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Pure Piano Comparison - Pianos revealed
Ok, so is Pure Piano “better”? Comparison with best other 2 contenders, IMO. Basic preset for each. No reverb added and I tried to equalize the volumes. Will reveal what’s what eventually.
With 40 votes the clear winner is #1 by 3-1.
1 Pure Piano
2 Ravenscroft
3 Module D
And a shoutout to @mjcouche for identifying them correctly. My own fave is contrarian... Module D.
I’m a bit fatigued with the Ravenscroft sound. However, since I shelled out $14 for Pure Piano I will experiment with the morph pad.
- Which is the best for your ears?54 votes
- Test #174.07%
- Test #214.81%
- Test #311.11%
Comments
There’s no comparison.. #2 sounds best..
At first glance, Nr's 2 and 3 sound "thinner and boxier" to my ears, but i'm listened on macbook speakers.
No. 1 has some depth to it, more rounded to my ears. Personal preference though
It was between one and three for me. Two was too bright for my taste. One seemed a bit muddy in the low end, but ended up winning out for me.
For this type of playing (solo piano) I prefer #1... softer hammers and a nice felling of a room setting. Then #3 over 2 for a little more presence but it's very close.
But in a mix I'd probably go for #3... it's good to have choices if piano is your thing.
I can EQ (DDMF 6144) any of these and use a great reverb (DDMF Envelope AU Reverb) which I re-visited this week and I'm really liking it's capabilities.
Which makes the point... maybe just get one based on price if you have a good DAW and good FX apps.
As I said to @McD in a pm, they’re all good and they all suck. He’s right, I think. A bit of fx jockeying and you wouldn’t be able to tell one from another. The two contenders are Ravenscroft and Module American D. For me, personally, Pure Piano adds nothing to the party.... except the morphing. Model D has great presets, however, which the other two lack.
The brightness of 2 and 3 sound nice on the louder passages, but the quiet notes sounded very unrealistic to me.
1 was the only sample that worked for me. It had more weight in the lower notes ner the beginning, and the mid to high notes didn;t sound as fake.
The mid to high notes at mid velocities on 2 almost had a Yamaha electric grand sound. I think 2 was worst from solo piano realism perspective, but could still work well in a pop mix maybe.
To my ears they sound really similar, with #1 having a slight advantage. Seems like something you could reach with the right EQ Settings. Thank you for the comparison. What is the usp for pure piano for me is the reverse option which is pretty unique on iOS.
To me No 1 sounds a little darker and more mellow, but a nice low end. No 2/3 are very similiar, but I prefer the clarity of 3 the most. Seems I'm in the minority though. Very interested to see what the result is, but I do have a guess
For purveyors of weirdness the X-Y automations are pretty cool. I used Rozeta LFO and hooked up the 3 LFO's to 3 knobs in a ZMachine to insure pretty hectic mayhem. I could have used this for a PhD in 1970 assuming I could solve the time travel barrier.
NOTE: Pure Piano will only load 1 instance of the AUv3 version in systems with less than 2GB of RAM (like mine). But I could load the IAA instance as a 2nd version. That should be enough. But the IAA has the user interface screen flopping issue (didn't try split screen) and no parameter automation for that instance. I turn on the 2nd instance (same input MIDI stream) and manually manipulate the 2nd instance after 20 seconds add some of the styles to the mix. No other external effects applied.
Nice comparison @LinearLineman
I guess:
1. Ravenscroft
2. Korg Module Ivory Mobile American D
3. Pure Piano
All would be very usable to me, but I’d rank them in the numeric order, 1 best and 3 least (but still not at all bad!). A pity that the hopefully forthcoming Pianoteq could not be included!
Like @McD. #1 for solo performance, #3 in a track if it has to "stand out".
My guess is
Rather than carefully think through all the details of each one after listening, I cycled through them a couple of times and made a quick decision. I prefer the fuller sound of #1.
