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Your default piano patch/practicing in a synth vs piano/and others...


Rod S

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Question for you guys.... we've had a few threads on the perfect piano patch and stuff, but I want to put a different spin to the question.

 

What piano do you as your 'default' piano sound? Not to record, just the 1st one you thinking of bringing up one you just want to jam a bit and/or practice. The one you like (or at least endure :) ) enough that you can practice with it without having to eq/process it, and feels to you at least somewhat like a real piano. What controller do you use?

 

On my way home I stopped by the music school where I take classes to practice a little (I like to get into a real piano once in a while since I developed a few bad habits with the kurz) and ended up getting stuck with this lousy upright. My conclusion : I'll take my kurz over a lot of the pianos they have there. So it led to this thread... I've also been asked to play at friend's houses, and was shocked at how bad the piano was. I've often complained that I would like to have a real piano at home, but maybe I'm not as worse off as I think I am :)

 

Mine varies, but nowadays I mix the kurzweil pc88mx 'classical 440' with the Alesis 'true stereo', at approx 50/50 volume levels (played with the kurz). I always felt the alesis has 'punch' but lacks a 'foundation' (alright, bad description), and the kurz is the other way around. OK, there are punchier pianos in the kurz, but they are also brighter. This combination seems to work pretty well for general practicing and playing. The kurz is close enough to a real piano as far as action, I think, lacking a bit in dynamics but if you mess around enough with velocity curves and offsets you can usually set it to your liking.

 

Practicing and playing piano with a unweighted keybed is a bitch for me. I hate it, I can never get the dynamic of my playing quite right.

 

In summary...

 

What do you guys use as your main sound? Are you happy with it? Do you feel it's a really tough trade off to have to practice with that vs a real piano, in terms of sound and action?

 

Your thoughts please...

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

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I think the best piano patch I have is the Gigapiano, but I rarely use it for noodling, rather preferring two patches from the QS 8 -- the Dark Classic with all but a touch of the reverb removed, and the Boriano, a custom patch by, um, Boris, which I prefer to the True Stereo 'cause Boris softened a bit of the bite. A bit of the bite? What the hell am I on tonight?

 

I like darker pianos, recorded at a noticeable distance, slightly out of tune. Except when I'm in the mood for something else...

Check out the Sweet Clementines CD at bandcamp
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The best piano sound I have in my studio is the one from my grand piano :P

 

My favorite sampled piano comes from the Keysolutions vol.1 CDRom for the Kurzweil. It's a 64 meg sample of a famous Steinway D used by Horowitz and others, with excellent VAST programming from our member Mike Martin of Kurzweil. I use it for recording AND playing around with ideas, it really sings when played from the Fatar 2001. My favorite patch is "Expressive Grand".

 

Would I *practice* on that? Yes! But every time I can, I run to the real one. Sad to say, but if you don't practice on a decent grand, you're missing a lot. I've played all the digitals. If the choice is beetween an old, beaten upright and a *really good* digital/sampled piano, maybe I would go for the latter. But only in that case.

 

Carlo

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Nice Thread... Whenever I can, (i.e. the kids are not asleep, or wanting my attention) I play my baby Grand, although it needs a little work with the hammers, etc. It still is a pleasure to play.

 

Otherwise, and for most of my noodling and recording, I play my Yamaha s80, opting for the "bright piano" patch through a pair of Events PS8's. I haven't had much success layering the s80 patches with the QSR's True Stereo patch and any of the Kurz Micro Piano patches, as I always get phase problems or different tunings which end up sounding real funky especially on the higher registers.

 

Albert

Gear: Yamaha MODX8, Mojo 61, NS2 73, C. Bechstein baby grand.

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I like the "Nice Piano" patch off of the Roland 1080, mixed with the onboard, regular, start up piano sound from my KR-575 (digital Roland piano). The Nice Piano patch is hard to play very loud, but when mixed with the onboard sound from the 575, the result is actually quite nice-it adds more of a punch to the sometimes soft, mushy, yet potent (powerwise) digital piano. BTW-when using the Nice Piano patch, I usually just turn off the 3rd tone, which I believe is supposed to be a hammer click or something-it sounds all "clang-y" and horrible. I'd probably never play the two seperately, but, yeah, I'd probably record with them (of course, for the time being, I don't have very many options...). And yes, the KR-575 has 88 weighted keys that are sufficient enough for me (I'd use the Yammy U1, and do as much as possible, but earphones are sometimes required ;) ).
"Bach is ever new"-Glenn Gould
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I go with the "Stereo Concert 3" patch on the VE-RD 1 board installed in my Roland A-70 controller. I use a weighted keyboard -- Fatar SL 1100. Very pleasing combination.

