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The Piano Poll - part 2 (with new samples)

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Comments

  • Hi @tja. Thanks for doing all this. I' ve been following with interest. Not much to say, ears not sensitive enough and neither is my keybd controller at the moment. But am very anxious for you to post the results when you are ready.... Maybe a new thread for that?

  • May I recommend a YouTube video I stumbled upon investigating the RC275 on sale now at half price. Search: Test Piano Apps Stefan Gisler. Very good performances of RC275, Colossus, CMP, iGrand, and Ivory. A very fair comparison, I think.

  • @LinearLineman said:
    May I recommend a YouTube video I stumbled upon investigating the RC275 on sale now at half price. Search: Test Piano Apps Stefan Gisler. Very good performances of RC275, Colossus, CMP, iGrand, and Ivory. A very fair comparison, I think.

    Yep, I know that.

    But I think that a MIDI file allows for a better comparison.

  • I just posted a long description of RC275 of my experience with this terrific piano on the Ravenscroft sale thread. It was a great experience. Please check it out. I do have some creds when it comes to piano playing. And sorry I am just too old to know how to make a link to the thread and embarrassed to ask how! If you don't like to read just buy it.... I mean, 18 bucks and it is a blast ( though not everyone will agree... Just most everyone)

  • tjatja
    edited June 2018

    @LinearLineman said:
    I just posted a long description of RC275 of my experience with this terrific piano on the Ravenscroft sale thread. It was a great experience. Please check it out. I do have some creds when it comes to piano playing. And sorry I am just too old to know how to make a link to the thread and embarrassed to ask how! If you don't like to read just buy it.... I mean, 18 bucks and it is a blast ( though not everyone will agree... Just most everyone)

    I already have it and it is part of this poll ( see first posting)

  • is this thread going to continue?

  • I hope :smile:

    Did you vote? :blush:

  • I listened to the seventeen until I could hear nothing. Each time I went through the list I changed my mind. Here are my a, b, c, and d groups. As I said it really depends on how these pianos "feel" to have a complete comprehension of satisfaction or dissatisfaction, at least for me.

    A. 32, 27, 28, 31

    B. 8, 22, 16, 25

    C. 12, 18, 5, 29,

    D. 40, 41, 19, 3, 1

    I am embarrassed already. For my ears really an impossible challenge. I staked a lot on my opinion of RC275. I hope it is at least in the top ten! Oh, well, another ego thrashing is good for the soul.

    Thanks to all for the tremendous effort and time involved. I hope wiser ears will prevail!

  • @LinearLineman said:
    I listened to the seventeen until I could hear nothing. Each time I went through the list I changed my mind. Here are my a, b, c, and d groups. As I said it really depends on how these pianos "feel" to have a complete comprehension of satisfaction or dissatisfaction, at least for me.

    A. 32, 27, 28, 31

    B. 8, 22, 16, 25

    C. 12, 18, 5, 29,

    D. 40, 41, 19, 3, 1

    I am embarrassed already. For my ears really an impossible challenge. I staked a lot on my opinion of RC275. I hope it is at least in the top ten! Oh, well, another ego thrashing is good for the soul.

    Thanks to all for the tremendous effort and time involved. I hope wiser ears will prevail!

    Yep, the Ravenscroft is within your top 8

    ;)

  • That shows, that it is not easy to proof preferences.

    This is why i am so curious and want to see if some of the big fishes realy get selected - or if all of the pianos are not soooo different, contrary to what people expect and think :) ;)

  • Aha, so RC is #25? When will you reveal all @tja?

  • Even though I contributed a few of the samples in this test, I haven't gotten around to listening to them all yet.

    I was kind of confused when I clicked on the poll link though.

    There are only 2 submissions so far, and can anybody just choose as many choices as they want?

    I guess that I just do not like that polling site and how it's laid out. There's only a tiny window and you have to keep scrolling horizontally to see all the choices? Not a logical or useful layout.

    I'm not blaming the OP, thanks for their work in putting this together, I am blaming the polling site and I think that it's terrible, imo.

  • @LinearLineman said:
    Aha, so RC is #25? When will you reveal all @tja?

    No, why should it be 25?!?
    You asked for top 10, but your lines were 4 each, so i gave you the first 2 lines.
    It can be any of the first 8.

    At the current rate of people who hear, compare, write and vote ... lots later :)

    It is pointless to reveal so early.

    Then only people will pop up and say “Ahh, clearly number X is the best!!!”
    Say this NOW!

