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Pianos that inspire

For solo/up-front piano, my two favorites are Pianoteq's Bluetner and the Garritan CFX

For deeper in the mix, I find the new pianoteq Steingraeber E-272 a very good fit.

Playability is excellent, imo, on all three.
 
Wow what a list. Shows what I know, I half expected half the responses would be "wtf chillbot you already have all the pianos".

My electricity is being shut off momentarily at the studio but now I have quite a list to go through tomorrow thanks. At the top of the list I'm intrigued by Soundiron Montclarion and 8dio Passionate Piano.

Funny about 8dio though... all the recent sales has got me thinking there's no point in ever paying full price for anything at 8dio. I think that's a bit of a negative side effect of constant sales.
 
Although I've been playing piano 'forever', I guess I'm not as sophisticated as you guys - likely from all those years playing blues on Chicago's Southside in the '60's (on pianos you wouldn't believe). But I'm still very comfortable 'on' my Galaxy Vintage D. Hey, if that Steinway was good enough for Corea and Jarrett...
 
Here’s the other thing (at the risk of stating the bleeding obvious). I can only compare the VIs I have. It’s quite possible that you already have something that I’d consider better than my best if I got my hands on it. Makes it tricky to navigate.
 
The Embertone sure is nice, but my Garritan CFX, NI Gentleman, and OTMA pianos have been working terrifically. Especially the CFX. I even use the Garritan Steinway now and again.

If I could only chose one, I wouldn't hesitate on the CFX (full version only).
 
As a "pianist", I think the controller makes a huge difference in how I connect with a particular instrument. I use a graded hammer action keyboard, and for that Pianoteq responds exactly as I would expect.

A few years ago, I had a synth-action controller and I found that impossible to play for piano: everything was somehow "off" and thus frustrating. I gave up and bought the graded hammer action controller.

For me, the controller action is/was a huge factor in playability.
 
AllanH said:
As a "pianist", I think the controller makes a huge difference in how I connect with a particular instrument. I use a graded hammer action keyboard, and for that Pianoteq responds exactly as I would expect.

A few years ago, I had a synth-action controller and I found that impossible to play for piano: everything was somehow "off" and thus frustrating. I gave up and bought the graded hammer action controller.

For me, the controller action is/was a huge factor in playability.
Click to expand...

Allan - And exactly which keyboard/controller is it that made the difference for you?
 
@chillbot, I also have a ridiculously oversized piano collection, and my tastes seem to hew fairly closely to yours, especially re. Piano in Blue (ho hum, although I know it has a huge following) and HZP (capable of a lot with some experimentation). You might also look at the inexpensive Light & Sound Concert Grand, which while a work in progress that still needs several fixes, has an interesting selection of mics offering a lot of variation. The Bechstein Digital Grand has given me good results, despite being a CPU hog. But most of all, I'd urge you to take another look at the Pianoteq demos. Out of the box, none really sport the Emotional/Malmo vibe you're after, but assuming you have the standard edition or better, try playing around with the sometimes overwhelming array of settings and I think you'll be surprised what can be coaxed to life. Plus, all those fabulous historical pianos are the icing on the cake IMO. One trick I use is to layer one of the Pianoteqs—say the Steingraeber—with the three fx layers of the Woodchester, minus the raw layer. Lots of sonic possibilities there...
 
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SchnookyPants said:
Allan - And exactly which keyboard/controller is it that made the difference for you?
Click to expand...

The keybed is a Fatar TP40L (L means light). My controller is a Kurzweil PC3LE8. I believe the TP40L is used in many higher-end Kurzweil keyboards, including the Forte and PC3 lines. It's also used (I believe), in Doepher LMK4/2 products and Nord piano keyboards. Probably many others. I'm not sure if Kurzweil has made any substantial modifications to the keybed.

For me, the Kurzweil reacts exactly as I would expect/like, and I'm very happy with the speed of the key-return and key-weighting.

The synth-action keyboard was an M-audio 88-keystation velocity-sensitive, semi-weighted. This was obviously a low-end keyboard and may explain my inability to play it.
 
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For playability and in pop context I still use the old Truepianos (the Atlantis module).
https://www.truepianos.com/demos.php

Electric piano, also for playability (it's the only track that is in all my templates and even in empty songs - it's my to go sketching sound)
https://www.applied-acoustics.com/lounge-lizard-ep-4/

I'm not a piano player but both feel like coming directly from the keyboard instead from a remote controlled computer.

For sound reasons: Imperfectsamples Fazioli (inside mics) for intimate cinematic.
Keyscape for Rhodes and Clavinets. Scarbee for 'dirty' Rhodes.
 
Imperfect Samples Braunschweig Upright (amazing), QL Pianos, and you can't go wrong with Spectrasonics Keyscapes, you can load it in Omnispgere to tweak the sound more.
 
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