Advice about high-quality piano virtual instrument

#1

Could the piano geeks here please advise me a (very) good sounding, not too expensive, piano VST/LV2/… ?

I own a Yamaha Clavinova CLP-535. I am searching for an instrument that sounds and responds better than the included piano sounds, so the bar is quite high.

The CLP is not sounding bad at all, and I enjoy playing it. But, especially if I come back to it after not playing on it for a while, the sound feels a bit jarring and needs some acclimation. Same for Pianoteq, which I find very rather good, even impressive considered its size (~50MB) and the lack of actual samples. But in the last Pianoteq (trial edition) most of the presets I tried fall in the same uncanny valley of being a tad too artificial and numeric.

I tried my luck with IvyAudio’s PianoIn162 which I reworked a lot because even though PianoIn162 is an impressive, huge and totally free collection of piano samples, it needs a lot of cleaning work because the samples are not even trimmed, nor aligned, so smooth transitions between velocity layers are hard to get right.

The result was OK but there are still problems, and of course I couldn’t achieve anything like sympathetic resonance, or even the effect of pressing sustain right after having released a chord.

I would very much prefer free software but I don’t really mind closed source either. Were Pianoteq cheaper or more to my liking I would have bought it, esp. since nothing open source comes even close.

To top it off, another important criterion is that I use Linux. Pianoteq has a Linux native version (and supports LV2) and SFZ based solutions can easily work, whereas and running a Windows VST via Proton or Wine in a critical real-time path feels clunky at least (so probably most Kontakt-based instruments are sadly off the table as last time I checked Kontakt didn’t work at all under Linux).

I also checked the piano of the very impressive open source VSCO 2 collection but it came short.

Provided the sound is really much better than my Clavinova, I can spend 200 bucks.

So what are your preferred piano instrument and can it fit my needs ?

[EDIT: Reading NI forums, it would seem people can make Kontakt work in Linux nowadays even though activating it is nightmarish. And Native Instruments does not seem to care. Anyway, Kontakt means that I have to choose between buying it (already making the budget rocket through the roof), or restricting myself to officially licensed sound libraries which tend to be more expensive (as they have to pay NI). I do not like that a sampler provider can arm-lock the market into accepting borderline mafia methods, because their library format is the de-facto standard.]

#2

Pianoteq is great for me. I have v5 and am still very happy with it. Yeah, it costs even more now. [EDIT] I would think it would be difficult to have a sample-based piano offering all the bells and whistles. I like the detuning/aging feature. Not gonna get that flexibility with samples.

#3

Same for me. Being used to Pianoteq, even a $5000 Clavinova sounds a tiny bit “artificial” to me. 2012-2013 was the point when their modeling technology really hit the mark where even a life-long classically trained pianist can’t tell the difference between it and a recording of a real piano. (i remember there were users conducting blind tests in the messageboards)

I do not like that a sampler provider can arm-lock the market into accepting borderline mafia methods, because their library format is the de-facto standard.

microsuck tactic :confused:

#4

Hello,
Just my two cents.
You can have quite satisfying results with « Digital Sound Factory » Yamaha C7, but definitly, take time to give a look at « Garritan Abbey Road Grand Piano »??? or something like that.
It is a sampled piano, but well layered, and not so expensive.
I am not a piano player, but my niece is studying in Canada to become a professional musician and she was quite satisfied to play it on my « cheap » midi controller, which has the « heavy keys » but no top gear.
Give a look at it.
Best
Olivier

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#5

I’ve never regretted getting Pianoteq. I had some hesitation about it at first, but I have upgraded it twice, because I enjoy it so much. I will say that the newer pianos sound markedly better than what came before them (Bosendorfer and Kawai). It is not perfect, but after using it for long enough, I still love it. Other than hoping to find something free, I am curious what else about Pianoteq is not to your liking.

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#6

Yes, Pianoteq is not free (FLOSS) and not cheap (but reasonably priced, I think), but I think it is well worth the price. About once or twice a year (usually in the summer and the fall) they have sales where you can save about 20%.

Regarding artificiality, have you tried the “condition” slider at the bottom? Also, the Standard version lets you tweak many parameters of the physical model, so that may help too.

Pianoteq is about the only proprietary software I use on my Linux system, and one of the reasons for that is that I had never any issues with their Linux support and their support of the LV2 standard works better than in many free plugins.

#7

I never once said that I was hoping for something free, at least not free as in beer. For ethical reasons I prefer free software but I never mandated it. I just do not want to pay 140€ for something that I do not find that much better than the sound of the Clavinova CLP-535.

I agree that I found the Bosendörfer better than the Steinway. I will try using it again, along with the Kawai. I will also listen to the Garritan Abbey Road Studios CFX Lite or CFX Concert Grand. I would prefer to try it, but Pianoteq seems to be one of the only ones with such a generous testing policy.

Thanks for your suggestions.

#8

I like the salamander grand piano

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#9

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