Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Best piano VST

That's correct, of course, the more GB the higher tends to be the sound fidelity (up to a point). Bottom-mid-priced DPs are no mach to software in this regard.

And, it seems, the high-priced pianos are no match either. Even the AG's sample size can't compare to the Ivory/Galaxy libraries.

Just remember that not everyone can afford (or wants) to buy a $7000 V-Piano in order to get the two piano sounds it comes with. You can buy many, many, many VST's for that amount of money and then you will have a lot more variety and flexibility.

Yes, there is a vocal minority of people that think the V is better than Ivory in various ways. Is it 25x better? Because it costs 25 times as much, and you really just get two piano sounds with it.

For some people a V investment makes sense because of their budget and preferences. Looking over all the threads including discussion of the V piano over the last few years, I conclude that that group of people is not large, which is why a V-piano recommendation in a VST thread is always a subject of controversy.

The number of people who feel that VST's are better than the V piano in every respect that matters is much larger. And as a bonus we can all afford our VST's as well.

Good to know that you are in the 1% of the smart people here.

gvfarns - I understand the points about V-Piano, and agree. But, as a matter of fact, I referred to Yamaha P140 in my comments.

I'm trying to keep V-Piano discussions to a minimum lately not to annoy anyone even more

I'm considering a VST cause I play a few gigs where there is already a DP that management expects you to play except they're old technology and sound like sh*t. I'd buy a module if there was one available.

I guess that puts me in a different group. I'm happy with my home piano and I like my gigging piano.

? Say I want a Galaxy D or Ivory II do I just buy that particular software and an external sound card? I own a laptop with an i7 and 8gigs of ram. How much money am I spending on this? anyone?

Yes. Just be aware that if you get Ivory you also need to get an iLok. I spent $150 or so on Vintage D and like $150 on my external sound card.

I'm not sure I'd gig with a software piano, though. They can be a little finicky some times and you don't want to end up without sounds. I guess you could always switch back to the onboard sounds if there's a problem with your VST...

Hey alekkh I must admit I do prefer my inbuilt digital piano in regards to playability its not got a very nice inbuilt sound to it at all but i prefer the playability of it to ivory 2 and end up playing it more, the digital piano I have is a Kawai cl25, however I need a good piano sound for recording some solo piano pieces and most digital piano wont give me the sound i want to make a good piano recording, plus I unfortunatly dont have the money for a new digital piano with a better inbuilt sound, the problem ive found with ivory 2 is that it really doesnt give good ff, or pp dynamics or plays to high in volume in soft passages and lacks in the powerful bass, which to me makes the playability not very good as I cant get lots of dynamics in my recordings, it has a lovely piano sound in my opinion but lacks in important areas to me. looking at the demos on east west site they seem to have good dynamics and a powerful bass, and good ff dynamics however I dont want to pay out money if this isnt the case.

I was checking comparison on Youtube and Vintage D screenshot was Kontakt. Does that mean besides Galaxy Vingage D and soundcard I also have to purchase Kontakt - isn't that another $500?

No. Galaxy Vintage D comes with the "runtime" version of Kontakt. It isn't the fullblown version but it works fine.

I just went down to Guitar Center to ask a few questions. So they're saying you need a DAW to run a VST. You're telling me Galaxy Vintage D plays through Runtime Kontakt, which is a simple version of a DAW?

What do people use for external sound card? If I buy Galaxy pianos with runtime Kontakt, can I then buy a VST electric piano and run it also through the same runtime?

You don't a DAW you need a host. Stand alone host, no DAW needed. Or plugin host that runs from within a DAW.

USB and firewire are both more than fast enough for both MIDI and audio. In fact, most audio interfaces are USB 1.0. Like, the one we used back in the 1990's. Firewire has been preferred historically in audio/video applications not so much because of throughput but beacause it streams without sputtering. That is, the maximum latency is lower or something. But anyway, with recent versions of USB and Firewire it isn't a big deal as far as I know.

The whole situation with workstation audio is really obnoxious, but here's how it works:

Vintage D is a plugin for Kontakt. Kontakt has a runtime version that just plays live that comes with Vintage D and is free. You can't do simple things like record what you are playing or play a MIDI file, but you can play your piano. I can't actually figure out what the paid version of Kontakt does that the free one will not. It seems silly to me that it costs a lot of money.

Kontakt (including the free version), in turn, can be a plugin for a VST host, which will allow you to record audio or midi and play midi files. That kind of thing. There are some VST hosts that are free, though I have yet to find a good one that will both play and record audio and midi for free. Most are cheap. The best free ones I've seen are minihost and MultiTrackStudio.

