Hi Guys,

I think our dream to have an exquisite realistic acoustic piano sample for the Tyros2 is about to come true.


Listen to this carefully crafted Concert Stage Piano Voice engineered by Sharp for the Korg Pa1X.

http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=18638


James (Sharp) from Korg Forums would soon be releasing a Tyros2 version. This 32MB custom voice would be the perfect addition to those who have installed extra User RAM. The size of this sample is not too big to take up too much time in loading upon power up.

A big thank you to Sharp for all his hard work and sampling skills!

Tapas

I'm very familiar with Sharp over at korgforums as I have been a member there for many years and I have used his quality samples in my Korg Triton Extreme. He is such an awesome resource and a great person and moderator.

Thanks James for all your hard work and dedication, I can't wait to hear this on my Tyros 2 AND my Triton Ex!

Regards,
Al

------------------
Al Giordano
www.al-giordano.com

Tyros 2, Yamaha P-250, Korg Triton Extreme 76, Roland VK8-M, DW Collectors Series Drums

Nice piano voice.
Anybody know the name of that quiet piano piece that starts playing at 40 seconds?
Starkeeper

[This message has been edited by Starkeeper (edited 09-15-2006).]

Hate to disagree, but what I heard doesn't even come close (IMHO) to even the built in T2 piano voice....... the velocity switching is very noticeable, and there is some very peculiar 'swimming' of the sound and sound field on the long held notes. Plus, to my ears, the piano itself sounded a bit 'flat' in timbre.

Go to http://www.purgatorycreek.com/index.html and hit the link for Digital Piano Shootout to hear examples of the same great MIDI piano file fed through just about every piano sample set on the planet....... Then re-listen to the Sharp one again. IMHO, it doesn't even come close to the GrandX patch from G70/FantomX, yet alone many of the fine sampler sets on display at Purgatory Creek.

If I were a T2 user, I would be screaming at Yamaha to implement Akai import (like Korg do), and your choices of first-class piano samples would go through the roof!

All the above is just my opinion, but having a K2500 and about a dozen different piano libraries allows me to speak with a fair bit of experience........

That is a great sounding piano, but Sharp knows his stuff when it comes to this sort of thing so I would expect nothing less than superb from him.
Terry

Hi Diki,

Thanks a million for pointing us to this invaluable resource on the net. I would encourage everyone to take a few hours to download each MP3 file on this Digital Piano Shootout Page and take a critical listen to each recording. What makes this a wonderful comparison tool is that they all play the same test MIDI file which is also available for download.

This test MIDI has been carefully chosen. You can get an overall idea of how good the sample is by just playing back the first few seconds of this MIDI file at it hits the entire range while a few keys are sustained on the bottom notes.

I wish I had known of this website before. I listened to all the Concert Piano voices on the hardware synthesizers and kept coming back to the Roland RD700SX Ultimate Grand Patch. This is a knockout. I felt the tone was fuller and richer in texture compared to the Yamaha Clavinova CVP-309GP, the S90 Natural Grand and the PLG150AP-CF3AP plug in board. It made the Korg Triton Concert Grand sound like a toy piano and easily beat out all the Korg samples.

To my ears the Roland RD700SX Ultimate Grand was the winner amongst the hardware synths.

Next, I moved on to the soft synths. Mind you, these do not have the sample memory restrictions and can easily eat up several GBs on your hard drive. Listen to the Native Instruments Kontakt 2.0 - Steinway D sample. This is 500MB in size. Pretty impressive.

I felt the Synthogy Ivory - Steinway D 8 velocity layer preset was astounding. This is a 11GB sample and showcases one of the very best Piano Samples out there.

If you want to make a quick comparison between the best of hardware and software samples just download these two:


Roland RD700SX Ultimate Grand


Synthogy Ivory - Germany Concert D


While the Synthogy sample sounds more realistic and natural, I was surprised to find just how close the RD700SX Ultimate Grand came to the benchmark reference. I would be delighted to have this on my Tyros2.

I agree Diki, that Yamaha should make the Tyros2 compatible with AKAI samples. This is like the industry standard. You have some great gear and a good ear. Thanks again for posting this link on SynthZone. I keep learning everyday!!!!

Tapas

Apparently, the RD700SX Piano patch is what is in the new E80. For comparison purposes, the G70's best piano is basically the same as the FantomX piano, tested there, and the SRX-11 concert piano is also up for comparison.

Short of the big Giga-sized software pianos, I still think the Roland recent pianos (FantomX and beyond) are the warmest, most natural sounding of all the hardware based digital pianos. Yamaha make them a little to bright for my taste, just like their real pianos - they cut through a busy mix, but when exposed they don't quite have the body of a Steinway.

Different strokes, I suppose......

Diki,

Agree 100%. The Yamaha samples do sound bright and thin when played alone. The Roland RD700SX Ultimate Grand is probably the closest one can get to emulate an acoustic concert grand on a hardware synth. If the E80 carries this patch, this alone would be a big selling point.


Here is the same song played by the website owner on a Real Steinway


While you can still tell the recording of the real thing by the smoothness of its notes and string resonance and the obvious background noise, it is still quite remarkable how close the Roland Ultimate Grand comes in comparison with its full body and multi-textured articulation. As you said, this is one patch that can stand on its own without the backing of any strings/pads. Roland deserves kudos.

Tapas

hey diki, have you checked out the main piano on the yammi S90ES? it is the only one, apart from the rd 700sx, which i belive actually sound good thru a PA and not just headphones...the 90es piano is about 50% better than the 700sx, imo
dennis

PS: diki, l also concur on your opinion of sharp's new piano sound...i have piano assault, and must admit to being a bit disappointed in the new offering...it is easy to tell a LOT of work has gone into it, but it really shows when the memory limit of 32mb (the PA1x's miniscule memory) is imposed on a sampled instrument such as the piano...


[This message has been edited by miden (edited 09-16-2006).]

Hi Guys.

Regarding the demo on KORG Forums, the sound used is called Concert Hall, and is only one variation of the actual sample data used.

In order to create a selection of piano sounds with the hopes everyone will find one they like, you have to take into consideration a few things.

1: Due to memory limitations you have to use the engine of the keyboard to shape the sound as simply sampling different types of pianos is not possible

2: The memory limitations are by far the biggest obstacle to overcome. Bearing in mind that the original recording are usually a few GB in size and in this case you have to fit that into 32MB of memory. There’s only so much you can do.

You can only ever compare it to the sounds that are already in the product it was designed to be loaded into in my opinion. In this case, the Pa1X. It is designed to far exceed the factory sounds, which it clearly does in my opinion.

Opinions are also another very important factory that need to be taken into consideration. No matter how large the sample set, or how great the recordings. Not everyone will agree, and is why there is no such thing as the “Perfect Piano Sound”. We all have our own idea’s as to what it is.

Just like not everyone in the world plays a Tyros 2 although you guys believe it’s the best arranger keyboard on the market. It’s simply a preference and personal opinion.


That said, remember that Piano Evolution as it stands right now was designed and preformed on a KORG which has a maximum memory of 32MB. If it far exceeds the quality of the factory piano sound, which in my opinion it does, then I’ve accomplished everything I set out to do.

When the time comes that this data is made available in Tyros 2 format. It won’t be a conversion from KORG to Yamaha format. It will be rebuild from the GB of source files I have, and specifically shaped and designed to fit in with the preference you Yamaha users prefer.

Just one more thing before I go, I just saw that link above where they are comparing all the different piano sounds. I think that’s a very good idea and would be more than happy to record a few demos of the sounds using that midi file. Same goes for a Tyros edition when it becomes available.

Kind Regards.
James.