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Herve C
Published on 04/15/06 at 05:22
I give here a novice point of view. I played on a piano up the Yamaha CLP-170 and I wondered for a long time if the virtual PC pianos brought a real bonus. Reading the forums (including Audiofanzine), opinion is fairly divided. The "pros" criticize easily, and certainly rightly, the virtual piano. And another ct pianos are numriques lous for their simplicity of use. Difficult to form an opinion when you're an amateur.
In short, everything to say that I passed the course and that I got "The Big 2". I play for about two weeks and frankly, the Difference of quality is standard. My CPL-170 REPRESENTATIVES high-end piano numrique in 2004, and the last CLP did not appear to have gained in quality normment over it; Yet the pleasure of playing on "The Big 2" is incomparable.
To give an ide: before, I spent about half hour a day playing. Since I have the virtual piano, I spend easily an hour without realizing it. I have not tried other virtual pianos, Steinway outside the "Garritan Jazz and Big Band", which is much worse.
Retailer for a bit:
- Piano 1: the bass is superb, the mdiums mild and acute.
- Piano 2: it is a bit dcevant: the bass is real, the highs are crystal clear ... mdium sound but oddly enough mtalliques, not clear trs. It's a shame. So, I use virtually the first model.
The graphical interface is very well, and the curves for rglages VLOC really can adapt his playing the piano
The rverb included in the software is nothing special. There is no prrglages, we must find ourselves even custom settings that go well. I set the minimum so that the sound is not too "dry".
Finally, here are some notes for those who move to hsitent virtual pianos:
- The difficulty of installing the PC. It sr, better connatre. I mount my even my PC. But nothing prevents you to go through an assembly that will make you a PC with onions.
- The noise of the PC: I have chosen a relatively silent PC (case + power supply + hard drive noise). When we play, it is true that we can not hear the PC, but it's even more enjoyable not to hear his breath ds we shall adopt. Therefore this really STUDY before buying. But if you make the right choice, it is no longer a problem.
- The sound card: just a card with good driver ASIO. I chose a Creative X-FI Platinum and I play without cracking with a latency of 5ms. Headphones, sound and much better than the output of my Yamaha. For cons, I thought I could bnficier the 3D headset (CMS 3D), but does not work with the asio sound. Another advantage: you can register directly in MP3, it's really nice.
- Optimization software: it clearly on this point you leave the field "general public". We must turn up service windows, choose to optimize for rear services plan, and configure custom settings ASIO. I chose to launch "The Big 2" SAVIHost (freeware which allows Local Accommodations The Grand as a VSTi), because my paramtres systmatiquement are restored, which is not the case with the standalone application provided by default (a peak).
- Performance: good surprise, "The Grand 2" does not mobilize many resources. As I have only one hard drive, I thought that was going to ask problem (often one reads that a disk for virtual pianos ddi). In fact, even with all custom settings to maximum quality trs was going well.
- Rapid start: you have 1 minute shows in hand to Get You Started the PC and launch "The Big 2" (placed in the "boot" to start IMMEDIATE). Nothing rdibitoire.
- The stability: as long as you do not play in concert, the risks are real limits (the hard drive which is the pice risk, but it's rare that even al che).
I close with my config, for those that have INTERESTED.
- Case Artic Cooling Silentium
- Pentium 630 3 GHz
- Asus motherboard P5SD2X
- 1 GB of RAM (the no-name, a well-functioning trs)
- Golden Orb Fan + Zalman rhostat Fanmate 2 (so that the fan is running 900 laps, otherwise it's too noisy)
- SoundBlaster XFI Platinum
- Hard Drive Samsung 160 GB (rput for his silence, with honorable performance). I do not hear scratching.
In short, everything to say that I passed the course and that I got "The Big 2". I play for about two weeks and frankly, the Difference of quality is standard. My CPL-170 REPRESENTATIVES high-end piano numrique in 2004, and the last CLP did not appear to have gained in quality normment over it; Yet the pleasure of playing on "The Big 2" is incomparable.
To give an ide: before, I spent about half hour a day playing. Since I have the virtual piano, I spend easily an hour without realizing it. I have not tried other virtual pianos, Steinway outside the "Garritan Jazz and Big Band", which is much worse.
Retailer for a bit:
- Piano 1: the bass is superb, the mdiums mild and acute.
- Piano 2: it is a bit dcevant: the bass is real, the highs are crystal clear ... mdium sound but oddly enough mtalliques, not clear trs. It's a shame. So, I use virtually the first model.
The graphical interface is very well, and the curves for rglages VLOC really can adapt his playing the piano
The rverb included in the software is nothing special. There is no prrglages, we must find ourselves even custom settings that go well. I set the minimum so that the sound is not too "dry".
Finally, here are some notes for those who move to hsitent virtual pianos:
- The difficulty of installing the PC. It sr, better connatre. I mount my even my PC. But nothing prevents you to go through an assembly that will make you a PC with onions.
- The noise of the PC: I have chosen a relatively silent PC (case + power supply + hard drive noise). When we play, it is true that we can not hear the PC, but it's even more enjoyable not to hear his breath ds we shall adopt. Therefore this really STUDY before buying. But if you make the right choice, it is no longer a problem.
- The sound card: just a card with good driver ASIO. I chose a Creative X-FI Platinum and I play without cracking with a latency of 5ms. Headphones, sound and much better than the output of my Yamaha. For cons, I thought I could bnficier the 3D headset (CMS 3D), but does not work with the asio sound. Another advantage: you can register directly in MP3, it's really nice.
- Optimization software: it clearly on this point you leave the field "general public". We must turn up service windows, choose to optimize for rear services plan, and configure custom settings ASIO. I chose to launch "The Big 2" SAVIHost (freeware which allows Local Accommodations The Grand as a VSTi), because my paramtres systmatiquement are restored, which is not the case with the standalone application provided by default (a peak).
- Performance: good surprise, "The Grand 2" does not mobilize many resources. As I have only one hard drive, I thought that was going to ask problem (often one reads that a disk for virtual pianos ddi). In fact, even with all custom settings to maximum quality trs was going well.
- Rapid start: you have 1 minute shows in hand to Get You Started the PC and launch "The Big 2" (placed in the "boot" to start IMMEDIATE). Nothing rdibitoire.
- The stability: as long as you do not play in concert, the risks are real limits (the hard drive which is the pice risk, but it's rare that even al che).
I close with my config, for those that have INTERESTED.
- Case Artic Cooling Silentium
- Pentium 630 3 GHz
- Asus motherboard P5SD2X
- 1 GB of RAM (the no-name, a well-functioning trs)
- Golden Orb Fan + Zalman rhostat Fanmate 2 (so that the fan is running 900 laps, otherwise it's too noisy)
- SoundBlaster XFI Platinum
- Hard Drive Samsung 160 GB (rput for his silence, with honorable performance). I do not hear scratching.