Not quite happy with Authorised Steinway

[wiserGuy]

I recently purchased the professional version of the Authorised Steinway virtual piano. I must admit that, so far it lies far lower than what I expected. And I expected quite a lot since everyone here seems very happy with it, Garritan site is over-thrilled with their production (I guess that's part of marketing) and official Steinway lips endorse the effort.
So, despite that I was not at all impressed by the demos, I decided to go for the 24-bit version. Before I lay down my complaints or doubts about the product, I must say that my perspective is that of a pianist. I am not a composer, nor an audio engineer, nor a producer. Just a pianist. As such, I had reservations about sampled pianos having some dreadful experiences with digital pianos over the years. I own a real Boesendorfer and I know first hand what a high-end piano sounds like and what feeling it communicates.
I am not a Steinway fan but these pianos have their own strong character and some of them can be quite thrilling when played.

I have purchased some of the big names in the current virtual piano world partly for hobby, partly to get acquainted with different sounds and largely for night practice which is really hard to do with a real grand piano.
Here are my impressions of the Authorised Steinway:

- I am not happy with its sound. I find it to be average and comparable to other virtual pianos. In fact, one or two contenders, having sampled a Hamburg Steinway, clearly have a better sound and a better instrument.

- Even the under lid perspective cannot fully provide a focused sound when a bunch of notes is played together. The result is somewhat blurred, not clear, not specific. And I have checked this with resonance off and pedal up.

- The sound volume is unacceptable. It's low, very low. I do not know the reasoning behind this but whatever this might be, they should provide a volume slider. Please! The standalone application is useless because of this.

- The velocity curves cannot be edited at least on their highest or lowest levels. Even with the best MIDI keyboard, you will need to fine tune the velocity curves and their highest and lowest settings. My SL 88 keyboard is a few months old and I regard it to be more than adequate. And yes, it produces all velocity levels from 1 to 127, I have checked this. The other sampled pianos, especially the big names, have full velocity curve controls.

- I do not like the sympathetic resonance. I think it's not there when set low, and it's damaging when set high. I am not biased having read that it's DSP based. It's just not good.

- I must say that a MIDI file played back with the Authorised Steinway sounds better than when it is recorded. I understand that many people will just stay there. I mean making a rough MIDI recording and step editing everything from there on. And in this manner, the piano may be good for them. But its playability is a lot way down. It's not a virtual instrument which will attract the musician. It may attract a producer or an arranger but not a pianist. Other virtual pianos, some quite old with no special rings and bells, provide extreme playability.

- The price is too high. I am a little disappointed here. The instrument is not worth this price. No way.

Anyway, I know that the above is not mainstream at least in this forum with nearly everyone praising the Authorised Steinway. And I know that selecting a virtual piano as any other instrument for that matter, is very subjective. But I paid for it I think I am entitled to say that no, I do not share the enthusiasm.

[ethereal]

I'm running out the door, and don't properly have time to post a reply to your thread, but I wanted to comment and say....

I'm sure you already know this, but if you move the "DRY" slider all the way up, then adjust "WET" accordingly to your tastes, your volume output should be much better (although admittedly still lower than desirable.)

[Haydn]

I am not happy with its sound. I find it to be average and comparable to other virtual pianos. In fact, one or two contenders, having sampled a Hamburg Steinway, clearly have a better sound and a better instrument.


This piano was hand picked by Steinway. They picked the recording engineer and supplied the technician. Maybe this is what Steinway considers the Steinway sound.

Jim

[elcabong]

I wonder if the Steinway is illustrating some problem in your system? Sometimes some new s/w will have a problem with something that others may seem to work fine with. Possible suspects?

- Midi (could there be any note doubling going on?)
- Do you have the ASIO driver for your specific card? Are you using ASIO?
- What sound card are you using? Any possibility of sample rate/conversion issues? perhaps try a different sample rate. Do you have the latest driver for that card?

I sounds like there's something going on that's impairing your fidelity with this product.

[Houston Haynes]

If you're "just a pianist" you should have simply put your money into a pair of decent microphones to record your own acoustic piano the way you like it - particularly since you claim to have not liked the sound of the demos...

