pseudo67 Posted June 13, 2001 Share Posted June 13, 2001 I'm looking to purchase a piano sound module for my digital piano. I've heard that the GEM RealPiano expander is one of the best sounding modules but is no longer produced and so is hard to find. Also I've heard that the Oberheim MiniGrand is excellent. I like to play classical and jazz piano. Any advice offered on this subject will be truly appreciated. Cost is a factor so a demo/used unit is okay. Thanx for listening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steadyb Posted June 13, 2001 Share Posted June 13, 2001 The Alesis NanoPiano is quite good. (If you can find one.} Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Horne Posted June 13, 2001 Share Posted June 13, 2001 Hi, I too once searched for the best piano module and was _always_ disappointed. The Kurzweil MicroPiano is probably the best piano sound that you'll find in a module, ____but____ once you buy a sampler and load in a piano sample that is considerably larger in file size than the Kurzweil, you'll appreciate the difference. I also bought the piano card for the Roland 2080 and was disappointed until I bought my sampler and piano CD-ROM. There are a handful of very well known (and used in professional situations) piano samples. I wound up buying William Coakley's Perfect Piano Vol 3 for $400 plus shipping. Now, that's pricey, I know and I bought it without hearing it first. While I am not 100% happy with the sound, it really does sound excellent in a live situation. I always get compliments from other musicians when I use it on a job. As far as home use goes, I practice on a Yamaha GranTouch 1 (GT1) which is a hybrid piano - a real piano action (hammers, but no strings) and a sampled piano sound. The dynamic range of that piano is better that the dynamic range I get from my CD-ROM sample (and my Roland A-80 midi-controller). That's the long and the short of it. You will never be happy with a piano module when you hear a decent sample loaded into a sampler. The Kurzweil is probably 4 megs compressed and 8 or so uncompressed. My sampler has 256 megs of RAM so the size of the sample is never an issue. The sample size of the Wm. Coakley CD-ROM that I use is in excess of 60 megs. Incidentally, the sample size of the Yamaha GT1 is 30 megs and for my money, that Yamaha GT1 has the best sounding sample I have ever heard. If Yamaha would ever market that sample in a module, that would be the one to buy. All the best, Dave Horne - The Netherlands No guitarists were harmed during the making of this message. In general, harmonic complexity is inversely proportional to the ratio between chording and non-chording instruments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Llarion Posted June 13, 2001 Share Posted June 13, 2001 The Proteus 2000 by EMU has 2 or three REALLY nice piano samples. They aren't as good as the ones in my Roland RD-500 piano, which I trigger the Proteus with (not as many samples per note), but for a $700 module, I don't think you can touch the Proteus for versatility and sound... ------------------ Cheers! Phil "Llarion: The Jazzinator" Traynor www.mp3.com/llarion Smooth Jazz Cheers! Phil "Llarion: The Jazzinator" Traynor www.llarion.com Smooth Jazz - QUESTION AUTHORITY. Go ahead, ask me anything. http://www.llarion.com/images/dichotomybanner.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magpel Posted June 13, 2001 Share Posted June 13, 2001 On the high end, the best piano module would be a computer in a rugged road-worthy box with gigasampler and a good stereo soundcard in it. Then take your pick: the Gigapiano, the East-West Steinway and Bosendorfer, The ones by Hans what's his name. They're all breathtaking in their own way. Of course, by this point, your piano module is up to several grand... Magpel Check out the Sweet Clementines CD at bandcamp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krakit Posted June 13, 2001 Share Posted June 13, 2001 I have NEVER been a fan of Yamaha piano sounds, but I fell in love with the Yamaha S series synths in this regard (S03, S30 and S80) . As far as I can determing, there are no modules for this yet, but I'm planning on getting one if/when there is one out. Yes, I said Yamaha. