Another Pretender to the Throne?

I bought True Keys recently (the full monty) and it's excellent; much better than Ivory 2 actually. The basic piano tone is gorgeous, especially on the Steinway and Bechstein, and has a lovely fullness and presence. My sense is that it outdoes Pianoteq in this respect.

True Keys is also very playable. Pianoteq is probably better in terms of overall playability and it's certainly superior in terms of sympathetic and sustain resonance (it seems to me that modelling is a better solution here than sampling). Having said this, True Keys is remarkably good in these areas too (and, again, clearly superior to Ivory 2).

Much though I love Pianoteq, I find there's still a very slight hint of artificiality to the basic piano tone that becomes clear if you compare it side by side to True Keys. Having said this, I do the prefer the basic tonal character of Pianoteq to that of Ivory 2, which sounds distant and thin to me -- like a recorded piano rather than a real one.

If I had to choose one of the True Keys pianos, I'd opt for the Steinway (American), which is probably the most versatile of the three. I'm not too keen on the Fazioli, which is rather loud and a bit harsh.

What I don't understand from sampled pianos, is how different they are of a real acoustic and how reckless you can play and still sound good, why they dont make them realistic?. I mean, on Ivory you can even stomp the sustain pedal from beginning to finish and you will still get a nice sound, you do that on an acoustic and you'll get a total mess, in fact, digital pianos teach a bad pedal technique because of that, is because they can't record longer samples or something?, I don't know if its the decay or the samples but is really different and easier to sound good on samples, when I finally got an acoustic I had to relearn how to get a good sound, and my pedalling sucked.

Is this new sampled piano any different on that?, it was my main complain about Ivory.

I don't think is a polyphony thing, I play with the most I can on every case as I have a computer that can handle it.

The limited length of samples can be a reason. But the main reason - at least that' what I suspect - is sympathic resonance. When holding down the pedal on a real piano too long you will get an overdose of sympathic resonance, causing certain tones to sustain almost endlessly. This does not always sound very pleasant. A sampled piano doesn't suffer/benefit from this phenomena.

I'd been testing true keys for almost a month, yes, it is good indeed, what surprised me most and is the best feature to me are the staccatto samples, how much I miss it when I play with Ivory and its noticeable. True keys and Ivory are both clean samples, beautiful sound indeed. For me the advantage of true keys over ivory that go beyond personal taste are the playability, somehow responses better, the stac samples and the  resonances, they area again, noticeable and add a lot to the sound played. Ivory has more configuration I think and what you can achieve if you go with a resonant soundboard I cannot still replicate with True Keys. I liked the sustain effect on Ivory more than True Keys.

I can do more comparisons even with pianoteq if you are insterested, and thinking of repeating short patterns two or three times of each piano followed by each other.

You can't go wrong with any option being TK, Ivory if you like samples or Pianoteq if you go simulated. I like how TK is very playable.

You can have less than 64, thats for the three Pianos, Quantum Leap is far bigger.

I bought true keys and Imho ivory is much better ... no questions about it.....

after 2 hours of testing I must say that the staccato at piano velocity is better on TK .... but overall sensation is better on Ivory.... Playability is better on Pianoteq ofcourse , still Imho

I can tell you that the stacatto is one of the best features of TK. It's really differnet from the other ones, maybe that's why I feel is more responsible, and personally, I love the tone of the American. Ivory sounds better or maybe more delicate on some recordings involving the sample pedal.

Ok, after two days I have to admit that TK is very good perhaps more playable than Ivory ..... Yes, only fools can not change their minds......

'Overhyped'  is a good word to describe Ivory II. It's a mediocre product that has for some reason garnered ecstatic reviews (what is it with piano software reviewers? many of them seem to know little about pianos). Synthogy are apparently very good at marketing. Its much-vaunted modeled sympathetic and sustain resonance are a joke compared to Pianoteq. The various soundboard models it uses are either far too dry and dead or far too resonant and artificial-sounding.

I love the player's perspective on the TK Steinway. I do feel that TK's shortcomings are revealed, though, when you play Chopin or other nineteenth-century composers: its sympathetic and sustain resonance aren't quite complex and rich enough, so you don't get the kind of sonic bloom and overtone saturation that real pianos (and Pianoteq!) are capable of.