*()

In response to the invisible wedge that you're trying to portray, I've got to call bull~~~~. I'm a composer with a degree in audio engineering - but - I've also spent many, many years playing all types of acoustic pianos, primarly being schooled on the Yamaha C7 and Steinway model B and D (including helping to restore a vintage instrument one summer), but I also had quite a bit of time playing on various Baldwin and Boesendorfer instruments since I worked for a piano dealer while in school. So get off your high horse about what an instrument "does" or "does not" sound like - claiming that you're "just a performer" doesn't gain you any clout beyond being just another guy with a different opinion.

How about supplying a few samples of your own work, and perhaps a virtual rendering of the Authorized Steinway that illustrates its shortcomings compared to what you prefer? That would give much better context to your criticisms.

[wiserGuy]

@Haydn
This piano was hand picked by Steinway. They picked the recording engineer and supplied the technician.
Surely, but in-between the product has undergone additional processing, sample editing, normalising(?), de-noising(?), rate conversion, layering and all the rest. Anyway, as I said, sound may be subjective. That's not my concern. I have other virtual pianos which don't sound nice to me but I have to admit that they hold character, attitude and playability.

@elcabong
I wonder if the Steinway is illustrating some problem in your system?
I would say no. No ASIO, no suspicious or doubtful drivers. My computers are all Macs and my sound cards (MOTU 896HD, Apogee Mini-DAC) are Firewire CoreAudio compatible. MOTU's drivers are and always have been beyond criticism while Apogee works with the latest Apple FW driver. Both provide very low latency. Bit depth is obligatorily 24-bit for these. No sample rate conversions. Every software instrument works fine with them.
Besides, my equipment fulfils all Garritan requirements, one by one. Audio output goes to Beyer-Dynamik phones and ATC active monitors.

@Houston Haynes
If you're "just a pianist" you should have simply put your money into a pair of decent microphones to record your own acoustic piano the way you like it
I have actually. My rig consists of two Neumanns coupled with Apogee pre-amps and converters. Since you are an audio engineer you obviously know that recording a grand piano is not the easiest task. In fact it is very difficult to get a recording "the way you like it" in the limited space of a home studio. That's one reason why audio and sample experts sell products like the Authorised Steinway. They are supposed to have the expertise, resources and taste to record a high-end piano and produce a playable virtual instrument from it.
But I already mentioned that I did not buy the Authorised Steinway to record music. My main reason was to practice and just play having a close experience of the finest piano (as advertised) since I do not own the real instrument.

How about supplying a few samples of your own work, and perhaps a virtual rendering of the Authorised Steinway that illustrates its shortcomings compared to what you prefer?
I could do that but it would prove very little. It would be just like all other demos. Once recorded to MIDI and after a little tweaking on velocities and pedalling you have a nice piano recording. I may prefer the Hamburg Steinway (experience with New York Steinways is extremely rare in Europe) but this, as you said, is just a different opinion. As a matter of fact, I am sure that a skilful producer can present a project, using the Authorised Steinway, in a way that even people owning the thing would be impressed or intimidated by.
But that's not the point. If you read my initial comments carefully, you will see that my main complaint is about playability. The sound you hear when you play, the velocity curves, the low and pale volume and generally the playing experience is poor. I can't play the damn thing! And this affects the quality of playing and time spent on it.

So get off your high horse...
If it was advertised as a production tool, then this would be fine with me. Instead they claim, and I quote from the Garritan page, "Advanced programming also makes this a truly 'playable' and responsive library." That's what I fell for. Together with the high talk about official endorsement, hand-picked instrument by Steinway themselves and the rest of the hype and also reading flattering comments all over this forum, I was convinced.
From my point of view I have got an average sound-wise and mediocre software-wise virtual piano which urgently needs at least an update.
Couple this with four hundred dollars for only a single instrument and you should honestly wonder who really rides the high horse.

[Houston Haynes]

OK - whatever. This can go round and round in an endless circle, because the people that claim that the Authorized Steinway is "too soft" and like complaints refuse to accept that their keyboard is not really sending the full range of MIDI NOTE ON values that it *should* be capable of to express the full dynamic range of the keyboard.

I'd be a month's salary that you couldn't get your controller to express your softest playing to your hardest playing in a value range from 1 to 127 without a standard deviation of less than 5. When I calibrated my Kurzweil MIDIBoard (which had both hard and soft controls for scaling the velocity and aftertouch response) I could go from 1 to 127 with a deviation of less than 3 without even thinking about it. It translated to getting a very smooth even response from most of my virtual instruments - and showed others (particularly piano libraries/VIs) to still be quite compressed in their output.

