Good Piano Sound?

Hi,

the best piano sounds that come with logic are the Yamaha Grand, the "Classical Piano" and the Steinway Grand. Yamaha Grand has the bigges sample "power" but the others sound good, too. It's down to which kind of music you like.

As a general FX for Piano i recommend a Space Designer Reverb which adds some ambience. Not too much. You should not hear the reverb, but you should hear it's absence if you turn it off. Use a small room or something like that.

To give the piano a little more punch inside a mix, add a little compressor, but not too much. It depends.

Have fun!

Fox

I'd like to add that the EVP88 electric piano built into Logic studio is one of the best I've ever played. really responsive. the acoustic pianos are sample based and not at all bad, so I'd advise starting with those. If you need something more responsive after you've played those for a while, buy Synthogy's Ivory, which is about the best simulation around at the moment.

Robbo,

it's funny how personal piano sounds are. I actually bought Logic on a whim (was on cubase since pre VST) because I had heard how good EVP88 was and I couldn't get it separately or demo it at the time; I subsequently found that it followed in the long tradition of lounge lizard etc. in - t+o me+ (I'm not dissing your opinion here) just sounding like another modeled attempt at a Rhodes and really very unlike a Wurly. I finally got Scarbee vintage Keys and the difference is beyond description. Since he has a new piano out (Alicia's Keys with NI), if anyone is after a blow away piano sound for $90 - that's the way to go (and I have nothing to do with him/NI). Having said all that, I have never known another topic, apart from maybe Mics that is so subject to individual taste 🙂

Hi,

comparing Logic EVP88 to my real Mk I Rhodes, i am satisfied with the EVP in most circumstances. A little tweaking does the job, and inside a mix, most people won't hear much of a difference 😉 But if one wants to play the software instrument for the real one, or when playing solos or jazzy parts, NI is always a good place to have a look at. Scarbee is great, and Alicias Keys will be my next purchase. The question is: How much pennies do you want to pay for your whistle? And how much improvements are achievable compared to the real instrument? I prefer the real one, of course, but unfortunately it doesn't fit in my backpack... so it's down to how big a compromise one can live with.

Fox

Don't forget that in addition to the instruments themselves, Logic has lots of instrument channel strip presets that are instruments plus reverb, eq, or other effects.

The best sampled pianos I have played and used in my productions are these by Imperfect Samples:
Unusual maybe but totally beutiful and warm sounding, up to 17 veloicity layers with 2 or even 3 different Mic perspectives...

http://www.imperfectsamples.com/website/samples/index.php

The imperfect samples sound very cool, if I was in the market for a piano library I'd seriously consider those.

Also, Tonehammer has a piano library coming out next month. Demos sound great so far although they haven't showed off the full range of the instrument yet.

I agree the Imperfect Samples offer an amazing realistic sound, much different from what I heard from others. I own quite a lot of pianos and I am not so much into a Steinway or a Bosendorfer. The Hohner Baby White Grand from Imperfect Samples is very unique and for me as a guitar player who plays not that well piano as one who learned it from scratch it delivers much better results. I also like the Braunschweig upright, I do not know of any other upright pianos available. And the pricing is great too, they are also now in the US available, you can check it out here http://www.bettermusicdistribution.com
I am not saying others are bad just boring...I have like three different Steinways, well....