Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Any Black Friday/Holiday sales of virtual piano software?

Native instruments allows for installation on more than one computer, as long as you are the only user.

Right, I noticed by skimping through the end user license agreement.

OK -- I'm a VPC1 owner and sucker for a software piano on sale price. However, knowing next to nothing about the Ravenscroft, I have a few questions about the software:

1. How much hard disk space does it occupy after installation?
2. How well will it run on an i5 Windows 7 64-bit laptop, running at 2.30 Ghz and 8Gb RAM, with a 5400 rpm hard drive?
3. How adjustable is sustain pedal sensitivity?
4. Can it be installed/run as a standalone, or does it need to run from within something (ie - Kontakt or a DAW)?
5. In what ways does the Ravenscroft "in particular work very well with the VPC1"?
6. EDIT: Does it require the iLok Dongle? (From what I've read, it appears the answer is No. But I just want it confirmed.)

Thanks!

I got the NI Piano collection, there are probably better individual pianos, with more mics perspectives. But for the current price of the package I think they are the best value. You get three well sampled, excellent sounding pianos.

I have used the Pianoteq demo for years, I really want it but the price of standard is just too much for me. In the meantime these NI pianos are excellent and provide different flavours. And they are quite playable too.

The Ravenscroft requires iLok Dongle and the UVI sample player,
just like the D needs Kontakt.
I think 5200rpm is way too slow, I get pops with SSD @96 samples.
The Ravenscroft offers a nice tone, but only 1 nice tone, it lacks dynamics!
Pedal sensitivity? Is there a feature? Got the Kawai triple pedal and pedaling is a nightmare...
I´m disappointed from the 275.

Read on their site: No iLok needed.

In kontakt you can adjust how much of the instrument is preloaded tot he ram to reduce HD reading, maybe there is a setting for this in UVI player. Also are you referring to a buffer size of 96 samples or to the Sample rate of 96Khz, if the later no reason to use that high setting at all; 44.1Khz is enough.

The website says no iLok is needed for the Ravenscroft 275, but it IS needed for the Ravenscroft 275 Receptor, if you want to use it on your computer.

Well, I took a chance anyway and am in the middle of downloading it.

I'll report back when I get it up and running and have played with it a bit. If I need to switch to an SSD drive, so be it. (I've been considering it anyway....)

Fluffy audio My piano goes for only 39 euro (49$). I doubt anyone found more realistic sound piano like this one, and at the same time feel so good under fingers like this one. This man who made it just nailed it. When I first touch the high notes and hear the sound, hammers and key noise, it feels so natural. My hdd is full of lots of libraries the most expensive ones, but I naver heard any of them sound so realistic like this baby. Previously I was think that Art vista is number one for realistic sound, but this little piano upright is so cute and hard to beat. Its my personal favorite for old jazz ballads and slow classic. The number of tweak settings is also excellent.

I have seen the web store of Ffluffy audio and read about My Piano :

Full version of Native Instruments Kontakt 4.2.4 or above is required

Then the library is cheap but required a more expensive product. (the Full version of Kontakt is not the free Kontakt Player)

Yes, but if your PC is broken and can't be repaired, I think you lost 1 activation. But there are 3.

This made me prefer the purchase of the iLok dongle... I didn't know that 3 activations are possible. It seems to be common on UVI published library (Truekeys, Grand Piano Collection, Acoustic Samples)

I think you can deactivate license from a PC from iLok manager software.

You can use the licence manager to desactivate the PC on which it runs. But if the PC is broken I don't think you will be able to do anything on it.

I see. Yes, you're right. If the PC suddenly goes bad or gets stolen, there will be no way to deactivate it by ourselves.
I think I read somewhere that we have to contact the license issuer for a new license.

Then just use the emulated USB device, which SOME folk may regard as a hack, but you can think of it as a virtual USB device (or Virtual dongle).
This is what large companies do with software that is supposedly "dongle protected", they don't buy thousands of (physical) dongles and hand them out to employees, the dongles are emulated.

What is "the" emulated USB device ?