There are other more advanced DAW software as well, but I don't use them. Well, I guess I use audacity for modifying wav files and rendering them to mp3.

Let's try to understand your problem and fix it.

You said Ivory 2 "doesnt give good ff, ..."

Is the problem you perceive that Ivory 2 doesn't play loud enough when you play ff, or that you don't like the timbre of the sound when you play ff? What are the MIDI values that your keyboard typically produces when you are playing ff? Did you adjust the velocity curve of Ivory 2 (or an external program) to produce velocity of values in the 115-127 range when you play ff?

"...or pp dynamics or plays to high in volume in soft passages"."

You are apparently saying Ivory 2 is too loud when you play pp. So what are the typical MIDI values your keyboard produces when you are playing pp? Did you adjust the velocity curve in Ivory 2 (or an external program) to make the MIDI values smaller when you play pp?

If you don't like the rate of transition in the pp or ff range then adjust the Velocity Curve shape. In Ivory II you can adjust the shape and curvature of the velocity curve, so it is more sensitive to small changes in velocity near the pp end of the dynamic range or near the ff end. Have you adjusted that?

After you have adjusted the velocity curves (or are sure they are covering the MIDI range with the shape you want) you can then change the dynamic range control in Ivory II to get just about whatever dynamic range you want between pp and ff. Have you adjusted the dynamic range control (which varies from 0 to 60 dB) after you set the velocity curve correctly? You would typically set it higher for classical music where you want a wider loudness range between pp and ff.

" ... and lacks in the powerful bass,"

Have you adjusted the EQ in Ivory II? There is low shelf control that can be used to make the bass boom or disappear, or do anything in between. You can set the cutoff frequency and gain in the lower shelf region (there is also a parametric EQ band and a high frequency shelf as well).

If these suggestions don't address what you consider playability issues, then tell us what else bothers you related to playability and I'm sure one of us here can help you address other concerns as well.

I prob have the simplest setup. I use the Kontakt Player that came with Vintage D. Runs on my laptop (i5, 4GB, 7400rpm HHD) with Asio4All driver through headphone output into my Senn 518's.

Velocity curves are matched - Normal (MP8ii) to default/linear (VinD). Only bit of mucking around i did was with the Asio4All driver settings to get the sound happening through the headphones. But that was rather quick. No pops, crackles, drop outs. So it would seem i have been rather lucky.

How do you connect MIDI? I'm getting closer to understanding this but I'm assuming I need a external box for MIDI, line outs to amp, line ins to PC?

Kontakt is a full blown sampling software. The guys who made Vintage D used it for this exact purpose. That basically means it has all that functionality that is expected of such a product like sample slicing, time stretching, equalizing and organizing all the samples into one package that can be played on a keyboard and provides adjustable parameters through a neat interface to the end user. The price is certainly justified.

Kontakt Player is just a product to play these saved sample sets so the many people who don't need to sample their own sounds get to use all these "powered by Kontakt" instruments. It is not a DAW and also no VST host. Actually the Kontakt Player is itself a VST that can be played and recorded inside a DAW. Its standalone mode exists merely for convenience.

If you need a free DAW/VST host you could try Reaper.

http://www.reaper.fm

Hmm actually, it doesn't seem to be free anymore. But it's cheap.

Have a look here: Piano Wiring
I use the Presonus Audiobox. There are other similar boxes from M-audio and others. They provide the MIDI input you need, and also a sound card that substitutes for the computer's sound card. (It generally performs better than a computer sound card: better sound quality and lower latency.)

Installation is simple:
1. Plug the Audiobox's USB cable into the computer and install the driver from the CD.
2. Run a MIDI cable from the Audiobox to your piano.
3. Run cables from the Audiobox's audio outputs to your sound system.
4. Open your VST or Kontakt software:
. . a. Go to the MIDI settings and select the Presonus/Audiobox as your MIDI input.
. . b. Go to the ASIO settings and select the Presonus/Audiobox ASIO device.

Did you research this one as being the best for the money; low latency? I was just checking reviews and most comments were positive.

I read postings (here and elsewhere) about the Presonus Audiobox and the M-Audio Fast Track. Both seemed good. Both will provide suitably low latency.

I got the Presonus because I found it for $71 used on ebay (vs. $150 new).
The M-Audio was around $100 used on ebay (vs. $200 new).

Either would suit, so I went for the lower price.