This one seems to be a VST at least worth keeping an eye on:
VI Labs homepage

We had a thread on this one in February 2012, when it still had a way to go in development:
Old True Keys thread on PW

However, apparently there are more demos on the True Keys site now than at the beginning of the year, with all three pianos being featured.

And it seems like the release is pretty imminent - suggested by a Beta tester here, saying it might "become available in a few days", and stirring up some hype:
Thread on Music Player Forum

Also on the VI Labs Facebook page there is a post from December 1st stating that they have "gone into full scale production now", with a photo of numerous flash drives being replicated.

The main interesting thing to me right now is the different mic positions that can be mixed with each other as well.
As we recently had a discussion on here about mic position being the achilles heel of sampled VST pianos, I'm currently hoping this sample library might actually get around this problem.
Maybe in a recording scenario one could use the player position for playing; then after recording, switch to the other mic positions.

Now, although I have piled up quite a lot of piano libraries in recent months, I must say I am quite intrigued at the moment.
Especially the demo of the player position of the True Keys American Grand piqued my interest, as it seems more full-bodied on single notes than my current favourite VST, the Synthogy American D.

So, what are your thoughts on it?
Am I just falling prey to hype and demos (again )?

Not a big fun of VST but Italian grand by Jordan Rudess is amazing.

Demos do sound good. I'd probably give it a whirl.

Edit: just saw me commenting in the original thread, being underwhelmed. I don't remember it, but guess they've come a long way since.

I think you mean Italian Grand in the Ivory family by Synthogy. Jordan Rudess is just the celebrity who endorses it.

It's ok (I played the previous version but have listened to the current version a lot). I personally have a hard time with the sound of these Faziolis. They go for ultimate clarity, but the result is very penetrating and sterile. I don't like it.

I mean demo at VI Labs home page http://vilabsaudio.com/
The first one named Grand Illusion by Jordan Rudess - Italian grand
That sounds really fantastic.

Oops. Gotcha.

Just listened to some of the demos. I'm quite impressed. The three pianos offer a decent variety. All they need now is the wonderful clarity and punch of a good Yamaha and you'd have all the bases covered I think. The only thing I don't like so much is the annoying pedal swooshing sounds on many of the demos but I assume you can adjust that.

Yeah, pedal noises are annoying. I don't know why anyone would think they add realism. If the sample was at least somewhat randomized, but it's always the exact same.

Luckily, this can be disabled.

I found another thread with some information:
Gearslutz thread

Assuming this is legit, the street price is going to be $349.99 for the 3 piano bundle.
Also, the German Grand is supposed to be sampled from a Bechstein, the American Grand from a Steinway (as expected) and the Italian Grand from a Fazioli (no surprise either).

And I agree with you guys, I would disable the pedal noises as well, just as I do with Ivory.

Has anyone found out a release date yet? I can't seem to find one.

First of all, we'd like to thank everyone for the interest in our new product. We think you'll all enjoy it quite a bit.

Bane, True Keys will start shipping to dealers around the world this week. We'll start listing locations where True Keys can be purchased on our website a little later this week.

VILabs, will you be exhibiting at NAMM in January?

James
x

Unfortunate name selection with True Pianos out there.

Guaranteed to be some confusion between the two in discussions here and there.

Their Italian grand sounds really great. Not so much of a fan of the other pianos. I'm currently looking around for my first VST, and Synthogy's American D might be preferred for me since it's purchased as stand-alone (and sounds damn good, of course).

We won't have an official presence at NAMM, but we will all be there. I believe you'll be able to see/hear True Keys at the MOTU booth as it uses the UVI engine and opens in Mach Five as well as the UVI Workstation.

Thanks for the update, VILabs.

I look forward to your pianos. But it's a tough market out there now with the Vintage D and the Ivory American Concert D which are both great pianos, and sold as individual instruments. If your pianos only come packaged together you may have a tough sell.

I agree. There is not a lot of interest in packaged pianos. The typical user only uses one of them, and feels that being required to purchase the other ones is a waste.

Single pianos is the way to go!

Agreed. Most of us will buy more than one piano anyway, but on our own terms and it will be the piano we are interested in.

On the other hand both Galaxy and Ivory became household names (on this forum, haha) with a suite of pianos. That may be a better approach from a marketing and brand recognition perspective.

