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NI Komplete Pianos...


Sam CA

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Thanks for those! I'm probably going to eventually get Komplete, since I want Kontakt (and getting Komplete makes sense if you are already spending that much....). The pianos will be nice icing on the cake. I think The Gentleman would take over upright duties, though I'm currently using CFX Lite from Garritan for grand. It would be interesting to compare Alicia's Keys to CFX lite.

 

My dastardly plan is to pick up Komplete Select (which includes The Gentleman) and then upgrade when they hopefully have a summer sale :) Other than Kontakt, I'm curious about Reaktor and the upcoming Massive X, as well as some of the effects like Replika. I think I'd get a lot of use out of FM8 as well, fm makes a nice counterpoint to the more analog-sounding virtual synths.

 

 

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Sam, I tried to delete a post I made and the best I could come up with was to reduce it to an empty post. The website is in my signature and was not intended as a response to your question. Sorry for the confusion.

 

My bad. No worries! I liked your tracks anyways.

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Thanks for those! I'm probably going to eventually get Komplete, since I want Kontakt (and getting Komplete makes sense if you are already spending that much....). The pianos will be nice icing on the cake. I think The Gentleman would take over upright duties, though I'm currently using CFX Lite from Garritan for grand. It would be interesting to compare Alicia's Keys to CFX lite.

 

My dastardly plan is to pick up Komplete Select (which includes The Gentleman) and then upgrade when they hopefully have a summer sale :) Other than Kontakt, I'm curious about Reaktor and the upcoming Massive X, as well as some of the effects like Replika. I think I'd get a lot of use out of FM8 as well, fm makes a nice counterpoint to the more analog-sounding virtual synths.

 

 

I bought the Ultimate and NOT the collector edition? because I thought Collector has more content for electronic musicians and Maschine users. That was true, but what I missed was the full orchestral versions. I didn't reazlie ULTIMATE didn't come with full orchestral libraries. Other than that I could care less about loops and electronic samples.

 

NI's pricing is so weird. They had a %50 sale for Orchestral libraries, but that was the same as if I upgraded from Ultimate to collector! Now they have that new Mallet library, so I figured I'll just upgrade the whole thing next year.

 

There's so much in there that I'll never use. All those drum libraries and stuff. Too bad they don't let you pick and choose a set number of libraries. That's what I don't like about NI.

www.youtube.com/c/InTheMixReviews
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I just finished installing Collector's Edition last night. A few hiccups here and there due to going from Sierra to Mojave over the weekend (in four increments along the way, with backups at each stage), and due to so many conflicts with debris left over from over ten years worth of various Native Instruments installations and updates, but I think everything is 100% fine now (I'll verify tonight once home).

 

I haven't had a chance to try the orchestral stuff yet as a result of getting so detailed this time in trying to clean out unneeded files and doing fresh installations of unchanged products in the suite. Part of this was motivated also by the change in file systems on the main drive (no longer Mac OS Extended). I recommend this approach for people who can set aside the time, as it allows Native Access to better figure out what's current.

Eugenio Upright, 60th Anniversary P-Bass, USA Geddy Lee J-Bass, Yamaha BBP35, D'angelico SS Bari, EXL1,

Select Strat, 70th Anniversary Esquire, LP 57, Eastman T486, T64, Ibanez PM2, Hammond XK4, Moog Voyager

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Agreed, I wish they had more of a pick and choose system. Their whole upgrade and pricing structure seems way too needlessly complex...I wonder if they have painted themselves into a corner at this point. Either that, or the complexity serves them even if it annoys us :)

 

Massive X is a wildcard for me, as I do electronic stuff. Not sure how much I'd use their instrument packs though.

 

I don't do much in the way of orchestral (I'd be lost in the woods trying!) but that's good stuff to know.

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I just finished installing Collector's Edition last night. ...

 

I'm on a windows 8.1 turnkey system. I also had some old NI content, so I uninstalled everything and did a fresh install. It went pretty well.

