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Comparison of 49 virtual pianos

I don't know about the others, but the Bechstein from EastWest sounds *extremely* different to my experience of using it. It's one of my favorite pianos I've heard, almost no other piano really has much character to my ears.
I was via Composer Cloud which I don't use anymore, but I'm almost entirely sure that none of the EW Pianos sound like that out of the box. Almost sounds like there is some kind of "Haas effect" going, the stereo image seems very strange.

Perhaps it's a specific mic position being used there? These libraries have several mic positions. Although don't remember any sounding like that.
That's how I remember it sounding
 
Lionel Schmitt said:
I don't know about the others, but the Bechstein from EastWest sounds *extremely* different to my experience of using it. It's one of my favorite pianos I've heard, almost no other piano really has much character to my ears.
I was via Composer Cloud which I don't use anymore, but I'm almost entirely sure that none of the EW Pianos sound like that out of the box. Almost sounds like there is some kind of "Haas effect" going, the stereo image seems very strange.

Perhaps it's a specific mic position being used there? These libraries have several mic positions. Although don't remember any sounding like that.
That's how I remember it sounding
Click to expand...

I noticed the strange phasing issues on all of the EW pianos. I used the factory Bechstein Master DYN patch for the example in my post. I didn't have any effects, etc., involved, so no idea why it (along with the other EW pianos) sounds so poor in my tests. Literally, every piano compared was in the same session/project. Could it be that Play AAX has some issue?
 
@Lionel Schmitt - thanks for responding. I went back and checked to make sure the audio matched what I'm hearing in the original project and they appear to be identical. My session was 48kHz, but checked the standalone player and at 48k it sounds the same as well.

As I said in my original post, pianos are personal. And apparently, they can be a bit cantankerous about where they get played.
 
Stan Stewart said:
@Lionel Schmitt - thanks for responding. I went back and checked to make sure the audio matched what I'm hearing in the original project and they appear to be identical. My session was 48kHz, but checked the standalone player and at 48k it sounds the same as well.

As I said in my original post, pianos are personal. And apparently, they can be a bit cantankerous about where they get played.
Click to expand...
Thanks for checking! Well, I can't really get more into it since I don't have it anymore, I'll have to buy it at some point. But well, at least there is the video I linked for another perspective on the sound.

I remember EastWest has some very old legacy pianos and then somewhat newer versions - those https://www.thomann.de/gb/eastwest_quantum_leap_pianos_platinum.htm
Based on the GUI visible via the link, are these the one you used?
 
Yeah, I wonder what's going on with the EWQL pianos. They sound great, especially the Bosendorfer. You might experiment with the stereo spread control, the reverbs... It's still one of my favorites.

You needs must check out the new Synthogy Ivory 3. It's fabulous.

synthandsoftware.com

Synthogy Ivory German D – the Synth and Software Review

Stunning virtual piano instrument: a prized Steinway grand in a new player that uses both sampling and modeling Spoiler: Synthogy Ivory Grand 3 is at least as good as any virtual piano that’s ever walked the earth. And there are a lot of great ones, including Synthogy’s earlier instruments. Yes...
synthandsoftware.com synthandsoftware.com
 
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Lionel Schmitt said:
Thanks for checking! Well, I can't really get more into it since I don't have it anymore, I'll have to buy it at some point. But well, at least there is the video I linked for another perspective on the sound.

I remember EastWest has some very old legacy pianos and then somewhat newer versions - those https://www.thomann.de/gb/eastwest_quantum_leap_pianos_platinum.htm
Based on the GUI visible via the link, are these the one you used?
Click to expand...
I bought them here
www.bestservice.com

QL Pianos Platinum | East West | bestservice.com/en

QL Pianos Platinum | Four of the world´s finest grand pianos | Bechstein D-280, Steinway D, Bösendorfer 290 and a Yamaha C7 | EN
www.bestservice.com www.bestservice.com
but that looks like the same product.

