Real sounding Piano

[Eric Lambert]

Originally Posted by Julia B

It just means if I want a mono piano (for sound field issues in a large band context) I have to bus the stereo midi to a mono audio.

Why not pan it to mono?

AK isn't a "mono only" plugin. They've said that mono wasn't their priority - the best stereo representation was. I've panned to center and didn't have issues worth mentioning, though I've only needed to do that once.

[Julia B]

Then after playing around with the track a bit I decided that doing keeping it stereo via bussing to a stereo audio track sounded best, even though I ended up having the track panned 100L and 70L. Really didn't make any difference with the positioning of the instrument, but it just sounded a little fuller.

But this program also supports full range sustain pedals. Unfortunately the Yamaha pedal I got doesn't work because M-Audio controllers support the Roland standard. I'll keep the pedal anyway because I'm planning to get a Yamaha portable grand (less expensive than Roland and better feel than the M-Audio ProKeys) and use the midi out from that for recording keyboard work -- I use Reason 4 also and if I'm using it as a plug in and need to do a quick track add, I have to start the record process from my computer anyway so those controller knobs and stuff become useless becuase Pro Tools and Reason start arguing over the controller and the system collapses.

[Dan-Jay]

Just wanted to share my opinions.

Emotional Piano from Tonehammer and QL Pianos From East West are in my opinion great sounding realistic pianos.

To me, Ivory still has that electronic piano sound here and there and that put me off. QL Pianos sounds completely real and sometimes i even mistake them for a real piano. Then there's Emotional Piano which to me sounds even better for a low price. I have them both and i love them.