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MusicaL Posted June 13, 2001 Share Posted June 13, 2001 Krakit I second your opinion. I love my s80 piano patches . . . I have compared them to Roland's, Kurzweil's, and Alesis and although none are anywhere close to a real acoustic piano sound, the Yamaha is the most realistic. . . Albert Gear: Yamaha MODX8, Mojo 61, NS2 73, C. Bechstein baby grand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rod S Posted June 15, 2001 Share Posted June 15, 2001 Originally posted by Krakit: I have NEVER been a fan of Yamaha piano sounds, but I fell in love with the Yamaha S series synths in this regard (S03, S30 and S80) . As far as I can determing, there are no modules for this yet, but I'm planning on getting one if/when there is one out. Yes, I said Yamaha. You can always get a cs6r with the piano plg card... I heard the piano sounds in that are quite good as well. Korg Kronos X73 / ARP Odyssey / Motif ES Rack / Roland D-05 / JP-08 / SE-05 / Jupiter Xm / Novation Mininova / NL2X / Waldorf Pulse II MBP-LOGIC American Deluxe P-Bass, Yamaha RBX760 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guestuserguestuser.com Posted June 15, 2001 Share Posted June 15, 2001 Originally posted by pseudo67: I'm looking to purchase a piano sound module for my digital piano. I've heard that the GEM RealPiano expander is one of the best sounding modules but is no longer produced and so is hard to find. Also I've heard that the Oberheim MiniGrand is excellent. I like to play classical and jazz piano. Any advice offered on this subject will be truly appreciated. Cost is a factor so a demo/used unit is okay. Thanx for listening. I don't think anyone's mentioned the Kurzweil PC2rack yet. This is an excellent piano module, it's a Kurzweil PC2 in a rack. Check it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MusicWorkz Posted June 15, 2001 Share Posted June 15, 2001 Originally posted by pseudo67: I'm looking to purchase a piano sound module for my digital piano. I've heard that the GEM RealPiano expander is one of the best sounding modules but is no longer produced and so is hard to find. Also I've heard that the Oberheim MiniGrand is excellent. I like to play classical and jazz piano. Any advice offered on this subject will be truly appreciated. Cost is a factor so a demo/used unit is okay. Thanx for listening. The perfect piano sound is the holy grail for most keyboard players. Every generation they get better, but in my experience, it takes a sampler-based piano to come the closest to the real deal. In the event you do not have a sampler, and since you did not give a budget to work with, then the next best options IMHO are: Kurzweil-for live playing, they are about the best out there. The newest module, PC2 rack has wonderful sounds. If you can afford the K2600 module, you will be very happy. Roland-Next to Kurzweil, I think they have better sounding piano samples than Korg or Yamaha in their modules. They cut well on tracks. Korg-While not my favorite, the samples on the Triton mixed with other stuff (i.e. Roland) sit well in a mix. You can also load in your own samples, too, so you get the best of both worlds. Alesis-I was actully surprised by the Nano-piano. I laid a track with that module and a Roland 2080 piano and it worked well. My $0.02 in a $1.00 world.. Yamaha (Motif XS7, Motif 6, TX81Z), Korg (R3, Triton-R), Roland (XP-30, D-50, Juno 6, P-330). Novation A Station, Arturia Analog Experience Factory 32 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan O Posted June 15, 2001 Share Posted June 15, 2001 You may want to try out the Roland JV1010 . Dano www.esnips.com/web/SongsfromDanO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krakit Posted June 15, 2001 Share Posted June 15, 2001 Since I don't have a Yammy module that sounds like their S series synths, I'll tell you how I get my favorite piano sounds. I use the QSR and my Roland RD100 and layer them. Using the Rolands "Piano 1" and the QSR's "True Stereo" together I adjust the Roland's brightness fader to half and put the level of the QSR to just under that of the Roland. This get's me a very satisfactory and harmonically natural sounding piano. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mreddyson Posted July 21, 2001 Share Posted July 21, 2001 I have yet to see a keyboardist with a band using their laptop onstage live as their main digital piano sample or for Rhodes (Emagic Plug in). They all seem to be still using digital pianos by Roland, Kurzweil or Yamaha. Why is that? Is the nuance so subtle that in a live band setting that it's not worth the hassle? The hassle of what? If one wants to use a Gigasampler on a laptop live, for example with East West's Stienway B sample, and ALSO be able to switch to Emagic's Computer Plug in Rhodes, wouldn't that require opening and closing back and forth between Gigasampler and Logic? That would be very time consuming, wouldn't it? Check this out. Purgatory Creek did a Digital Piano Shoot out using the the same MIDI file, they made an MP3 for each digital piano. You can hear for yourself the difference between a real Steinway, Gigasampler, P80, PC2x, Xv-88 AND the SRX-02.http://www.purgatorycreek.com/pianocompare.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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