Piano just ain't happening ... arrrggghhhh!!!

[knopfler]

Hi guys

Ok first my tale of woe ... no spare cash for any SRX boards at the moment (unless someone convinces me it's ESSENTIAL and a MUST HAVE)!!!

Basically I have a Fantom S88 (and no I can't afford to upgrade) and the piano sounds just ain't doing it for me! I've tried tweaking every parameter imagineable, layering, different effects etc etc but I just can't find that big, deep, full, crisp, bright FAT sound that I'm desperate for!!!

The closest I have got to what I want is layering together the Concert Piano with the Nice Piano (the latter is from the XV Patch Library from Roland Downloads). This is the perfect sound I'm looking for EXCEPT for one thing: there is an annoying "twanging" sound especially from C4 upwards. I've tried everything to eliminate this (envelopes, filters, velocity etc etc) but just can't get rid of it. The only thing that seems to help is to lower the volume of the Nice Piano but then I lose everything else!!!

I know it's a subjective thing and a matter of preference BUT can anyone suggest any "good" piano setups for the S88 ... PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE ... I'll try anything you throw at me!!!

Thanks!

[R34pz]

Basically knopfler you're playing around with piano samples which amount to no more than a couple of megabytes at most. The type of sound you will get from a fantom S piano will never sound fantastic unfortunately, the machine wasn't designed to emulate a real piano. With an SRX board there is 64 megabytes devoted solely to piano (the entire FS wave rom), so you can imagine the difference. Try going to the roland web site and checking out the demo of SRX11, then imagine it sounding 10 times better on your fantom with decent speakers. I know how you feel having no cash for your hobby, but sometimes the only way to carry on is to spend unfortunately.

[DonPhilippo]

Just my DOES CENTAVOS:

DOES the Fantom S come with the Ultimate Grand patch? The quality of this piano patch was one of my main reasons to buy a Fantom X. It sounds horrible in mono though, and that goes for almost all piano patches.

I DOES quite a few gigs and jam sessions with my Fantom X and the sheer quality of the piano patches has never ceased to amaze my fellow musicians. Some of them even refused to believe they came from my Fantom X.

At home in my cosy studio, even I find it hard to believe sometimes... I also own this pretty good acoustic piano, so my standards should be adequate enough to avoid errors of judgement.

I've tried layering pianos on my Fantom X, too , but I didn't like it.

XXX, Don Philippo

[V-CeeOh]

(sorry for beeing out of topic)

DonPhilippo
"DOES CENTAVOS" ????????????
I, somehow, feel we both are on the same "wave length" and have blowed the "same fuse" ))))))))

knopfler
I would like to help you on this but I somehow feel tied up. It happens that I love Fantoms piano sound. But that is just me.
The "piano sound " issue was, is and will be a common issue here. I can only recomend you to try even more but you can certanly reach a point where you've got to admit that "probably" the Fantom can't do it for you..... I hope not


o - ...just could not afford the 8
(
\_/
hear what I've done with the 7

[DonPhilippo]

fixthemix wrote:
> Don Philippo wrote:

>> Just my DOES CENTAVOS

> DOES CENTAVOS" ????????????

DOES CENTAVOS is, of course, Chickcorean-Spanish for two cents.

XXX, Don Philippo

[V-CeeOh]

DP
Yes, I got that but "centavo" was also the smallest unit of money in Portugal before the ?Euro - So I guess I can say:

I DOES CENTAVOS TOO )))


o - ...just could not afford the 8
(
\_/
hear what I've done with the 7

[DonPhilippo]

Ah yes, the good old escudo days. We had guldens here in Holland. But enough of this pointless nostalgia, let's discuss piano sounds again. One of our strict moderators might deport us to the dreaded Free Zone where people DOES, well, you know what they DOES there...

XXX, Don Philippo

[dkpcola]

Get SRX11. Easiet and most predictable way to get good piano sound. You may try other piano libraries using sample playback capability but not that convenient nor easier to use especially in live situation.
Regarding Piano patch of FS.... try using performance mode.
Assign your piano patch to , say, channel 1. Go to MFX routing. Use Enhancer MFX, EQ MFX and Piano resonance MFX.
Make those MFX in chain (1->2->3)and route the patch output to the first one in the chain. Try different EFX too. Sometime, 3 MFX in sequence can modify the sound way high up. Try different MFX sequence order also.

[RedEye]

What kind/brand of amplifier are you using. Believe it or not, the amp makes a whole lot of difference - especially for hard to replicate sounds like the piano.

RedEye

[sequencepro]

I 'm having the same problem, (my audience isn't listening through headphones). I was alot happier with the JV/XV piano sound when used mono.
I need some help downloading the XV sounds individually, (on a Fanton-S). If one of you know how and could help me, I'd light a candle in the FANTOM TEMPLE and say a prayer to LORD ARTEMIO for you.
Doug Lanier (912) 6586758 (US)
sequencepro@yahoo.com

[knopfler]

Red Eye I'm talking high quality headphones here ...

[knopfler]

Thanks dkpcola - chaining the FX with the 3 you suggested has improved things loads!!!

Knopfler
"The Fantom Ficko"

[William Coakley]

williamcoakley.com has a solution to your problem with pianos and some comments on the SRX 11 by some owners.

William

[MarkShovel]

Is the SRX-11 different/better than the Fantom X Ultimate Grand patch?

[craigo]

I often think when I read these threads about the lack of quality of piano sounds that I must be tone deaf of something. Or maybe my understanding of quality is lacking, but, you see, I really qutie like the sound of pianos with a bit of tweaking etc.. it's magic. But maybe that's due to not having a good ear.

Peace All.

Cragglerock X8 - Audio Exp...