Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Is Alicia's Keys worth $49

I am considering getting it. I do not have that particular piano and like the demos.

I ended up for $49 getting the Native Instruments Piano Collection though. It gets different reviews but I personally liked the demos.

I think Alicia's Keys is well worth $49. It has great resonance and dynamics, and is very expressive. My preference, most of the time, is Ivory II, but I do go back to Alicia's Keys from time to time.

I found AK to be quite terrible. Not worth buying.

As a stand-alone sound, I would not recommend it.

However, it has some nice timbre with which to mix with another piano sound.

I use it from time to time as a mix for my ES7 sound.

How much is something worth that you will never use when you get good piano software? Seriously, just get the Vintage D or the American D unless you must have a Yamaha piano. If so, get the full Ivory II. It has a playable Yamaha. I wish someone else had a playable Yamaha.

Also, IMO, never buy anything based on demos. Demo's are worse than useless. That's how I ended up wasting a bunch of dollars on the EWQL pianos.

I agree with this, in isolation. But demos, when combined with reading intelligent reviews regarding specific strengths and weaknesses can sometimes sort of confirm what people are saying, and help one get a sense.

I looked at Alicia's Keys and decided against it in favor of the Vintage D, mostly because the people who really like AK tend to emphasize pop/rock "great in the mix" sorts of attributes, which isn't what I was looking for.

I 2nd Vintage D. It's a bit more money (not as expensive as Ivory) but I continue to be thrilled to have it, so it was definitely worth getting. But everyone's needs and sensibilities are different, so there's no one right answer.

I have to agree with Macy. Everything in a demo environment differs from your working environment. So piano must be touched to be evaluated ... and that goes for software pianos, too.

I tend to translate "sounds great in a mix" to "overly bright and compressed, with too low a quality for solo work" - sort of an accidental damning with faint praise that speaks volumes.

Yup, exactly, LOL. We're on the same page here. But of course you try to find a variety of comments from different people at the various music gear and DAW-oriented sites (I'm sure you know what they are), and look for patterns in the comments that sound credible when aggregated.

And I'm not knocking Alicia's Keys, not only for the obvious reason that I haven't tried it, but because "overly bright and compressed" appeals to many people, and is suitable for certain popular and 21st century digitally-oriented genres. Again, it all depends on what you want to do sonically, what kind of music you want to create.

And the Galaxy Vintage D is quite tweakable & versatile... You can get a whole array of those sharp, bright searing "hot" sounds if you want to. Even some of the presets are ultra-compressed. It's just not why I bought it or how I plan to use it. The "basic grand", even without tweaking, is a wonderful, subdued and warm virtual concert grand IMHO. At least good enough for me at the level I'm at right now.

I went on Galaxy's site to get an idea of their pianos- are they sold in the US by any retailers? Thanks for all of your replies as well,

Galaxy's site directs you to 'Best Service' when you click 'where to buy'. Then you just download it from from there. Perhaps it's not available in shops....not necessary.

.....I also toyed with the idea of getting AK many times because I'm used to Native Instruments stuff, and I like the idea of a sampled Yamaha grand. However, I'm not that keen on the other Native Instruments pianos which come as part of Komplete: Vienna, Berlin & New York (NY is best) - non of these are anywhere near as good as Roland SN, they are more or less on a par with Piano Teq, though I prefer PT in most cases (not all).....so this experience and the fact that Alice's Keys gets a bad press here has put me off.

Me neither.

It can be quite instructive to buy a lesser sampled piano and struggle with its shortcomings for a while, and then run screaming into the arms of something more expensive / higher quality. AK seems to be priced well for this. But I think I'd start with a stripped down version of Pianoteq, that's something I'd likely find uses for even after getting Ivory or whatever.

Having paid more than double than $49 dollars for AK, when it first came out, I certainly don't find it overly bright and compressed.
In general, I am not a fan of the Yamaha piano sound, but AK is a good sounding piano, for a reasonable price.

One of my favourites so far, is the 'Giant' from NI.
Very tweakable, and playable.

Sorry, I should have been clearer - I wasn't commenting on AK so much as piano voices that "sit well in the mix" (though AK does have a rather limited dynamic range of 32 dB).

Can any one tell me where to get Alicia's Keys for $49? I'm seeing the price as twice that.

dmd - Thanks! I just might try it out.

They don't ship to Portugal disappointingly. Maybe Musician's Friend only deals with the USA........friendly within certain limits?

Does Portugal get "Musician's Enemy" catalogs choking their mail slots, with products they won't send you?