Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards VSTs seem to kill the joy out of actually playing the piano

Of all VI I tried, the following are available only as plugins and therefore require VST/AU/AAX/RTAS host:
SONiVOX,
Synthogy,
Melda Monastery Grand.

Speaking about Kontakt full vs player, it is easy:
- if developer is willing to pay NI a license fee, NI will include their lib to Native Access (and therefore put no restrictions in Kontakt Player for it as well);
- if developer is not paying NI, they can still develop their lib for Kontakt, it will play without restrictions only in Kontakt Full, and play as trial in Kontakt Player.

Some developers (VSL, EW, etc.) in the past sold their libs as Kontakt ones, but switched to their own players. Production Voices is doing this now.

To play with a virtual piano, you need samples, scripts which tell when to trigger a - let’s say - overtone sample, and a software which trigger samples and execute the script. Such a software is a sampler. Kontakt is one of the most used sampler, but there are also UVI Worksration, and some created specifically for its samples. Then Ivory has its own sampler (or player).

Each samples library has its own format, then a library made for Kontakt can’t be opened with other samples.

With Kontakt, you have two kind of samples library, the library you can make which needs the full Kontakt program to be played, and the library where the editor paid a fee to Native Instruments. You can play them on full Kontakt or the free Kontakt Player. Most sold pianos are compatible with Kontakt Player, but some aren’t (Fluffy my Piano). Under 99€, they are usually incompatible. Compatible virtual pianos add a label on the left side of the Kontakt window which is handy, but incompatible must be opened from the full Kontakt in the file system view. (Less handy).

Actually, the most convenient way to search and open libs (instruments and multies) in Kontakt is to use the Database tab. You would need to assign tags to your lib instruments and multies first though:

Thanks for all the input here! Just wanted to close things out by saying that my viewpoint has now changed completely.

I've gone from seeing negative value of investing my time in VSTs to discovering massive value, specifically with Pianoteq. I'm suddenly realizing that there are huge musical payoffs to be had here.

Some might feel that going from the Kawai native sounds of your NV10 to Pianoteq is a regression.

God bless,
David

That's not it at all. I'm not picking a winner between Kawai native sounds and Pianoteq. I'm maximizing on what I feel is the *musical value* that I'm gaining with Pianoteq as an *option*.

My teacher always asks me to listen carefully to the sound of the piano as I play. She has always dazzled me with her ability to pinpoint things in the sound.

With Pianoteq, I'm suddenly finding it massively rewarding to listen intently to the sound as I play and I'm suddenly understanding things that I didn't before. This is helping me musically even when I'm *not* playing with Pianoteq.

So it's a little bit more nuanced than picking Pianoteq as an overall winner... but I'm certainly enjoying what I feel like is the massive musical value that Pianoteq provides.

Hopefully that makes sense.

Also, while the Kawai SK-EX native engine is amazing, the Pianoteq versatility is unmatched and provides a lot of scope for musical creativity.

@navindra:

“specifically Pianoteq” Have you tried other virtual pianos than Pianoteq ? Which ones ?

Modelled pianos have a synthetic sound which doesn’t please me. (Either Pianoteq and Roland) I prefer sampled sound. But YMMV.

I have to admit that some of my favorite pianos (VSL, Garritan, Bechstein Digital Grand) are not the cheapest.

And now Mac^3 joins in with another rendition of ...
Never mind.

@MacMacMac : you mean you will join Pianoteq lovers ?

@MacMacMag : Don’t you know H E L L is censored here and replaced by heck ! Trying to bypass the censorship with an image (or like me with added spaces), can be a case for ban.

Can't you read? That says He 11. It's a very rare heavy isotope of helium.

Most of my VST exploration time was spent wrestling with wearisome technical issues, but other than Pianoteq, I tried both Synthology Ivory Mobile pianos, Module Pro, and Apple's Steinway/Bosendorfer/Yamaha offerings.

I actually don't really have much of an interest in finding a better grand piano sample than what I have with the Novus already because I'm very satisfied with that, it has a fantastic response, and it seems to record well. I suppose that may change as I grow musically.

I did have an interest in Modern U and Pianoteq's U4 though, because the Novus' upright options are more limited.

One of the reasons I spent so much time with Pianoteq is because of the generous trial that's offered. I wasn't able to glean much information on Modern U or try it for myself... for example, I couldn't figure out if the Modern U could be detuned or not.

The more I used Pianoteq and played my favorite pieces with it, the more I listened, the more impressed I got with how it responded musically, and the more I appreciated the many options and features. For example, I also have the Bechstein Digital Grand you mentioned, on Pianoteq, and I think it's wonderful.

As MacMacMac is fond of saying, try it before you buy it. I spent a lot of time trying Pianoteq and exactly zero time trying Modern U for myself. In the end, Modartt won me as a customer.

The free trial is an "on-the-house" first drink -- it tends to keep you at the bar.

Aye, that free trial worked for me TBH. Pianoteq offering a free trial allowed me to ascertain that it was good enough - not perfect - for my needs. If Garritan had a trial I might have picked it over pianoteq but we'll never know: it's a lot of money to spend on a hunch it'll be good (especially when good is so very subjective).

LOL

For me it was basically: DL VST -> Plug in piano -> Set latency to a reasonably low setting (4ms).
I can play without dropouts while having entire video games running in the background. *shrug*

Since I am not well versed with "how a piano is supposed to sound", I find the bog standard settings to be pleasing sounding and the whole "eternal fiddling madness" turned into a "fire once and forget about it" matter to me.

Now what's aggravating is learing to control my hands. Ugh. Wish playing the actual instrument would be as easy for me as dealing with technology is.

After spending a bit of time fiddling with settings, but not a lot, I pretty much just play now. Every now and then i will switch virtual piano but just load the settings I use and then just play.

I almost feel like I should play more with the settings than I do, but I enjoy playing and practising with what I have.

My most recent change is actually realising I could change the touch curve on my DP and save it for power on when the DP is just being used as a controller.