Sonivox "Essential Keyboard Collection" on sale - any good?

Cantabile
1

Just got an email from Sonivox showing the Essential Keyboard Collection on sale for $99.

Has anyone had any experience using “Essential Keyboard Collection” with Cantabile? It seems like it would fit right into the live performance mold.

I’ll probably buy it, and provide a review if no one else has. So far, it sounds pretty good, but until I get it into a rehearsal and a gig, I won’t know how well it will work.

2

Just spent some time with the demo version:

  • Pianos decent-ish - some funny high-mid ringing in most of them that I find a bit annoying; Yamaha sounds a bit bland and lacks depth
  • Rhodes / Wurly / Pianet: pretty good - Velvet legacy shows!
  • Tonewheels: I don’t trust an organ that doesn’t let me control the drawbars - fixed registrations only! Plus the Leslie imitation is horrible!
  • Church Organ: one registration only, but decent
  • Harpsichord - pretty good
  • Clavinet: useable - don’t quite get the wah modes; they don’t work as I’d expect them
  • Harmonium: awful to my ears; tinny, unorganic attack, not really playable
  • Toy Piano: a nice gimmick, but not what I’d call “an essential keyboard”…

Overall:

  • good handling, quick loading times: definitely a plus!
  • decent CPU / memory footprint
  • only two parallel activations - a no-no for me (studio + live laptop + live backup)

For me definitely not a $199 value, not sure if the $99 sale is really worth it. Maybe nice for getting started, but as soon as you become really serious, this will not cut it IMO - nice electric pianos and clavi / harpsi, but the rest is too “meeeh” to me…

Just my 0.02 EUR…

Cheers,

Torsten

3

Thanks Torsten. As much as I love some of the Sonivox stuff I’ve had over the years, listening to the demos there were a couple of good sounds, and if I didn’t already have _any _sounds, it might be a good buy.__However I think I’m going to pass on this and put my money into either the Arturia Upgrade (I skipped 6) or something else.

Thanks for taking the time…

Pat

4

Take this with a grain of salt because I’m not familiar with the exact product we’re talking about here… BUT:

I’ve never been impressed with anything I’ve checked out from them And even $99 sounds like robbery based on that. $19, maybe. YMMV :smiley:

1 Like
5

KVR has Sonivox Essential Keyboard Collection on sale right now for… $9.99

I’m checking out the demo now…

Yes, it was originally $199…and Sonivox is actually selling it on their web site right now for $99…

FredProgGH: at $9.99 it’s 50% off of your suggested low price… :smile:

Cheers!

1 Like
6

Well, I didn’t know Sonivox is PACE protected, which I discovered after installing…

Even at $9.95, that’s a deal breaker for me. YMMV

Cheers