Preset Libraries for Pianoteq users on Apple at grand-artist.com

I don't want to be rude,
but why make a app for one OS only,
when you can use FXP files for any OS?
What's the advantage?

Thank you for the reply,
But you forgot to answer the other question:
"What is the advantage of using a app instead of a FXP?"
A extra app means extra resources, extra resources means less performance.

So, can you explain what your app does?
(without giving away your secrets)

Hi Roland,

Sorry you can’t use the app now, because its Apple, so you can't hear what it does. I have put up a short video on the creations forum, at least you can hear a preset out of a library.
Your Q; An extra app means extra recourses, extra resources means less performance: It deepens on what the “performance” means here: For audio quality, there is no loss- no extra latency, the app consumes very little resources. It produces pianistic dynamics. If it was including user friendly area, nothing is greater.
The libraries are an addition to your instrument collection. Let’s say you like Alicia Keys, you play AK through NI Kontakt.
Let’s say you like GA presets, you play it through GrandArtist. All info you can find on the website grand-artist.com

@marcos, the app runs standalone with its own library, you gotta have Pianoteq installed on your Apple computer.
Whats the advantage than?
You will have an exclusive dynamic Live Presets Library and can focus on playing". Because there's no fancy features to wander around, it's the most minimal version UI you will need and to feel comfortable with.

Hey Davey,

What PT has done with FXP corner is quite a nice thing yes and it connects people, who share their creations. Nothing wrong with that I have done so before and feel attached with Pianoteq. Ideas, feelings maybe, passion for music, related subjects, technics and so on are shared and discussed on the PT forum. You may give your opinion about people. I won’t call someone a sucker for things one maybe would appreciate or buy. Indeed thats a matter of taste. Did you try a Preset Library (its free). Modartt doesn’t have problems with the idea of a commercial Library.  This is not about a few presets, but a whole lot off presets in a library full of different settings, for different situations, ready to play with. There’s done a lot of labour to achieve this, you can benefit from that. The advantages of Pianoteq qualities are obvious and used therefore in sound designs on factory presets and thats OK. Anyway to convince you, or anyone other reading this, just try, use coupon code Davey on virtual grand library and its free. (only for today).

Best regards,
Dick

Hey, I have send you a mail for more trial. Enjoy! And thanks as always.

I tried out several of the demo's + the free library and the Virtual Grand library.
The libraries are coming in the form of small program's that are using the engine of Pianoteq; in the background, PT doesn't need to be opened for it to work.
The programs are called like: Grandartist 1.34. Virtual Grand Library, let's abbreviate to GA-app

First of all: there are really a lot of great presets, it's a matter of taste, but for me I would like to use a lot of them; many are better (for my ears) than what's included with Pianoteq.

So far, it seems it's only working with Standard or Pro; it's working with Stage, but with silent keys.
Encountered a few small bugs, possibly because of older Mac OS (I'm on 10.9), nothing serious; the developer Dick van Dyke is very responsive about these.

What is a problem for me, at least with the current state of the project: the GA-app is lacking a lot of options of the PT: no MIDI-recording, only rudimentary editing of Velocity and FX etc. There's also no VST/AU plugin.
I think the GA-app is clearly developed to prevent illegal copying of FXP-files; not unlike protected libraries that are sold for NI-Kontakt. I understand and respect that, but for me a bundle of FXP files would be a much more attractive purchase. So, try it out, If many of you feel the same about this, the developer might even change his mind about this.

On the other hand: if you're mostly into just playing, without recording, this might be attractive, because the sounds are great.

Urs, anyway taking in account your comment. Thanks for that.

Here is my review of these preset libraries for what it's worth:

To set the playing field I am coming from - I am no concert pianist, in fact I'm what I would call an intermediate level player of mostly modern music and jazz. Apart from my playing limitations I am a professional singer and somewhat of a live sound engineer who does a little bit of studio work too so I like to think I know what sounds good and how useable those particular sounds are likely to be for me. I like presets, I don't have the time and the necessary skills to do too much tweaking or creating new presets. I much prefer to have some great sounding preset libraries that I can tweak just a little.

I have tested to the best of my ability both the free library and the Concert Grand Library 3 which is based on the Steinway D instrument in Pianoteq.

Now I shall get to the pros and the cons, to avoid anyone getting put off by the cons I will leave those until last and will begin by complementing the author on the quality of the presets in these libraries and to say that I believe anyone would be impressed by them and likely want to own them as a valuable addition to their Pianoteq library.