However, the last two instruments from Galaxy - Vintage D and The Giant, have not been part of a suite.

Thank you for your feedback. We actually thought about this issue quite a bit. In fact, many of our beta testers said the same thing in terms of only probably using one piano and that we should price them individually.

However, over the course of several weeks almost all of our beta testers found themselves using all three pianos for different types of songs.

Many beta testers that had previously favored other industry standards such as Ivory or the Galaxy products found they didn't like going back to them after using True Keys for a short amount of time.

As we looked at the economics of the library we realized we could essentially give our users three distinctively different voiced pianos with three independently controlled stereo microphone perspectives for the price of two if we released it on one library.

If you find yourself listening to a demo and thinking you didn't like the particular sound.....keep in mind that you can always switch between the Close, Player and Side position or find a mix between them that suits you.

If you look on the first post on this thread it looks like Aeons Holle references a thread one of our beta testers made on the Music Player forum. For unbiased reaction from someone outside our company using True Keys in day to day session work it's probably worth a read:
Music Players Forum

VI Labs,

Many people prefer buying plug-ins individually. Over time some might change their minds and use all three in this package. However, a percentage of people will not invest in that possibility.

How do you feel about offering three different pianos priced individually and a bundled price of 3 for the price of 2?

This would be the best of both worlds.

A smaller number of people will buy 3 for the price of 2 than 1 for the price of 1.

For those who would buy the bundle, whatever price you are currently committed to will be available. For those who would never buy all three and would only choose one, a slightly higher price would still be better than the bundle price considering they would outlay more money and probably receive at least one piano they would not use.

The smallest group in the mix consists of those who would buy the bundle because there is no alternative. You will have the bundle group regardless because they are interested in the three. What you gain is the individual piano group and at a slightly higher price.

All I can see is more potential by offering these pianos individually at one rate and bundled at another rate.

I think that's basically what Galaxy does, isn't it? At least you used to be able to buy the suite or the individual pianos, with the bundle being cheaper than the three individual pianos. I can't seem to find a link to this now so maybe they have discontinued it.

I was just listening to the demos on the True Piano site and it occurred to me that it would be great if we could download a MIDI version of each of those demos and run them through our own sound generator (dp or vst) and see what we hear.

Do you think that would be a valid way to decide if it really is as good as it sounds on their site ?

And, if so, could we talk them into providing that for us ?

Am I dreaming ?

I learned long ago that demos on websites are completely worthless when it comes to playing pianos live. They can easily be doctored and don't reveal live playability issues. I bought my first software pianos based on demos, and they were the worst pianos I ever bought. I bought the rest of my pianos based on user comments from websites like this. Overall, those comments have been accurate once you sort out the biases of few commenters. You can easily tell when comments come from shills.

I agree with Macy below. I think it's important to use real world feedback to make your own conclusions. For what it's worth, the demos on our site come directly from True Keys with no outside processing other than the built-in convolution reverb from the engine.

However, if you'd like a few of the MIDI files we can send them over to you. Anyone who wants a few of them can send a message to ryan@vilabsaudio.com and I'll get them put into a zip file and send them over.

I think o0ampy0o has a good point. Many of the songwriters out there are dissatisfied with thier current sampled pianos, but have a tight budget. I think you could better address the needs of your potential customers if you made both the package deal and the individual pianos available. Of course this would take some time, but would likely be beneficial financially.

I think I've personally spoken with many people on this site over the last few weeks with questions via e-mail, but I wanted to let everyone know that we're officially shipping True Keys now.

We're working on adding dealers around the US and the rest of the world, but you can also order online direct from our webstore for quick shipping. I look forward to hearing all the feedback from everyone.

If you're interested in buying just head over to www.vilabsaudio.com.

It's too expensive to become a Guinea Pig. It should have been $175 for individual pianos. Do you have a money back guarantee deal?

I agree, Macy. It's too much to ask me to pay $350 for three pianos. I did that with Ivory 1.5 years ago. I won't do it again.

If I were in the market for these pianos, I'd likely buy one of them. (Maybe two, slight chance.) Definitely not three.

As it stands, you can buy three. Or you can buy none. It's a shame.

The iLok is a killer here, too. The Pianoteq guys get by just fine without one. Why can't the True guys?