http://www.crumar.it/

Surprised this didn't get mentioned alongside the new Hammond clone that runs VB3.

It has four pedals to fully support Pianoteq, which is the default software piano loaded on delivery.

Why oh why did they put it in that goofy case?

Goofy? There's a precedent for that, isn't there? I could swear some manufacturers in the past attempted to evoke the shape of a baby grand in miniature.

And I didn't know Crumar was still around. Some of my favourite string machines were made by Crumar and are found in G-Force's Virtual String Machine plug-in.

+1. I sold my Stringman about 3 years ago.

English may not be their native language but man, do they need a proofreader...

Crumar Baby Grand has not compromises!

acustic pianos

We are proud to announce that on 1/12/2009 will be officially release the "Baby Grand Piano"

There's no excuse for that.

Well, my favourite quote is Chris Hein for his bass library:

"All of your basses are belong to us".

He's been ribbed about it enough by now that he uses it himself in self-effacing humour.

It's a reference to "all your base are belong to us."

I actually think it's kind of cool-looking, although it will undoubtedly cause problems on a variety of stands....

Noah

I hope that 'swelling' is for some kind of big speaker... otherwise, it's just useless silliness.

That's funny; I never knew about the reference, as I do not participate in Popular Culture due to my busy schedule producing vs. consuming content. :-)

As long as the centre of gravity is predictable/intuitive and reasonably close to the geometric centre...

I see the need for a custom flightcase.

Stupid shape, IMNSHO.

That 4th pedal -- do any real pianos do that?

Anyway, the proof is in the playing. "Physical modelling" works great in Hammond clones and VA's (which equally deserve the term), but so far they're second rate for piano, rhodes, and wurli.

Oh? I wouldn't call the V-Piano "second rate." Have you played it?

Pffft. Actually experiencing something before having an opinion of it is so pre-internet, dude.



How is Pianoteq these days? I tried the first version and it was pretty impressive but not quite ready for primetime.

That case it so that your houseguest recognize what that big black thing in the corner is; as though 88 black and white keys isn't a clue!


I played the V-Piano recently and was very impressed with the connection between the touch and the sound. I can't afford one and it's way too heavy to gig with but I haven't heard or played a better DP.

The idea of putting Pianoteq in a dedicated controller is a great one IMO. When I played with PT the time-consuming thing seemed to be configuring your chosen controller(s) and PT to work well together. PT sounds very good to my ear but the kicker in any DP or plugin is setting up, and learning how to control, its response to touch. I also like the idea of being able to update the sound engine as PT improves. A stage version of this at the right price would sell like crazy but 4 pedals? Get real.

I'm going to try the Pianoteq 3 demo. I remember when it version 1 was released, they were really hyping the fact that it was only 8mb. I see the new version is now 20mb. The march of technology!

Still a lot less space than a sample library, that's for sure.

You know how Wurlitzer goes by the nickname 'Wurly'?

Well....

























Note: I kid. I haven't tried it, I'm sure it's the greatest thing since slices.

The case could be worse, but I hope they plan on labeling those jacks.

Here's the part that scared me.

Yeah, I'd rather it was running Linux, and I seem to recall that Pianoteq has been released for Linux (only a few VI's have been so far).

At any rate, Pianoteq 3.5 is another giant step forward, and it is rare that I have a song where I reach for anything else -- especially after adding the Yamaha C5 add-on, which works so well in a rock context.

The fourth pedal does exist on some rare acoustic grand pianos, so is not an entirely abstract concept. I haven't really worked with it much yet, as I can only use Pianoteq for rendering MIDI vs. useful real-time playing, until I get a new computer, and so ANY of the four pedals causes it to crash on my G4 iMac -- even if running it at 11 kHz sample rate (my default these days for that VI, if attempting it in real-time vs. background rendering).

As for the case, maybe the piano IS the case, like early Fatar controllers? I just wish they had listed which Fatar action they are using. And I expect the price may be prohibitive.

One other point: I haven't paid for an upgrade since I bought into Pianoteq; each giant leap forward has been free for existing customers. You only need Pro if you want to edit the sounds yourself at a very fine-grained level.

This to me is one of its biggest selling points over sample libraries, which are static. The fact that it is already so good, and that minor quibbles get addressed in each release, is almost unprecedented in the industry. Every piano sounds different anyway, and frankly many of the criticisms leveled at Pianoteq apply to certain makes and models of acoustic grands as well. So of course it all comes down to taste, and what works in a given song or composition (not always the same piano!).

All right, I'm definitely downloading the demo. I've got a tune currently that I was planning on recording real piano for, but doing so requires me to kick my family out of the house (wife and all three kids, including the newborn) which is just not possible at the moment. So perhaps this will work in the meantime.