I Kicked The Arturia V Series Habit.

[László]

When the software instrument maker Arturia started (they make hardware now, too) got started, they were unique in the game. They made pretty decent models of vintage synths, and their first product, the Modular V (a model of the very large Moog Modular synth) was something of a revelation 20 years ago. As they increased the number of their models, and later came out with bundles of bunches of them, I kept buying the new bundles.

They just came out with their tenth version, as they do every damn year. Another $199 upgrade. No thanks, I'm done. When it dawned on me that the last project I used an Arturia synth on was 2019, I decided to take their whole last bundle off my hard drive.

As time has gone on, I've found more creative virtual stuff than the old classics; for me that's the only reason to use modeled synths. I have a couple of hardware synths that sound better than any models when I need more traditional sounds, and they can easily be layered in a DAW.

This isn't a situation where they make audio tools I use often, as I do with the iZotope plugins.

I'll buy my wife something with the money I saved.

 

[alantig]

My upgrade offer was not as good as yours because I never upgraded to V Collection 9. I tend to use the pianos more than anything. I jumped off the immediate upgrade offer a few years ago, and had been waiting a year because the price usually dropped to $99 for the upgrade. If I go to VC X, it'll probably follow that pattern.

 

[László]

I tend to use the pianos more than anything.

Really? I can't use them, they don't respond like a real piano. Something about the attack is blurry. On the other hand, piano is my primary instrument, so I'm probably pickier than most.

For me, the most useful pianos are the Spitfire HZP, Universal Audio Ravel Grand, EastWest Pianos, Waves Grand Rhapsody and several of their electric pianos, and Applied Acoustics Lounge Lizard (physical model of a Fender Rhodes, and a very interesting product).

These instruments cost a fraction of the Arturia VC price. Also, Moog's very inexpensive Moog instrument plugins modeled after their hardware synths sound pretty amazing. UA's Minimoog is also killer. For fans of Sequential's Prophets, U-he's Repro 1 and 5 sound great, as do all of their synths - U-he's Zebra is used a lot in Hans Zimmer's scores.

XILS Labs makes some of the more esoteric vintage synth models, and they sound quite good, too.

Tone 2's synths are stellar sounding. So there's lots of great stuff besides Arturia. Then there's Native Instruments, who tend to break new ground with their synths.

 

[László]

I used the Arturia V Series B3 organ every so often, so for $49 I replaced it yesterday with the UADx B3 on sale. It's a little more lifelike.

Today I got a $25 coupon for being such a spendy dude, so I added their wonderful sounding Opal synth and the coupon gave me half off. It's nearly competitive with my DSI Prophet 12; I add a mid-side plugin to widen the soundstage a little, because the P12 has a huge soundstage and spoiled me.

Hard to beat these plugins at anywhere near this sale price.

 

[alantig]

Really? I can't use them, they don't respond like a real piano. Something about the attack is blurry. On the other hand, piano is my primary instrument, so I'm probably pickier than most.

Well, definitely pickier than me! Piano's not my main thing, so as long as it's close enough, I'm good. And to clarify, I use the pianos more than anything in the V Collection, except maybe the B3. But, like you, I'd replaced that w/the UA version a few months ago.

 

[László]

Well, definitely pickier than me! Piano's not my main thing, so as long as it's close enough, I'm good. And to clarify, I use the pianos more than anything in the V Collection, except maybe the B3. But, like you, I'd replaced that w/the UA version a few months ago.

You aren't alone - my son likes them, too.

 

[Jcub]

My favorite virtual piano is Pianoteq. In my view, it responds more like a real piano than the various sample libraries I have tried. It is a physically modeled instrument with very fine control over many, many parameters. It worth a try of the demo and is a small sized download. You may need to adjust the velocity response for your controller and playing style. I also took a pass on the V Collection because there wasn’t anything new I needed. I have all of Arturia’s effects though - there are some really unique plugins in their FX Collection.

