Waves Grand Rhapsody Piano

[PatriotsBiker]

Has anyone tried this new Piano from Waves called "Grand Rhapsody Piano"? I don't even see videos on the Waves site for this, which is very strange for them. It's only $29. Been waiting on the popular Ivory to have a sale.

http://www.waves.com/plugins/grand-rhapsody-piano

[::F-L-E-X::]

I picked it up last week, but have only had a cursory play around with it. (I'm not a player, but have owned & recorded several pianos).

First impressions :

Pros

• It's $29... (or cheaper)
• Well recorded (sampled) instrument with good velocity switching, (although needs a decent keyboard & low buffer settings for good playability).
• Lots of tweakability.
• Sits well in the mix (when tweaked), & with a touch of Altiverb (as opposed to the built in reverb).

Cons

• Cheesy name, cheesy interface! (Also a bit hard on the eye).
• Presets are a bit lame (my favourite being "Basic Grand"). Does the world really need another "Honky Tonk" piano, or an expensive Fazioli trying to sound like a battered Upright?!!
• The action noises are way OTT, (but thankfully can be turned down or off).
• Some of the mic choices are a bit puzzling
• The HD library (14.32GB) needs a fast SSD for quick loading.
• No master tune

I guess Ivory has become the benchmark for Piano VI's, but overall for 29 bucks it's hard to argue with. I would have preferred a Steinway to a Fazioli... but Ivory has that covered.

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by ::F-L-E-X::

I guess Ivory has become the benchmark for Piano VI's, but overall for 29 bucks it's hard to argue with. I would have preferred a Steinway to a Fazioli... but Ivory has that covered.

You got that right

[kw88keys]

The CPU usage on Waves Rhapsody (WGR)is about twice as much as I get with Ivory American D grand. This is most noticeable when placing WGR or Ivory on an instrument track and real time bussing/recording to a wav track.

[PatriotsBiker]

Thanks for the replies, folks. I'll hold out for the Ivory. Hopefully someday it finds it's way on sale.

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by PatriotsBiker

Thanks for the replies, folks. I'll hold out for the Ivory. Hopefully someday it finds it's way on sale.

I have never seen Ivory on sale and it has been around for awhile

[PatriotsBiker]

Originally Posted by JFreak

I have never seen Ivory on sale and it has been around for awhile

Now that is some good additional information to know. Oh well, can't win 'em all. I guess I'll get them sooner than later.

Thanks again!

[musicman691]

I'd but into this but there's a fly in the ointment - the current Waveshell (9.91) won't run on OSX 10.9.5 and the offline installer isn't going to have any new plugins added to it and this is one of those new plugins. I'm not changing OSX just to get an inexpensive piano (Yosemite was unstable on my system when I tried it).

[VRW]

Originally Posted by PatriotsBiker

Has anyone tried this new Piano from Waves called "Grand Rhapsody Piano"?

It´s a nice one. Definitely worth buying for this super low price.
Turn back -Formant- just a bit (I run it by -1 or -2) and it starts sounding really sweet.
Besides it´s many other options to shape the sound. <3 it.

Well done VI for an extremly low price imo...

...better get the HD library and put it on any SSD. Got mine on my internal Apple Flash
drive and it loads in a few seconds. However got PT sessions/audio on an external SSD.
No complaints actually, works well here.

...it´s about $26.- for registered users from audiodeluxe.com.

[Gemylon]

Sound is good. A few nice options.

But I'm missing pitch-shift and tuning ...