I've contacted EW support to see if they can verify that I have the latest product. Their Installation Center says I do.
 
I really love the tone of the EWQL Bechstein... but unfortunately its huge velocity gaps makes it unplayable. It is a pity I would really like to make it one of mine favourite virtual pianos.
 
I updated the recordings of the 4 EW pianos. Here's what I changed:
I made sure they all used the Player mic. Previously, I had it set to the Close mic with a tiny bit of the Room. I think that was causing the phasing issues and also reducing the quality of the piano sound.
I still turned off the reverb (as I did on all the pianos).

Unfortunately, the limited dynamic layers and lack of tweakability still won't make these my go-to pianos, but they do sound a bit better.
 
cfodeebiedaddy said:
Just FYI, it seems the page has probs - it just displays a bunch of code for me!

1685591672454.png
Click to expand...
I saw the same issue in some browsers, so I cleared the cache on the server. Tested successfully in 4 different browsers on 2 different networks.
Thanks for letting me know!
 
QuiteAlright said:
Was the Player mic the default?
Click to expand...
Yes, for most of the patches. In hindsight, I remember switching this to the other mics to try to be more like the other piano patches. My bad.
That being said, if I were to use the EW QL Pianos (which is a long shot at this point), I would not use anything besides the player position. In a quick listen, the other mic positions are inferior and my attempts to mix more than one mic position all produced phase issues that would leave the sound sub-optimal.
 
Had a listen through...blimey, my ears suck! (I don't think I guessed a single one when I tried to do it blind).

I was surprised how well Alicia's Keys still holds up, though.
 
Stan Stewart said:
Yes, for most of the patches. In hindsight, I remember switching this to the other mics to try to be more like the other piano patches. My bad.
That being said, if I were to use the EW QL Pianos (which is a long shot at this point), I would not use anything besides the player position. In a quick listen, the other mic positions are inferior and my attempts to mix more than one mic position all produced phase issues that would leave the sound sub-optimal.
Click to expand...
Following on from the EWQL C.Bechstein, I've discovered that the OPUS engine has really messed with the sound. Despite me raising this with East West support and supplying audio examples, they replied that there was no issue when testing at their end. They are either tone-deaf, or didn't really listen properly, because the EWQL pianos run much better in the PLAY engine in my experience.

A case in point – same MIDI, with the C.Bechstein Player mics @ 0db and Close mics @ -8.5db, exact same settings and no reverb:

OPUS:
View attachment OPUS EWQL BECH DRY - Staccato-Releases.mp3

PLAY:
View attachment PLAY EWQL BECH DRY - Staccato-Releases.mp3

Pretty obvious!
 
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CGR said:
Following on from the EWQL C.Bechstein, I've discovered that the OPUS engine has really messed with the sound. Despite me raising this with East West support and supplying audio examples, they replied that there was no issue when testing at the end. They are either tone-deaf, or didn't really listen properly, because the EWQL pianos run much better in the PLAY engine in my experience.

A case in point – same MIDI, with the C.Bechstein Player mics @ 0db and Close mics @ -8.5db, exact same settings and no reverb:

OPUS:
View attachment OPUS EWQL BECH DRY - Staccato-Releases.mp3

PLAY:
View attachment PLAY EWQL BECH DRY - Staccato-Releases.mp3

Pretty obvious!
Click to expand...
While I hear and understand your complaint, I would not use a mixture of the mics. I can hear the phasing issues even in your 6-second example.

But you can take this with a grain of salt since I don't like the EW pianos generally.
 
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Stan Stewart said:
While I hear and understand your complaint, I would not use a mixture of the mics. I can hear the phasing issues even in your 6-second example.

But you can take this with a grain of salt since I don't like the EW pianos generally.
Click to expand...
Yes, in an ideal world it shouldn't be a problem mixing some close mics in with the player mics (VSL handle this beautifully) but the EWQL pianos have all sorts of issues. Also, repeated piano notes in the OPUS engine sound very phase-y, but are much better in the PLAY engine.
 
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