Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Any Black Friday/Holiday sales of virtual piano software?

I keep learning -- thank you !

Unlikely that you will find any sample libraries that will satisfy you along the "playability" dimension if you have started with pianoteq.
Some will produce sounds more closely resembling the wooden piano from which they were recorded, OK - BFD, but how do they "play" ?

- - however, to answer your question VI labs is doing their usual holiday season $50 off of almost everything, so you could get the ravenscrap for a mere $150, I think they also offer 100 off a 3 pack, or somesuch.

The latency issues and other audio glitches are present mostly when you don't use an external audio interface. I personally use a Steinberg UR22, and I can get to 5ms latency with basically no CPU usage. I could go as low as 2ms, but CPU usage ramps up.

In regards to the SSD, the way Kontakt works (the software that both Galaxy and NI Pianos use) is essentially trading disk speed for RAM usage. With an SSD, I can set the buffer setting very, very low, but I can definitely use the Vintage D from my old laptop HDD (a 5600 RPM one, mind you) if I just set the buffer high, essentially loading samples on RAM.

As I said, this is true for every Kontakt based instrument, but I'm not sure how Ivory II or Ravenscroft handle theirs.



You can actually set a default preset for Kontakt so, as soon as you open Kontakt, it automatically loads your desired piano (And it does that quicker than manually dragging the piano to the Kontakt window!).

If so, that would be great! However, I can't find that in the documentation anywhere. Would it be possible for someone to spell that procedure out for me?

Thanks!

Inside Kontakt's interface "Files----Save as default multi"

Nope - at least not in the interface of my Kontakt Player (the free one that comes with Vintage D).

The Files manu only shows to items - "Options >" and "Exit".

Thanks for the reply, though.

Korg is going 50% off this week.
http://www.korg.com/us/news/2015/112702/

Great deal for those of you that were thinking about Module or any of their synths for iOS, Mac, or PC.

"Files", not "File".
It is just above the metronome knob.

It's there, you aren't looking in the right place. From the manual:

"The Main Control panel at the top of the window provides access to various essential features and dialogs."

"Files: Opens a drop-down menu that consists of various commands for loading, saving and managing KONTAKT files, such as Instruments, Banks and Multis."

After you save the multi just make a short cut to the multi file on your desktop. When you click to open the multi file shortcut it will open the Kontakt player AND load the Vintage D. i.e. just what you want. The Vintage D will also start playing almost immediately even as it is still loading the Vintage D prebuffer files. i.e. the whole startup process is very fast. (I'd suggest you set the prebuffer to its maximum size setting).

You should read the Kontakt Player manual as there is a wealth of features (like the multi files) and settings that you may otherwise not see. The Kontakt interface can be a bit confusing because Kontakt (and K. Player) can do many things beyond some other "standalone players" that you may never need. But once you read the manual you will probably want to try some of it out and then only use what you need in the future.

BTW, all of the virtual piano software that say they run "standalone" use some sort of free host program that is either included and is automatically installed, or can be downloaded for free like the Kontakt Player. i.e. Ivory II, Vintage D, True Keys, EWQL, etc. etc. Some of the "standalone host apps" are limited to just running the virtual pianos, but other like Kontakt, UVI Workstation (for True Keys and Ravenscroft) and EWQL, have many additional features for running other types of virtual instruments and effects. Each virtual piano can also be used as a VST, AU, or other type of plug-in in a DAW or other performance program like Mainstage, most of which aren't free (although Mainstage is almost free). In that case you don't use the "standalone host" program.

Stamkorg and Macy - Thanks for those replies.

Macy, your reply really clarified a few things for me. Especially the creation of that shortcut and the setting of the pre-buffer. With that shortcut, there's really no need to override the default multi.

Speaking of multis, what's the difference between a multi and a "preset"? (I had been using a "user preset" under "Global Presets".)

Finally, is there a way to record the Vintage D using the Kontakt player that comes with it? (My bet is that there is not, but I hope that I'm wrong.)

Thanks again!

I think I read somewhere you can't record in Kontakt, you need a DAW. Reaper is a good option, at least it's free. Audacity now claims to have support for VSTs, but I never got it to work.

This is one of the reasons I was drawn to the Ivory ACD, as it has Cantabile included, ready to record, but iLok horror stories put me off.

There are two kind of VST plugins : VSTfx (effects such as chorus, reverb...) and VSTi (instruments). Audacity only supports VSTfx.

Thanks. That's pretty much what I thought....

Just to clarify, in case someone can't find it:

AFTER you've loaded your Galaxy Vintage D and selected whichever settings you prefer (tone, velocity curve...) click files and select the highlighted option:



After saving it, the next time you run Kontakt it should automatically load the piano with all your settings.

In regards to recording, you do need a DAW. I use Reaper. It's technically not free, but it has an unrestricted, unlimited trial version...so it's up to you if you decide to pay for it.


Newbert, the "User presets" is something unique (to an extent) to the Galaxy products.

Kontakt is a program that's used to load samples from different vendors of different instruments. You can have Kontakt make a piano sound when you press a key on MIDI channel 2, and an organ on MIDI Channel 3, for example. Kontakt calls these instances of having different instruments, "multis". When you "save a multi" you're saving "Having these specific instruments with these settings", as Kontakt sees it (the instruments don't know that they're in a multi, so to speak). It's just that, in this case, you're saving a multi with just one instrument.

Incidentally, the "Kontakt way" of saving presets is by pressing that "camera" icon, right next to the S-M and Tune buttons, to save the instrument settings. This works for every instrument.

Just ordered The Giant, yesssss!

I have two questions. Can it be installed on more than one computer? Can the installation files be downloaded on one computer and installed on another?

It seems that running the EXE-file, I first need to download, results in two files, another EXE-file and an ISO-file. That's what NI says in the Knowledge Base.

http://www.native-instruments.com/e...e-instruments-download-products-windows/

So I should be able to copy the resulting files to a USB drive and run the EXE-file on my other computer. That is, I download on my laptop, but install on my desktop. That answers my own question, I believe.

NI stuff has to be registered to the computer so if it is strictly one product you're buying, it should only work on one computer - my music computer is offline so it's necessary to do the registration using a second computer with flash memory to transfer the registration key, but I suppose it registers one computer only.

In that sense, things that work with iLok (the security dongle) are better because that key (in the form of a thumb drive) allows you to open the programs on any computer it's plugged in to.

Thanks for the info, toddy.

The Ravenscroft 275 and True Keys Pianos from VI Labs are still on Black Friday sale going through tomorrow December 2. The Ravenscroft in particular works very well with the VPC1. Please contact us if you have any questions!

Lance @ VILabs

The Giant is now installed, and I had time to try a few presets. The basic preset - Basic Giant - worked all right, mind you I only tried playing with the onscreen keyboard, by clicking with the mouse, as I won't be able to set up my piano until tonight or tomorrow.

Then I switched to a preset called All That Jazz, and it was very deep with a lot of reverb. The Giant is actually two seperate instrument files (NKI) and the other one is the Cinematic version, of which I tried the Harp Piano preset, and I liked it very much. Can hardly wait to hook up my DP!

Seems I'm getting a lot for only 50 Euros, so I'm happy.