MeldaProduction’s MonasteryGrand is a free multi-gigabyte piano for your DAW


https://www.musicradar.com/news/meldaproductions-monasterygrand-is-a-free-multi-gigabyte-grand-piano

Thanks for posting, Bob. This is a wonderful sounding piano.

It IS a beautiful sounding piano.

Something is not clear to me...

The piano (which is always free) requires their MSoundFactory to play it.
You can try that for free, but once it times out, it turns into the (always free) MSoundFactory Player - for the original full version you must pay $223.

There seems to be no indication that the piano would still work (with the free Player) - as far as I can see...

So isn't this really a trial - not really a "free piano"??

(not that I need ANOTHER piano...but we all like toys...)


https://www.meldaproduction.com/MSoundFactory

Floyd, on this page https://www.meldaproduction.com/MSoundFactoryPlayer/instruments

it indicates that the piano will work on the free player.

I'm in the process of DLing all of the free stuff so hopefully in a couple of days I can report what I find. Life is getting in the way of my music and computer time.

Hi, Mario... I do not see on that page where it says "this will work with the free version of MSoundFactory" (or the "Player").

It shows (at the top) "Instruments for MSoundFactoryPlayer".

There are 3 versions of the MSoundFactoryPlayer - Full, LE, and Player.
https://www.meldaproduction.com/MSoundFactoryPlayer

Like Kontact. If you do not have the full version (of Kontact), there are a lot of free instruments that you cannot use...


Now... on the piano page
https://www.meldaproduction.com/MonasteryGrand
it does say...

"...Yes, it's totally free! All you have to do is to download it and install within MSoundFactory virtual instrument (which has its free version too)."

But nowhere does it specifically state "The MonasteryGrand only requires the Player version of MSoundFactoryPlayer" (unless I'm missing that statement).

So...I'm still wondering.

I might download it to play around with it - if I can install it on my "junk computer" which is not connected to the internet. But downloading 6 GIG takes a long time....

You guys can't image how happy I am to have you blazing the trial on this for me. In this case I can be working on making music and looking forward to your findings. Hope I can return the favor some day.

My mistake. I read player and being a Kontakt user I thought player would be the free version. It is a really confusing as all three versions are called player.

I'm going to load it up on my Internet computer, not my music computer, and see what happens when the player turns into the free player.

{edit} I just installed this onto my Internet computer. This is my impression of this software. Others may not agree.

Problem #1 - The installer is an installer for all of their software packages. There is no MSoundFactoryPlayer listed. I clicked on the little house just to the right of MSoundFactory and it took me to the web site that shows the DL windows of MSoundFactoryPlayer. So I installed it.

Problem #2 - The MSoundFactory is a demo that contains a very limited number of sounds. I opened BiaB and added the MSoundFactory VST.

Problem #3 - Well not really a problem but I auditioned a number of sounds using BiaB. I was not impressed with any of the included sounds. There was a number of options and effects one could play with but again I was not impressed, especially considering this is a demo for a $300 product.

Bottom line was I deleted it from my computer. I have much better sounds in Kontakt, FM8, Korgs M1 and Wavestation, etc, than what MSoundFactory demoed. YMMV

Thanks Mario for the detailed update and your thoughts. Saves me from adding yet another freebie that is of little use.

Jeff

I'll second that!

I tried downloading it and the dl failed 200M into it.

So, again, Thanks Mario!!

Thanks guys. I am chasing this topic over in the Reaper Forum. Will let you know if anything comes of it.

Sorry for posting something that isn't of any use guys.

I don't use things like this since the only thing I'm interested in recording is live stringed instruments.

I thought it might be useful to some of you so I posted it.

Here is what the Reaper post is concluding up to this point..



From Melda...

So I gave it the old college try. I don't often get my [*****] kicked by a VST install, but despite multiple attempts to install this application, no files were placed where they claimed or could be found by Reaper. So it was not possible to run this VST. Normally I would go to the web site and beg for help. But in this case there was a simple executable file to delete the whole thing. I chose that path.

