FJ, for me Pianoteq is the currently the ONE and has been for the past year of more. I like a bright piano in Pianoteq so I gravatate to the Steinway D and the big classical pianos and then use one of the many defaults each piano has to get different flavors.

Last month when I was considering the New Shigeru Kawai SK (a 10 foot grand) I asked a friend to come by and play it for me on my system. I recorded this below. I am afraid you are going to have to trust me a bit here, while I listened during this video recording it was incredable! But when i play back now, between the video recording and the compression of YouTube I am afraid they has stolen the soul of the artist. But you will get the idea.

I follow discussion in the VI Control forum which includes "all things Piano VST". There is a camp which says the Pianoteq can have " I will use your word, wonky sound". But that comes general from the purists who only want to hear 20 or more audio layers recorded in the Cistein Chapal. And I love those big libaries also. But I don't need those big libraries. So I am pretty happy with Pianoteq.


BIAB – 2025, Reaper (current), i7-12700F Processor, 32GB DDR4-3200MHz RAM, 1TB WD Black NVMe SSD, 2TB WDC Blue SSD, 1TB WD Blue, 2 TB SK NVMe, 6 TB External, Motu Audio Express 6x6