Great link
Okay, click on this: Vienna Symphonic Library
This European company sells a whole suite of quality programs. They are expensive but outstanding. The nice thing about this site is that they have a bunch of full length tracks demonstrating their sounds. It's like free albums of nice music and really demos their sounds well. Find an sound you want and click on "audio demos"
Honestly, I didn't know this kind of quality was out there. I'm still not sure I wasn't listening to a live orchestra. I'm listening to Adagio for Strings right now.
Highly expensive. Spoiling me rotten. May have to get a retirement job. Nah. I'm going to go to sleep with their tracks tonight.
BTW, the demos want Quicktime, but looks like you can download mp3 as well. I just went ahead and installed QT anyway.
Okay, click on this: Vienna Symphonic Library
This European company sells a whole suite of quality programs. They are expensive but outstanding. The nice thing about this site is that they have a bunch of full length tracks demonstrating their sounds. It's like free albums of nice music and really demos their sounds well. Find an sound you want and click on "audio demos"
Honestly, I didn't know this kind of quality was out there. I'm still not sure I wasn't listening to a live orchestra. I'm listening to Adagio for Strings right now.
Highly expensive. Spoiling me rotten. May have to get a retirement job. Nah. I'm going to go to sleep with their tracks tonight.
BTW, the demos want Quicktime, but looks like you can download mp3 as well. I just went ahead and installed QT anyway.
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ha,ha,ha, I will check it out ,
I tell you alittle trick I did,
My friend wanted some songs compiled to a cd but a lot of them wanted money to download them so I just got them to play and while they played I recorded them on to a tape machine.
Then I re eq'd them and re digitised them back into the computer and then burned her cd for her.
She said that they sounded fabulous ,and, they were after I got done whith them compared to the original raw tracks.
It was a lot the work but it was well worth the effort and made her very happy.
jer
I tell you alittle trick I did,
My friend wanted some songs compiled to a cd but a lot of them wanted money to download them so I just got them to play and while they played I recorded them on to a tape machine.
Then I re eq'd them and re digitised them back into the computer and then burned her cd for her.
She said that they sounded fabulous ,and, they were after I got done whith them compared to the original raw tracks.
It was a lot the work but it was well worth the effort and made her very happy.
jer
Thanks for verifying that for me as I couldn't remember whom exactly was behind the sound font system and I had not realized that it was actualy EMU Systems.
I still have the emu devices and the samples are incredible even at there rather low sample rate (32khz) by todays stanards. jer
If you have a supported card (Audigy2/ 2ZS cards are cheap on eBay), you could play with those:
SoundFont Downloads - Take advantage with Vienna SoundFont Studio
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi series
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy® 4 including Pro series
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS including Platinum and Platinum Pro series
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 including Platinum, Platinum eX and Value series
Creative Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit series and Sound Blaster Audigy SE series or Sound Blaster Value series
Creative Sound Blaster Digital Music SX
Creative Sound Blaster Digital Music
Creative Sound Blaster MP3+
Creative Sound Blaster Digital Music LX
SoundFont Downloads - Take advantage with Vienna SoundFont Studio
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi series
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy® 4 including Pro series
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS including Platinum and Platinum Pro series
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 including Platinum, Platinum eX and Value series
Creative Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit series and Sound Blaster Audigy SE series or Sound Blaster Value series
Creative Sound Blaster Digital Music SX
Creative Sound Blaster Digital Music
Creative Sound Blaster MP3+
Creative Sound Blaster Digital Music LX
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So what if you don't have a Creative card? I'm using a laptop with an external USB DAC.
Can you explain when, where and even why, I may want to use SoundFont? I still don't understand the whole thing and what it's niche is.
Wait a minute. I almost forgot. I do have an external Extigy that I currently use as a stand alone device. Great little machine. May be that would work if I get PC drivers for it?
Glad you found it useful. It's amazing, isn't it? Sounds about as live as it can be to me.
