mach five has a nice Bosendorf...

If I remember correctly, there is an older plugin...
http://www.edirol.com/products/info/superQuartet.html
and while it's piano is definately not the most realistic sounding, you could easily adjust the tone in a way to get some pretty interesting harmonic effects.

I currently own and use Vintaudio's Upright collection http://vintaudio.com/GUPC.htm and couldn't be happier...

for more classical and perhaps more realistic...
http://www.soundsonline.com/sophtml/details.phtml?sku=EW-157

I have several other older piano libraries but I really don't know of any that include string harmonics...

sorry guys, but I was just wondering: how do you put a software plugin to use? I mean, one as the ones you recommended for piano sounds, when you´re recording, how can you use it with a program as SONAR?

Fer

you use it with a host program such as mach Five or kontak, which then is a instrument plug in in your sequencer program (sonar, DP, Logig, PT, etc)

do you know where I could get one of those programs for free? I mean, as a downloadable software?

Fer

I don't know any soft sampler freeware, although I suppose they DO exist somewhere. I have a keyboard module from Plugsound, but honestly the samples aren't good. They simply sound too sampled, boxy and unnatural, and the velocity layers aren't nearly good enough. You can hear some MP3 demos on http://. The advantage is that you buy the module, and you don't have to worry about loading samples into a sampler or anything.

It seems to me that the only way of using a sampler such as kontakt is throuhg midi. is that so?
is there any way of using, for ex., piano plugins through kontakt to record AUDIO in, say, SONAR 3?

fer

You can In DP and I imagine Kontak would be the same- you just send the output of Kontak to an auxiliary bus and record in a track with the input in the same numbered bus.

after reading this thread i used google search " using VST Instruments"

this link should help explain a bit i hope

SI

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec00/articles/vst.asp

sorry guys, I didn´t get it quite right: let´s suppose I want to record a piano sound using a synthesiser, but NOT with midi, I mean, from an audio in-port of the soundcard, connecting the synth to the computer, but making use of a piano sound (the plug-in) which sounds better than the one I´ve got in the synth. do I need a host program, and in that case, how can I use it if it´s not through midi?

Fer

Fer, if I'm getting you right, what you want is an audio file with the VST instrument you're playing, right?

There's no way around MIDI, since the VST instrument is triggered by MIDI itself. If the VSTi exists as a stand-alone instrument you can open it and play it with your MIDI keyboard, then take the output from the soundcard and link it directly to the input. Quite complicated.

The easiest way of doing it is simply by recording it as a MIDI track and create an audio mixdown of the file afterwards if you don't want the MIDI file to take up resources.

yes, just render the file to audio. You also will have the midi file there in case you want to change the instrument later. This is really helpful when you are mixing- say and acoustic piano is not just cutting it or viceversa- just change the a piano to an ep and see how it sits in the mix!

thanks ellegaard, I think I´m getting a straight picture now...

fer