I've been playing the dickens out of the "Rock Pianos" lately (they've managed to snag my attention from the vibes), and while I appreciate the "dry" (with tweaking) sound, I'm even _more_ amazed at how creative I can be running these pianos through additional effects plug-ins. I've been working with a host of EQs and compressors/limiters, not to mention amp sims, and the results are all _amazingly_ musical. (Try some demos from Softube, PSP, and Nomad Factory to get an idea of what I mean! URS is next, though my ultimate wish-list would include the Universal Audio plug-ins -- which require PCIe cards, so they shall have to wait until I can get a Mac Pro. In the meantime, the other companies are doing their best to deprive me of more money.)
(As an aside, I've also been going _truly_ bonkers with Sonic Charge's "Synplant" -- talk about an amazingly-creative synth! It's essentially to synths what "Spore" is to games [all procedural modulations], and while it provides a giant "toy box" of sound possibilities, it can create _very_ playable music. Think of Vangelis' "Beaubourg" and "Invisible Connections" running head-on into '70s Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream, with healthy doses of Steve Roach, Michael Steans, and Robert Rich. I was having fun even before I examined the tutorial, which finally showed me just what the heck was going on... 8^)
I'm finding that a little EQ & compression (sometimes a _lot_) really makes these pianos come monstrously to life. You would think that Pianoteq would tend to sound more artificial when passed through such effects, but I'm pleasantly-surprised that the sound holds together so well. I guess this is an advantage of _great_ physical modelling? ;^)
And now I have to get the Abbey Road "Brilliance Pack" (developed by Softube, coincidentally), because its plug-ins just shine everything up so nicely. I don't know what the "secret recipe" is, but these guys are oh-so-subtly amazing.
"Our developers, who art in Toulouse, hallowed be thy physical-models.
Thy version 4 come, thy new instruments be done, in the computer as it is in the wood!"