 

Striker, the best Roland piano sound for the JV-1080 (IMHO) is the Concert Grand on the Session Board (which is derived from the VE-RD 1 board). If you haven't checked it out yet, give it a listen. :)

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I have been using a Roland RD600 for several years and it is a really good piano source. My opinion on the *best* samples has changed over time, and each has its place.

 

For playing alone, the Stereo Concert 7 is a great sound. It has the best dynamic response. I have tweaked the parameters pretty significantly to get it where it sounds the best, to my ears.

 

I also like the Stereo Concert 6 for loud rock gigs because it cuts well and still sounds very warm and robust.

 

The RD600 is a class act across the board.

 

Regards,

Eric

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I use either the grand or stage piano sound (stretched) on my Kurzweil SP-76 when playing it by itself. They may lack a little in dynamics, but they have a fairly accurate tone to them, especially the upper end.(have a 5 foot baby grand at the house) When I play live, I use the non-stretched stage piano sound on the Kurzweil with the dance piano sound on a Yamaha S03. This gives the sound more dynamics and brightens it up a bit to help cut through the mix. I also use the same Kurzweil sound with the DigiRich sound on the Yamaha for a modern digital piano sound.

Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK-1 + Ventilator, Korg Triton. 2 JBL Eon 510's.

 

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I use the "grand" patch of my CS6x, since that is the only thing I have at the moment with a piano sounds, for gigs that is. I tweaked it a little, more sustain, less high and more mid and bass but it still kinda sucks. I ordered a P120S which I hope to get within a week from now. On that one I will use "piano 1" without the variation. This one is very versatile while the other piano patches are too much rock 'n' roll and who needs a honky-tonk... But I won't practice on it. I have practiced on my Rhodes but you have to watch out for your touch. A good piano still always feels better to practice on than a good digital one so I'll stick to my grand for practicing.

http://www.bobwijnen.nl

 

Hipness is not a state of mind, it's a fact of life.

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Interesting replies, thanks.

 

Seems most people 'settle' for either the patch in a digital piano or a patch in one of the expansion boards, as well as trying to layering sounds from different boards. Seems like most folks seem to be pretty happy with having to practice in a synth/ep vs a real piano.

 

Originally posted by marino:

Would I *practice* on that? Yes! But every time I can, I run to the real one. Sad to say, but if you don't practice on a decent grand, you're missing a lot. I've played all the digitals. If the choice is beetween an old, beaten upright and a *really good* digital/sampled piano, maybe I would go for the latter. But only in that case.

I would love to be able to practice on a grand once in a while. Impossible for me right now; a pity, since I really love doing that. As I said, I can't really bitch, I've had piano players come to my house and they though my set up sounded pretty damn good.

 

I really have to stop being lazy (and cheap :eek: ) and setup my kurz k2000 to use sample libraries on CD and buy some sample CD's with piano sounds. I have my eye of Mike's CD, and also the one from bolder sounds. I'm really mad I didn't pick up a SCSI CD ROM when I left the US, since the prices down here for it are outrageous.

 

Superbobus - You really need another piano sound. That one in the cs6x is gawd awful :D

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

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Originally posted by Superbobus:

I know but aren't they all? :D Guess why the GAS came up. I'll take revenge when my P120S arrives... ;)

I think you'll be pretty happy with your P120. Be sure to listen to it through a good quality amp and speakers, though - the built-in amp and speakers really don't do it justice.

 

I've got several piano sounds to choose from at home, but no acoustic piano, unfortunately. I just don't have room for a grand. I might get an upright one of these days.

 

In my collection I've got a P120, a P80 (which will probably be sold soon), a MicroPiano, a TritonRack (with the first Piano&ClassicKeys expansion card (not the new ConcertGrandPiano exp card, which I may end up getting), plus a couple other piano sounds in romplers. I've also got a Roland P55 "Sound Canvas Piano" module - anyone remember those? It was a little module that had an 8MB Rom with only piano and electric piano sounds in it. It was similar to the piano sound in the Sound Canvas, only better. Actually, it sounds a lot like "Nice Piano" from the JV1080, except slightly better. If I don't feel like getting up and walking over to my P120, this is my "goto" piano patch when I'm in sequencer land. The MicroPiano sounds better in a recording, but the P55 is more fun to play, it responds more like a real piano. To me, playing the P55 is like playing an upright.

 

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