As I say in my New York City accent "Forget about it"!

You were just trying to be a nice guy and share a possible gold mine in sounds. It wasn't your fault that the MFG has such a convoluted install package for a weak sounding (IMHO) demo.

Thanx for sharing that site anyway!

Thanks Mario.

It is a very convoluted install package.

FYI - The uninstall does not uninstall everything. There is a C:/Program file/ MeldaProduction folder you can delete. Also go to C:/user/owner/appdata/roaming and delete the MeldaProduction folder there. Finally I ran cCleaner to eliminate those left over files in both the regular scan and the registry scan.

Thanks for looking out for me. Not like me to miss that, but my mind has been a bit occupied these days with all the craziness going on...

Actually, I think I was more enticed by the "story" behind Monastery Grand (likely all marketing BS), than by the promise of the sounds. I have a couple go-to pianos so I am not lacking. But nothing ventured nothing gained.

I'll leave all of the computer/electronic whiz bang stuff to you guys. I don't use any of it.

I thought it might be useful to some of you so I posted it.

I won't post anything else in this category unless I've tried it first.

I gave up on BIAB about 7 or so years ago. Even though they include numerous bluegrass styles, as far as I can tell they are still notating 99.9% of it in sixteenth notes instead of eighth notes.

It's not just my opinion that this is incorrect, ... it's how 99.9% of it is actually written. There does seem to be a work around, but you should only have to use a work around if you are trying to do something that goes against standard notation or tablature.

I won't ever be upgrading or recommending the program to anyone until this is fixed.

OOPS! I got got sidetracked. LOL

Don't do that. Please keep posting stuff like this. I post a lot of stuff that I don't use or try because it may benefit someone else. This was just a really weird thing. I have never seen anything like this before and I have been on a number of sites and DLed and used or tried their products with no problems.

Bob - I appreciate that you posted this. It looked really interesting.
And it STILL might be a good piano to have.


Mario - did you download the piano (3.5 GB) and try it?

No I did not. I have a number of really good pianos. With the hassle with the installer and not knowing if the piano would work with the free version, the one I didn't even see on the installer, I said the hell with it.

Guess which piano was voted the #1 "Best Free Piano VST Download" for 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3mQ_ZOm1AE

I am not one to let a plugin install kick my a$$. To get this working I had to install to default locations. It permits you to change install locations, but that stopped me earlier today. Next there are 3 files which have to be installed. These are identified in the attached image. The program wants to install up to 60 unique plugins (30 free, 30 not free but demos for 15 days). But you can tell it NO. Just install the one single file that is required in the instructions. That is the only one needed!

First impression - it is very bright! Will have to listen and compare to others favorites.

Let me reboot and verify everthing is OK.

I just listened - several times - to the examples played in Dan's video link (two up) of top 5. I liked the Yamaha Grand by Keyzone the best, until I heard the Monastery Grand.

Really fine.

I downloaded and tried it out. I sounds ok but as Mario said how many pianos does one need. I likened pianos to compressors and EQs somehow one ends up with heaps of them are rarely uses any of them. Usually end up using the one that sounds best to yourself and are comfortable using.

When it comes to loading Melda Productions stuff it is a bit strange. I used to use quite a few of their plugins but these days tend to use IZotope instead. I used them that often I paid the US$49 for the “Free Bundle”. So adding the piano was relatively simple. Would I buy it? No.

Tony

The answer is 3!

I spent some good time doing an A/B comparison of the Monastery Grand up against my Favorite Piano, Pianoteq v5.

As a result, I have decided to keep the Monastery Grand (MG) in the rotations at this time. It has a big bright sound that compared favorable with Pianoteq. Both have a large ability to tweek and I found a sweet spot with the MG quickly. Only time will see with gets more play but for the price (free) this pretty sweet. Ya, the install was a bit rough and the size of the MG is huge vrs the Painoteq (which is a synth), but can't argue with the final results.

By the way, the third piano in my rotation is the EZKeys Grand. This new addition bumped EightyEight Ensemble from Sonovox (at least for the time being).