New - Royal Grand 3D Piano

[Gambold]

To each his own of course - but I'm not much on "sonic versatility" in performance. I've been in a band where that was the expectation and it's a rabbit hole...suddenly you become jack of all moods with everyone expecting you to sound like 14 different instruments at any given time. Meanwhile, the drums get to just be drums, the sax gets to just be a sax...you get my drift. Yeah the guitarists use pedals but they are still guitars. Not you - you suddenly become a flute or a brass line, and boy you better sound just like the original track.

For recording, sure, it's a different situation, and it saves a lot of money and time if you don't have to find and hire someone to play a soprano sax line on your Kenny G tribute. Ditto if you are playing in a pit band for a musical whose company can't afford a Broadway orchestra. But for combo performance, of jazz/pop/rock standards, expecting the keyboard player to be an one-person orchestra diminishes their role as a musician, and makes them more an effects machine, in my opinion.

If the piano/organ/rhodes tryptich isn't good enough for what the band wants to present to the bar, then I'm not interested.

[Dreamer]

Wise words. Lesser and different voices of best quality count here. And, oh yes, arrangement skills.

[pianojuggler]

Hi Everyone,

Does anyone know if the Royal Grand (or any of the other high quality grand) that has been converted for use in the sample library? Just got the Wave 2 and would be worth even a really large sample to have a nice grand sound. Thanks!

[DJKeys]

The Wave 2 does not support Nord's multi-sampled piano library. There are some piano samples that will do fine for most applications, but their expressiveness is limited to velocity, filter, etc.

-dj

[alex78]

Look at the nord sample library. category "pianos" https://www.nordkeyboards.com/sound-lib ... -30/pianos
The "GrandPiano YaC7 stereo" is a good one.
However, as mentioned above, those samples lack the expresiveness of the real piano sounds, but maybe you can find a workaround if layering a sample with a piano wavetable and add some velocity morphing. I guess the wave2 has velocity as a morph source, doesn't it?

[waterbuffalo66]

Has anyone else noticed that C#5 and D5, especially C#5, have a bit of a rattle when played mf or louder, giving those two notes a harshness not found elsewhere in this piano sound? I suppose there was an intonation issue that went unnoticed when the samples were recorded. It's a shame, really, because I can't "unhear" the flaw. Those two notes ruin this otherwise excellent piano sound for me.

[DJKeys]

I just tested this (XL version) on headphones and I can't hear it at all. Using an NS3 the notes sound fine to me, but I have 30 years of live playing. Are you listening through headphones or a speaker in a room?

-dj

[FZiegler]

Which version were you talking about? L or XL?

Addition: Interestingly, you are the second to report that after someone who mentioned it in 2020:
post133793.html#p133793

[dansnord]

>Gambold, can I ask your thoughts on the Steinways from the Library.<

There is an embarrassment of riches with the pianos, and it's not always a good thing, since you can spend way too much time obsessing over which one is better. Unlike a lot of people here, I can't claim to hear all the minute differences between each one. In a live setting with an amplified group, most of those "character" differences fast become moot, except for a few notable exceptions like the Bright Grand, which remains the go-to, in my opinion, for cutting through the murk of a pop-rock combo. Jazz players and acoustic groups would likely want something like the Italian or the Lady D. The Bosie seems best attuned for thundering classical, especially in the low registers.

The rest of the Grands are older, smaller samples or misfires like the Velvet and the 3D. The Silver is a bright piano but doesn't cut like the Bright, in my experience. Yamaha does know what they are doing. There does seem to be a loyal following for the Studio Grand 2 - I don't know why, since I've played it and don't see the exceptionalism, but it's mentioned a lot, esp by the old-timers.

As for the Uprights - again, a plethora of choices that can vex the compulsives in the group (like me). I never use them, and don't see why anyone would. In a live environment you want the best samples possible and those are XL or L samples of the grands I just listed - why close yourself down sonically with a simulated upright? Oh you can have fun with one at home, I guess -- but I've found that despite loading one or two on my E4 because I thought I should, I never play them. If you must, the Amber is the one, and if space is a premium, the Black or the Blue. There's a lot of gimmick in this group, like the Bambino, Honky-Tonk, and Saloon.

As for file size, I'll be the contrarian and say that S and M are a waste of time - you paid for this technology, so you want to use it. I know the argument that "in a band no-one hears your resonance, etc" but half the time you might be playing a solo, or with low accompaniment - or at home by yourself. It matters, if it didn't they wouldn't bother making them, so load the large samples. You use the whole keyboard and want the resonance everywhere, and hell, you'll take the full mapping if you can stuff an XL on.

This thread has been resurrected, and I’m just reading this post now, 5 years after it was written. This is a legendary post, Gambold! I’m reading it on vacation, a couple thousand miles from my relatively new Stage 3. Looking forward to reading this again when I get back to it!


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[ziozeus]

Has anyone else noticed that C#5 and D5, especially C#5, have a bit of a rattle when played mf or louder, giving those two notes a harshness not found elsewhere in this piano sound? I suppose there was an intonation issue that went unnoticed when the samples were recorded. It's a shame, really, because I can't "unhear" the flaw. Those two notes ruin this otherwise excellent piano sound for me.

This is exactly the reason I can't use this otherwise viable sound. Those two notes (same streched sample both in S M L and XL version, no matter what).
I think nord does this intentionally while searching for more charachter than is needed in my opinion.
Also a couple of notes around these two are sounding poorer (somewhat thin) than the rest, but these two are umbearable to me and they are always in the way in every line of my jazz solos.