Each dongle is different, and if iLok has no emulation, it won't be possible to do what you propose.

I'm not "proposing" anything, it is an already established method.

Yes, the dongles are all different, as are the HASP keys.

I am reasonably sure that this is how VI enables their "dongle protected" software without making the customer buy a $50 bit of junk from a third party - many people OBJECT VERY STRONGLY to these "required purchases".

This is another subject that I know ABOUT, but don't know to any any great depth, so I can't field nitty gritty detailed questions on the innards.
Look up "SafeNet" and "HASP keys" for the an depth understanding.

It is just ANOTHER third party involvement and somewhere along the line you pay for them to enable the software that you buy from VI - but it is a software key and doesn't have the hardware price tag.
The price to VI is almost certainly a great deal less than the $50 dongle, so they can bundle (hide) it in your purchase price.

I imagine that there are hacks/cracks that do the same/similar thing to unlock what you paid part of your purchase price to have locked
So on a "morals" basis I don't see a problem with using a hack/crack for this - ASSUMING one has already BOUGHT the locked up product and not just copied it from a friend.

Bottom line for me is that keys are keys.
Where they are kept, how they are generated, how they are read... all that is low level detail that I don't have to bother myself with.
The program asks for a valid key, somewhere there is a binary yes/no return and things either progress or they don't.

Hi Newbert, I see you already got the Ravenscroft 275 and left your review in another thread. But I did want to reply as others may want to know this as well.
1. The library uses 5.7GB of space (on Mac OS) and is equivalent to 35GB if it were uncompressed wave as most other libraries are delivered. This enables faster loading and lower RAM usage as well.
2. Your system specs are good, but the only real limitation is the 5400rpm hard drive as you noticed in your review. 7200rpm works well with SSD being the best. This is true with any sample library, especially those that enable discreet mic mixing and run many voices.
3. Sustain pedal features full repedaling, and you have full half-pedal control if you load the samples. Then you can set the cc min and max values so you can set the range of full pedal up, full pedal down and the entire range of half-pedal. This offers a high level of control and allows you to set the lift point and range much as you would on a real acoustic grand. You need a CC pedal (included with your VPC1) to use half-pedaling, but repedal works with any ordinary sustain pedal.
4. The free UVI Workstation player can be used standalone or as any plug-in in any DAW or VST host of your choice. No extra software is needed.
5. The VPC1 was used extensively as a controller during the development of the library. And we've received a lot of feedback from Ravenworks Digital (making the modded VPC1s to more closely match the feel of the acoustic R275) during development as getting the touch close to the acoustic was very important. We're still working with Kawai on a more 'official' touch curve, but it works well at default settings or with a small MIDI or Sensitivity curve tweak.
6. Since our libraries work within UVI Workstation, we use UVI's copy protection method which is iLok. You don't need a USB iLok key and you get up to 3 activations with your license, so you can have up to 3 machines at once or keep activations as backups. And of course if your computer crashes or you've otherwise lost all 3 activations, we're happy to send you a replacement license.

It's important to remember the audio software, especially instruments and plug-ins, are some of the most pirated softwares out there. Some copy protection methods are better than others and all have upsides and downsides. Every developer has to protect their work, and we all want to make it as easy and trouble free for end users as possible. iLok's system and their USB dongles are used by professionals around the world every day and is convenient for those that have thousands worth in software and plug-ins they need to move around from one system to another. And if the system crashes, all licenses are still safe in one place and they don't have possibly days of down time restoring everything. We use iLok's hardware activation which doesn't require a dongle, but usually if the OS or hard drive crashes then the license is lost which is why you get 3 activations and can get a replacement if those are lost. And if you want to change computers, reinstall the OS or drive, you can deactivate the license first which puts it back into the cloud so to speak to be used again.

I hope that answers your questions, and please contact us if you need anything at all. Thanks!

Lance @ VI Labs

@Lance VI Labs

Thanks for the clarifications... The worry of losing a paid licence is one of my criteria when buying a software, then I have already abstained to buy some software when this conditions when unclear.

@Lance

Thank you for clarifying the license issuse.
Great product, by the way