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My take on these are from a playing experience only.

I have Ivory American D - Ravenscroft 275 - Ravenscroft Modern U - Garritan - Pianoteq Demo

Of these, Garritan is the best. The sound is just amazing. It takes awhile to get the settings right depending on what you are playing. Once done though, there is little this VST cannot do.

Ravenscroft 275 is also pure magic and is easier to setup as there are less controls to play with. It's really about getting the mics to your liking. It can play anything, but it does not shine like the Garritan. Hard to beat when playing classical stuff however. I really like it when playing music that is not to bombastic.

Ravenscroft Modern U is an Upright. Great for practice. If anything it sounds to nice for an Upright. I have never played an upright that sounds as good as the Modern U. However, it really feels and sounds like an upright. You can almost smell it.

American D- I get why people loved this when they bought it. 10 years ago, I would have loved it. Today, not so much. Anyone telling you otherwise is lying to themselves or have not had the pleasure of trying something like the Garritan. It's not in the same league.
It's generic and lifeless. It's the only one I am disappointed I got.

Pianoteq was simply not my cup of tea, but to be fair, I only tried the demo. it has a lot to offer and lots of people like it.

That's it. That is all I got.

Ron

The review says Pianoteq has more color, which I agree with from the demo. With modeled VST there's almost unlimited number of combinations possible, but when you play a single note without all the complex math interactions going on it just sounds too plastic.

Hello,


Yes, after starting your video yesterday, I was much surprised by that Silk Piano as well and already decided to look into that further. However your playability remarks put me off a few minutes later. That just has to be spot-on. And now I see that it requires full Kontakt as well, which is a no-go for me.

How unfortunate!

Cheers and happy VI learning,

HZ

Maybe, but a very nice summary indeed with great essentials! Thank you for this.

(And glad to read that you are happy with your recent Modern U addition--and that you can almost smell it 🤔 😄).

Cheers and happy playing,

HZ

HZ, Ron, I also bought the Modern U before a discount coupon I had expired. It is, of course, now my favorite. I’m a little disappointed the preset for the NV10 doesn’t seem to work on mine. I should have known. Since my action is so much lighter than the factory standard. That did teach me to adjust the curve on all my VST’s to a bit lighter. For a realistic piano sound it is the best I have. The R-275 is still the most beautiful for ballads. Do I need to load these into Garage Band to record them?

Hello,

@ˆTomLCˆ, nice to read your impression too, and as it appears you are another fan now.

I don't use any presets, kept everything as natural/default as possible, with only minor tweaks especially after 'meeting' an old upright last week or so, which was the perfect reference to get it all even a little better in realism.

Unfortunately I have no clue on Garageband, I just play and know absolutely nothing about DAW/recording and all that stuff.

Cheers and Enjoy,

HZ

Garritan CFX is amazing. One of the best I've ever played.

Playability is awesome. The only thing is it's difficult to get a dry piano sound because of the resonance in the samples.

It can be overwhelming at times but despite that it sounds amazing and most importantly out of all the libraries I've tried, ones I own and ones at a friend's place, to me it is one of the best and well worth the money.

I'm almost scared to express my opinion fully on Pianoteq we have a lot of folks that really dislike it. Only thing I could say is if you don't like it then don't use it. But at the same time it will be nice if the Pianoteq Haters recognise that everyone experiences sound differently and even if it isn't your cup of tea, it is for others.

The Anatomy of the brain, neurological make up, and even physical shape of the ear canal all play a role in how we experience sound. Some of us are sensitive to different frequencies. Others not so much. Some of us have a gift of perfect pitch, others have a range of relative pitch. others ,,,well less fortunate but again relative pitch can be developed,, to a certain extent at least etc etc.

anyways.

The newer models are pretty good to my ears. playability of Pianoteq is untouchable it feels amazing and alive.

Currently falling in love with the latest petrof they released I can't recall the name at this time .. Mistral or something so.
Their Bechstein is also lovely. Probably my favourite model from them..
The Steinway isn't bad but it does sound,,, how to put this,,, traditionally pianoteqish?.. But I haven't gotten a chance to try
the newest steinway. Still waiting on an midi cable to arrive. Sigh.
The New York steinway they released sound decent from the demos and what is available online at least.
There is a Pianoteq Dude on YouTube who really brings out how nice they can be. Goes by the name Phil. I will post some of his videos.

Amazing musician. He has an uncanny ability to connect with Pianoteq and produce lovely recordings.



Ravenscroft is also very playable. Every single key is heard and is awesome to cut thru a mix if you are into that.

Only mic position I like though is the player mic. The other mics sound too harsh for me.

Playability was pretty good and very responsive. The tone I can see some people liking it and others not so much . Not sure how to describe my relationship with ravenscroft lol.. Sometimes I like it sometimes not so much.

Depends on my mood I guess.

I'm surprised no one mentioned the Maverick and Gentleman. Played those by a friend.. Didn't get to spend much time with them but they had pretty unique sounds. The Maverick in particular had a very unique sound that was almost harp like. That's the best way to describe it to my ears. An Angelic tone so to speak.

Anyways the above are just my opinions

Cheers.

I've been wanting to purchase the Maverick for sometime now. Haven't decided as yet I see it comes as a trio with the the Gentleman and the Grandeur.

Not bad. 3 pianos for 199US.. but for now CFX and Pianoteq is enough for me.

Maybe I'll scratch that itch at a later date.

Noire

Piano in blue

Hammersmith

In no order.

I want to like the Garritan CFX. The sound is superb. But the sustain pedaling is all screwed up, rendering it unusable.

I have the light version. I don't know whether the full version has the same problem.

@ Mac³: I have the full version and no problems.

I presume that this is a response to a comment I made ...But I don't know what comment that was.

I had the light version and hated it! So, I upgraded at a discount (Sweetwater) to the full version and it’s far better. I’ve never noticed any pedal problems, I’m using a Kawai ES110 with its superb pedal.

FWIW, I'd reach for each version of the CFX (Garritan, VSL, Noire) or Pianoteq before The Maverick every time!
Not that it's bad...but the others are really good!

I have that trio ... Grandeur, Gentleman, Maverick.I have mixed feelings.

1. If I could have purchased only the Grandeur I'd have skipped the other two.

2. The Grandeur is a good Steinway, and it's easier to control than the Vintage D.
But it has a flaw in the bass. Sometimes a note will honk for some unknown reason ... loudly ... when sustained.
It's mostly avoidable. But once I got good at controlling the Vintage D I lost interest in the Grandeur.

So if, as you say, the CFX it enough for you, it's just as well you put off purchasing these.

Still Noire, until I can get VSL CFX. Which means a new PC as well...

Agreed..

This past year messed up a lot of folks financially

Better to hold off and see how the following year goes .

Cfx remains awesome

Btw the full version is much better to my ears

You should consider it.

I haven’t had any issues with pedaling so far.

But I used a high end Yamaha pedal with half pedal ling though. Can’t remember the name

Soon as my midi cords arrive I’ll test it out on the korg with the ds1h pedal and give some feedback

My biggest issue with Pianoteq is that the presets have no presence, they sound far away. I'm not willing to fork out the (incredibly) large amount of cash for the full version 'in case' it sounds better.
When I flip between Pianoteq, Noire and Vi labs Italian the latter 2 just sound infinitely better.
I still have an open mind, there are great players on here that are really impressed with it - so there must be something I'm missing or not doing right.

I don’t like far away sounding pianos either. That’s partly why I prefer the Player (close up intimate mic samples) over Classical (far away big room mic samples ) in Garritan’s Abbey Road CFX.

it's easy to fix that, just reduce the resonances knob to about 50%