Here is an example from someone on the EW forum playing the Colossus Guitar: http://lionel.bansept.club.fr/music_mp3/COLLOSSUS-guitar-PartIII.mp3

Hi Frank. Thought I'd mention that I'm working on a new album and it's being done almost entirely with Colossus. The sounds are simply the most realistic I've come across. I am particularly fond of the Steinway piano sample and the guitars such as the ones you provided a demo for. Very easy to customize sounds too.

The best thing about Colossus is the amazingly low noise floor I am able to get at recording level... it's like -68db which barely registers on the vue meters in Sound Forge. I've tried a lot of different techniques to try to get that low of a signal to noise ratio from hardware synths and can't do it. Definitely the choice for studio use.

I have a friend who bought one of those expanded Receptors outfitted with Colossus and tried to use it on stage... he eventually got frustrated with it and sold it on eBay, saying it really wasn't ready for primetime. Personally I'm just as happy to make backing MP3 tracks for stage at home and use a digital piano live but I suspect one day there will be something like a workable Colossus keyboard or module... all you really need is a 72GB flash memory card...

Hello Frank
Just had a listen to the mp3 you posted, and I have to say I was very disappointed with the sound, (Perhaps 256Kbs may be better) in fact it reminded me of the original Tyros, which must have had some of the worst guitar sounds ever produced in recent years. (Tyros 2 Guitars are totally different and sound more live)
Bear in mind that I am comparing it to Live Guitars, which I listen to played by various groups/solo players, at least once or twice a week.
I hope this was just a compression issue, as I was considering obtaining Colossus with the Kontact 2 upgrade, for my Wersi Abacus Keyboard. (I may have another think about that)

Bill

Esh, I agree with your assessment in terms of quality plus number of instruments per dollars cost for Colossus. There are even higher quality virtual acoustic instruments, e.g., the Garritan Stardivari Violin, etc. but you pay for it. I thought the person who provided the Colossus guitar mp3 did a very good job. I believe he is a guitarist and knows how to make these samples come alive.

Now, Bill I guess each to his own but none of the hardware based workstations or arranger keyboards come anywhere close to most of the Colossus, GPO or JABB Libraries. This is primarily due to the quality of the recordings (dynamic range, noise, velocity layers, longer or no looping and so on). In addition many of these instruments have many articulations many more than you would find on say a Yamaha Tyros 2 SAV. Now don't get me wrong the Tyros is way good enough for live performances it is just not the best sound available.

Hi Frank.
Thanks for posting the link. It doesn't sound bad but certainly nothing special. It's definitely only on par with a good arranger keyboard eg. Tyros2, G70, SD1

Here are a few more mp3's: http://www.soundsonline.com/sophtml/details.phtml?sku=BS-388

Eric

Here is the complete library:
http://www.soundsonline.com/

Eric

Eric, thanks for posting the links. I have provided some of them in the past and I thought I would just provide a couple of examples of software based instruments. RealGuitar is another good example. It goes a little further than just providing samples for playing guitar with a controller keyboard.