Listen to Keyscape demos, or any of the virtual piano well regarded libraries, and you rapidly see that we are discussing the difference between bad and slightly less bad..!

I know it’s an arranger forum, but we aren’t discussing arrangers here, just a piano sound. And a $400 VSTi puts them all to shame. And throws in almost every other keyboard you might ever want (name an arranger’s Rhodes or Wurlitzer that even comes close to Keyscape’s?).

Lately I’ve been using SWAM’s saxes on my iPad, a $30 purchase, and they utterly destroy the best articulated saxes in the Genos and PA4X. I hate to say it, but for the standout sounds that front most pop music, the day of the arranger has long passed.

With a piano, I agree with Crossover. You gain more realism playing it from a fully weighted 88 than you do from an extra GB of samples. Is there a difference between the two recorded examples? Definitely. Thousands of dollars worth? No. But the difference between the cheapest arranger and a VSTi costing even less is exponentially more.

Arrangers aren’t the be all and end all. If cost vs. quality is the question, an arranger is virtually never the answer…