Very nice work, man. Excellent sense of time and dynamics.

I love Bach and Scarlatti.

Are you saying you used VIs for all your recordings, even the "bach fugue 18 g-sharp minor wtk 2 bwv 887"?

Yup. There's a Chopin Nocturne in there that I recorded live using my own piano . That was hard to do. Tuning, room treatment, mics, mic placement. Pianos are hard to record.

Was using PV Yamaha, which IS playable with a fast computer, but the Yammy sound didn't work for me.

Which VI did you use for the Bach recording, if I may ask?

Bk 1: Production Tools Steinway D

Bk 2: HZP, with the exception of P&F 8 and 16, which I think (not totally sure) may be PT Steinway. (Again, I'm no good at keeping track... I don't even have the midi files. Lost them!)

Note, various mics used on both vsts. Obviously, different p and f require different mic sets (the options are vast in HZP, limited in PT).

My own opinion is that HZP (Bk 2, all the Scarlatti, all the Shostakovich) is the more realistic-sounding sample. But added verb, which I do on about half of these pieces, makes it harder to tell. I use too much verb, but then that's the norm in solo classical piano recordings, many of them.

Again, both the above-mentioned samples are terrible to play. (For playing purposes, folks love the non-sampled sample: Pianoteq, and I can easily see why... the touch and feel is very realistic. And it's easy on CPU and/or all interfaces and soundcards.)

There are other P&F by me lurking on Youtube, and not part of the above. Those recordings are either PV Yamaha or (the really old ones) PMI Bos.

These (in my view) are sonicly less worthy. The interpretations (that's a different deal) are another matter.

I think I was a bit spoiled by the Waves Rhapsody for $14 even if it takes 30 min to load. lul.

I don't mind one close mic position (if it is brilliant) because I can add a bit (or a lot) of reverb to if needed.

The demos are the thing that get me. Very difficult to get the feel of piano instruments via demos but maybe that is inherent with piano VIs with large sample libraries which need to be downloaded. Although NI used to let you run a 15min full trial of their pianos is awesome.

TL;DR I don't have a C7 VI but still on the fence on this one.

Had I not known I was listening to a sampled piano, I would not have detected anything, but there is a tiny bit of "artificiality", if you concentrate. Otherwise, it's pretty impressive.

And what is it with the current terror about reverb?! You are NOT using too much. It sounds like it's recorded on a stage in a small auditorium. Very appropriate.

edit: I listened to the two Chopin pieces A/B. The sampled is very smooth, very euphonious. But the recorded piano has a more alive quality, to me anyway. It has more "personality", if you will. And damn, you made a very fine recording at that! Not an easy task.

Agreed. The recordings are quite impressive.

Thanks! I PMed you.

Do the Pianoteq folks run any sales during the year? I'm going to pick it up at some point but I don't need it immediately. Just wondering if there's a good reason to wait.

Pretty sure Pianoteq was discounted last year on Black Friday Or Monday.
They also offer student discounts.

Thanks. I guess I'll be waiting a month then.

So far best results I've gotten is from layering Keyscape (which has one of the best close mic sounds IMO) with Production Grand (for more room perspective). First time I am thoroughly satisfied with a virtual piano.

And that wonderful Bechstein Digital Grand is getting its first update to v1.1 while they’re even including a cpu-light version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gGmoZ604J8

New preview of Prodction Voices Concert Grand.
Sounding perfect! (not talking about the ambisonics, I'm not on headphones right now). Way ahead of anything else imho.

We have a lot of Piano VST's and sample libraries; there are a lot of good ones out there, but you can't go wrong with Keyscape.

NI Grandeur has been my go to but Pianoteq 6 Pro has really surprised me. I’m pretty torn between these two now. I find this seriously impressive as Grandier is my favourite sampled piano library!

Hi folks, I'm new here (first post). I have quite a collection of Piano Sample Libraries, almost all of which I love for various reasons and for various song moods. Right now, I'm particularly interested in Wavesfactory Mercury, and whether it would be a worthy addition to my library. I've noticed that the Mercury Piano generated allot of initial interest, but I haven't seen much talk of it here recently, and I'm wondering if there's any reason for that fall-off.

I find that I really enjoy the Fazioli sound, and I currently have two Fazioli's, namely: Imperfect Samples Ebony (Complete), and True Keys Italian.

I'm wondering, is the Mercury Piano a worthwhile investment for me given I already have the TK Italian and IS Ebony, given my current impressions of these two pianos as outlined below? I.e., will it give more character and dynamic playability than the TK Italian particularly in soft passages, and more consistency/clarity and out-of-the-box sound quality than the IS Ebony?