I got interested in MIDI a long time ago, but never did much with it because the synth's just weren't there and without compelling sounds, it just got boring for me. Like jer here, I'm just rediscovering and now I'm eager to do something with it. MIDI is a whole new world now and things are done much differently. Although MIDI commands are still the standard, they are more transparent for the most part. MIDI physical layer standard has been pretty much replaced by USB. Sequencers are now called Digital Audio Workstations (DAW's) and do more work for you, and usually include recording software. But the most compelling reason is the sounds now available. The Vienna sounds are not the only high-end ones either. I wish I could afford them, but I'm pretty sure that if you are careful, you can find good value/quality. I see that if you buy their full package deal, it costs something $12,000! Gasp. But that's a HUGE array of all kinds of instruments and variations and they gladly sell individual instruments more reasonably.
I'm sure that other makers have good demos. If you run across one, let us know. Vienna's demos are outstanding and it's smart of them to put that much effort into them.
Awesome! Thanks. Also very well done demo's, each available in wav or mp3. Careful with the wav's. Chopin's Scherzo on a Steinway takes 149 MB. You may want to purge your temp files now and then, but worth it. I haven't even looked at prices yet. I almost don't care. Interesting about the film industry's interest. I imagine they are a pretty important consumer of this stuff.
Thanks for sharing.
subs
How would you compare the Rythmic with GedLee subs? I am considering both types.
Herman
How would you compare the Rythmic with GedLee subs? I am considering both types.
Herman
I've been spending quite a bit of time with both and I have found EastWest to be generally better, you're right. It's really quite impressive. Of course, it helps to have your demos done really well. I've heard a few clunkers on both sites, too. If one is serious, it seems to really pay to compare every instrument you're interested in. As for fraction of the price, well...a really large fraction perhaps.
Best Piano sound i got with my keyboards was with
Zeck PA 15/3 Mini Proline speakers.
I guess that the sound quality had lot to do with the 3 way
configuration using a high quality hifi grade medium..
Zeck Pa 15/3mini in Bayern - Königstein | Musikinstrumente | eBay Kleinanzeigen
Zeck PA 15/3 Mini Proline speakers.
I guess that the sound quality had lot to do with the 3 way
configuration using a high quality hifi grade medium..
Zeck Pa 15/3mini in Bayern - Königstein | Musikinstrumente | eBay Kleinanzeigen
Yes, getting back to speakers....
IMO, the most notable feature of a grand piano is how loud they are. So, I think the suggestion of Peavey SP2s is on the right track. However, they tend to be a bit harsh when auditioned with recorded music.
They are direct descendants of EV speakers, not VOTTs. In fact, Hartley Peavey hired the guys from EV that designed the Sentry III and IV studio monitors. Since they are three-way systems with tweeters, I think the Sentry IIIs would be an excellent choice, if you can find a pair.
Actually I prefer the IVs, as EV's early attempts at using the Thiele alignments were a bit sketchy until Don Keele got involved, but I'm not sure the horn bass bins would do justice to the very low end of a piano. With the IIIs you can use EQ.
IMO, the most notable feature of a grand piano is how loud they are. So, I think the suggestion of Peavey SP2s is on the right track. However, they tend to be a bit harsh when auditioned with recorded music.
They are direct descendants of EV speakers, not VOTTs. In fact, Hartley Peavey hired the guys from EV that designed the Sentry III and IV studio monitors. Since they are three-way systems with tweeters, I think the Sentry IIIs would be an excellent choice, if you can find a pair.
Actually I prefer the IVs, as EV's early attempts at using the Thiele alignments were a bit sketchy until Don Keele got involved, but I'm not sure the horn bass bins would do justice to the very low end of a piano. With the IIIs you can use EQ.
A Creative card (like the ones listed there) is necessay for licensing purposes - to be able to use that software. All the sounds are in the PC memory (software). Sure, an E-MU card would be the best to have... but I was just saying that as a solution if you want to check the SoundFonts:
http://www.sf2midi.com/soundfonts/
http://www.digitalsoundfactory.com/
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So, the consensus so far is for PA's (or maybe ESL if you can get some bass for it)
Question then: Do any of these PA's also make good HiFi speaks since they tend to be flat response curves? Could they be made better for general listening with a little EQ? I think jer here likes his SP2's for everything. I'd like to hear other thoughts about this.
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