Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards What are your favorite "built in" piano sounds?

What I mean by "built in" are the ones that come with a digital piano. The pre-programed stuff. No VSTs....

Surely you`d buy the digital piano for it`s basic piano sound. If your`re lucky, you`ll get more than one decent one, the rest could be well, not so good. Electric piano sounds? plenty o` them. Brass? Strings? may or may not come wi the package . . my faves in addition to basic piano, are alto sax, English horn (sounds like an oboe) violin and strings at the moment. There`s too many to explore all at once.. . and I think you have to use them in a piece of music in order to appreciate the quality of the selected voice, and that`1l take ages to do in my case..

The new Nord Italian Grand is the best "built-in" piano sound for me. There's another Nord sound (Studio Grand 2) that I like. I think you'll get some votes for the "Studio Grand" on the Roland RD-700NX - seems to be preferred by owners of that piano over the other onboard sounds.

Nord Black Upright (Petrof) for me - I love the 'woody' character of the sound...it's really great for vintage soul tunes.

James
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First gig yesterday with Nord Piano so it's a bit early to say but Grand Lady D was amazing!

Yamaha ES90's NaturalGrand has worked ver well for me, my long time favourite

From my Roland HP-305 I like Grand Piano 2 (Piano 4) while playing on headphones. It's a bit mellow but on exchange it gives interesting nuances. But playing with speakers I like Grand Piano 3 (Piano 6) which is brighter (I think it mitigates the muffleness of the builtin speakers of the HP family).

On the new Kawai CA-65/95 I like a lot the special pianos like "pop piano" and "upright". I'd love my HP had one of this. But for "serious" classical playing, while I tried them I liked more the "Mellow grand" patch.

On the Korg SV-1 I really love the "Yamaha Electric Grand" patch that imitates a CP-70/80.

The studio grand on the Roland RD-700NX is probably the best "built in" AP sound I've ever heard on a digital keyboard and better then most VST's as well.

I like the mellow piano in my clavinova CVP-305. It seems to be the normal piano with some low pass filter at low velocities. The result is the final sound seems more "dynamic" because there is more timbre variation and I like that.

It still has that "new car smell" but the new Nord Italian Grand has really grown on my quickly. I also love the nord Blue Suede upright piano.

Is this a patch one could download? I have a Roland FP-7, and the piano sound is OK - I bought it mainly for the feel knowing I could always use a VST.

You would have to hear it to know how nice it is. I often use a preset organ-based sound but it's not pure organ. It's got spice and it's about as fantastic as anything I've ever heard. This is given on my CP5. It's actually much better than any of the piano settings and I use only the one Grand setting.

Right now I would say it is 2: Mellow Piano and Classic Piano on the PX350- like it just as much as my Classic Piano I had on the SG Rack.

On the PX130- a tie between Modern and Classical

I have read around that people really like the Dolce but I prefer the Mellow in the PX350.

I'm afraid the only way to get the studio grand is to get a RD-700NX although the Integra 7 and JP-50/80 have this basic piano available under a different edit and name.

I really like all of them- in different situations. For the quieter ones, I am going to connect to the KRK Rokit 5's

The first piano voice in the AvantGrands N1-N3 is pretty good in my opinion. I haven't been able to test the new CFX voice in the NU1 yet unfortunately.

I happen to prefer "Concert Grand 2" and "Jazz Grand 2" which are within the "Piano 1" setting in the Kawai CA95.

The best sounding "EX concert" grand samples in the CA95 are generally the ones with a number "2" after them, since the tones are clear and bright throughout the entire range of the keyboard. Whereas the main piano sound (or, "Concert Grand ") has slightly muted (or, flat) tones in the middle range, just above middle C.

Also, with "Concert Grand 2" and "Jazz Grand 2" the very highest notes in the treble are very life-like with a natural reverb and resonance, and, the lowest bass notes are quite solid with good clarity. I am not sure why it shouldn't be the other way around, with the original "Concert Grand" and "Jazz Grand" sounds?

I find the coupled harpsichord on the PX-330 good enough to have used in the odd concert.

"Mellow Grand" from Kawai CAx3 and CAx5.
Pure awesome and perfect for classical music.