[linux-audio-user] nice piano

[James Stone]

On Tue, Jan 02, 2007 at 08:04:20AM -0600, The Other wrote:
> On Monday 01 January 2007 10:53 pm, Paul Winkler wrote:
> > A mini-review for those also looking for decent piano soundfonts:
> >
> > So far with help from this list I've found the following usable,
> > in order of preference:
> >
> > 1) WST25FStein_00Sep22.SF2
> > Free and quite natural-sounding to my ears,
> > from http://www.pianosounds.com/freesoundfont.htm
> >
> > 2) TrachtmanSteinC_XFade2_2001Aug16.sf2
> > $5 US, by far the most "hi-fi" of the three, but a bit
> > bright for my taste, also it's recorded a bit lower so you'll need
> > to increase the output volume.
> > from http://www.pianosounds.com/
> >
> > 3) NS_Piano.sf2
> > Free, has pleasant tone, if a bit lacking in the bass and treble;
> > also the stereo image is very narrow, almost mono.
> > the creator describes it as "a natural, woody, mellow sounding
> > piano", from http://www.naturalstudio.co.uk/ns_piano.html
> 
> At $35 USD, StudioAX's Grand Piano One soundfont has pleased me since 
> the mid 1990's.  It's available only through Internet download.  The 
> following link takes you to the download section where you can listen 
> to MP3 demos.  All upgrades are free and have worked for me since I 
> first got version 1.1.
> 
> http://studioax.desertsites.net/download.html
> 
> Stephen.

That sounds pretty expensive by todays standards.

You can buy a full giga piano for $39.. (see Steiny D and Steiny
D close):

http://www.sampletekk.com/products.php?cat=44

Or lots of other nice pianos from $50...

Big downloads, but much greater accuracy than any soundfont.. All
should work fine with LinuxSampler.

I used to use the $5 Trachtman soundfont until I heard what a
giga piano sounded like. Now I would never go back.

James