I was able to buy the Synthogy Ivory American Concert D for $100 and I can say that the piano sound is spectacular. Now I've been using Ivory American D, Keyscape, Noire and C7 from Sampletank 4. I'll wait for black friday to try to buy pianoteq Standard.

I know this is not the purpose of the forum, but I'm selling a Synthogy Ivory American Concert D license for 125 dollars, if anyone is interested just search the ad on knobcloud

That's a matter of taste.

Well, only partially (pun intended, I suppose). Pianoteq's soundboard and string interaction modelling, for example, is objectively superior to that of other software pianos, and it objectively responds more like a real piano than any sampled instrument. Anyone who doubts that simply doesn't know enough about real pianos.

Whether you actually like the timbre of Pianoteq (and this varies significantly per instrument) is indeed a matter of taste -- you may find Noire, or whatever, more pleasant-sounding (I personally quite like it). Apparently there are even people who don't like the sound of a real Steinway.

And it seems Version 8 is upon us! Very exciting.

Then again, I generally feel that the days of sampled pianos are essentially over -- the problem doesn't lie specifically with Ivory. Piano sampling is an unwieldy, unsophisticated, obsolete technology and I literally don't buy it anymore.

Playing a sampled instrument is like playing a corpse. Sometimes I play my Garritan CFX, only to be shocked once again by how frustrating it is to play compared to Pianoteq. Its soundboard resonance modelling is unconvincing -- way over the top and just weird-sounding. And its noisefloor is shocking, especially when you're playing complex parts; the noise in all the individual samples just piles up.

I recently bought a beautiful second-hand Grotrian-Steinweg grand (a Cabinet 192 from 1990) and I can switch back and forth pretty seamlessly between Pianoteq (played through the Kawai VPC1) and the Grotrian. Pieces which I practice on the VPC1/Pianoteq translate very well to the Grotrian, without a need to adjust my playing much. That's because Pianoteq responds like a real instrument -- instead of playing back prerecorded notes, with some thin-sounding overtones and static sustain resonance thrown in. The Garritan CFX and Ivory work fine for, say, a piano part in a pop song but they're unsuitable for serious classical or jazz playing.

For hardware digital pianos, too, physical modelling has by now overtaken sampling in terms of sound quality. I'd choose the sound of a Roland LX708 over even that of a high-end sampled instrument like the Yamaha N1X any day (though the keyboard on the N1X is arguably better).

None of this means that Pianoteq is 'perfect' of course. I'd rather play a fantastic, perfectly tuned and maintained Steinway D in a great-sounding concert hall. Or my Grotrian grand in my living room. But in my view sampled software pianos can no longer hold a candle to Pianoteq (played on a good controller, and through a decent interface and speakers).

Good afternoon. I have the following question of which piano software to buy? For being with a close value, I arrived in these two softwares: Pianoteq 7 Standart and Synthogy Ivory II Grand Pianos. I would like your opinion, if you have already used both, which one did you like more? Thank you very much in advance.

Hi marciohas,

As right now, I don't have Synthology Ivory II and also never try one. Judging by the amount of Library (112GB vs 250MB>), I definitely go with Pianoteq that currently on sale. You should be able to download and try it first "For Free" before decided to spend your money. That's the benefits with Pianoteq.

If you ask which library I recommend for you to get, probably Steingraber, Steinway B, and one of the Petrof you prefer. So far those aremy favorite one.

Good luck with your choice.