Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards N1X vs Garritan CFX vs Pianoteq

Yes, but should not that be accounted for in the sampling? It's a major component of timbre. No modern DPs use a p sample and simply increase the volume to make it an f strike (looking at you, Kurzweil CUP2).

It explains why we need multiple samples. If layers are not blended, we will need multiple of them to avoid to near velocity levels to sound too different. Some VST (EWQL Bechstein for example) seem to behave badly about it.

I suppose sampled DP to use nowadays a limited set of samples and blend them to avoid such gaps. (My DP is 12years old and have no blending of its 3 levels... and the difference between levels is important).

I'm sure modern DPs will variably blend samples (and they can get away with fewer velocity layers this way). I've never looked into whether sampled VSTs do, especially the ones with 20-100+ layers. Btw, the old CUP2 also had only 3 levels, non-blended. And the timbre change is startlingly obvious, even to non-audiophiles. It's good to be past that time in the technology curve.

I finally listened to all the audio files with my headphones on.

A few phrases and the chords at the end sound better with the Garritan CFX, but the overall the piece sounds better with the N1X. There just seems to be more expression and feeling that comes through in the playing. The Garritan feels more distant and like a recording. The N1X feels like I'm sitting right there at the bench with you and I can see your arms and hands sinking into the keys to create the dynamic expressions. I feel like I connect more with you emotionally while listening to the N1X.

N1X all the way.
Garritan will suffice if you don't have an N1X.
Pianoteq...neither of the sounds appeal to me.

God Bless,
David

Somebody linked to this thread from another thread and so I listened again to my performances, long after I’ve forgotten them. Well, the Garritan CFX recording is simply the best sounding piano. For some reason just listening to the N1X (since I have no fresh memory on how I felt when playing each piano) makes it sound a tiny bit Pianoteq-ish in the sustain. It’s of course closer to Garritan rather than Pianoteq but I can’t close my ears and just reject what I hear However when I count in the playability, the N1X is incomparable. Which is also why people sometimes prefer Pianoteq compared to other software pianos although they admit the recorded sound isn’t perfect.

Twas me, I remembered your post---liked it a lot.

Really highlighted where Pianoteq is weak i.e., in legato, whereas so many Pianoteq performances are fast and cover up the metallic twang.

However, it's worth noting that some people (mainly Phil) make very nice recordings with Pianoteq that seem flattering in comparison to others (maybe with better setup):



Kind regards,

Doug.

I think if you were to re-record the N1X using the same amount of reverb as the Garritan had we would struggle to hear much if any difference. It isn't, in my opinion, a fair comparison. But, the reverb in the N1X may not sound as well as the Garritan's reverb which can affect the sound too. Consider re-recording the Garritan with less reverb to match the default N1X of 5 instead?

Reverb really does trick the ear into hearing different things to different people. I used reverb extensively in my guitar playing to very good results, without it sounding like it had reverb at all. It impacts the midrange more than we think, in a good way.

^ Very good point about the reverb! Thanks. I’ll do another comparison when I have time and will try to also anonymize it this time

Hi Guys,
By all means go for more comparisons. I think Phill Best might be doing this as well if he has the time. But in my heart of hearts I have a feeling that it probably won’t definitively resolve the current differences in sound perception. On the other hand it’s good fun and provides welcome relief from the loneliness of practicing😀

Paul h

just in case you weren't aware, most people don't run CFX with any revert on at all. It's all in the ambient mic setup which provides the absolutely natural reverb of the Abbey Road studios where the CFX recorded. This point has little to do with CFX or pianoteq at all, and more about the insufficiency of artificially generated reverb, IMHO. It does, however, make it such that CFX may not suitable or preferable for some people who really like or need a more dry piano sound.

What I hear clearly is that the N1X uses just the usual sample-based digital piano engines, so you have some nice attacks but you have looping for sustained notes... and it's just in the sustained long notes (like the last chords in that piece) that you hear all the limits of this old technology (that they stubbornly continue to use in today digital pianos because it can work well on very cheap little single-boards that maybe cost less than 50$).

When you play a sustained chord on an actual digital piano sample-based, after a while you feel the digital nature of the sound because the looped parts. When you play a sustained chord on a high-quality piano VST (and even more on an real acoustic), you hear the unlooped notes intertwine beautifully, creating a complex, detailed and breathing, live, harp sound.

Pianoteq should not suffer from this problem, because it generates the sound algorithmically, yet it still sounds too digital to me.

I don't know how much is good the Garritan CFX playability, but to me, as a listener, its natural, unlooped sound is on another level when compared to the N1X and Pianoteq too.

Anyway, as I expected, the attack part of the notes played by the N1X to me is a little better than the attack generated by the Pianoteq engine which sometimes I feel a little strange.

And the quality of the reverb in the Garritan is excellent too.

Hi Cybergene, could you expound on this? I have a Yamaha P-515 (and am looking at the N1X) and am thinking of purchasing Garritan CFX Full. After listening to the samples again I now prefer the Garritan CFX, but is the playability considerably worse with it? Which sound do you normally use for your N1X?

Playability of the N1X’s native sound is the best. However CFX isn’t much worse. It’s only the slight subtleties of pedaling, repedaling and half-pedaling that (despite being implemented great for a sampled VST) are still lagging behind. But the timbral realism makes up for it to a degree.