If you have another VSTi that feels more "playable" to you, it's because you happened upon a combination of plugin and keyboard controller where the dynamic range of the mechanism, and the NOTE ON values it produces, matches well to the way you *think* the piano should sound when played from a MIDI controller. That's all to the good. But it begs the question *why* did you buy a yet another virtual piano VSTi when you already had one you were happy with? This is *particularly* puzzling when you say that you didn't like the Authorized Steinway demos (http://garritan.com/steinway_demos.html). Did you listen to the demo of "Song without Words" demo where they intercut the live playing in Troy Music Hall against a MIDI version using the VSTi? If you didn't like the sound - even when a demo had portions of an original live recording from the space intercut into the cue, you probably should have passed entirely, regardless of whether "playability" is a real or imagined factor...

:confused:


...I smell a shill (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shill#Shills_on_the_Internet)...

[jjloving]

That's what I fell for. Together with the high talk about official endorsement, hand-picked instrument by Steinway themselves and the rest of the hype and also reading flattering comments all over this forum, I was convinced.

LOL, for real? seriously?:wow: What did you expect to find on the forum space that Gary is paying for to allow his customers to come together and discuss and help each other out?!

I don't know - whatever. maybe we should open a "trash Gary and his products as no good overpriced hype" forum section too.:rolleyes:

come on.

Jon

[Journeyman]

I've gotta say something here. I find Gary to be a very reasonable and respectful guy who is always trying to do the right thing by his customers. But the user base reflected in this thread seems far from reasonable and respectful at all. Please allow for the occasional dissenting opinion without jumping all over the guy.

[DPDAN]

Wiserguy,
I am 52 years of age and have been a recording engineer for at least thirty years. I only had three months of piano lessons at the age of seven, but even to this day, all I can do is hunt and peck. I understand your disatisfaction with the Garritan Steinway's "playability". I can't disagree with you about your opinion of it because your opinion is exactly that. What I can disagree with you about is your belief that it is not playable to a very satisfying degree of joy. When one considers it is only a virtual instrument, and is played on a midi keyboard which does NOT have the mechanical qualities of a real piano,... there will be naysayers.

In my years of recording, I have come across quite a few pianists as you can imagine, and they all pretty much have the same complaint. They find themselves fighting the instrument and their musical abilities are sacrificed while they adapt to it.

Even though I don't play well, I can sit down to any piano and immediately hate it or love it. The problem that I experience with pianists in general, (MOST) is that they are never happy with any piano. Garritan does not expect every pianist to love this virtual instrument, but that is their genuine desire.

Because the real piano is an instrument that has so many mechanical things going on, it is easy to understand why someone may not like it, even if they liked some of the demos. This brings me to the point of responding to your original complaint and that it is not playable. I could not disagree with you more about this. To me... and Houston, this playability is totally dependant on your keyboard and monitoring setup. Of course the Steinway has a velocity curve to accomodate a myriad of different midi pianos.

If I am correct, the update will have a more flexible velocity curve. Don't quote me on that. The dry fader is used to adjust output level, and can produce enough level to overdrive any DAW's levels.

Garritan is always interested to hear from his customers, including the ones who are not happy.


So, despite that I was not at all impressed by the demos, I decided to go for the 24-bit version.

Personally, I would not have purchased this library if I did not like any of the demos. That part is still confusing to me.
Be assured that Garritan will have updates for you, and they will be free.

Dan

[wiserGuy]

@Houston Haynes
But it begs the question *why* did you buy a yet another virtual piano VSTi when you already had one you were happy with?

Because I like to try things. Because I like to keep an open mind as a player especially when it comes to new sounds, new instruments. In the past we did not have the opportunity to play on a variety of excellent pianos. Digital technology has made this possible even with limitations. So I would want to play and hear a 1790 forte-piano, an old Bechstein or a 1900 Pleyel. The same stands for the officialy endorsed and hand-picked New York Steinway.
And finally, because I have collected many VSTis, I know that each new one may have a certain quality that helps to broaden one's musical horizon.

As for being a "shill"... well I had to look this one up. No, I am not one, if I understood correctly what it means by what I read.

@jjloving
LOL, for real? seriously? What did you expect to find on the forum space that Gary is paying for to allow his customers to come together and discuss and help each other out?!

