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Mati, the comparison page shows that only the Professional version is available in a 24 bit format.

I, too, am waiting for demos - which I think Gary G. posted would be user demos - and hope that someone will make one which uses the una corda samples.

Demos are available: http://garritan.com/steinway_demos.html

Its also listed as 'Shipping' !

<JeffC.>

Wow - it sounds VERY NICE!

The demos made with the 24-bit version are particularly fine. I'm hoping that someone will do a demo which makes extensive use of the sostenuto pedal and which features a lot of exposed notes played slowly.

Wow - the demos are impressive!

My immediate reaction, however, is, there is, as with all wanna-be acoustic piano sounds, something that makes it sound not quite right, not quite like an acoustic piano.

I'm thinking it sounds a little too "soft" (maybe on impact-when the hammer is supposed to be striking the string) or somehow too fluid.

That sounds semi-ridiculous. Does anyone think what I've said makes any sense? Does anyone else hear what I'm hearing?

[Edit: Well, maybe all the demos are not created equal. I just listened to the very first demo. That one sounds SUPER!]

Jeanne W

I think Chopin's Scherzo is one of the best samples of the library. I tried listening to Moonlight sonata 3rd movement and found it ridiculously soft in bass. No meat in that pounding! I was afraid it is just sampled like that - but scherzo is way better.

It's so quiet here since april 3 about Garritan STEINWAY. I've read some very promissing things in one or two other forums but still not much in my favorite forum here.

How about a review from a/some happy owner(s)?

- How does it compare to Synthogy IVORY?

- Is the BASIC (16-bit) version good?

I've read that the PRO 32-bit version PLAYER perspective is really great, but what about the BASIC ( Close Audience Perspective / 16-bit "Good Quality") version?

What about hardware? Is it more or less demanding on RAM and/or CPU than Ivory?

> I have "only" a 5 year old Pentium 4 - 2.66 MHZ and 1.5 GB RAM. Wil I have problems?
Do i really need at least a 2.8 Ghz CPU Pentium 4 and 2 GB of RAM (according to the Garritan website) even to run the BASIC version?

> Will my older soundcard CREATIVE AUDIGY (version 1) be enough to run the BASIC version? (of course with the ASIO drivers)
Or will it have "crackling fireplace"-sound? and delays of 12 or more milliseconds?

> My harddisk is a WESTERN DIGITAL Caviar 800 JB with "only" 80 GB but with 7200 RPM spindle and a 8 MB buffer. Is this good/fast enough?

I never used a Software Piano and i am very happy with my Yamaha CLP-240 samples through my Sennheiser HD 595 headphones, but i became
very interested since i listened first to the IVORY and now discovered the GARRITAN STEINWAY demosamples, they sound so beautiful!

Jeanne W posted, This may be a matter of which "perspective" was used for that demo. In general the perspectives for which the mikes were placed farther away will make a softer impression. Something like sitting out in concert hall - the classical perspective - as opposed to being on stage.

I ordered the PRO version yesterday and I'm going to spend all weekend with it. I'll post what I can after that.

Still no impressions, reviews, experiences with GARRITAN STEINWAY?

Better than Synthogy IVORY?

Anybody?

Someone over at Northern Sounds was good enough to do a Garritan Steinway rendering of a midi recording I made way back in 1993 of my wife playing a Fats Waller piece. And it just so happens, I also have a couple more recent recordings of her playing the same piece on a few very real pianos... a 7-foot Nordiska recorded in my living room and a 9-foot Fazioli recorded in concert in a church.

Alligator Crawl - Garritan Steinway
Alligator Crawl - Nordiska 215
Alligator Crawl - Fazioli 278

Though its not the comparison you're looking for, it does reveal a bit about the pianos. The Nordiska's clearly the lightweight here... the dynamic excursions of the 7-foot piano almost appear compressed compared to the peaks of the 9 footers. But interestingly enough, it's bass power approaches that of the bigger Steinway. The Fazioli, however shows a distinct advantage on the bass end compared to the other 2... almost a 3db edge in the recordings. If you ever experience one of these live, you'd know its true.

Howard

Ooops! I never got back to this did I?!

I will say that it takes a bit more CPU to run Garritan than it does Ivory. I had a few clicking and popping problems at first that were traced to my video driver (!).

I really love the live-to-WAV capability - I can open the standalone player and record an idea very quickly without having to load up SONAR and wait for the VST to load. Very cool feature!!

The tone of the piano is perfect. I've found that I am using the Player perspective most often. Not that the others sound inferior, more that it just fits my compositions best.

I wish it had better control over the velocity settings. With 5 presets to chose from I, of course, find that I would prefer a setting that's in between two of them. Grr. Ivory has a min and max velocity control and you can set them to any level you like. Something more adjustable here would be nice.

I think they could dispense with the animated keyboard (or at least allow it to be turned off). I don't see the need for it and to me it clutters up an otherwise very clean player interface.

The lack of a 'gain' control is a little restricting. I found the levels of the piano to be very low - a lot lower than I am used to with the Ivory Steinway. I've only EVER raised the gain of my Ivory Steinway to +3dB but it's nice to have the ability to go higher if I absolutely need to!

While I really like the Garritan Steinway I am anxiously awaiting the updates that were whispered to me.

My overall opinion? It's perfect and it's only gonna get better!

Curt

I'm playing around with the Steinberg Grand II, Art Vista, and the Garritan Steinway Standard version. My impression is that the GS is wonderful. However, you need really good speakers or headphones to get the full quality.

I have a Core2 Duo E6600 running at 3.2, with Vista 64bit, 4 gigs of memory and an Echo Mia Midi soundcard, so that the latency is just over 2 msec at 256 sample rate, or 5.8 at 512 sample rate. In either case, the "delay" is just not an issue. I think most relatively contemporary systems would handle it OK, as long as the HD is at least 7200 rpm.

Check out the demos on the Authorized Steinway web site. They're pretty faithful, and impressive.

To me, it sounds like the hammers are very soft. fff doesn't hit hard enough.

Could someone explain to me in plain English what would be involved to make Garritan Steinway the piano sample for say a Kawai MP8II or CA71 digital piano?

Do I understand that you would need to have a midi cable going to a fairly resource heavy PC running GS ? Does the sound then get fed back through the instrument or do monitors have to be connected to the PC sound card?

PianistOne111: Try the Chopin's Scherzo - there the hammers hit quite hard for me!

theJourney: You are right. If yours Kawai has line-in's, the audio can be fed back to the instrument. If not, monitors should be connected to the PC (which would be a good option, because the quality will be perhaps significantly better).


M.

Thanks.

Has anyone compared Garritan to Ivory side by side?

That's the demo I was listening to, mate! But listening a second time, I also hear something rattling...nevermind. The sound of the dampers muting the strings is unrealistically loud.

theJourney, you don't necessarily have to use a MIDI cable. I have a CA-5 connected to my computer with a USB cable.

Hi guys,
I'm a new member on this forum. (My first post - just to check it works okay!)
In the next week or so I'm gonna try and post some comparison audio demos here, of the Garritan Steinway Pro and Best Service Galaxy II, both of which I own and rate very highly.

Regards,

propianist

I look forward to hearing them, propianist!

Bruce