity curves. I think that's my problem mine plays everything too loud so I tend to stay away from pianos. I shouldn't. 

The other problem I have is that each piano I have takes up way too much of the stereo field. The low notes on the left proceeding up everything eventually ends up on the right side up high. If I try and narrow the field the registers get out of wack volume wise. So it's always tough for me to put it in a stage so I just end up dealing with it.

That's why I was looking at piano tech. Get away from samples and go with Physical modeling for pianos. But, I'm sure that will also create some difficulties as well.


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## CGR (Oct 31, 2019)

zamyen said:


> For a recent project I was selecting a piano sound - and thought the files might be interesting for some other composers.
> 
> Each piano was normalised in ‘Loudness‘ scale (-16 LUFS) before exporting the comparison.
> 
> They are edited together here (allows comparing Pianos like NI The Giant, Maverick, EastWest, Keyscape, OT and Spitfire pianos).



Nice comparison, and well put together. A good starting point to assess tone & stereo imaging of the default settings, but each sampled piano responds quite differently to velocity so results achieved with each one will be quite varied (eg. Emotional Piano can sound quite clear & bright with tweaks to the settings and the keyboard velocity response of the controller you use).


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## CGR (Oct 31, 2019)

josejherring said:


> . . . The other problem I have is that each piano I have takes up way too much of the stereo field. The low notes on the left proceeding up everything eventually ends up on the right side up high.


One of my gripes with many sampled pianos. This unnatural bass-notes-left, treble-notes-right approach seems aimed at players sitting at the keyboard to give a sense of stereo, but it's just not how an acoustic piano sounds either sitting at the bench playing it or mic'd with typical placements in a studio or on stage. The acoustic piano sound (particularly grands) really rises up and mingles in the air and has height as well as width & depth, which many sampled pianos miss.


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## Ivan M. (Jan 28, 2020)

Hey ppl, a question pls, I really liked embertone convert D demos, seems to sound much better than the NI Grandeur I currently use, but is there anything better on the market, I see many people like NI Noire? (I really like the Steinway sound)


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## PaulieDC (May 20, 2020)

Ivan M. said:


> Hey ppl, a question pls, I really liked embertone convert D demos, seems to sound much better than the NI Grandeur I currently use, but is there anything better on the market, I see many people like NI Noire? (I really like the Steinway sound)


I like Noire more than Grandeur now. Got it half price, I would wait for that again.


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## ThomasNL (May 21, 2020)

While I was a big keyscape fanboy I found out the grand piano works very well for solo or live instances but not so well for blending in orchestra, it needs a lot of eq-ing to blend in well. Just my two cents


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## SupremeFist (May 21, 2020)

Ivan M. said:


> Hey ppl, a question pls, I really liked embertone convert D demos, seems to sound much better than the NI Grandeur I currently use, but is there anything better on the market, I see many people like NI Noire? (I really like the Steinway sound)


I like Noire much more than the Grandeur: it has a richer and deeper sound. But it's not a Steinway. For that the Embertone Walker is stunning, as is Cinepiano.


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