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James... « Well priced »
Published on 09/11/11 at 18:24I don't normally have any issues with Kontakt plugin but I did with this one. It wouldn't give me output at first and it wasn't an issue with my DAW either. I finally realized it was some kind of mute function deep within the plugin that I had to find. Normally I would say this was my fault but I've been working with Kontakt for a while and I really think this was NI's issue. Not a huge complaint since it works fine now but still I wasted a good hour.
This is a pretty cpu hogging piece of plugin. It will tank your hard drive and ram just as much as any other high quality piano. I'm serious about that. Prepare to have your memory chewed apart by this thing if you run it with a low latency. It also takes up about 7 gigs or so of space so take that into account. I have a fast rig so it gives me no problems. Using it with an AXIOM 25 right now.
So first, I'll start with what I like about it. Well for $100 it sounds very very good. It's a really modern sounding piano with a more forward sound that's less bassy in the low notes than you might expect. It's really made to be used on top 40 style songs rather than by itself. I truly think this piano is voiced more for a full arrangement. If you want that big classic grand sound this is not it. This is the kind of piano you hear on those billboard r&b hits every week.
Now the bad. It sounds good and not great. Once again the price I think reflects that. It's just not terribly 3D sounding to me. NI has put out better pianos before. Something was lost in the making of this one. I think it might have something to do with the weak ambient sounds. The reverb and room acoustic are just meh to be honest. No matter how I set them they just sound so so. I'll wrap up by saying that for $100, this is a good plugin for modern radio piano sounds. Other than that, I think you can do better. I rarely use it these days. But then again I have some very nice pianos now. If i was on a tighter budget I might use it more.
This is a pretty cpu hogging piece of plugin. It will tank your hard drive and ram just as much as any other high quality piano. I'm serious about that. Prepare to have your memory chewed apart by this thing if you run it with a low latency. It also takes up about 7 gigs or so of space so take that into account. I have a fast rig so it gives me no problems. Using it with an AXIOM 25 right now.
So first, I'll start with what I like about it. Well for $100 it sounds very very good. It's a really modern sounding piano with a more forward sound that's less bassy in the low notes than you might expect. It's really made to be used on top 40 style songs rather than by itself. I truly think this piano is voiced more for a full arrangement. If you want that big classic grand sound this is not it. This is the kind of piano you hear on those billboard r&b hits every week.
Now the bad. It sounds good and not great. Once again the price I think reflects that. It's just not terribly 3D sounding to me. NI has put out better pianos before. Something was lost in the making of this one. I think it might have something to do with the weak ambient sounds. The reverb and room acoustic are just meh to be honest. No matter how I set them they just sound so so. I'll wrap up by saying that for $100, this is a good plugin for modern radio piano sounds. Other than that, I think you can do better. I rarely use it these days. But then again I have some very nice pianos now. If i was on a tighter budget I might use it more.