Number one sounds better to me, bass notes seem richer. Number 2 is second for me as number 3 seem to lack a fuller sound, bit weaker in the treble.
This was a great idea, Michael. You can read it so often, almost as a factual statement, that "Ravenscroft is the best piano on ios" that it has become a kind of mantra. Now, contrast that with the assessments given in this blind test. Much more nuanced, isn't it.
Seems that Pure is taking the hearts by storm though
To be fair there was a mega blind test between lots of iOS pianos some time ago, and Ravenscroft came out on top as far as I recall.
However in this test (before the reveal) it was my least favourite, and I was genuinely surprised by the reveal. Of course when the previous comparison took place (I think it was a couple of years ago) neither Model D nor Pure were available to test.
Actually having located the old thread, it seems that Ravenscroft was beaten by the Salamander piano in Auria Pro:
https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/27341/piano-world-cup-the-statistics
As I recall the Salamander is brighter than the Ravenscroft, so that's interesting.
FWIW, every time I have posted something using Salamander (eq'd to be a bit less bright than the raw samples) -- people that have expressed a preference Ravenscroft have said how much they liked the sound. And when I posted some blind examples, Salamander was the almost unanimous choice.
IMO, all of the piano sample libraries (Ravenscroft, Salamander, whatever) benefit from a little tweaking. The default Ravenscroft sound, for example, is not to my liking but a little bit of adjustment makes it sound much better to my ear than the default setup.
I've always thought the Salamander was too bright for me, but then again I like humbuckers in the neck position...
I like Salamander too when I need to cut through,,, I just have bad luck with BS-16i stability
and I keep unloading AudioLayer for space reasons.
In this context, I think Salamander would tie Ravenscroft for 3rd since solo piano benefits from a darker more affectionate tone. If the source material was a fast Joplin Rag most would prefer the brighter tones, I suspect. Having a sense of the room is also a benefit when A/B tests are conducted but most of us have IR Reverbs and being able to dial in the room is probably a better course of action then getting one in the sample materials.
We now have a wealth of great pianos to play with... but PianoTeq will give us back a lot of storage when it ships.
Very interesting experiment, and gorgeous playing, thank you Michael! @LinearLineman
I do like the tone of Pure Piano here - although I love Ravenscroft, I think that here Pure Piano has the edge here at least partly because the brightness of Ravenscroft is not so suited to this somewhat melancholy, jazzy track. Korg Module American D is definitely the loser for me here. It is too dull to my ears. I bought the American D back in the day, and once I got Ravenscroft, never looked twice at D again.
Thanks for this comparison ! Maybe if you had EQed number #2 to get it closer to number #1 (mellower) the results would have been quite different, with a very little gap between these 2.
Nevertheless, a recorded blind test doesn’t deal with the playability or the pleasure to play the instrument, which is upmost important. And Ravenscroft is the best for that in my opinion.
I also prefer the neck position. I agree that uneq'd yhe Salamander is brighter than I'd like, but that's is easy to adjust with judicious EQ.
IMO, the best test is not using default settings but adjusting one to sound its best and trying to match that with the others.
Unless one is recording solo piano, some eq'ing is necessary of any instrument to have it sit right in the mix.
Beautiful playing as always @LinearLineman !
I like all three, all quite usable.
Pure Piano seems to have the Lows and Mid Lows "pumped up". As others have said, I think Ravenscroft with the EQ and timbre settings could be made to sound very close to Pure Piano.
I don't have Module Pro's American D, so I can't say it has tweakable EQ and Timbre settings. I only have the older Ivory Mobile Grand on Korg Module Pro.
Of the few Piano's I have and use, my favorites are:
1. Salamander Auria Pro
2. Ravenscroft
3. Ivory Mobile Grand, Module Pro
I am thinking to get American D now
I've read there is an Audio Layer version of Salamander...anyone know how to download and install?
I use Salamander in AudioLayer. I downloaded the full Salamander sfz and imported into AudioLayer. I adjusted the release layer volume levels to my liking as the import didn't have them quite right.