Piano Virtual Library Showdown (Keyscape vs PianoTeq vs Ravenscroft) 

Thank you! Blues and gospel lessons, not a bad idea.

Glad I could help!

thanks!!!

Agreed!

The legend hahahaha. You da legend

they're definitely thinner, which some people like

Most people it's usually Keyscape or PianoTeq. Thanks for watching!

Hahaha, it's all preference!

thanks!!

that's right! All 3 of these libraries are great

Keyscape is very inspiring

One thing I find that I run into repeatedly with Pianoteq is harsh ringing notes in the mid-upper key range. It can be SO unpleasant at times. Some presets and mic positions are affected more than others, and you just have to work with it to try to tweak it out of the sound. My biggest gripe with the program.

@@_trismegistus agreed. Hopefully that will be mitigated in a future upgrade so it doesn’t require user intervention.

I agree, Pianoteq feels real to play, there's something about the texture of chords that sounds right too.

thanks!

thank you for the support!

Haha, Charlie is the stud in the house

Not yet, but it's definitely in the loose list of ideas of pianos to try if they ever send it to me.

Thanks!

Thank you!

Hahaha, yeah, I'm sure the 2nd shoe was in the other room

you tweaked the touch settings in the libraries themselves? What sounds off, the feel or the sound?

@@SamTheBeardGuy I figured it out yesterday, Sam. Using the onboard speakers of the RD88 doesn’t help so I connected it to the audio interface and used studio monitors. I also had to configure the touch on the RD88 and the individual VSTs to match the sound coming out with the feel of the piano. I hope the Korg D1 would feel better than the RD88 when used to control VSTs.

that's what it ended up being hahaha

yamaha hs80s

Yuengling is always for the win hahaha. Ravenscroft definitely cuts for that genre.

Beyerdynamic 700-900 series. Only a few hundred bucks and I've had mine for atleast a decade.

Keyscape is definitely great out of the box. Love the Noire as well

Insane you can do that on a phone now

I just got the iPhone 13 ProMAX with 1TB of memory, so I have plenty of room for that sort of thing. There are some really good 1 and 2 TB pianos for the Kong Module app. I’ve been experimenting with a Roland A88 controller, a Korg plugKEY interface, and my iPhone running the Korg Module with some of their high quality patches. There are also some high quality Rhodes patches, and various other sounds you would expect from a stage keyboard. With that app I can set up a “playlist”, which is just a sequence of tweaked patches that you can step through. I can go up and down through this list from buttons on the A88. The battery life on the iPhone 13 ProMAX is so good you can actually not even bother with power. I have also experimented with a WIDI bluetooth adapter to make the setup even simpler, but that adds a small amount of latency that drives me nuts. It is close, but for now at least, I need the hardwired MIDI control. It is surprisingly competitive with the sound you would expect using a laptop setup, and orders of magnitude more convenient. Kind of mind boggling actually!

Are there latency issues?

Keyscape is amazing!

It doesn't do half pedaling, though, is that right? Only full pedal or nothing?

@@_trismegistus Yes, it has no half pedaling. (and also no sympathic resonace which is present in Pianoteq)

Yeah it's not for everything. Thanks for watching!

Pianoteq sucks, clear your ears…

Keyscape is definitely a little fatter

What do you have against UvI?

Keyscape

Nord is great for a lot of reasons. Their pianos sound great as well. It also has some great midi controller features. Any of the mainstream controllers aren't going to have latency issues, so they're all going to work. Software pianos are always going to have an edge, but it just requires more gear.

the age slider really is the key to pianoteq I've learned. Thanks for watching!

Hahaha, thanks for watching!

I had been using a Roland, but it crapped out on me a few weeks ago. So I'm in the market for a new live.

Ravenscroft 275

I definitely don't know about ravenscroft. All I know about Keyscape is they have a ton of velocity samples for each notes, but I'm not sure about looping points. I have issues every now and then with phasing on repeated notes in Keyscape, which tells me they might not be looped for a minute.

hahaha, no way.

@@SamTheBeardGuy A sick idea for your channel could be to do song breakdowns, like offer your thoughts on how you'd approach/change the song for a different sound etc. 👌

@@sporcaputtana i like that idea!

I definitely didn't like the base Ravenscroft preset, but I didn't feel the same way as you described once I played with other settings. Maybe try some of the mic settings, i feel like it opens up nicely

pianoteq is great!

Is the 100gb really that much to spare? I get it, it’s a huge amount for music software(all my vsts, and my daw don’t even add up to 100gb) but you can get a nice small external ssd to dedicate to Keyscape for maybe $60.

@@Astrothunder_ Like I already indicated, I have no interest in continuing down the samples based musical instruments path. Don't let my thinking discourage you, there seems to be hundreds of new samples based libraries of musical instruments coming out each year and with drive prices like you suggested you can continue loading up on them...

Same

I do think Pianoteq has a more realistic environment. I agree with you there. But I also don't mind the more produced feel of some of the other ones. It really just depends on the user!