I caveat my following comments with the fact that I have never played a Fazioli in the real world, although I've heard several live concerts where a Fazioli was being used. But the IS Ebony and TK Italian leave me somewhat dissatisfied in the following senses:

TK Italian sounds great out of the box; maybe too great. For me, it can be a little "sterile" and without character. Also, the mic choices sound too similar to give much personality or any serious room feel choices. And finally, there is a real bright attack present on even the softest passages, making it somewhat unusable for soft passages. At mid to high dynamic playing, the clarity is superb, though, making this piano great for many situations.

IS Ebony has loads of character, although out of the box, it requires lots of careful EQ to make it sound good. The mic choices in this case have allot of variety in sound, but not a whole lot of choice in terms of room. I prefer P2, then P3, and rarely use P1. They all give the feel and sound that you are playing on a great, great piano, but your engineer just can't figure out the right mics and/or placement to capture it on tape. Furthermore, even with my best attempts at careful EQ, it is difficult to get this piano to be clear in the mid-bass range; say A2 to A4. Finally, it can build some noise with the pedal down, has some stereo imaging issues on some notes (round-robin enabled), and also has some outright issues (mechanical clicks) on some notes, the latter probably in keeping with their "Imperfect Samples" brand name. The piano is very good sounding, though, and particularly for soft passages, yields better sounds than the TK Italian.

I think ultimately, something with the quality of sound of the TK Italian with the character and dynamic playability of the IS Ebony would be perfect.

Will Mercury fill that void for me?

Thanks,
Terry T.

I have the TrueKeys and Mercury (plus a few others). Would never part with Mercury, as it brings me closest to (indeed) the musicality of Freddie M.’s piano playing. Also, you get the effects (even separate) including those remarkable plate reverbs. Try it out, you may get hooked.

EastWest Sounds got some pretty good librarys

What plugin would you guys recommend for me. I play stuff kinda like elton john, queen, and beatles. I want a somewhat similar 70's rock/pop sound to them but I also want to be able to fiddle with some nobs and make a somewhat unique sound. I know NOTHING about pianos or piano software.

I'm sure its been said many times many ways. Pianoteq Christmas, to you.

Mercury, a Fazioli, would be nice, but you may also start with a more “ubiquitous” Yamaha C7 or C5, as they are often used on 70s rock and pop. Check the usual suspects like ImpactSoundworks Pearl Grand, OrangeTreeSamples Rosewood Grand or even Soundiron’s Emotional Piano, which is a Kawai IIRC.

Edit: don’t know if sargentmonkey will even read this

Is there something funny about my question?

No there isn't, you're right. I guess I found your question a little broad... A bit like "what's the best car".

Anyway, there is an overwhelming amount of choice out there, for every budget. Many DAWs like Logic, for example, come with piano sounds that would be perfectly adequate for pop.

I recommend reading through some of the piano VI threads on gearslutz to get an idea what people like and use. Listen to audio demos on company's sites. Often, what we're looking for is a certain character of sound, more so than "sound quality" which is highly subjective.

I hope this helps.

It's a broad question because at the moment I can't really ask it in any other way. As I said, I know absolutely nothing about pianos or piano software. I'm more of a just sit down and play it kind of person but I can't really take that approach when there are so many options in front of me. I want something that sounds very realistic and also has some nobs for me to fiddle with. After that I can only list the musicians that I think sound cool. I would say my budget is 350 max. In the meantime is there a free one you guys recommend so maybe I can get a better idea of what I want?

There's this rather nice free library:

Maestro Concert Grand v2 | Musical Artifacts

Two of my favourite, yet affordable libraries I use all the time:

SONiVOX - Eighty Eight Ensemble 2.5

Cinesamples - Piano in Blue | Columbia Records' historic Steinway D Concert Grand piano

lol this thread will probably live longer than i will

Anyway, my current favorites at the moment are:

The Maverick : Very underrated piano in my opinion and my absolute favorite from the NI piano collection
Ravenscroft 275 : Needs no introduction.
Keyscape : Needs some tweaking under the hood but boy this thing is something.

Not underrated here. It's great for live, very atmospheric.

Nifty quick look at the noise floors of some popular piano VIs at PianoWorld.

The charts include: Garritan CFX, VI Labs Ravenscroft 275, PianoTeq, The Grandeur, The Maverick, TrueKeys German Grand, Acoustic Samples c7, Production Grand Compact c7

A bit disappointed in Garritan CFX Lite - Piano World Piano & Digital Piano Forums

In fact, the whole thread has some interesting comments, including the original poster's excellent SoundCloud files and questions.