I didn't know that. Honestly. I just read the forum agreement and it mentioned no such thing. I thought I had the freedom to express opinions even unpleasant ones for the forum owners.
At least this is my limited experience from similar fora of other VSTi vendors. I would not want to refer by name to other vendors but there has never been an issue with expressing complaints, mine or others'.

Anyway, I am not a forum guy. I only post something when I feel I have something to say.

[Haydn]

Gary Garritan does read these posts whether positive or negative. He is always working to improve his products thru customer feedback. When testing a library such as this before release, there are only so many beta testers with various setups. So only the feedback from these testers help fine tune the piano. A first release may not work for all users perfectly. This is why there will be updates to address issues. The first update will be addressing the noise in the pedal release samples as well as many other issues. I'm sure there will be updates to velocity curves in the future.

Jim

[jjloving]

I didn't know that. Honestly. I just read the forum agreement and it mentioned no such thing. I thought I had the freedom to express opinions even unpleasant ones for the forum owners.
At least this is my limited experience from similar fora of other VSTi vendors. I would not want to refer by name to other vendors but there has never been an issue with expressing complaints, mine or others'.

fair enough :) we dealt with this same sort of thing a few weeks ago and it got way out of hand. Discussion is welcome - and Gary and David and the others come here asking for feedback, and suggestions for improvement - so that discussion can have a direct impact on the progress of a product.

A list of "it's not this, it's not that, it's no good, it's overpriced" doesn't lend itself to being a discussion starter. As I said, this is very similar to recent events, and this is not a place where he who yells his complaints loudest gets heard. I would encourage you to start a discussion relating to the aspects you're unpleased with and allow others to chime in with their experience. Then we can all move forward to better the product. But slamming it right out of the gate is just going to start trouble.

Anyways - discussion is welcome - let's discuss the aspects you're not happy with, see if we can't find something first in your setup that may not help it, and then we can examine the product. I think you'll find a much more receptive group if this is your approach.

.02

hey - Jose Reyes just hit a homer!)(~:D

Jon

[ab53]

I have played pianos for almost 50 years. While the Garritan Steinway is not perfect, it is fantastic. It sounds great. You need to know how to work with it and your keyboard controller to get the proper dynamics. But that is probably true of any sample library.

Recently I recorded a real Steinway for a song, but I need to change the song - I substituted the Garritan Steinway and it fit into the mix perfectly.

Perhaps if someone is going for a solo piano album, the opinion might be different.

But then again, why not record a solo piano album on a real piano?

And $400 for a piano subsitute - that saves almost a hundred thousand dollars in having the grand piano, great pres and mics, a great room to record it in, etc.

Bottom line - Garritan did a fantastic job.

[wiserGuy]

we dealt with this same sort of thing a few weeks ago and it got way out of hand

The last thing I would be after is to create a flame topic (I hope the term is correct?), or offend people while being covered by the forum's anonymity.
My sole intention was to present facts as they appeared to me. I realise that this sometimes might be coloured by the heat of the moment or frustration though I always try to keep a balanced attitude.

If, in any way, my tone was offending or my comments exaggerated, I apologise to everyone who either read my posts or replied to them.

As for the Authorised Steinway, I got me a dedicated high-end phone amplifier. It helped a little.
I still think that an update is much needed and I am eagerly waiting for it.

[etLux]

If, in any way, my tone was offending or my comments exaggerated, I apologise to everyone who either read my posts or replied to them.


Thank you for your graciousness, wiserGuy. And please forgive us
if some of our responses were defensive. It's a sad fact to contemplate,
but producers of competing products sometimes resort to placing shills
in the forum to deliberately do damage. A recent highly aggressive and
extended episode of that has left some of us a bit tender.


As for the Authorised Steinway, I got me a dedicated high-end phone amplifier. It helped a little.


I've chronically had problems with "low output" on one of my Dell's.
Even replacing the sound card with a different make and model did not
solve it -- nor did going through every single audio setting on the entire
system. Go figure.

Oddly, unlike my other systems, this one appears to be unduly sensitive
to headphone impedance. I finally found a very inexpensive ($12) set
of Sony headphones, though, that not only provide adequate volume --
but actually sound fairly decent, too.


I still think that an update is much needed and I am eagerly waiting for it.

Although I don't know the exact details, I do know that a substantive
update is well along the way, already; and should not be too long
in coming forth, my friend.

