@Corky
LOL
Ya gots to be the mean tempered clavier! There’s lots of bad ass stuff you can jack a blues piano riff into before reaching for the synth. Why should Lucifer luthier and axe players have all the fun?
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I’m frustrated with Ravenscroft. It sounds great in studio or headphones but in a live mono setup it is horrible. Thin, cheesy, grainy, like an old 1990’s Casio piano sound! LOL. This post started about live use piano vsts and got off track.
Can anybody comment from actual use (months on a stage) as to what vst sounds great and plays great in mono, on a stage, for jazz. I use a Bose L1 series 2. I use a Soundcraft Ui16 mixer and a DMC122 as an organ and controller. I’m desperate to find a decent vst piano. Help!!! LOL
Look at this link from above :
Many things come into play while using VST’s live. You are going from a stereo setting to mono, which in some cases will give you either right or left sounds only. It is really dependant on the way your setup produces sound. If there is a mono setup for Ravenscroft, I would use that. It also would be best to take off all effects, then slowly add some back in, to taste, in mono. Read all of the above comments, which could be of some help to you. There are many here that use Ravenscroft, maybe they will chime in, but there are many more piano VST’s available. I have found in my experience, according to type of gig, that a simple, less sampled piano, and less effects works better, especially in mono.
Regards
Corky
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I agree. The way most PA systems hype certain midrange frequencies makes most amazing sounding sampled pianos sound like garbage anyway. I tend to lean toward pianos live that sound a little fake to begin with- pianos that sound like early Roland pianos, tinny and maybe 2 velocity levels lol That’s for a big rock band though. For solo sections the Addictive Keys upright does pretty well. That might be a contender for a jazz piano. And it does work in mono. Also, it loads fast. I’d say give it a shot. I’m starting to use Yamaha CP70 sounds a lot. It’s its own thing, like a Rhodes. Lots of character. That’s probably NOT what you want though 
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Just discovered this last night. I’m very intrigued. For $60 this might replace a couple VST’s in my setup live!!
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Friends -
I must admit that I bundled my Ravenscroft with my A-88 on eBay - It was a great package as it sold in less than a week.
I do own and like the variety that Keyscape brings - I too like the E. Yamaha. But my go piano sound is to double two piano’s found in Kontact. For one thing, Kontact is stable, and uses both piano’s under the same roof. The piano’s that I use are:
- The New York Grand with overtones
- The Gentleman Upright.
I need to try some other combinations to see what else I get that is pleasant to my ears. But you should know that I had a lot of ear aches when I was just a child…
dmc
btw - I replaced the A-88 with the RD-2000. I don’t really like the sounds on the RD, but the action is great. Since I use plugins there is no loss, but Roland needs to work on the sounds, or put that action in the A-88.
I really like Grandeur, it’s light enough and sounds great!
I really like Pianoteq as it sounds good (piano sounds are very subjective, mind!) and has a very light resource foot print. It’s CP70 model and chorus is the closest I have come to Tony Banks’s classic sound.
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I’ve been a big fan of Pianoteq for a long time, and the new version 6 sounds even better. That said, I did recently purchase Ravenscroft 275 and like that one too.
I just purchased 4Front TruePianos. …mostly because it is very compatible with the V-Machine, but I was blown away with the sound quality versus resource usage. The biggest neat thing (as advertised) is that it doesn’t drop any notes which is huge when it comes to piano & sustain. I like the Diamond and Sapphire presets the best. Of course, I’m probably the oddball here, …sticking to older VSTs…
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TruePianos is another one… I used to use it quite a bit live for just those reasons but it never seemed to quite cut through live as well as I would have liked. Now that I have the hardware resources I am back to sampled pianos.
I also just bought TruePianos. Jamstix has a cross discount with TruePianos. It
reminds me for some reason of the Knabe baby grand I used when I took lessons. Would be interested in learning how anyone has set it up for playing live in a rock band.
Pretty funny replying to a 6 year old thread but it seems to be the right place to mention I just bought Alicia’s Keys for $12 on Plugin Boutique (cost me $8 because I had some credits) and I really like playing it in Kontakt 7 player. For a singer songwriter piano man type track it’s perfect.
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Here’s another addition to a 6 yar old thread.
MY keyboard is a Yamaha MX61 which has a number of piano sounds in it which are initially good sounds, but for some reason I found them difficult to play, although I am no Rick Wakeman myself! In part it is because the sampling on a budget ROM Player is bound to have limitations. Having seen a trailer for Heavyocity’s Ascend Grand Piano I invested and it is really good. It is a sampled Steinway Concert Grand, but has a number of innovative sampling techniques - not just mic positions, but other playing techniques such as hitting the strings with chains, drawing strings across the piano strings, even using a “Gizmo” which energises the strings magnetically. You can mix and blend all these techniques, and there are then a load of onboard effects. But be warned - it can be very processor hungry!
But I have also invested in Fracture Sounds Spotlight Piano. It too is a Steinway Model D, but is a slightly more mellow recording, but also has 3 atmospheric layers you can mix and blend behind the piano sound. It produces some beautiful cinematic piano pads, and I love it.
I am well happy with both of them, although there are no doubt lower-priced alternatives.
An here is mine:
I am using the Vienna Imperial Grand, since I have that one all others disappoint. For me it is giving the closest response to a natural grand piano I ever tried. The piano is a Bösendorfer, tt can be tuned warm to jazzy and as I said, very real. I am always surprised that the name is mentioned so rarely.
It is slightly CPU and memory hungry,…
cheers,
Joop
Komplete’s “The Grandeur” ended up being my main goto along with Alecia’s Keys and Addictive keys. I go to “The Grandeur” the lion’s share of the time, though. I did love the other two for a long time, but “The Grandeur” wooed me to itself. I just like the expressivity of it.
If I turn off the key and pedal noise on Wave’s “Grand Rhapsody” HD it really sounds pretty fantastic. If you DON’T turn those down, those effects are so loud it sounds like someone has sneakers in the dryer in the next room!
Thanks for the hint!
I just bought it at this great price!!
Ramon