    Have fun

  • Can you PM me the results? (already voted) I just want to know if I should buy the Ravenscroft during their sale according to my preferences :)

  • The creation of this piano poll can not be underestimated IMO.
    The collection of samples, laboriously created, provides a real primer into understanding what makes a piano sound great. It was so confusing to me at first, but with repeated listening things began to clear a bit. If I really wanted to learn what makes a piano tick ar its best and worst, several hours of listening to these samples would clarify a lot. Perhaps a wiser head than mine (perhaps you @McDTracy would venture it) would elucidate the sound parameters that make a particular piano a great sounding instrument and what separates the ordinary from the extraordinary,

    And there is the discussion and explanation of limitations and strengths of iOS translation from the acoustic to the virtual. So much stuff! But the piano is worth it! It is, unarguably , the cornerstone of modern western music. As above so below! An understanding of what makes a great sound on a piano is true of all musical instruments. So, bravo to this treasure of a compendium. May we continue to learn from it!

    BTW, who is playing the sample and is the variation improvised? It sounds so.

  • I started with the best intentions... I downloaded all the samples and imported them into an Auria Pro project and started A-B comparing them to rank and see which ones pulled ahead in my estimation and after about 30 minutes I was about 10 samples into the and just started pushing through looking for something outstanding.

    I began t notice that some of the recordings indicted the piano could not keep up with the rate of midi events... chopping off notes or even dropping them.

    Anyway I got frustrated and decided to wait for group concensus and then listen to the top "winners" and add a bit to the scales. But it becames clear the task was too daunting for the group to participate.

    I would spread it out and do groups: 5 per week for 9 weeks with a top 2 result and then a round of semi-finals of 6 each with 2 winners from each group and then the top 6 and 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.

    I think people would care about 5-6 samples and rank them. Cream would rise or we'd see what types of sounds most people like. I love a dark german piano that creates the feeling of a room with reverb and string resonance but a lot of people like a really bright piano that would cut through their mixes.

    I don't want to see this effort die a slow death.

  • Just voted. I only listened to the reduced list, as the full list was too much for the time I had available (I suspect that's the main reason very few people have participated). Extremely difficult poll. I think I recognized some of the pianos, but after listening many times to the details, dynamics, resonances, etc I think I have changed my mind on what my favorites are now.
    As a comment, sample #1 is playing some different notes/chords in several passages. I guess that there are some MIDI notes that got changed by mistake when it was recorded, but It does not affect the sound judgement.
    Excellent job @tja !!!

  • Posting to Front page comment.

  • I am going to prepare something.
    Will take a bit time.

  • I think that's best. Allow the Forum to make faster decisions by rolling out groups to vote on. It might be wise to mix similar types across a few groups and we'll also see what "type" of piano samples rate the best. I'd always vote for something that is recorded really well... so it sounds live then I weed out the pianos that just sound a bit off like the typical upright. They just don't have any grandeur.

  • I am preparing some Piano World Cup :)

    4 groups of 4 Pianos each.

    The best 2 from each group reach the next round.

    We will see what happens then with the 8 winners.

  • @McDtracy said:
    I began t notice that some of the recordings indicted the piano could not keep up with the rate of midi events... chopping off notes or even dropping them.

    If that's the case, I think this is just a negative aspect of the Piano in question.

    Do you have a concrete example?
    Maybe as PM....

  • Awesome. Maybe keep a contest open until you get a specific number of votes. Does the poll enforce 1 vote per IP user? Anyway let’s all play this time. My money’s on RC275 but my heart’s still playing Colossus in the dark with headphones.

  • @tja said:

    @McDtracy said:
    I began t notice that some of the recordings indicted the piano could not keep up with the rate of midi events... chopping off notes or even dropping them.

    If that's the case, I think this is just a negative aspect of the Piano in question.

    Do you have a concrete example?
    Maybe as PM....

    You see there were 41 pianos and well, I'm not eager to start listening to that lot again.
    This is a typical midi problem. Some pianos support 120 notes at a time and others less, ya-da. You generally can get more quality with more $'s invested but there is a point where the most expensive products had other issues.

    An app today was mentioned as being optimized for the ipad 1. That's got to work well but that's 6 year old technology.

  • I like the one where the piano player is wearing rubber gloves.... sounds squeaky clean.
    (I'm just commenting to keep it on the front page).

  • I'm with you @McDTracy. This poll deserves the spotlight. Just hope ten more pianos aren't introduced before the poll ends. 41 pianos! Maybe a Jaw Harp ( I never saw a Jew playing one) comparison next!

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