 

[László]

My favorite virtual piano is Pianoteq. In my view, it responds more like a real piano than the various sample libraries I have tried. It is a physically modeled instrument with very fine control over many, many parameters. It worth a try of the demo and is a small sized download. You may need to adjust the velocity response for your controller and playing style. I also took a pass on the V Collection because there wasn’t anything new I needed. I have all of Arturia’s effects though - there are some really unique plugins in their FX Collection.

There are quite a few great sounding piano plugins on the market, and to my way of working, each is most suited for a given task.

The Pianoteq's very good, indeed, and a lot of guys in my business use it. I liked it a lot when I tried it, but not enough to buy it. Piano choices are personal preference things, so that enters into it, there is no 'best'.

For me, buying a sampled or modeled piano is all about how it sounds in context of what I'm working on. So I use a few different ones.

The piano I use most is Spitfire's Hans Zimmer Piano. It was recorded in the Lyndhurst Hall scoring stage at AIR studios, with multiple mics that can be adjusted and mixed film score style. It's a great sounding piano, and because it's not just "generic reverb added on" but was recorded at various distances in the hall with the mics, it goes well with all styles of music, especially the orchestral scores I do the most these days. It's fairly expensive ($400-ish) but worth the dough.

Here's a little duet for piano and alto flute using the Zimmer piano I wrote a few months ago. I think it blends well and sounds pretty real. You be the judge. Forgive my 'composer's piano playing':

Duet for Piano and Alto Flute

Duet for Piano and Alto Flute by Leslie Schefman

leslieschefman.com

I also like my EastWest Pianos platinum version. It sounds excellent, and has Steinway, Yamaha, Bosendorfer, and Bechstein pianos; these were recorded at East West Studio's scoring stage, if memory serves. There are only three mics that can be adjusted, but the pianos sound very good.

Universal Audio's Ravel piano, a Steinway B, is great for popular music styles, and very inexpensive; Another sampled piano that I was surprised I like is the sampled piano that was used on the Adele sessions, done by Waves. I think they call it Rhapsody. It doesn't have as many layers as the ones that are designed more for classical work, but it's a great sounding piano, and the samples were recorded extremely well. Very good for pop styles, blends well in a mix.

In the physical modeled electric keyboard world, AA's Lounge Lizard Rhodes physical model is fantastic.

 

[Prina]

I used the Arturia V Series B3 organ every so often, so for $49 I replaced it yesterday with the UADx B3 on sale. It's a little more lifelike.

Today I got a $25 coupon for being such a spendy dude

More forum enabling!

The B3 that comes with Logic is pretty good but better is better so was picking up the UA B3 on the UA website and noticed the Custom 2 bundle and got to add a Neve 1073 preamp/EQ for the Apollo. Then on checking out the $25 'GIFT25' coupon code was offered to this NON-spendy dude and the total for both B3 + Neve 1073 was a whopping $74.

 

[László]

More forum enabling!

The B3 that comes with Logic is pretty good but better is better so was picking up the UA B3 on the UA website and noticed the Custom 2 bundle and got to add a Neve 1073 preamp/EQ for the Apollo. Then on checking out the $25 'GIFT25' coupon code was offered to this NON-spendy dude and the total for both B3 + Neve 1073 was a whopping $74.

That's a great deal. I forgot how much the UAD 1073 preamp/eq was when I bought it, but it was very expensive. All the UAD plugins were pricy at the time.

I did a shootout of that preamp model with a hardware 1073 a couple of years ago, and posted it on my old website. The model was pretty close, not perfect, but close enough for rock and roll (and for most purposes).

 

[Jcub]

There are quite a few great sounding piano plugins on the market, and to my way of working, each is most suited for a given task.

The Pianoteq's very good, indeed, and a lot of guys in my business use it. I liked it a lot when I tried it, but not enough to buy it. Piano choices are personal preference things, so that enters into it, there is no 'best'.

For me, buying a sampled or modeled piano is all about how it sounds in context of what I'm working on. So I use a few different ones.

