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with Addictive Keys and Pianoteq, this makes 3 virtual pianos which have a free demo.

Addictive Keys demo is limited to 4 octava and some perspectives Pianoteq demo needs to be reload every 20 minutes an lacks some black keys.

But notice that none of the good pianos have a demo. Is that telling?

It could be interesting to know why no good pianos have a free demo. The Pianoteq limitation makes it easy to know if the piano sounds good, but it is too annoying to make the demo usable.

The only reason I think is the network bandwidth needed to make a multi Gb demo freely downloadable. (We can note that the limitations of Addictive Keys do limit also the size of its files). Have someone a better idea ?

I don't see the file size as a limit. Last month I downloaded a demo of Informatica (a big-data transformation tool). That was 13 GB. The download took a couple or three hours.

I've waited 60 years for a Ravenscroft. I can wait through another couple of hours for a demo download.

I downloaded the pianoteq demo last night. Although it's not quite got the realism to the sound (but it's realllly close), I'm hooked to the playability and response of it. As my mac is getting old now, it was lovely to play without glitches or worrying about how many notes I'm sustaining. The calibration tool is fantastic too. It brought back a lot of the expressive capability to my DP. Felt like I was playing an authentic instrument.

I think I'm sold. It's basically an interface/engine I would love built into my digital piano in the most cost effective way I can manage it! I will experiment a little more today.

Did you try a good sampled piano like the Vintage D or Ivory II American D? If not, do yourself a big favor and find a way to try them before buying Pianoteq.

Writing about acoustic pianos, Larry Fine has reported that poor pianos have long warranties, and good pianos have short ones.

In a parallel sort of way ... can we surmise that poor software pianos have demos, and that good ones do not?

I have only a limited data sample to support that notion. But it seems to hold.

Excellent choice,
Powerful, yet not so power consumer. Maybe not the more realistic sound wise but the more accomplished when considering its features. And it will grow when the others will be replaced.
Go on the fxp corner on Pianoteq's site and try presets called "07-12-2014" and "D4 NY - Moderate" made by rjpianist. Very nice sounds, you just have to change the velocity curve by yours.

Hmmmm, methinks rjpianist is Rachel Jimenez

I'm off to gram me some fxp

I just listened to a lot of demo's of many of the big names and to my ears the True Keys American Grand and Garritan CFX Concert Grand are the winners. But that judgement is based on nothing but demo's, my ears and what I personally consider a realistic, beautiful piano sound.
Most disappointing I found Pianoteq (but that is forgiven for it's not sample based and it is getting better) and Synthogy II.

I Have been disappointed by TrueKeys American because of some noises (kind of clicks) on some keys. They made me buy an other American (Ivory II) with which I am happy.

A little file rendered by Truekeys with a lot of Eb would be better than a description http://www.sinerj.org/~loyer/piano/click3.mp3

I hear nothing wrong with my PC speaker... But with a good monitoring headphone, the clicks are disturbing.

Well, I have most of the major VSTs and if I could only buy one ... it would have to be Pianoteq.

I rarely utilize anything other than Pianoteq nowdays. I find that it gives me many different options for sound and feels like a real piano.

There are other VSTs that are probably better pure sounds but with all the variety I get with Pianoteq (including the FXP files that users create) it just seems like a continuous stream of new sounds which are very good.

For example, at the advice of a previous post in this thread ... I downloaded the "07-12-2014" FXP from Pianoteq and find it to be beautiful. Cost ? ZERO !!! I have a new sound.

And on it goes ...

Not to mention that Pianoteq records my playing automatically when I am playing so ... on the outside chance that I play something beautiful ... I have it stored on my computer. Nice feature.

As I posted earlier Rachel Jimenez crafted the "07-12-2014" fxp.

I have to admit that I hadn't expected her to be a... I'm searching for the right word.
Anyway, she has produced some very good fxps.

She is classically trained, teaches classical, has an at home Steinway and embraces technology.
I guess it adds up, but I hadn't expected it.

My other fave fxp'er is Don Smith.

I agree about Don Smith. His FXPs are very good also.

It is just nice to get a new piano sound every once in a while just for variation.

And I have to believe that the overall sound of Pianoteq will keep improving ever so slightly.

I think there is at least SOME opinion that PTQ is more "playable" than most libraries, which sets it apart.
In combination with an interface that allows adjustments that mimic the mechanics of a physical piano a lot of people are finding that they can create a piano that suits them.

There is so much variability in ALL wooden pianos anyway that no two of them are the "same" - so why use sample libraries recorded from any particular one of them ? - world famous though it may be for its (perhaps accidental) individual history.

What I think Rachel Jimenez, Don Smith and others have demonstrated is that the stock PTQ models are a very good starting point from which to build bespoke pianos.
Not at all sure that further improvement in the base models is needed, other than for the business/marketing purpose of showing ongoing "new and improved" product releases at suitable intervals

IMHO. my favourite FXPs pretty much always come from modifications based on the Blüthner. I listened to some of the Rachel Jimenez fxp last night, while I liked them, Any modifications based on the D4 to try and turn it even more into Steinway have never quite done it for me so far. if I want that I will just fire up the Ivory American for that purpose. It still does that Steinway sound signature best ( to my ears anyway ) when I compare it to recordings of the real deal versus pteq)


Perhaps just personal taste, but the Bluthner rocks for me, perhaps, in part, it is the extra aliquot string that does its magic that helps it to give it a fuller/richer sound too.

The instrument packs are not expensive, well worth the purchase I found when I got that Bluthner. Its native default sound signature is so much closer to my personal liking compared to the D4, so that makes it easier to hone it even closer to ones liking with the FXP files and personal tweaks.

I don't really care too much personally if the result sounds like a Steinway or some piano X, as long as it sounds good/pleasing and natural to me, and the Blutnnerr with FXPs are my defo my favs for that.

The D4 lacks bandwidth more, and overly bright and thin out the box for me, especially up in the higher octaves, where to me the artificial nature of Pianoteq engine is revealed most, at least that is how it comes across to me. With the Bluthner I find that issue less so, I find it more convincing me as a natural piano sound out of the box to work with.

After years of playing and wasting money on lots of vst pianos, there is only one I can really recommend and one there is a good to have it, and this is first VSL Vienna imperial from the sampling world, and Pianoteq from modelling world . That`s it.

Yeah, the PTQ Bluthner is well liked by those who like pianoteq.
I have already spent far too much time enjoying fxps based on the D4, time that COULD HAVE been used for playing/practicing.
I would like to get the Bluthner and for a mere $60 why not ?
Because it would rob me of even more practice time and that is something I really CAN'T afford
Maybe if/when there is an upgrade/update bundle around December time...
{Hint, clue, nudge, wink, are they reading this forum ?}

That can be very true, unfortunately.

Players who have not attained at least intermediate player status would be far better off practicing instead of analyzing minute sound differences between VSTs.

I am happy to say ... I believe I have put that "analyzing" stage behind me in favor of practice. I just grab a sound and play. It sounds good enough for my skill level.

The free add-ons (KIVIR + legacy K1/C3/M3) and the FXPs do help a lot in avoiding getting tired of the sound. Nobody has a perfect piano product yet (whether sampled/software/hardware) and after a while, we tend to notice the problems and it grates on us. So I usually switched to something else (K1 or Pleyel) for a week and when I get go back to the D4, it sounds new again.

So it's great that Pianoteq gives you all these free options. Otherwise, you'd have to own 5+ different VSTs to switch around when the mood hits you.