Please listen to this grand piano demo

[frui]

http://www.steinberg.net/products/ae/plugins/thegrand/mp3/the_grand_opening.mp3 (\"http://www.steinberg.net/products/ae/plugins/thegrand/mp3/the_grand_opening.mp3\")
It\'s a vst instrument, not in giga format. It does not have the warmth of Eastwest\'s Steinway, but it definitely has more clarity and dynamics, very powerful.
I am not advertizing this instrument, but want to hear some opinion from people more familiar with giga instruments.

[Simon Ravn]

I heard this before. And I am still not sure what to think. HOWEVER, it seems to be tweakable in quite a few ways, so it might be interesting. It sounds very very close-mic\'ed though - I would love to hear it with reverb in an orchetral setting. I just have a feeling its TOO clear.

[frui]

I feel the sound characteristics of this vst \"Grand\" is quite different from piano samples in giga format. I wonder if it\'s the result of different synthesis engines used.

[Franky]

I tried it, it sounds very clear and defined, dynamics are good but, way too much resonnance even though you can tweak it, without any resonnance in the FF layers you can hear almost as much resonnance as piano timbre which is bad personally it\'s a turn off. It makes that layer sound fuzzy and it\'s a shame cause besides that it\'s very good.

Franky
Vintaudio www.vintaudio.com (\"http://www.vintaudio.com\")

[tomhartman]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=\"1\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Simon Ravn:
I heard this before. And I am still not sure what to think. HOWEVER, it seems to be tweakable in quite a few ways, so it might be interesting. It sounds very very close-mic\'ed though - I would love to hear it with reverb in an orchetral setting. I just have a feeling its TOO clear.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


The close miked thing is what\'s good about it to me Simon. For classical or some film scoring assignments the recording style of the East West Steinway B might be more of the expected route, but pianos like that one just sound awful in pop, such as in this mp3 example. I\'ve never been in a studio in my life (started in them in the Sixties) where an engineer did not put two mikes inside the piano, and sometimes close the lid down....for pop. So that\'s been what has been frustrating about the available pianos in GIGA for me. I gave up and went back to using my Roland format William Coakley Steinway, which still hasn\'t been beat, overall, for pop.

I thought this example generally sounded very nice for this kind of thing...there were a few notes in the mid range that sounded a bit suspect (as if they died out too fast, without the ring of the real thing), but in general I wouldn\'t mind hearing this one some more. ..

[LHong]

The grand sounds very pretty clean and dynamically bright. I don\'t know exactly what piano source was sampled, to my ears, it seems be very close to the Grand-Yamaha-Gigapiano\'s personality. Well, of course it always be personal taste, I\'m not sure about classical but, I like the Grand is used in POP and Easy-ROCK arrangements if it will be available for Giga?

frui,
Just for fun, What do you think about this Yamaha-Sample? How it is compared to the Grand? Here is the MP3 path as follows: http://planetz.ghostwheel.com/pub/pulsar/music/AccPiano.mp3 (\"http://planetz.ghostwheel.com/pub/pulsar/music/AccPiano.mp3\")

Regards,
Long

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=\"1\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by frui:
I feel the sound characteristics of this vst \"Grand\" is quite different from piano samples in giga format. I wonder if it\'s the result of different synthesis engines used. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

[This message has been edited by LHong (edited 01-17-2002).]

[Ed Vance]

I think the sample source for the vst \"Grand\" was a Kawai Grand. Sounds pretty good to me, but I also thought there were some odd sounding notes in the mid range

[frui]

LHong, I like your piano very much. I do prefer that \"brassy\" sound to dark, mellow ones. It\'s purely personal taste though. It\'s a pity the mp3 is poorly recorded. http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif
The Steinberg \"Grand\" is sampled on a hand-crafted 9\' Kawai Ex concert piano, costing about $120000. Kawai Ex has gained quite some fame in recent years.
Kawai\'s acclaimed MP9000 digital piano is also sampled on a Kawai Ex.

[thesoundsmith]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=\"1\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">quote:</font><HR> The Steinberg \"Grand\" is sampled on a hand-crafted 9\' Kawai Ex concert piano, costing about $120000 <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Huh? Then should\'t it be marketed as a Kawai grand? Sounds like some serious deception going on.

I have to assume you\'d sell more \"Steinway\" samples than \"Kawai\" samples, but still, a great sounfing instrument is a great sounding instrument. Call it \"The Ultimate Jazz Piano\", or \"Friml\'s Favorite Piano\", but don\'t just lie to us...

It\'s enough to make a grown man Kawai!

Dasher

[LHong]

Thanks Frui,
Wow, no wonder why it sounds so COOL! It would be An interested \"Kawai Ex concert piano\" that I want to add to my piano-Sample collections! Question is will it be available for Giga?
Regards,
Long

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=\"1\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by frui:
LHong, I like your piano very much. I do prefer that \"brassy\" sound to dark, mellow ones. It\'s purely personal taste though. It\'s a pity the mp3 is poorly recorded. http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif
The Steinberg \"Grand\" is sampled on a hand-crafted 9\' Kawai Ex concert piano, costing about $120000. Kawai Ex has gained quite some fame in recent years.
Kawai\'s acclaimed MP9000 digital piano is also sampled on a Kawai Ex.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

[frui]

I guess it\'s completely against Steinberg\'s interest to port that \"Grand\" to giga format. http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/frown.gif
On the other hand, will we see giga becoming a vsti plugin?
I saw quite some heated discussion about Steinway VS Kawai in some newsgroups. Very interesting. I personally have got no real ones, so I have to rely on those great samples.