The piano I use most is Spitfire's Hans Zimmer Piano. It was recorded in the Lyndhurst Hall scoring stage at AIR studios, with multiple mics that can be adjusted and mixed film score style. It's a great sounding piano, and because it's not just "generic reverb added on" but was recorded at various distances in the hall with the mics, it goes well with all styles of music, especially the orchestral scores I do the most these days. It's fairly expensive ($400-ish) but worth the dough.

Here's a little duet for piano and alto flute using the Zimmer piano I wrote a few months ago. I think it blends well and sounds pretty real. You be the judge. Forgive my 'composer's piano playing':

Duet for Piano and Alto Flute

Duet for Piano and Alto Flute by Leslie Schefman

leslieschefman.com

I also like my EastWest Pianos platinum version. It sounds excellent, and has Steinway, Yamaha, Bosendorfer, and Bechstein pianos; these were recorded at East West Studio's scoring stage, if memory serves. There are only three mics that can be adjusted, but the pianos sound very good.

Universal Audio's Ravel piano, a Steinway B, is great for popular music styles, and very inexpensive; Another sampled piano that I was surprised I like is the sampled piano that was used on the Adele sessions, done by Waves. I think they call it Rhapsody. It doesn't have as many layers as the ones that are designed more for classical work, but it's a great sounding piano, and the samples were recorded extremely well. Very good for pop styles, blends well in a mix.

In the physical modeled electric keyboard world, AA's Lounge Lizard Rhodes physical model is fantastic.

Excellent piece and lovely sounding piano! I like how full the piano sounds. The main advantage of Pianoteq is the feel and responsiveness. Of course, the controller plays a big part in that equation. Pianoteq is one of the few if not only piano plugin that responds to high resolution MIDI with 16K velocity layers vs. 128 for standard MIDI (you need a high res controller to use this feature).

The customization is also extremely deep including the ability the change the size of the piano and the parameters of individual notes. They recently added a morphing feature permitting blended or layered piano models. If you are after a very specific sound, I think the sampled libraries are a better choice. Here is a recent piano/drum piece I did using Pianoteq.


https://jeremycubert.bandcamp.com/track/distant-fields

 

[László]

Excellent piece and lovely sounding piano! I like how full the piano sounds. The main advantage of Pianoteq is the feel and responsiveness. Of course, the controller plays a big part in that equation. Pianoteq is one of the few if not only piano plugin that responds to high resolution MIDI with 16K velocity layers vs. 128 for standard MIDI (you need a high res controller to use this feature).

The customization is also extremely deep including the ability the change the size of the piano and the parameters of individual notes. They recently added a morphing feature permitting blended or layered piano models. If you are after a very specific sound, I think the sampled libraries are a better choice. Here is a recent piano/drum piece I did using Pianoteq.


https://jeremycubert.bandcamp.com/track/distant-fields

Gosh that's a terrific piece, and you play it well! Nice sounding piano, too. The drums are also nice with it. The whole thing adds up, and I liked it very much.

BTW, who makes those high-resolution MIDI keyboards? I haven't seen one, but haven't been keeping up, I guess.

 

[Jcub]

Thank you! I used a Zendrum and a Toontrack drum library for the drums. The Zendrum is a really nice drum controller.

I use a Casio PX-5S. Eddie Jobson helped design a keyboard which I do not think is made any more called the Infinite Response VAX which had high resolution MIDI. I think the new Native Instruments Kontrol MKiii will have the feature but it is not implemented yet. There was a big debate on one of the forums (similar to the tone wood debate here) as to whether it makes any difference. I think I can feel a difference but I have no objective proof.

 

[László]

Logic implements high res MIDI now; I looked at the Roland A88 Mk2, not implemented yet, and theNI, not implemented yet. The ROLI sea board might implement it, but it'll never work for me as a piano keyboard.

I use a Yamaha weighted 88 key controller that has a nice feel, and it works well, but I'd love to implement the higher resolution when it's generally available.

I guess we'll see!

 

[Alnus Rubra]

Very nice piece Jeremy, thanks for sharing.

 

[Jcub]

Thank you, Alnus.