My best,



David
www.DavidSosnowski.com

[Ranger]

Just a note I find that Wiserguy has merit but lets be real its not a real Steinway. That being said, I own, I'd say 80 % of the piano samples and for me by far Gary has the sweetest , I use samples as that, all sampled pianos require tweeking since we all own different controllers etc.... I presently only use 2 libraries the one always on the ready is Gary's Steinway the other is Pianoteq. I will mention that everybody's opinion is very important, this can only lead to improvements, so dont take personal opinions as an attack we're only here to talk about the products and music. So lets enjoy

This is for Gary and Team thanks for this product

[Jeff Hurchalla]

Hi-
I just wanted to let you know I am listening to your posts and considering the comments, and I appreciate the input. I pop in here every now and then between working on the update.
Jeff

[robmuc05]

Hallo WiserGuy,

i´m not a professional pianist....but also with my keyboard i can´t get a good playability of this instrument.

You wrote - you have tried also other pianosamplers. Could you load diffrent samplers in your VST-Host - and play it simultaniously ? Are you interested for a experiment??

If you have time...look on my Thread: http://www.northernsounds.com/forum/showthread.php?t=61792

Ok - i know, this (my solution) isn´t perfect - 2 or 3 different samples playing on the same time - how can give this a good and realistic Pianosound?
But - on the other hand - i was very astonished by the result - and i love to play this piano(-mix) live......

Read my complete Thread.....i would be very interested on your opinion....

Clearly - this can not be a useable solution in general......i´m also hopening on a update with 1. more Loudness in general, and 2. with a much more better possibility to adjust the velocitycurves to the used keyboard.

You knowing much more than me, how soft, strong, living a really piano can be. And so , i would be very happy, to find a interested pianist, who could try this "crazy" mixing of 3 different samplers simutlaniously, and to achieve his (please honest) impression to play this live)

I´m German, from Munich....hopening my english isnt´t tooo bad..))

Greetings to you
robert from Munich - robmuc

[wiserGuy]

Well robmuc05, never mind about your English, they are fine, your message is clear and well understood. I am not a native speaker either. I've always feared the impression a native speaker would get reading my posts.

I visited your other thread and read it carefully.
I think that you are confusing two arguably different things. Live, acoustic sound as it emanates from a real piano and production sound. The former, after being sampled and played back should provide an experience as close to the real instrument as possible. The latter, is supposed to trick the listener by posing as being something else, preferably more powerful, seductive, fuller, richer. It tries to create atmosphere, mood. It plays with human feelings and perception.
Just think of how different the world is in black and white on an old film noire with its dramatic lighting and silhouetted figures. Or just take a DVD with a modern, Hollywood movie and watch the 'making of'. The difference between the same scenes taken with a video camera (for the needs of the 'making of') and the actual movie is huge. The video camera shows an ordinary world, the one we experience every day. But the Panavision shots layered with production and post production processing are almost magical. They seem real but they are not. The lighting seems different, the motion is engaging. And the funny thing is that we, the audience, finally prefer the trick instead of reality.

Similar thoughts for audio. Listen to a modern production and focus on the drums. Have you heard such snares for real? So tight, so punchy? If you stand close to a real drummer playing, I wonder whether you would like the result. Production sound has lured you into its fake but at the same time attractively distorted reality.

The same goes for sampled pianos. After all, they are recordings. Unprocessed recordings sound rather dull. I know this first hand recording my piano. After a competent mastering engineer takes over with his careful and intelligent use of equaliser and compressor (some reverb maybe), even I, who did the recording, feel stunned. The result is wide, balanced, interesting. But it's 'produced'. It's amazing to listen to but a 'produced' sampled piano would not be ideal for playing.

I like Garritan's way. In fact, it's one of the main reasons I bought their product. They know that the player needs a 'real' piano, not a final production recording. You may process the Authorised Steinway later and get great results as a finished recording but you must have a raw piano sound to start with. They are honest in their effort to provide an experience as close to the real thing as possible. They lack some important features, like velocity control, volume control etc. but I hope these will soon be available.

There are some other vendors out there who offer 'produced' pianos or 'produced' demos. Much frustration arises when you see that the attractive demo piece you fell for, has undergone professional processing since you have the same samples in your hands but it's impossible to get the same sound.

