Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Talk Me Out of Universal Audio's Ravel Grand Piano

I feel the same way. I tried it a couple of months ago as part of a UA Spark trial and my initial excitement (I don't have a Steinway B library and want one!) faded almost immediately. The comments here from folks whose judgment I respect made me restart a demo license but...I just don't like it :-( . It sounded stiff and fairly lifeless, I thought, and like you, I wanted more ability to adjust the sound (and wanted less of the reverse sound options!).

You should be talked out of it by now lol, just get pianoteq or garritan cfx instead.

People are really different, I've put Garritan on and off at least 100 times so far in an attempt to like it and it's not worth it. It just doesn't inspire me and I've kicked it out permanently. I really like Ravel, it's like walking into a room and there's an acoustic piano, there's no changing the microphone or numerous settings, and it sounds realistic, at least to my ears. I use Spaces 2 for reverb.There are still basic settings and I set important things to maximum because there is a difference. Just now I was playing on the VPC1 with a very light touch on the surface because my folks at home are asleep and it didn't miss a single note. I don't even have to press the pedal deeply, I literally feel it and the half sustain is there like on a real piano. Very easy to control.

Well, I decided that $50 was too much of an offer to pass on, and so I broke my rules and got the bad boy, concluding there are things to be liked with this VST. Sure, no una corda is the only complaint I have, but otherwise, I liked the dry studio sound, and it feels like playing at one of my school's practice rooms, only with a better piano that doesn't have one of its strings broken. I think I need this feeling in an instrument as well.

David, congrats, I'm of the same opinion, it would just be too much to pass up on this for the money. I move the mic all the way to the beginning and add some external reverb and piano flourishes.

Thanks, slobajudge! Yes, it's very rare that you get this quality for $50.

I was thinking of geting this but I was a bit worried after reading feedback on the UAD site about glitches ans sampling errors etc.Wondering if this software has been improved now since most of the negative reviews are from 2020/20219 (?)
This will be my first time getting a large sampled piano and I only have 8gigs of ram onboard. The dicounted price is good but are there any other options out there for a similar 'steal'?

For the same price you can get Simple Sam Signature Grand. Or a handful of the old Sampletekk instruments which are (again!) currently 90% off.

Well, it's slightly embarrassing that I appear to be replying to my own comment, especially given what I'm about to say - but maybe it's worth mentioning for others.

UA tend to give you a $25 'thank you' coupon code when you buy a plugin, which meant that Ravel --currently discounted to $59-- could be had for $34. But wait - there's more! There is a semi-secret coupon code UAlurker4life that knocks another $10 off.

At $24, I've finally bitten. I've also discovered that the UADx plugin versions weren't playing nice with my Windows system; I had text scaling set higher than 100% which meant that the UADx plugs weren't displaying properly and I couldn't access all the options (IIRC, I couldn't even fully remove the reverse sound).

FWIW, I also got the Waterfall B3 for $24, and that's a really, really nice B3 sim. It might even replace the IK version that I like so much. I think the Leslie integration and options are great, and the presets work better for me as starting points than the IK ones.

I admire your talent in finding these deals!!! I got it as well, but I believe I spent a little more than $24. I think for what it is, if it's around $50 or $60, it's a good deal, but the price you listed is really steal level, haha. Hope the Ravel grand works well with you!

Thanks David! It's partly your reaction to it that sold me, so I'll be holding you responsible ;-)