Thank you all very much for the good advice. I’d tried products like Pianoteq, a few VSTs with excellent demos on VST Planet, some Japanese super piano, according to everybody I forget the name of, Garritan, a list of other sampled pianos out there that sound just great, demo wise, futilely turned enough knobs for one lifetime.

I believe I have an answer, though, after reading some good posts here, mainly the unanswered aspects verified. I did some searches on playing notation and believe came upon the crux of the biscuit: notation midi data is too basic. I had been wondering what on earth do people want all these midi products to plug an acoustic keyboard sound into, unless wanting a portable grand piano(s) or grand on the cheap, creating performances sounding some exotic acoustic piano from an electric keyboard? Don't get me wrong, great if you like that, but no cake icing for the composer of notes on a page. I thought a lot of demos online came from notation. Nope, I'm beginning to see. And you don’t need anything exotic doing midi input. But what I do is notation, and step-wise if by keyboard at all. From my perspective, I’d like to turn the notation into a realistic performance of the notation and this is a possible concept, but technology is not there yet, or should say not so appropriated on the consumer market? There are excuses made as to why a key sounds like a guitar, because people have different touch, but would beg the differ. One can strike a key any possible way, and it will sound like a real piano note, on a real piano. But from reading some new research, that midi file your notation produces does on/off type stuff, instead of producing, say, the data from a weighted electronic key with respect to velocity, this the huge difference. Same with, say, the pedal, on and off notation midi, in an arc of motion with data in-between, as an electronic pedal is “read” by the simulating software. Dynamic markings suddenly turned on and off in that Neanderthal notation midi export.

What it boils down to is there is no respect for the old fashioned composer, who does a bunch of notes and all the information for a performer to perform, right there on paper, and that performer could live one’s whole life performing without thinking to need to pan flange the reverb in an attenuated echo spliced attacked of the sustain pedal, when mid measure of a legato phrase, especially in the C4 octave. (Yes, I made that up, only know enough about the knobs to now hate them. Sorry.)

So my new hypothesis? Nothing out there plays a notation midi export worth a hill of beans, for lack of data nuances. Please do correct if I’m wrong, and I’ll delay my suicide.

Just kidding. Really, thank you all very much, but I’m fearing notation just will not play in Peoria, as it were. Period. Anyway, you guys are smart!

Last edited by DAW Monkey; 03/24/17 11:43 AM.