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So now that I have had my Costco special Casio 230R for nearly two months I have determined a few things.

A common complaint I read here on PW centers around a keyboards "action" and how well it resembles an acoustic's. I have been lucky enough to play on a few acoustics the last month and I can say that oddly enough the little Casio's action is decidedly stiffer than every acoustic I have played so far maybe it will soften with age but so far I am okay with it.

The internal speakers are far from awe inspiring. To fix this I have ordered a 15 foot long cable that will connect my DP and PC powered speakers via the headphone jack. The set is built by klipcsh and has a subwoofer and two satellites. They sound wonderful when I play music or movies through my pc's DVD/CD player so this should solve my first problem.

Although not important as the first remedy I am curious about piano software. More importantly very cheap piano software. I have seen pianoteq mentioned hundreds of times, but it also costs hundreds! So I am looking for recommendations on either free or very low cost software.

Good to hear you are pleased with your new Casio 230R.
Now regarding good software, I'm surprised that you state Pianoteq costs 'hundreds'. I'm not sure where you're located, but here in Europe the budget 5 'Stage' version with two instrument packs costs 99 euros which is certainly not hundred(s) of dollars - if that is your currency.
I've been using the Pianoteq 4 stage version and am delighted with it, as I believe most users are.
The icing on the cake with Pianoteq imho is the first-class support one receives. I had a query over this holiday period regarding an upgrade to 5 Stage, and received two almost immediate satisfactory responses, one yesterday, and another today (Sunday). That's what I call service with a capital 'S'.

You may be able to find free or very low cost software, but I'm not sure from where.
Why not download the trial version of Pianoteq to see if it suits you.
Good luck.

Pianoteq Stage version 5 costs $129 online. Since I am taking music theory classes at a local college, I was able to purchase it for $78 (40% academic discount). I like it much better than the built-in sound in my Kawaii CN34. I have been using the D4 Vintage.

You can get VI Labs True Keys for $99…that would be for one of their piano sounds (American, Italian, German) other than Ravenscroft. I really like their American grand.

Pianissimo is another option. Similar to Pianoteq but cheaper. (And likely fewer features...you just need to decide if extra features are worth the extra money.

A common theme with many of these software packages is the upgrade. Spend more and get added features and/or voices. I just wanted to process my midi files to MP3 and Pianissimo was all I needed.

In terms of "improvement in sound, per dollar spent", Pianoteq Stage is one of the best products on the market. My humble opinion, of course.

. Charles

Ivy Audio is free.

Also, if you happen to have an iPad or iPhone, the CMP Grand Piano app is only $18. Another possibility is iGrand, which is iPad only.

There is also igrand for iphone (both currently at half price)

I have all the pianos mentioned. I do not recommend pianissimo, the interface is nice, but the sound is not that good. For under 100 dollar I would go with Addictive Keys Studio grand, very good for the price, lot's of options http://www.xlnaudio.com/products/instrument/studio_grand
Or if you have an ipad or iphone you can spend less than 10 dollar and have the similarly good Igrand (at half price these days).

Ah! Didn't notice there's an iPhone version!


Yes, Addictive Keys is nice. Also, I like the Kawai from Acoustic Samples, which is well-priced and now on sale besides, also under $100...

http://www.acousticsamples.net/keys/kawai-ex-pro

Agree, kawai ex pro is also one of my favorite. It uses ilok, but you can authorise to your pc, like VILabs pianos (so no need to buy a dongle, if you don't have it)

Thanks for the heads up - I don't think I'd ever heard the Addictive Keys until now - that's the best sound I've heard from a software piano for a long time.

Greg.

Native Instruments new Pianos are very nice for the cost, cheapest sampled pianos around given their size.

I finally got around to hooking up my Akai LPK25 miniature keyboard today, and thanks to this timely thread (plus purchase of an Apple Camera Connector, for the USB port) I've now got it running to CMP Grand Piano on my iPad. The keyboard isn't great, but I wanted a small cheap setup for casual doodling when traveling. This gives me a base to start figuring out if it's satisfactory, or what features I might want in something that would be better.

Thanks PWers!

[ETFix: USB port, not poet. Although a USB poet sounds quite intriguing!]

Do the Native Instruments pianos require one of the NI software packages (Traktor or Kontact, I think) to play them, or will they run "stand-alone" ?

THanks --

. Charles

Tried the demo of the Addictive Keys Studio Grand - very nice tone. The main limitation I have found so far is that, IMHO, I don't think they have included true PP samples. I'm also not hearing the kind of clarity and body I get in the EWQLP. It plays better than EWQLP though, which isn't saying much. ;^)

Greg.

I've just been playing with Addictive Keys (and ASIO drivers on Windows to reduce the latency). I'm a sucker for "special price" deals, so I bought the 3 instrument bundle.

It's my first time playing with a software piano, and I was impressed with the nice tone of the pianos. I don't think that it responds to half-pedalling (partial damper pedal), or am I missing something? Also no string resonance?

For me, it was more interesting to get the upright piano sample because the grand sounded pretty similar to the sounds baked in to my Roland RP401R. Also, sometimes when I listen to the "Supernatural" sounds built in to my DP, I think "that sounds a bit digital", but now I can compare the sound to these very nice recordings of the real deal. (And actually, the built in sounds are pretty good for me!)

I'd probably just use these as DAW plugins for converting a MIDI file to audio, if I ever wanted to do that.

They use kontakt player which is free.