PROS:
The sounds are mostly 'good sounding to my ears'. ('stunning' removed to avoid upsetting readers)
There are a lot of presets in each library
There are very few unuseable sounds (for me) and the vast majority are really great, you are spoilt for choice.
During my short review I cannot imagine a situation that hasn't been accounted for within the library (unless you want weird).
Dick, the author, is very helpful with a friendly and approachable manner. He is fast to respond to questions and accordingly I would suspect that support for his work is going to be top rate.
The libraries are easy to download, simple to register and install with plenty of information available about them online.
The app doesn't drain a lot of resources and latency is no different to Pianoteq.

CONS:
Please understand that this is a new project for the Author and that a lot of what I list below may change accoding to demand, feedback is essential to progress.
It's not currently available for the PC platform but apparently that will soon be adressed.
There is no location option during installation, has to go on your system drive.
No VST or AU plug-in facility. This is a big downer for me as it will not integrate directly with my DAW.
No ability to record, third party software is required for this.
The above makes it useful for Live play only.
There is very limited facility to edit the presets or save them, Volume, Reverb and Dynamics are tweakable (one control for each), EQ is on or off only. Changes remain until reset to the original settings but cannot be saved as a new preset.
There is no facility to organise the presets, no favorites for example.
The Preset Browser is limited by the above and navigating through the presets is a two click process which is very tiresome when trying them all out sequentially. There are <> buttons next to the current preset window but they don't appear to work in any logical way on my copy randomly moving from one preset to another in no particular order. This may be a bug or maybe I don't understand how it should work.
There are no keyboard shortcuts for navigation and use of the cursor keys would be helpful, everything has to be done with the mouse.
The preset volumes are all set too high, some to distortion level. This makes it a lot louder than Pianoteq and is a lengthy task to adjust each preset individually, the app would benefit from a master level control and I believe the same applies to Pianoteq as it's difficult to balance when using alongside other sound sources.
Each library installs (on the Mac) as a seperate App so if you have more than one library you have to run several instances of GrandArtist to change instruments making preset selection even more long winded.
There is no integration with Pianoteq, again you have to have both open if you want to use presets from either and then you have to reduce the volume in one to use the other on it's own, not a good way to work. It would be nice to see all available preset libraries in one place.
Bearing in mind the above limitations the libraries are expensive (for me).

Having considered all of the above and knowing that some changes are likely as the project matures, I am very tempted to buy several of the libraries based on the quality of sounds alone especially if they are all as good and comprehensive as the one I have reviewed. If these libraries were presented as FXP for use in Pinaoteq I wouldn't hesitate in spite of the high price but they are too limiting for such a high cost (IMO). This is due I know to copyright protection and I sincerely hope there is some way of getting round this to make these fabulous libraries available inside Pianoteq, maybe some sort of deal for purchasing multiple libraries could be an option but that won't improve the lack of versatility in use.

I believe that sounds are in a great extent a matter of taste. The conceptors made the whole sound engine and left many parameters adjustable for us to play with, in my opinion an statement like this is not fair.

Well, all I can say really is that there is a lot of presets in each library and the full library that I tried contained presets that were different from the factory ones and almost all of them sounded good to me and were very useable as opposed to sounding good but not really seeing any practical use for it. I like different sounds and textures and these presets present plenty of them from just one instrument, I'm not a purist who likes only a clone of the original instrument which of course would sound different in various locations anyway. Basically more sounds for the palette, surely this is how Pianoteq is designed to be used and as I said, I don't have the time to do too much tweaking, I'd rather be playing.

UPDATE

Just wish to point out that at least some of our critical comments have been taken note of and addressed. Pricing has been modified to allow considerable discounts for multi library bundles, I bit the bullet and went for Library 3 which is affordably priced for all 7 of the main library sets and although I haven't had time to go through every preset I must say that I am not dissapointed, to my ears they are great and I am very happy.

Whilst playing around with multiple Library sets I found an advantage to having each library opening in it's own GrandArtist window .... you can open and play multiple presets at the same time and layer them to create even more sounds, this works with PT as well.

I would still like to see some flexibility in the preset browser (eg the ability to select favorites) but I can see that the creator is open to criticism and willing to make changes where possible so I am very optimistic with regard to future development. Also a little frustrated that all but one of the Library Apps refuse to show in Launchpad but that is a Mac issue and not the fault of the app although it might be overcome if all Libraires were able to be accessed from one instance of the app.

Happiness levels are rising.

I don't really understand your question but I'm guessing How much??

The Bundle 3 that I have is $98.35, checkout their website https://grand-artist.com/ for all current prices its all been updated since the original post.

Hi, we are back again. Due to some issues, the site was unfortunately down. There is a new pricing for the libraries and a new webdesign.! Thank you all and best regards!

Free trials are available from their website, have you not checked them out?
https://grand-artist.com/