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CineSamples' CinePiano

Hi
I just watched your review, great job you're doing here (and the other reviews too)
Well, I have questions about cinepiano, and thought there was no need to create another thread, as your title could perfectly be the official Cinepiano thread in vi control.
So this library is on sale right now, at 99 it's quite appealing. Right now, my main piano is The Grandeur (came with Komplete). But, I'm not really satisfied with it... I find it quite thin i'd say, not romantic at all.
Will Cinepiano bring something more?
How would those two compare, and Noire could be added into the equation...
Hoping to read many opinions :)
 
I have CinePiano and find it to be a very full sounding Steinway, with an appealing hammer attack throughout the range - great for ballads where you want a melody line to sing. The Sony Scoring stage ambience has a big influence on the tone. The piano they chose is voiced on the warm side, but can really bite with the FFF samples they captured. It can get a little 'blurry' with very fast and articulated playing (the Grandeur holds up better there) but it's still surprisingly flexible and would cover many different styles of playing. A fair price at $199, and a great buy at $99.
 
BTW, I use a fully weighted keyboard (Yamaha CP4 Stage) and CinePiano plays very naturally.
 
I bought it yesterday- hands down the best VI piano I've tried. (And I'm a pianist myself).
 
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Hi
I just watched your review, great job you're doing here (and the other reviews too)
Well, I have questions about cinepiano, and thought there was no need to create another thread, as your title could perfectly be the official Cinepiano thread in vi control.
So this library is on sale right now, at 99 it's quite appealing. Right now, my main piano is The Grandeur (came with Komplete). But, I'm not really satisfied with it... I find it quite thin i'd say, not romantic at all.
Will Cinepiano bring something more?
How would those two compare, and Noire could be added into the equation...
Hoping to read many opinions :)
Great question. Honestly, it's the first piano I turn to 98% of the time, whether it be for sketching purposes or the final piece. It's that good. No bias. I simply love the tone and resonance it brings; it's very clear and warm, plus it comes with 3 other presets for varying moods, if you should need them. Great dynamic range as well.
 
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"full, warm, flexible, plays naturally, best vi piano, clear, great dynamic range"
Ok well, I guess it is a good one 😁
And given my piano skills, the fact that it can get a little blurry with fast and articulated playing won't be a problem...
That will be 99€ well spent!
 
"full, warm, flexible, plays naturally, best vi piano, clear, great dynamic range"
Ok well, I guess it is a good one 😁
And given my piano skills, the fact that it can get a little blurry with fast and articulated playing won't be a problem...
That will be 99€ well spent!
Since you find the Grandeur thin (I do as well), I think you will be thrilled by the weight and richness of tone in this one.
 
Bought and downloaded!
But, there's something I don't understand... How can I make it appear on my Kontakt librairies listing?
 
Great question. Honestly, it's the first piano I turn to 98% of the time, whether it be for sketching purposes or the final piece. It's that good.
It sounds really nice! Do you know if it supports half-pedaling (i.e. continuous controller on CC64) or does it treat the damper as an on/off switch? I can't seem to find that out anywhere.
 
This is from the Cinesamples site.


Pedal Behavior - Repedalling

We added a new feature called Pedal Behavior to CinePiano. When you play a note on a real grand piano with the sustain pedal down, quickly releasing and depressing the sustain pedal does not allow the dampers enough time to stop the strings from vibrating completely. CinePiano effectively models this behavior for a much more lifelike performance.
 
Yes, I saw that but re-pedaling is a different thing to half pedaling. Re-pedaling is catching the strings while they are still ringing after the notes have been released - more of a gimmick effect.

Half pedaling though is crucial to the feel of the instrument if you are a pianist - it allows you to finely control the amount of damper. If you are used to playing a real piano, it can be very off-putting when you play a VI without it as notes start cutting off unexpectedly as you 'massage' the damper pedal.
 
The CinePiano is truly a great piano VI. That is all.

If you stay away from the higher dynamics, perhaps. Anywhere between pianissimo and forte, it's a pretty pleasing virtual piano, absolutely, but the majority of its fff samples ruin the pleasure of playing this instrument almost completely. For me anyway. Because once you know those samples are there, you start holding back in your playing, in order to avoid them. (And it's doubly frustrating because not all fff samples are equally bad. Some are actually very good. But then, way too often, there's these ugly sounding ones that really shouldn't have been allowed into the package.)

Cinesamples must have been aware of the problem cause they've included a switch to disable the fff layer.

Here's https://users.telenet.be/re-peat/CinePiano_fff.mp3 (<b><u>an illustration of the problem</u></b>). (Recorded with the default "01 CinePiano" patch)

__
 
If you stay away from the higher dynamics, perhaps. Anywhere between pianissimo and forte, it's a pretty pleasing virtual piano, absolutely, but the majority of its fff samples ruin the pleasure of playing this instrument almost completely. For me anyway. Because once you know those samples are there, you start holding back in your playing, in order to avoid them. (And it's doubly frustrating because not all fff samples are equally bad. Some are actually very good. But then, way too often, there's these ugly sounding ones that really shouldn't have been allowed into the package.)

Cinesamples must have been aware of the problem cause they've included a switch to disable the fff layer.
__
Actually it's a switch to enable the fff layer. You don't ever have to turn it on.
 
(I may be wrong but what I understood from a walkthrough was that the fff layer was not meant to be part of the piano's normal range — especially since it was recorded by stabbing straight down on the keys from a height with several fingers —but more like an optional special effect aimed at loud bass ostinati for action cues, etc.)
 
Yes, I saw that but re-pedaling is a different thing to half pedaling. Re-pedaling is catching the strings while they are still ringing after the notes have been released - more of a gimmick effect.

Half pedaling though is crucial to the feel of the instrument if you are a pianist - it allows you to finely control the amount of damper. If you are used to playing a real piano, it can be very off-putting when you play a VI without it as notes start cutting off unexpectedly as you 'massage' the damper pedal.
As far as I’m aware, I don’t think this feature is included.
 
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