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Budget piano libraries that exceed their price?

SupremeFist said:
. . . It still has that thing I hear in all Galaxy's pianos where the attack of the note sounds somehow squished on top of the body of the tone, rather than properly preceding it. At some point, there's plinkiness. But YMMV.
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Good observation! I was listening to an acoustic piano recording yesterday (a Steinway B) on a great 2 channel system, and the clarity, complexity and purity of the note attacks really set it apart from a lot of the sampled pianos I hear and play. The Experimenta Due pianos do a great job getting close to that hammer attack naturalness, particularly the C3.
 
What about Addictive Keys? From what I've seen, it seems to have lots of tweaking and fiddling options for the sound. It also comes with presets like "Intimate", "Jazzish", "Roomy Pop" etc.
 
Ray said:
What about Addictive Keys? From what I've seen, it seems to have lots of tweaking and fiddling options for the sound. It also comes with presets like "Intimate", "Jazzish", "Roomy Pop" etc.
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It's a nice collection, but it's a bit "sterile".

For $99 (and at any price) my recommendation would be Piano in Blue.



 
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Vin said:
It's a nice collection, but it's a bit "sterile".

For $99 (and at any price) my recommendation would be Piano in Blue.



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PiB is stunning and one of my absolute favourites but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to the OP as an all-purpose piano...
 
CGR said:
Good observation! I was listening to an acoustic piano recording yesterday (a Steinway B) on a great 2 channel system, and the clarity, complexity and purity of the note attacks really set it apart from a lot of the sampled pianos I hear and play. The Experimenta Due pianos do a great job getting close to that hammer attack naturalness, particularly the C3.
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Yes! I believe the dev said he deliberately didn't trim the C3 samples too much in order to preserve the naturalness of the attack. A nice thing about the Wavesfactory Mercury too is that it has that "sample start" parameter which can bring in more of the attack…
 
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For a totally different sound and recommendation I would look at The LO.VE. Piano from VST Buzz. It's only €29 and has a beautiful gentle Thomas Newman type of sound. I've used it a great deal over the past few months.

 
CGR said:
Also, The recently released Concert Grand by Profanity Instruments (via Kontakt Hub) is amazing value at $15. Not as refined as the Due pianos, but a very raw & realistic Steinway D with 4 mic sets. Don't be put off by the price!
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I agree it's a nice budget plugin, but its downside for me is the background noise, it get to be annoying when playing in the high register. You can hear serious noise problem in the tail when holding the sustain pedal.
It's 15 bucks though, how can I expect more at such a low price.
 
mohsohsenshi said:
I agree it's a nice budget plugin, but its downside for me is the background noise, it get to be annoying when playing in the high register. You can hear serious noise problem in the tail when holding the sustain pedal.
It's 15 bucks though, how can I expect more at such a low price.
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Yes, it's certainly not a polished and noise free sampled piano. Also, the sustains are quite short, but I find it's fun to play and has a great character despite it's flaws - reminds me of some late 60's early 70's jazz trio recordings. Compare the Profanity piano sound to the wonderful Dudley Moore Trio clip below (also a Steinway D):

The developer has expressed interest in returning to re-sample the piano more comprehensively, with higher quality equipment, although I think his mic choices are great (the humble Shure SM57 over the hammers being a pleasant surprise for me).

 
Paul Cardon said:
The Lite version of Embertone's "Walker 1955 Concert D". I only have the Lite version, but it's rapidly become my most used piano library. It's a Steinway D, so a very classical sound, but it has a wonderful brightness to it that never feels harsh.

Walker 1955 Concert D

www.embertone.com www.embertone.com
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For me the lite was so good I bought the full version. So, yeah the light version is great.
 
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Light and sound concert grand is half price now..
I like arturia piano v2 as well..
 
It's been said before, i know, but yet again: The Experimenta Due (or just piano 1 only if you need to stay below $100).

Especially with the new updated functions. Like formant control:

An example of the piano 1 by Xperimenta with formant -12 ;)

 
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