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Very interesting. I'm generally a sucker for piano apps for the iPad, but at $36 I'll wait for some reviews that I can trust.
My main gripe about piano apps for iPad (from my experience so far) are a) lack of tweakable velocity curves (the apps have presets only) and b) lack of half-pedaling support.
Very interesting. I'm generally a sucker for piano apps for the iPad, but at $36 I'll wait for some reviews that I can trust.
My main gripe about piano apps for iPad (from my experience so far) are a) lack of tweakable velocity curves (the apps have presets only) and b) lack of half-pedaling support.
The text of their release doesn't mention velocity curves, but it does claim to have sympathetic resonance and "re-pedaling support." I wonder what that means exactly.
"Combining 100% sample-based sounds with hybrid modeling, Ravenscroft delivers real sympathetic resonance, accurate sustain pedal modeling including re-pedaling support, as well as a true staccato".
These smaller samples are the future. I'm a big proponent of libraries around 1gb or so.. I personally don't think you need much more for realistic sound and response. Salamander C5 and iGrand Rich Upright have sold me on tiny libraries. I have CFX lite and American Concert D and haven't hardly touched them because iGrand sounds so much better.
Ravenscroft/VI/UVI mention that they're using FLAC compression to stream the samples. Their computer-based Ravenscroft 275 VST using FLAC achieves a compression ratio close to 4.5:1, a similar ratio for the iOS version would represent a library sample size of a little under 4GB.
OK I bit the bullet and got this. First impressions are not good. It seems to have only ONE sample layer and relies on filtering to give the impression of timbre change. Very disappointing really - the over-filtering actually causes some notes to sound softer the harder you play! So while a single note sounds quite pleasant the playing experience is not nice at all. Its also way too easy to let a finger slip onto a note ever-so-slightly but it rings out as loud as everything else. The only +1 I can give it at this stage is the impressive low latency and high polyphony. The maker of this app needs to do a lot more work to address these issues before it should be taken seriously by musicians. My honest (and unbiased as humanly possible) ranking of iOS pianos is: 8/10 Free Salamander played on bs-16i app (free from my site) 7/10 Rich Upright in iGrand (requires a second purchase) 6/10 Ravanscroft 275 5/10 Korg Module with Ivory Expansion 4/10 Colossus Red Japanese Grand (has latency issues - I don't have the huge 14gb Concert Grand) Best to save your money at this stage. John https://sites.google.com/site/soundfonts4u/
Hmmm...I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you, however that sounds too good to be the same 1-layer with filtering! Also, the ~900mb installation size (with FLAC compression) suggests rather more than 1-layer is used.
In this phase It is unrealistic to expect that cripple product of the same full library will be absolute pleasure experience just because it looks good (mine observation), and I admit that it looks good. As I see the only plus here is that process of migrating quality VSTs for iOS is begun, but we need to wait couple of years to make it real usable not just for composing but for playing also. Why will I invest in Ipad when I have now almost the same size screens 2in1 laptops with full power ? Still, just for fun, anybody has experience with Synthogy for iOS ?
James - I'm not certain it has only one layer but it sure does sound like it. I've had a bit of experience designing sounds and have used the filter resonance trick on some in the past and the results were very similar to what happens to the Ravenscroft at higher velocities. If you can boost the bass tones with velocity increases at the same time you can get away with it to some extent but the Ravenscraft loses bass tones very quickly. A louder sound should not have less lower frequencies and multi-velocity samples would not normally do this. I do hope I'm wrong about this and we might see some improvement with updates.
slobajudge - Synthogy Ivory Grand is an expansion for Korg Module and I have had it for over a year. Another one of those that I had high hopes for but its just got a peculiar sound - a little bit "toy" like I agree it looks like we just might need to wait a bit longer for something that really satisfies on iOS. I do love the portability and convenience of it. Cheers, John
That's too bad. Would you mind telling us on which device you were playing it? Hopefully the money will be worth it in the end, as you will get improved versions for free. If not, I have applied for refunds in the past from Apple.
Why will I invest in Ipad when I have now almost the same size screens 2in1 laptops with full power ?
iPad is not the best choice for everyone, PCs have many advantages, but iPad also has some advantages over the 2-in-1 laptops, especially in live gigging situations, or for people who are turned off by the relative complications of the Windows environment.
Why will I invest in Ipad when I have now almost the same size screens 2in1 laptops with full power ?
iPad is not the best choice for everyone, PCs have many advantages, but iPad also has some advantages over the 2-in-1 laptops, especially in live gigging situations, or for people who are turned off by the relative complications of the Windows environment.
You take this out of context, at the moment there is no reason to invest in Ipad because this machine is not ready yet for full VST. I also want advantage you mention when that time comes.
That's too bad. Would you mind telling us on which device you were playing it? Hopefully the money will be worth it in the end, as you will get improved versions for free. If not, I have applied for refunds in the past from Apple.
OK - I've managed to get some improvement now by choosing some more extreme settings in the Velocity Control section. The default settings are very very wrong but if you move the velocity curve to the bottom right and push the velocity volume to near the very top then you can manage to get the lower tones to sound a lot better as you play harder. I'm starting to get a much more pleasing playing experience. By the way I'm playing on both an iPad Air 2 and iPhone 6s (which have roughly the same processing power and 2gb of ram). I'm using a Steinberg UR22Mk11 as interface (but honestly the headphone out jack sounds exactly the same). So where would I place it now in the iOS piano comparison? I would say 7 to 8 out of 10. Do I regret spending the money ($59.99 by the way in Australia - darn that conversion rate!) No - I'm happy with the purchase.
I did watch all the YouTube videos above before purchase except the one that I've just stumbled across that looks at the velocity response and in this you can notice the fading lower tones on higher velocities https://youtu.be/GoykaJx9Fdo And here others commenting on the velocity response https://youtu.be/WdWEm2O76To But the fix I've mentioned above does address most of this problem. John
Yesterday, thanks to this discount, I've bought this Ravenscroft 275 to use with my iPad Air (1st generation) and Kawai KDP-110.
Unfortunately i have some problems. When I try to play(connection via Bluetooth MIDI) there are a lot of missing notes, some of them are cut off.
I wonder if it is a software or hardware problem. When I use USB-MIDI with my laptop (with trial Pianoteq) there are no such problems (except quite big delay).
App description says that R275 requires at least iPad 4, mine is 1 generation ahead, but maybe it has not enough performance for this software?
Maybe someone tried to use this library with ipad (Air or older) and can help me identify what can cause this problem?
Picked it up as well for my iPad Air first gen, and will try it out when I can in the next couple of days.
The ES8 does not have built-in Bluetooth MIDI, and I don't think just a USB connection will work, though I will try.
I will also test with my iRig Midi Pro through 5-pin MIDI, and with my NP-11/NP-30 as well.
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