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Alright, I've been a fan of pianos and keyboards for a long time and I've been playing and mastering composing with keyboards and pianos. I even hope to reach pianist qualities. My questions are, do you think it would be more efficient to buy a proper keyboard, like a Roland or Yanmha, or grand piano, or would it be easier in a long run to buy a good MIDI keyboard? I've been thinking about this for a while, while I don't mind recording live audio, I think it will be tedious when I go to try and edit it and make it sit well in a mix, but MIDI is why I got into Electronic music, I love MIDI note arrangement, it's really a great feature you don't get with live recording; however, I've found quality is an issue. Could someone recommend the absolute best sounding VST or samples from live recording pianos? My biggest inspiration is easily James Blake, and his keys are the focal point of his tracks, and vocals of course. He uses a synthesizer for the final arrangement (or he records it with his grand piano, not sure), but would a synthesis be a better choice? I just want something fairly big and semi weighted.

Also, does anyone have any tips on making a piano element sit well in a track? I know this comes with practice, but I'm finding it quite hard right now. Either the bass gets in the way, the kicks, or second melodies; it's annoying. I thought I knew a lot about harmony until I started Electronic music, lol.

Lastly, what's a good tempo that allows easy changing, but won't ruin the track's groove. I'm not really sure what I'm looking for, but something that's well balanced and I can easily adapt to it. I work on 70 BPM as I am interested in making dubstep (and I already mentioned Blake is a huge influence :3), but are there tempos that aren't fixed to certain genres?

Thanks for reading!

afaik the absolute best sounding piano VST is the sample-based Ivory from Synthology. Also, if you're on the fence between an electric piano and a MIDI controller, you might look for a piano that has MIDI out. My buddy has one thats got nice weighted keys, its piano and rhodes sounds are actually pretty nice, and also has MIDI out port so you can use it as your controller. also has direct audio out if you want to record with its sounds.

You'd probably be able to find something like it.

Also, no tempo is fixed to any one certain genre. if you want to make dubstep, it should be at or around 140 (70 if you prefer, i guess, but the feel and roots of it generally come from 140ish garage music)

-[2]DAY_- wrote:afaik the absolute best sounding piano VST is the sample-based Ivory from Synthology. Also, if you're on the fence between an electric piano and a MIDI controller, you might look for a piano that has MIDI out. My buddy has one thats got nice weighted keys, its piano and rhodes sounds are actually pretty nice, and also has MIDI out port so you can use it as your controller. also has direct audio out if you want to record with its sounds.

You'd probably be able to find something like it.

Also, no tempo is fixed to any one certain genre. if you want to make dubstep, it should be at or around 140 (70 if you prefer, i guess, but the feel and roots of it generally come from 140ish garage music)

Thank you, thank you, and thank you. I'll look into purchasing the Afaik, sounds delightful. Also, any idea the manufacturer of that piano? It sounds great, lol.

I always thought dance music (well, dubstep is hardly dance music, to me at least) had a fixed genre, which you could easily ignore and all, but I always thought a genre is identified by the tempo. Oh well, that's great to know.

Thanks again.

sorry, afaik meant "as far as I know". The software is called Ivory, and it's made by Synthology. I don't know the make of the piano, but i'm sure you could ask for those features at a decent music store and they'd be able to set you up.

As for making them sit in a mix, dont go overboard EQing them... they're such a warm, harmonically rich sound that rolling a bit off to make room for the sub is all you should really have to do, leave the body there though.

Too many piano tracks all thinned out these days.

To be honest, I think most of writing piano parts comes down to how well you can mask that you're using a vst...