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Sweetwater is recommending Ivory Grand II. Any thoughts? I'm looking for top-notch concert grand sounds.

Check out Garritan Steinway:

http://www.garritan.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=105&Itemid=55

Galaxy Vintage D is great and v2 is coming in the next few weeks.

I second the Garritan Steinway...I tried many before but this one I love the best..
Good Luck!

sry I meant galaxy. was reading the posts and not thinking.

Ivory II Grand Pianos is a stellar product. Here is a great review from Keyboard Magazine here: http://www.keyboardmag.com/article/synthogy-ivory-ii/March-2011/127985

The Vienna instruments Imperial grand is a very fine virtual piano for classical playing. Needs quite a powerful computer to handle it.

Thanks for feedback everyone.

Well, I listened to the Garritan samples and just wasn't as impressed as I was by the Ivory Grand II samples. I almost decided to try it out anyway, being only $100 for basic version, but decided to go the other way - just ordered Ivory, figuring I can always try the Garritan later. I appreciate everyone's comments.

Forgive me for the novice question, but if I purchase a "virtual piano," does that mean I can change any MIDI file to that sound? Is it a relatively easy process? What free programs will allow me to do that? Thanks for the help.

And just out of curiosity, are there more Ivoury or Garritan users on this forum? Or is it one of those hotly contested debates?

The Garritan and Ivory II Steinways are my two favorite virtual pianos. I jump back and forth between them depending on what I'm playing. FWIW, I think listening to the samples/demo of virtual pianos is less than worthless if you are going to play them live, because they are misleading (even when not doctored after the fact) and give you no idea what they are like to actually play. It just happens that some of my favorite sounding demos are from EWQL, which are by far my least favorite to play (and least favorite sound) virtual pianos.

I got the distinct feeling that what you are saying is true, Macy. So many recommendations for Garritan must mean it is better in person than my impression of it from their online demo. My decision to start with Ivory is based not just on their demo, but also on the recommendation from the Sweetwater salesman who seemed to have a lot of experience-based knowledge and a strong opinion, reinforced by some positive comments here. I'm glad to see that both Ivory and Garritan are recommended. For the relatively small cost, I'll probably wind up getting the Garritan as well at some point. Thank you for your input.

Key.... "best" most enjoyable to play?

Or "best" sounds most like a professionally recorded piano?

Can't have it both ways, at least, not yet. Nothing on the market accomplishes both. There's a patch in a very dated sample set "wet" pmi bos which is not great to play, but which is profoundly convincing as a recorded piano sound.

We listen, of course, to all these "demo" classical pieces reproduced on the various piano vsts out there, trying to decide which sounds, I guess, the most "lifelike."

In my view, NONE of the most current samples "sounds" like a well-recorded BOS or Steinway or Yamaha. But some are pretty fun to play all the same.

JG

Interesting to see the PMI B290 mentioned - is that the same one in QL Goliath? I tried it for the first time yesterday, but I prefer the Bosey in QL Pianos - there seems to be more timbral dynamic range in QL Pianos. I also found a pitch error in the PMI (Wet) within minutes - bizarre. (Note A0 in a certain velocity range, with the sustain pedal, is playing at pitch B0! Maybe there's something wrong with my copy/install of the product. Applied the update but didn't fix it)

EDIT: I've just realised - I would be missing out on the convolution resonance that the PMI has in Gigastudio - correct? Probably not completely fair to use the Goliath version for comparison.

I think some of the demo recordings of sampled pianos sound absolutely fantastic - QL Pianos (I've got this one - it doesn't PLAY well, but it sounds very good), Vintage D, & Artvista VGP for example. I also think some DP recordings sound excellent.

Greg.

Hmm. Bit of an older thread. Some posters may not be around any more.

Anyway, the Ivory suite is definitely quality. I'm quite curious to hear their new American Steinway, which appears to have the best specs of anything they have done to date. Galaxy is quality, especially my favorite, Vintage D. Garritan is quality, though I think they must either be thinking of discontinuing or coming out with a new version as the "standard" and "pro" versions are no longer for sale.

EWQL apparently does not support half pedal (can anyone verify this?), which is kind of required for a decent VST in my opinion. I've definitely heard it has playability issues. VSL definitely does not support partial pedal. I would steer clear of both (though they may make great recordings, as johngrant sort of mentioned...depends on how clean your pedal technique is).

Yes, my understanding is that EW QL Pianos does not support half-pedalling, however I have never tried it. I can confirm however that it does not support RE-pedalling.

Greg.

Could always try them at http://www.try-sound.com (at least Galaxy and Ivory are there). It's laggy of course, but to get an idea of how it sounds like it's usually enough.

I can't comment of which is better? You won't be disappointed with Ivory II. You can actually change the piano so much that you create your own piano sound. The amount of settings is mind boggling to a beginner.

How does it work? Presumably you use this software with a keyboard that then produces the sound of the Steinway, but what keyboard--any digital? certain special digitals? Disklaviers? Forgive my ignorance but I'm lost here . . .

I found pianoteq very good too, very easy to use, a lot of customization and v.4 should come out soon ...

Moreover, since it's pure model (no samples), it can run on very modest setups.

Regards

Olivier

For a serious classical pianist there are some mandatory piano features such as:
- half-pedaling
- repedaling
- string resonance
- damper resonance
- silent replay

There are currently only three software pianos to support all those: Ivory II, Galaxy Pianos, Pianoteq. (I am not sure if Galaxy and Ivory support silent replay though, but I believe they do). Pianoteq is great in playability but arguably suffers in sound, to me it sounds artificially metallic and boxy. Galaxy is OK, however there is no true repedaling, only "first-time repedalin" which is kind of buggy. This leaves only The Grand II. I have never actually tried The Grand II, but I have The Grand 1 (no half-pedaling and no string-resonance) and I am in love with it, mainly with the Steinway sound. I strongly believe version II would be even better. And they have just announced there will be a newer American Steinway.

In summary: I would recommend only Ivory II as the only software piano with convincing sound, great playability and realistic piano features for a classical pianist.