 

NI Orchestral content are not top-notch but VERY useful. It's so easy to work with them in real time.

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Speaking of "old" Kontakt pianos. I remember quite liking the August Foerster piano from K2. It was unique, and didn't work for everything, but incredibly rich and dark. I sort of feel the same way with The Giant... it sounds beautiful on many studio recordings when I can really tweak it to the material, but as a "one-size-fits-all" for live use, it just never sat well in the mix.

Puck Funk! :)

 

Equipment: Laptop running lots of nerdy software, some keyboards, noise makersâ¦yada yada yadaâ¦maybe a cat?

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Speaking of "old" Kontakt pianos. I remember quite liking the August Foerster piano from K2. It was unique, and didn't work for everything, but incredibly rich and dark. I sort of feel the same way with The Giant... it sounds beautiful on many studio recordings when I can really tweak it to the material, but as a "one-size-fits-all" for live use, it just never sat well in the mix.

 

I don't remember playing The August Forster piano at all.

 

'The Giant' is NOT as forgiving as The Grandeur and the rest of the NI pianos. Aside from tone and character, that's the biggest difference performance wise. I can warm up on just about any keyboard or piano, sit and play those NI pianos and do ok, but not with The Giant. You have to know your midi controller very well, and warm up playing The Giant before you're able to deliver convincing results as a pianist. Yesterday, I warmed up like for 20 minutes before I recorded the video I posted yesterday, and still didn't get it right. You really have to master its velocity response across the entire range to make it shine.

 

That's exactly why most people don't like it, because either they don't take their time learning the instrument or they just run a midi through it, thinking a few pencil edits can make it work.

 

Unless one is doing super simple ideas, it's not an easy library to mess with.

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  • 1 month later...

Here's a demo for NI's Hybrid Keys. It's mainly geared toward sound design and ambient/electronic type of recordings. First impression: I did not like it at all! You just have to give it a chance. Once you get used to it, you'll find it very useful indeed!

 

 

[video:youtube]

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Yep, I see myself using it too. I didn't even notice it until the other day, so gave it a spin with no preconceptions, which helped a lot as I didn't know if it was trying to be an e-piano or what. I think it might serve some purpose in ambient music. Anyway, it was "free". :-)

Eugenio Upright, 60th Anniversary P-Bass, USA Geddy Lee J-Bass, Yamaha BBP35, D'angelico SS Bari, EXL1,

Select Strat, 70th Anniversary Esquire, LP 57, Eastman T486, T64, Ibanez PM2, Hammond XK4, Moog Voyager

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It's a nice little instrument that has its place. It's just not as straight forward as a traditional NI Piano which is a good thing. I'm glad it's not another piano or e-piano.
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Now that I have Komplete Select, I have The Gentleman. Not sure I like it--the general sound is good but it just doesn't seem that dynamic or have much depth to the sound. I'm used to Garritan CFX (lite) though, and it makes my other pianos feel that way too.

 

I need to mess with velocity curves before passing judgement. My ancient Studiologic 990 pro always requires tweaking, the controls on it no longer work and pianos always sound too strident/bright out of the box....gently playing yields a sound like you are mashing on the thing.

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Now that I have Komplete Select, I have The Gentleman. Not sure I like it--the general sound is good but it just doesn't seem that dynamic or have much depth to the sound. I'm used to Garritan CFX (lite) though, and it makes my other pianos feel that way too.

 

I need to mess with velocity curves before passing judgement. My ancient Studiologic 990 pro always requires tweaking, the controls on it no longer work and pianos always sound too strident/bright out of the box....gently playing yields a sound like you are mashing on the thing.

 

The Gentleman feels ok when I play it with Kronos. One thing about velocity curves that some libraries offer (Such as Keyscape). I just hate it. Like I select the velocity curve for Kronos and it make the key response ridiculously strange! I just use the generic default setting.

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