Steinberg/Wizoo - The Grand

[davlan]

Playing piano is a different pot of piranhas from playing a synth keyboard. For one in some ways it is the action of the keyboard that is important rather than the quality of the actual sound. I have a reasonable weighted action dig piano, the sound of which is fairly dated but the key action is OK I have been keen to upgrade the sound without having to shell out a couple of grand for a new piano. Early last year Steinberg and Wizoo brought out The Grand, basically a software instrument that plays back samples in a complex way to emulate a concert grand piano. You need a hefty computer to run it but now that I have one I got it.

It's impressive. It has a huge weighty sound that can be tweaked in slight ways to make it more realistic at the expense of CPU overhead. However on a 3 Ghz Pentium at the max setting it struggled just a bit. It has some fairly comprehensive velocity curve scalings that can be customised to make it more compatible with your own particular keyboard. Also is wonderfully simple. Sat and played it for a couple of hours tonight. Quite inspired!

 :D8)

[Steve]

What did it cost? Can you upload a sample of what it can do?

When I was looking for a new soundcard, I bought an Omni studio 66, it came with Gigastudio and the piano on that was quite superb! That played quite comfortably on my old 1ghz athlon machine. Does the grand really need a dual processor machine to be of any use?

Steve

[davlan]

Woops, I seem to be logged on constantly at the mo.

The Grand set me back £130. Not a bad price for one of the best virtual pianos available. You can reduce a lot of the features - string resonance, damper noise etc. to enable it to work on slower machines. It still sounds great. Next week when they release the dual processer 6 Ghz machine for £10 the piano will ssound even better. Software that matures like a good cheese. I like it.

With the right tweaking (v simple to do) you should still be able to get a splendid piano real time on a 1Ghz machine. And all you have to do is whack all the quality settings back up to max and export as audio on the final recording.

Although an axeman at heart you enjoy a bit of black and white as well? Don't tell Bong!

[Steve]

Although an axeman at heart you enjoy a bit of black and white as well?

Ha ha ha Shhh. Truth to tell... My preference in music is piano based! I have more piano music than guitar music. I only wish my parents had been able to afford to send me for piano lessons. I love George Shearing, Oscar Peterson, Jules Holland, Beethoven. I really wish I could play the piano...... I quite like synths as well, but I would never say that in an open thread........

[davlan]

Tell me about George Shearing and Oscar Peterson. Are they jazz men?

[Steve]

Tell me about George Shearing and Oscar Peterson. Are they jazz men?

Primarily yes! Although I do have a lovely Album by George Shearing of Bossa Nova. Oscar Peterson is a beautiful player. He makes it look so easy when he plays, I think that is a sign of a truly great player! (Of any instrument!)

[Rudi]

Tell me about George Shearing and Oscar Peterson. Are they jazz men?

I went to see Joe Pass at Ronnie Scotts Club some 25 years ago. Joe was sitting on a stool playing unaccompanied guitar with his eyes shut. Oscar Peterson dropped by to see Joe play. He walked to the piano on the stage and gently began to play an accompaniment. Joe heard this, inclined his head and opened one eye to see who it was. He nodded, closed his eyes again and they jammed....

A great jazz happening.  

[Steve]

I remember Joe Pass was a regular guest on the Oscar Peterson show. They did some fantastic stuff! Music to grip your shit!

[Stefanos]

ah piano's, that my subjects. The grand is a nice piano, but what you really want is the PMI bosendorfer, now that is a great sampled piano. You should listen to the demo's of it. I heared from lot's of people that they don't like the grand. But a few seem to love it.............

Offcourse it all comes down to taste with piano sounds.

The one that comes with gigastudio is the nemesys piano, that's not bad but not super either (well that's what i have heared about it).