Poll: Favorite VST Piano?

[uhoh7]

The VST is like an arranged marriage.

 

They are way worse

 

Well an acoustic piano vst is worse anyway. The organs and EPs are much nicer. Every instrument vst is better than an vst AP (to me so far). Once you get something that is getting close ear-wise latency seems to factor....sometimes intermitent. I have a number of computers. They all have this issue. Maybe 16 gigs of ram is not enough, but more likely ram is too slow for large samples. I imagine this may be much less of an issue with phys modeled vsts like Pianoteq. The onboard pianos are not as rich, but they at least are quick. Maybe giging the narrowness of sound is fine...cuts. But in a quiet padded room....I lean to hardware layers for rich sonics and quick reaction. DIN midi seems fine (via UNITOR). But more often I just play the piano and wonder why I am fiddling with the VSTs and layers. For variety I open the lid. It seems to sound incredible closed, tipped and open. It varies with time of day, probably because I let the temp drop to 50ish at night. I regard that as a feature.

[Nowarezman]

I bought the EastWest Quantum Leap pianos a long time ago and they still totally charm me. The Bechstein in particular, but they are all great.

 

When I want something more indie or 60s-ish, I mess around with the NI Giant or other NI uprights.

 

nat

[Keepitsimple]

Ravenscroft for me. The only piano library that brings out the best in me in terms of playing and composing. Brilliant velocity scripting by those guys at VI Labs. It makes me forget (temporarily) about the C7X in a store near me that i used to daydream about daily.

[drawback]

Ravenscroft for me. The only piano library that brings out the best in me in terms of playing and composing. Brilliant velocity scripting by those guys at VI Labs. It makes me forget (temporarily) about the C7X in a store near me that i used to daydream about daily.

 

Compared with most others I"ve played, there"s a sense of aged wood in the sound that"s hard to describe. It"s just so earthy and versatile. I get a similar vibe in the demos of the Embertone but have yet to purchase it.

 

I"m also partial to the UVI interface and M.O. as opposed to Kontakt and any standalone I"ve worked with.

[Mark Schmieder]

I've spent all weekend on the new 280VC from VSL Synchron Pianos and have incrementally written up details and reviews at vi-control. No energy to re-do it here or to even summarize beyond a basic statement that this is now my primary go-to piano for almost every project. Incredibly versatile, articulate, clear, balanced, three-dimensional, realistic, easy-to-mix.

 

Much of its strength comes from the design of the piano itself, which is a new concept quite different from the Imperial and to my ears closer to my favourite first-hand-experience piano, which is Mason & Hamlin. But it has so much DNA from so many brands and models, that it almost seems like it's the best of all worlds, and Stage B vs. Synchron Stage means it fits into almost any project and blends with other instruments and spaces quite well.

 

If you do a lot of left-hand/right-hand split playing, this is the piano for you. No other virtual piano makes it sound like a real player who has dedicated separate parts to the two hands. The mid range has the most clarity of any, as well as the biggest dynamic range, so this ends up being my first choice for quiet impressionistic ballads as well as loud pieces where the piano needs to cut through the mix without sounding like banging.

 

Granted, as with all VSL Synchron Pianos, a lot of time is required to fine-tune your own mix presets. I may post mine soon, but I'm not yet positive I have my final settings, especially on the two or three where I actually take a little bit of advantage of the Reverb channel in the mix (usually I shut it off).

 

I am now 100% Synchron Pianos based. I just have to find out if C. Bechstein Digital allows resale. That was the last one in my template, and I used it a lot, but now I have replaced it everywhere, with 280VC now being my preferred piano on ALL of my jazz pieces, even beyond the Steinway D-274. Possibly if VSL does a Steinway B-series on the B-Stage, that might change a bit. But the timbre of the 280VC is so well balanced that I don't find myself missing the sound of a Steinway when I'm using it.

 

I have applied the 280VC to impressionistic music, ballads, pop/rock, jazz, Latin, Caribbean, etc. I'm still using the other Synchron Pianos as well, but the 280VC probably now gets the most use of any of them.