Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Is Garritan still tops?

I mostly use the Vintage D. I like the Steinway sound.

I tried the Garritan / Yamaha. I don't like the Yamaha sound as much as the Steinway, but the sound it produces is a good capture.
It fails, though, on pedaling. The "pedal curve" is way off.

In the past I've used the Grandeur, also a Steinway.
But it has some scripting faults. I avoid it when playing pieces with lots of sustain in the lower octaves. It tends to "honk" on such passages.

I also like the Kawai EX Pro from Acoustic Samples.

But the Vintage D remains my every day piano.

This is an astute observation. An acoustic piano is never in a static state from one minute to the next. After all these years I'm often surprised and delighted by the subtle (and not so subtle) changes in tone and character from one day to the next with my acoustic pianos.

I recently recorded some solo piano for a client at the studio at which I work. The Hamburg Steinway D there is in a temperature & humidity controlled live room (an acoustically isolated mud-brick & timber walled room within a room). We were requested to re-record an amended MIDI performance supplied by a client (the piano has a high resolution MIDI record & playback mechanism fitted to it) and the panel heater had been running while we were setting up the MIDI file on the laptop next to the piano in the studio. There was a noticeable difference in tone (particularly on the hammer attacks) from the original recording which was done the week before.

There is nothing wrong with coming to the conclusion that every VST instrument on the market is "bad" for piano practice due to this reason. Fine for listening when mixed into a 3-4 minute arrangement with other samples, tiring when listening to it for hours over hours.

My Yamaha digital piano still doesn't get on my nerves after years, so they must do something right. They are obviously not going to reveal, what their (trade) secret is.

That's because it's a P-515 The most misunderstood, highly capable, low-priced and versatile (piano related), and most unavailable instrument made in recent years. Yeah, that was only my opinion

True, after the unimpressive P-255, Yamaha landed a smash hit with that one. It's not only versatile (piano related), it's also doubles as a decent acoustic guitar amplifier, rhythm machine, multitrack MIDI sequencer, USB drive recorder, USB audio interface on top of being an excellent digital piano.

Thankfully I got mine in early 2019, before the digital piano craze started and I'm in no need of another digital instrument. The only G.A.S. I now have is for an acoustic piano (and for more guitars of course).

That is quite a stretch going from 'failing to find the best' (because of moving target) to 'every VST instrument on the market is "bad"'.

Dore has a solution for that!

http://forum.pianoworld.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/3099991/the-experience-free-binaural-piano-vi.html

Well I would expect a VSTi being able to beat my Yamaha digital piano. Yet I still have to demo something that doesn't get old quickly.