Now I like checking this channel time and time again and suddenly I landed, (not for the first time), on this video. Your comment was interesting, mostly because it shows how much we all fall for marketing strategies, hence many of us buy the latest iPhone everyday it comes out. Firstly,the idea that one has an infinite number of dynamic variations through modeling is simply not true. In fact, one cannot have endless dynamic control even on the most expensive steinway. Why? Because that idea does not exist. All pianos have limitations hence they differ in size, and sound is modified from such mundane things, such as the number of chairs in the room and the stuff from which those chairs are made. It is true however, that except from the nature of the technology present on the hardware, poor digital pianos with very few sample layers lack dynamic expression. But this particular argument is completely invalid when one suggests that he or she can hear a lack of dynamic expression on a 100 and something gigabytes of piano samples library, with thousands of layers. It's impossible for one to claim that huge libraries like Keyscape, or VSL, or many others fail in transition from say mezzo Piano to mezzo forte. One should be careful in finding the right velocity curve in its physical keyboard in order for the library to play well, but there's no way for detectable gaps to be present in such kind of softwares. Secondly, the modeled pianos have two significant problems which make a sensitive pianist go crazy; the sound we hear when the hammer supposedly hits the strings, and the key-off sounds. And it's not only with pianos in fact. If you hear carefully the moment when Fender Rhodes are compared, you should be able to identify that what comes from Pianoteq has almost no key-off sounds. And those sounds are much more audible than similar sounds in upright and grand pianos. I don't know if Pianoteq have effective settings for managing the key-off sounds, but if they are as bad as the ones controlling this exact thing on a Roland FP90X, which runs on the pure acoustic, (fully modeled), sound engine, then they're useless. I believe we don't need to talk about the fact that many can actually trace the original sound from which modeling is based when that hammer-strings contact happen. Thirdly, real acoustic grand/upright pianos, would never satisfy the audiophile controlling the mixer in your band. Those are noisy, unpredictable, and they don't cut through the mix. Although there are ways to simplify what Keyscape brings, I believe Pianoteq can do better in live situations as you mentioned here. A yamaha/Roland/Kawai would do better than a Nord loaded with the white grand XL in its default settings, that's for sure. No one wants to hear the noise of the sustain pedal being depressed through subwoofers. Fourthly, when a piano is sampled, all samples are recorded in the same room/studio. It is completely impossible to hear different ambients on a E-flat4 and then different ambiance on an F-sharp3. Modeled pianos have done well, Pianoteq is sublime, but when considering authenticity, well-made sampled libraries are the best thing to consider. All the best!

Very true. Hopefully people have seen my indepth pianoteq review and seen that side of it.

I've thought about it. I want them to send me one haha

@@SamTheBeardGuy Ah man haha. Arturia - send this man Piano V3 asap!

@@jamie.goodson Yes @Arturia you guys need to send one like asap bro

Because we’re all musicians with no self control hahaha

Hey Sam, just wanted to let you know that I've found a more professional piano player for my project. Thank you for not answering any of the emails I sent you. Kind regards

Keyscape for sure

love synthogy ivory but i think i will give keyscpape a try :)

@@OmerAssraf thanks for watching!

@@FRODOPIANO haven't gotten to try that one but heard great things

:)

The C7 sounds great!

@@yusefbrenav amazing piano I don't ever really use the grand piano C7 I always go to the Bright live its amazing in the mix!!!!

nowadays korg d1

for me I think of 'is this piano being played in front of me, or recorded?' on that basis pianoteq wins out for me

a lot of people think that as well. Just a more real sound

Hahaha, well, I'll be honest, I'm not a big classical fan. Thanks for watching though! Always appreciate when the other genres give me a visit.

@@SamTheBeardGuy pleasure is all mine.

If I remember correctly I played all of them, and also dragged around midi and compared that way too. There's no perfect way to compare.

It's really the way they produced it after the fact. They would call it a producers piano, it's load and go. It's not for everyone, but a lot of people love pulling up a preset and not having to touch it.

Yessssss. It’s so good

to each their own!

hahaha

Probably Garritan

I think PianoTeq sounds the most realistic actually, but, I just like the way Keyscape feels out of the box. It bothers a lot of people but it doensn't bother me

I definitely have a preference… hahaha

Interesting, I've never noticed that

not opposed!

hahaha, soon

das right

Thanks for sharing and watching!

hard to tell without knowing more. Tell me more info.

you think? It doesn't bother me.

Hard agree on that one, I think its extremely annoying especially when playing solo. But pianoteq has so much sweet tweaking options than other plugins dont have.

lol, let me know

I keep hearing that... need to get my hands on it.

Finally, someone who has a Garritan like me! I was beginning to feel left out. ;-D But after listening to the Keyscape, it's a comparison of apples to oranges. I think Garritan is nice, but limited compared to Keyscape. The other day, I was playing along with a Beatles tune (just by coincidence, using my Garritan recorded in the Abbey Road Studio.) When it dawned on me, it felt a bit surreal.

Yes. This is the best by far

I really like garritan but my God, the hiss drives me nuts

yeahhhhhhhhhh, I mispoke. I was using the word recorded interchangeably with created, and that was a miss.

He does note this like 2 seconds after this dude. Wow.

Pianoteq does have a great electric

that's interesting, since at 4:18 I start playing

bunch of idiots haha