Ultimate Piano Comparison Thread

[fan455]

Tough piece for a sampled piano, and Pearl Concert Grand does surprisingly well. It has that lovely bell like hammer attack in the upper mids & treble which helps, although it struggles in the dynamic transitions around the 01:45 to 02:55 mark.

I'm testing an upcoming sampled piano at the moment which I feel will handle this piece really well

Yeah, I suppose the resonances in the mid of the piece are too loud. I'll lower CC64 and do some eq to see if it's better.

 

[CGR]

Here's the 24bit nki patch. I lowered the hall mic to -17.5db and raised release noises to -25db to enhance clarity. No other changes.

View attachment raindrop yundi p.mp3

I think it's missing the "bloom" from reducing the hall mics too much. What do you think about this excerpt?:

View attachment Chopin - Raindrop - excerpt_01.mp3

 

[fan455]

I think it's missing the "bloom" from reducing the hall mics too much. What do you think about this excerpt?:

View attachment Chopin - Raindrop - excerpt_01.mp3

Sounds weak in low and low-mid frequency range to me.

 

[CeDur]

Somehow I didn't connect well with Pearl when playing, but resonances this library is able to generate are so rich and authentic.

 

[CGR]

Sounds weak in low and low-mid frequency range to me.

It's actually quite close to the reference video you posted.

 

[slobajudge]

I think it's missing the "bloom" from reducing the hall mics too much. What do you think about this excerpt?:

View attachment Chopin - Raindrop - excerpt_01.mp3

CGR, which piano is it ?

 

[gmon]

I see you have a few Pianoteq modeled pianos in amongst the vast quantity of sampled pianos in this thread. I wondering how the brand new Arturia Piano V3 modeled pianos hold up in comparison. 12 models to choose from, with a fair bit of control available. The Arturia German Grand sounds pretty decent to me.

 

[Rudianos]

@doctoremmet do you have the Arturia Piano V3 ? ^^^

 

[Rudianos]

Some Sampletekk - they have these PMI for sale for a limited time. It was funny I was about to email them to see if they had extra licenses and voila.

All sounds are default out of the box. Factory verbs untouched. There are several avenues of adjustment within UI. The imperial is quiet on default settings. It can be turned up some.

Chopin Raindrop

Sampletekk PMI Bosendorfer Imperial

View attachment Chopin - Imperial.mp3

Sampletekk PMI Old Lady Steinway

View attachment Chopin - Old Lady.mp3

Sampletekk PMI The Emperor (Imperial with CEUS)

View attachment Chopin - Emperor.mp3

Sampletekk PMI Bosendorfer Imperial - No Verb - Raised the Low Dynamics

View attachment Chopin - Imperial Mod.mp3

 

[jben]

I just upgraded my Arturia Piano V2 to V3, so I'll share the raindrop through some presets. As @Rudianos did before me, they all are default settings out of the box.

Arturia Piano V2 - American Init
View attachment Arturia Piano V2 - American Init.mp3

Arturia Piano V3 - American Grand
View attachment Arturia Piano V3-American Grand.mp3

Arturia Piano V3 - German Grand
View attachment Arturia Piano V3-German Grand.mp3

Arturia Piano V3 - Japanese Grand
View attachment Arturia Piano V3-Japanese Grand.mp3

Arturia Piano V3 - Pop Grand
View attachment Arturia Piano V3-Pop Grand.mp3

Arturia Piano V3 - Classical Upright
View attachment Arturia Piano V3 - Classical Upright.mp3

Arturia Piano V3 - Jazz Upright
View attachment Arturia Piano V3 - Jazz Upright.mp3

 

[slobajudge]

I just upgraded my Arturia Piano V2 to V3, so I'll share the raindrop through some presets. As @Rudianos did before me, they all are default settings out of the box.

Arturia Piano V2 - American Init
View attachment Arturia Piano V2 - American Init.mp3

Arturia Piano V3 - American Grand
View attachment Arturia Piano V3-American Grand.mp3

Arturia Piano V3 - German Grand
View attachment Arturia Piano V3-German Grand.mp3

Arturia Piano V3 - Japanese Grand
View attachment Arturia Piano V3-Japanese Grand.mp3

Arturia Piano V3 - Pop Grand
View attachment Arturia Piano V3-Pop Grand.mp3

Arturia Piano V3 - Classical Upright
View attachment Arturia Piano V3 - Classical Upright.mp3

Arturia Piano V3 - Jazz Upright
View attachment Arturia Piano V3 - Jazz Upright.mp3

Interestingly, I like the classical upright the most and Jazz upright a little, the others not at all.

 

[jben]

I'm having a lot of fun dropping different midi files in my DAW from the web: https://www.yamahaden.com/midi-files

I like the German and the American, as well as the Classical Upright. I'm comparing them with my favourite, the Ravenscroft, and so far I'm liking the Arturia ones as much as the Ravenscroft, each with its own characteristic tone.

