I don't plan to yet but I do admire it.
I have to fly to some gigs next year and I've always been hesitant to fly with a keyboard... a MidJay in my carry-on would make renting a piano at the site more feasable. I'm going to hold out a bit longer and see if my laptop can cover the same territory, but I'm not adverse to buying a MidJay someday.

It would be cool to see a keyboard version of the MidJay come out. Add a great piano soundset and a 76 or 88 note graded-hammer action keyboard, beef up the polyphony and keep the size & weight to a minimum... I'd buy two.

Super Quartet.. I really like it. Was about my favorite piano sound until I got Plugsound's Keyboards module. I like 'em both though. Nothing on any hardware I have or have played comes close.

AJ

Not sure if you realise but the soft synths you mention actually play on hardware not just software, and in operation are no different to Arranger Keyboards.
The Reason you notice the difference is because normally the sound processing cards in high-end computers tend to be of superior quality. All the sounds produced by modern Arranger Keyboards are done in software, but unlike computers they are stored in Rom. (The latest instruments however now come with or have the option to fit a hard drive)
The main exceptions to this are companies like Wersi, Korg (Oasis) and Lionstracs which are computers with all the keyboards and controls built in, which is why as well as there own voices, they can use a combination of Akai samples, Giga Samples, VST Plug-in etc.
When it comes down to the final analysis however, no matter how the sound is produced, if you don’t like the sound of it, then you are never going to be satisfied.
So just use whatever you enjoy and enjoy yourself.

Bill



[This message has been edited by abacus (edited 11-04-2005).]

To my inexperienced ears, the Super Quartet pianos were almost "clink-klonk", $5 a dozen, compared to the Orchestral one. But there was only one piano in Orchestral.

A friend of mine, a piano player, (hers is the "real" upright piano I mention in my previous post), heard an mp3 of a midi file I had (St James Infirmary) done with the Orchestral piano, and wet herself.

But the guitars on Super Quartet...ahh those guitars....they were AWESOME.

For a pretty good comparison of most of the software and hardware pianos (no arrangers, but you can post yours there if you feel up to it), try this site;
http://www.purgatorycreek.com/index.html

Follow the link for Digital Piano Shoot-out.

They provide the MIDI file to play through your keyboard, so you can sit and compare.

Personally, the G70's The Grand X patch (from the FantomX) provides the best arranger piano I've heard. I've got a K2500 with the piano daughterboard in, and while it's VERY good, the G70 GrandX patch is warmer, has greater dynamic range and, due to the G70's VERY low latency and killer action, a much better sense of 'connectedness' to the sound.

I'm well aware of the differences and similarities between software and hardwaremodules Abacus and how sample rom storage works. BTW, when I talk of hardware, I'm thinking Romplers and arrangers. I don't really think to include hardware samplers or things like the Lionstation, if only because I don't use them and really have little interest in them.

Trident, we all recognize that sound is subjective, but I just like the SQ pianos and guitars. I have Orchestral too and I still prefer SQs pianos. It all depends what you prefer. I might not want to use a "Rock Piano" in an orchestral setting, and perhaps I wouldn't want to use a Classicl Grand in a blues tune, but both have their places.

I also like the SQ guitars, but I like the pianos, guitars, and drums even better from the Plugsound series of modules. I also recognize that the high quality sample sets that FLR has likely exceed even what a locked in module like Plugsound can do.

The best guitar emulation for realism I've used to date comes from Musiclabs "real guitar", although I don' care for all of the patches in it, some are very good. What makes it outshine things like "megaVoices" are that the articulations ( fret noises, picks, etc ) can be finely tuned / adjusted to suit your playing style.

AJ

[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 11-04-2005).]

Actually I bought a high-end laptop recently and like many of them it's sound processing kinda sucked. But a Creative Labs Audigy Z2 Laptop soundcard sells for under $75 and has 24bit/96k sound processing which is superior to just about any hardware workstation or arranger. That did the trick. I've been doing some recording comparisons and the noise floor is much lower when I use softsynths than when I use my Yamaha Motif ES8 (even using mLan) or my 9000 Pro.

The other factor is that the samples used in hardware keyboards are compressed into small amounts of wave ROM whereas the newer breed of softsynths allow disk-streaming of much larger samples than hardware synths can hold.

Personally I don't think any arranger keyboard has a realistic grand piano, the G-70 is my favorite (at least if it has the exact same piano sound as my Fantom XR), But still not good enough.
I've played the Promega series and it has the most realistic piano sound of all hardware keyboards (not softsynths), although I think that the upper range of the Steinway piano on the Promega sounds a bit weak (sounds too thin), I almost bought one, but I went for a PA1X instead(Not a digital piano, I know, but it sounded soo good ), maybe I'll end up buying one anyway, still want a stage piano .
If you really want a superb piano sound, you should look at gigasampler and kontakt instruments, they generally sound much better than any hardware keyboard, my personal favorite is the Virtual Grand Piano by Art Vista .

Greetz ,
Marcel

the best piano sound playing on a keyboard ?
I am from origin a piano player , but was never satisfied about that sound on all my keyboards in the past [ technics, roland] and at this moment de yamaha 9000 pro
there is ONE solution [ I did] to buy a yamaha P90 stage piano and make a connection between that instrument and your keyboard . [see connection schema on this forum in 2005 under my name "guillermo" ]
it is really perfect !
guillermo

I can relate with you........playing piano or any KB for that matter is a very subjective thing to the player.....its somthing that ONLY YOU ALONE can decide on for Your needs.....we are all different and you should not listen to anyone but instead go try it YOURSELF & BUY what YOU need for YOUR situiations musicaly......its fine to discuss, get opinions, etc ....but in the end its you that has to play it....
"one man's junk is another man's treasure" senario comes to mind.... I wish you luck with your new KB .....Make some beautiul music with it !