So, to answer your question, no I would not strive for layered VSTis to play or record. The Steinway is a fine instrument and I would not mix it with anything else. I believe that's not the way to go. In the production stage maybe, but not for playing. I'll wait for an update to improve playability. In the meantime I would stick to Garritan's recommendations for a high quality 88 keyboard (I am quite happy with my StudioLogic) and of course the best headphones or speakers you can get. A friend of mine pointed out that to reproduce a piano's sound you would need speakers the size of the piano. Well, this may be an overstatement but it's not far from the truth. At least you need quality headphones with enough volume. I am currently using a headphone amplifier (German by the way) for added volume and 'openness' which is a must for Garritan's wide dynamic range. The piano is a loud instrument from up close and you need volume to get the same feeling from a VSTi.

From my point of view, the pianist should know the sound of the real piano and ask for the real piano sound to play or record. Even if the ready-to-consume-and-be-amazed-by modern productions are trying hard to drag us into their utopian soundscapes. Garritan is on the right path, not quite there yet but on the right path.

[scope4live]

I am glad that the moderators let us read and make our own decisions, afterall,...we are not Communists. ( Don Barzini..Godfather I )

I am watching this thread with much anticiaption. I learned years ago when purchasing software that with such a variety of hosts and Operating Systems, all newly released products continue in BETA for quite some time. That's just business. When buying a product you are actually a BETA tester as you find cetain inconsistencies, unique to your particular combinations of hosts, monitors, etc.

Wading through various posts from users and reading positive and negative statements is something I appreciate.

I want this Piano, and when I believe it has matured enough, I will buy it knowing it will be immediately used. I know Garritans reputation well. He has been there since GigaHarp back in '99. That library helped sell Gigasampler, it sold me. I was using a Helpenstill Upright and Emulator hardware samplers.

All comments are welcome in my book, as it isn't difficult to spot fiction.

As far as shills go, there's an old Italian saying...........One hates what's in his house the most.

Thanks To Everyone, And Thanks GG For What Will Surely Be Another Fine Instrument.

[Journeyman]

The following comments do not specificially apply to Garritan per se, but all software and software developers in general:
all newly released products continue in BETA for quite some time. That's just business. When buying a product you are actually a BETA tester as you find cetain inconsistencies, unique to your particular combinations of hosts, monitors, etc.First of all, that doesn't apply to -all- or even -most- products. It does unfortunately apply to many, though. And just because that's the state of many releases these days, that doesn't mean that that's how it should be. Without mentioning names, one of the acknowledged leaders in the sampled piano market has a product that has worked flawlessly out of the box since it's inception. I did not spend $400 on the software and another $300 on a separate drive to run it on so that I could be a beta tester for it. I bought it expecting to be able to use it to achieve professional results out of the box IMMEDIATELY, and that's exactly what it did. I'm sorry, but the statement quoted above is a bit to accepting of 'unfinished' software delivered as 'final product' if you ask me.

Again, I'm not taking Garritan to task for this specificially at all. The Steinway sounds great, and I know Gary has a lot of integrity. But I'm uncomfortable with the mindset that 'that's just the way the business is and we should be accepting of it'.

[scope4live]

I actually don't accept it. That's why I wait, watch, and learn. I know sample libraries aren't released that way, but buying a rompler when it is first released is a 50/50 chance of using w/o some difficulty. There are too many varaibles, and that's why I look forward to using them only after I have heard several comments. No mentioning of names is very respectful, and I shall also refrain from that. :)
My concerns are for my performance rig I use live. I work w/ several different groups, and my projects must be loaded one time, and work flawlessley. That's why live playability is my first concern, I can always sit down and record w/ or w/o click tracks and have several takes. The gigs I perform do not allow load times, one handed key switch playing, etc. For example, I use a MIDI Solutions FP8 just so I can keep both hands working, that's why I love Gigastudio's Editor, and prefer libraries over Romplers.

I am still waiting for a performer to comment on the sotenuto abilities. Other than saying yes it works, explaining how it was applied.

While there are dozens of fine " sounding " instruments, I am more concerned with fine " performing " instruments. Afterall it is an authorised Steinway emulation.

Perhaps I'll just dive in again, besides GG's Gigaharp got me out of hardware and into software a decade ago, I know he's a capable developer. Then I can comment on how it performs. If it works live, it's a cinch in recording venues. :heart:

[RickD]

If you're "just a pianist" you should have simply put your money into a pair of decent microphones to record your own acoustic piano the way you like it - particularly since you claim to have not liked the sound of the demos...



He bought it so he could practice at night, go back and read his post. Maybe you don't understand the concept of wearing headphones so as not to disturb wife, kids, neighbors?