Tomorrow I will connect the computer to my digital piano (Kawai CA99) to check the playability of all of them (the Ravenscroft is my favourite at the moment for both sound and playability).

 

[slobajudge]

As for the sound, I don't know if Arthuria pianos can compete with the Ravenscroft piano, I'll see tomorrow when my ears rest a bit.

 

[jben]

I've been playing all morning with the Ravenscroft, the Arturia V3 and the SSSG and, although I like the tone of the Ravenscroft the best (it took me several times to dial in the sound to my liking), the Arturia has excellent playability, and allows better buffering than the Ravenscroft with my Motu M4 (RTL of 4ms with the Ravenscroft vs 1 ms with the Arturia; the SSSG is less efficient than the others).

It will take me a while to get the sound I want from Arturia piano (I'm looking for a sound between German Grand and American Grand), but the playability for me is excellent. I'm happy with it. And I also have the Ravenscroft for the days I want that wonderful sound it offers.

 

[DawdlePuss]

I've been playing all morning with the Ravenscroft, the Arturia V3 and the SSSG and, although I like the tone of the Ravenscroft the best (it took me several times to dial in the sound to my liking), the Arturia has excellent playability, and allows better buffering than the Ravenscroft with my Motu M4 (RTL of 4ms with the Ravenscroft vs 1 ms with the Arturia; the SSSG is less efficient than the others).

It will take me a while to get the sound I want from Arturia piano (I'm looking for a sound between German Grand and American Grand), but the playability for me is excellent. I'm happy with it. And I also have the Ravenscroft for the days I want that wonderful sound it offers.

If you don't mind me prying, I'd like to know a little more about the sound you get from Ravenscroft and how you get it. I agree, the playability is top of the heap, but I struggle to get a warmer, more intimate sound, the sound I prefer, out of it.

 

[jben]

I think that the sound of the piano is a totally personal thing, and what one person likes does not have to be right for another. Having said that, the parameters I am comfortable playing with the Ravenscroft are:

Sometimes I will add a bit of saturation and eq with the Fuse Audio VCS-1 Channel, and also a subtle bit of reverb from Seventh Heaven, but my sound base is in the image above.

 

[Paul@Sydney]

Did some testing of pianos, thought worth sharing here. An excerpt of Chopin Op9 No2. Wide range of tonal and dynamic range in this excerpt.

All Are disabled internal reverb with same R4 20% mix reverb. Otherwise completely out of the box settings. No adjusting of midi performance to each piano. No EQ, Compression or anything else, not even a limiter. Rendered and then normalized to -1.0db true peak in Reaper. Including some different pianos here.

Arturia Japanese Home Clean (from Analog Labs V)
View attachment Arturia Japanese Home Clean.mp3

UVI Austrian Grand
View attachment Austrian Grand.mp3

UVI Grand Upright
View attachment Grand Upright.mp3

Pianobook Isolation Piano Tubes and Tape
View attachment Isolation Piano Pianobook.mp3

VSL Soft Imperial Dry Conductor
View attachment VSL Soft Imperial.mp3

XLN Studio Grand default settings
View attachment XLN Studio Grand.mp3

 

[tressie5]

I think if Chopin was still alive, he'd be tickled pink about the reverence his name conjures, from pristine Deutsce Grammophone recordings to piano competitions to live performances to endless discussions on the internet, while his contemporaries like Czerny, Henselt and Alkan are wailing, "It's just not fair!"

 

[Rudianos]

Key Instruments @keyinstruments gives us their new (vintage) piano VI ... The Oeser. Such a lovely array of tones and the playability is fantastic. Wonderful potential for pensive movie scenes - relaxing with a drink in the evening - and textured underscoring. 40 GB+ of piano joy. All of these are default settings.

Waltz for Debby

The Oeser - Pure

View attachment Debby - Pure.mp3

The Oeser - Picked

View attachment Debby - Picked.mp3

The Oeser - Muted

View attachment Debby - Muted.mp3

The Oeser - Felt

View attachment Debby - Felt.mp3

Chopin - Prelude, Op. 28, No. 15 "Raindrop"

The Oeser - Pure

View attachment Waltz - Pure.mp3

Albeniz - Prelude (Exposition) - Chants d'Espagne

The Oeser - Picked

View attachment Albeniz Picked.mp3

 

[keyinstruments]

Wow @Rudianos, how nice of you to showcase our piano like this! Super complimentary, especially since this piano is meant to be in a room, for chamber music. We are very delighted to hear what you did with all the instruments of The Oeser and we hope this helps others choosing a new addition to their (probably extensive) instrument library. Thank you!