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About the Kontakt 5/Kontakt Player issue, the reason Jason gives for wanting to have his new Steinway only for Kontakt 5, is the library is very large, representing a higher-end product, and it's likely the majority of users will already own Kontakt. See his email, which Cinjero publishes here earlier.

So it seems his niche is the professionals, or semi-professionals, though the line between an amateur and a (semi)-professional, can be blurry. There is nothing wrong with that, and it's one way to cut costs, and get the selling price down.

As we've discussed, the major stumbling block of this new VSTi, is it's huge size, not the Kontakt 5/Player issue. Actually the RAM might be another bottleneck. I got extra 16GB for my computer, to be able to load all microphone positions of the Production Grand 2 Gold, which is a lot smaller library than Production Steinway D Concert Grand.

Anyhow, I recommend getting the full Kontakt 5, at least for those who qualify for the crossgrade price, €124,50, when it's 50% off. Not because of PV's new Steinway, but because it opens the doors for many other interesting libraries, like from Cinesamples, and Chocolate Audio.

I've read some comments elsewhere, stating that Kontakt 5 is problematic for virtual piano instruments, but I've not experienced it. Don't know if that's because I am tone deaf or not, ha ha!

There are alternatives. I got google internet a year ago. They offer 1000 Mbps. So that would be a 30 minute download.
But at the time I figured that 100 Mbps was enough.

Not in my neck of the city. Don't think it is coming anytime soon.
Sad part is I'm in a big metro area. Most I can get is 100Mbps

I know a number of folks here who do not have full Kontakt and so this is an issue for them. As far as getting the crossgrade pricing which is currently on sale for $125, ironically it only works if you have a third party library they recognize and already has a Kontakt player version. So for most, they would have to pay full price and would not qualify for the discount pricing. NI has some really convoluted pricing policies.

Agreed NI has some opaque and expensive pricing schemes. That is an issue here.

I have seen this Kontakt $125 crossgrade trick a few places (but haven't tried myself):



http://forum.pianoworld.com/ubbthre...layer-vs-kontakt-5-full.html#Post2626829

https://www.native-instruments.com/...akt-5-player/kontakt-player-vs.-kontakt/

Think I qualified for the crossgrade price after I got Galaxy German Grand, at €80. Didn't buy it just to get Kontakt 5 at a reduced price, think I bought a few more Kontakt Player compatible instruments after that. Never had the intention to get Kontakt 5, but then suddenly did one day, guess it's called G.A.S by some.

Expensive, yes.
But not opaque. They tell you straight up: You gotta pay a lot!

I've used Continuata as a download manager for other products; its reliable which I would hope what he decides to go with, download links are 80s tech.

342 is a lot of pianos (2 x the Yamaha)---- I could squeeze it onto my SSD (2) ~ 2tb or my SSD (3) ~1t, either have the space... hmm what to do...

What day will the release date be? I am eagerly awaiting this. I can't wait to hear the demos

Is there any chance that by the miracle, soundwise final release of the Production Voices Concert Grand can be as good as Embertone Walker 1955 Steinway D? Demo here doesn't sound as good...

https://vimeo.com/222850726/6293497e54

Should I wait for a release?

The demo sounds okay to me but I did notice that it was posted a year ago. The more or equally important question is how playable is the piano library going to be. Embertone has received some criticism in this aspect on this forum although I think i read somewhere that Embertone are working on updates.

Maybe this is a better representation of Production Voices Concert Grand. Still an early demo from 9 months ago.

But has several mics. It might requre headphones for proper sound with Ambisonics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gGmoZ604J8

newer player

Thanks. Saw this demo... Sounded flat to me. Hate that video. He said: "Cracks caused by a computer, not by a Concert Grand library" and this cracks are on their other videos too. I haven't seen such an unprofessional attitude elsewhere. Guys, if your computer is so weak, then you need to buy a new computer! Customers will not believe you or will think your software is so "Heavy" that will not run on their laptop. You have to buy 12 Core Xeon but don't even mention about the cracks! I suspect that they even don't have an 88 key keyboard during the demos... Look at the limited key range they press...

PV shines on "How you should act to prevent the selling of your products". Their demos are Zero informative! 90% of sounds played the Middle and the High register. Buyers want to hear the Low register too! Please, do something with your demos! Just find one good pianist and tell him to play all the keyboard long and post these videos.

They spent their time in things as "ambisonics" and "under the piano mics"...

Not flat to me.
However, that demos are a long time ago, not even demos after the release.
It is not too late to criticize the product after the official demos.
In other words, it's too early to judge everything with incomplete demos. Let's wait for the release.

Thanks for posting this. Sounds quite nice to me, just hope the playability is as good as Galaxy or CFX.

I have to say that the playability of Production Voices' pianos is great, the samples are clean and UI design of the Production Grand 2 is the best in my opinion. It's a pity their demos don't show the actual level of their software. I purchased Production Grand 2 only because of the advice of users ( BTW thanks guys) on this forum, demos were useless. Now it is my second favorite piano VSTi (after Vintage D).

The PVCG Compact does not sound flat to me and the lower registers have quite a bit of energy. There are some issues with what I call a *beta release Compact which are noted clearly above. This beta released 6 months ago shows a lot of promise if the quirks are ironed out.



The computer pops and crackles are probably from trying to run the video software and piano together. I found them distracting as well. One of the early videos has an apparent L-R balance issue. But I would prefer Jason focus on getting the VI as good as possible so I do not care about the video updates or ambosonics so much.

Audio demos. Sounds much better than on early videos.

Playlist on Sound Cloud:

https://soundcloud.com/productionvoices/sets/concert-grand

The lower registers are indeed not bad. It's the upper registers that concern me; very weak and decaying far too quickly. I do hope he finds a way to address that.

Thanks for posting those demos Max Forte.

Interestingly, the third demo was posted 2 years ago and has no, "Kontakt scripting or "magic" done to the samples."

The other four demos were posted 17 days ago with "no processing (no EQ, no reverb, no compression)."

You can see the details written in soundcloud if you click on the track name. . .