Akoustic Piano: Feels like the first time?

I have recently purchased Akoustik Piano. I'd like to confirm my experience matches that talked about in this forum.

I bought Akoustik Piano (as well as a midi / audio interface) as a replacement to my 10 year old Kurzweil PC-88 sound. Even with "the promised update" I doubt I would ever prefer to play Akoustik Piano over the PC-88 internal sounds.

Why is there nothing but positive feedback in the first 30 hits or so in google?

Matt.

 

I suppose it brings into question the impartiality of these big software companies or else the fact that now, no-one starts to complain unless they are ripped off by more than a grand.
Try to find a plumber it always seems to cost over £1000.
We have only ourselves to blame and that is because we dont complain enough, we accept bad workmanship and we keep comming back for more.
If I was in charge of this company I would sack half of the marketing men and all of the incompetent technogeeks, I would stop advertising products that did not work and I would adopt the same sort of business plan that the Props,Synapse,AAS and Ableton go for. I have supported all these companies and also spent a fortune in buying their products and I have absolutley no complaint with them.
These are the guys that are going to survive.
Message to N.I.Management
Why Buy Kore when a lot of your products dont work and even worse no-one will tell us when?
Sorry if I sound a bit of a git, but I did hold my horses for a long time before getting involved in this.
Action is required and it really should come from the company and not some disgruntled customer.
j

 

Me, too, I feel increasingly disappointed. What surprises me is that NI seems to have disappeared from the surface and they don't communicate any more. It's simply a miscalculation to think to be able to reappear afterwards with a simple "peekaboo". In short, it would be nothing more than a sign of professional customer relations policy to fully inform about the prospective schedule and the changes to expect.

Aria

 

Man, what happened to NI?

In my little world this company was one of my favorites. Anything that they came out with I was interested in, just because it was NI. After buying AP, and hearing all of this, it's like finding out your best girlfriend isn't what you thought she was all along. Very disappointing. I'm still hoping for the best but as each day goes by my disappointment grows.

This sucks,

Brent

 

Posted by Markus 18th Jan:

Sorry to be picky Markus, but in 2 days, we ARE talking 'months'. Only two for sure, but months all the same....

Can you PLEASE get the go-ahead from whoever is standing over your shoulders (telling you to be quiet) for you to provide us with a progress report, & when we can reasonably expect the update's appearance?

No news is worse than bad news, Markus, & this silence is upsetting a LOT of your loyal customers.

Many thanks,

Jason

 

i think, NI have so many, new, great produkt's to make, and not time for update's yet. And AP have the lowest priority for NI.
But; she make this patch, when she have time for it; in 1 ore 2 year's maybee?
Old man's whisdom:
Make your old work's fine, and then go to the next projekt, NI! your need to your customer! Bad service we say all her and your day's are month's, and later... year's! And bad service = not intresting in your new produkts.

 

I am absolutley astounded by the arrogance of this company by not responding to their customers.
We are just a pain in the arse, a thorn in their side.
Well we would be as they already have our money.
They are to busy developing the next big thing,the new products that they will sell to the next batch of unsuspecting customers that they can bullshit into buying.

One thing you missed buddies

Not everyone wants to make music on a PC.

And Not everyone has heard of Native instruments even if they do.

If you dont cultivate your existing customers and release products that take 6 months before they can be used then you will get a bad reputation and not sell anything.

this is the last message I got from you customer support

'Hello Jonathan Stancill,

The update will be released very soon.

Please excuse the delay and let me know if you have further questions.

Best regards,
Andreas Bu'

I will publish my reply here with its response!
j

 

Re: Akoustic Piano: Feels like the very first time?

Just as a matter of interest, am I the only person that's noticed the damaged max-velocity sample on E0 for the 'Concert Grand D'? (I can't find any mentions of it on the forum.) There's a 2-second chunk of silence at 6 seconds into the sample....!



All the best,

Jason[/QUOTE]


I, the starter of this thread, have been working on a preset, under Markus' guidance, that has largely resolved the issues I raised - to the best of my ability [using K2]. I have replaced that sample with one from F0 and tuned it to E0, solving the problem.
As for the update, I don't think it will be TOO much longer, but I thought that in January.

 

Thanks Phil.

JC

 

Re: Akoustic Piano: Feels like the very first time?

How did you get it to work in K2?????

Whenever I try to bring it into K2 I lose the release. Or did you edit it in K2, save it and then use the standalone player to actually play it?

Ernie

 

I posted a comment earlier about my first night's experience with Akoustik Piano. My initial impressions were bad (as you can no doubt tell from the post!). I have been playing with it more though and I've actually managed to get some really excellent results out of it (and those words are coming from a perfectionist).

I will post in more detail on my experiences later. I really haven't had enough time to form an accurate enough opinion on the various aspects yet that I want to share.

For now, I wanted to retract my initial quite hefty critisism of this instrument and steer back to neutral terirory.

Matt.

 

Ernie; Markus sent me a boxed K2. I couldn't get it to work. I have been using a downloaded interim build, only available to NI people, of the coming update of K2 that still has bugs in it but is useable. Unfortunately, the preset I made cannot be used in the old AP, otherwise it would have been made available to everyone by now, before the actual update.

Matt; I think it's bad for one's technic to even try to play such an uneven piano. Wait for the update.

 

Thanks for the reply.

I was just wondering if I missed something. I guess the waiting game continues ...

Ernie

 

I've read all those messages with great interest. Although the demo files are quite impressive (for MP3 quality) it seems that there are serious errors (flaws) in the overall performance (musical speaking). Coming from The Grand2 with the latest update I was looking for a "real" piano, but it seems that NI is just the same as Steinberg: "launch the damn thing irrespective if it is really finished" !

It looks to me as the title of the movie with Danny de Vito: "it is other people's money" and how the customer thinks and experiences the product is not our concern.

I hope that the update will be ready very soon, because I really want a better sampled Grand Piano. Or should I go to PMI [or Ivory as they mentioned here]?

Raymond

 

Biggest sonic flaw I've found in Akoustik is it is almost too close. Strange for me to say that since I've been harping on too much ambience in piano sounds but the sound can be strident at times and it sounds like your head is between the lid and the strings. I've been using it without reverb so I may go back and put in a touch. The release also seems to be a bit short but people like Olivier are working on that. Unfortunately, Olivier et al can't release a solid sustain/release resonance product until the update comes out and you can't tweak until the K2 update comes out. Bummer.

Ivory is a possible alternative, all the reviews indicate that it's quite playable. Michiel at PMI is one of the greatest people in the world but he likes a warm sound with ambience and that doesn't work for me in live settings. His Bos290 is being used by major rock groups (U2?) but it's too ambient for my taste. Having said that, I am looking at his hybrid piano's. He's been so cool that I really feel I should buy a piano from him <g>. You can download two octave demo's from their website.

Be aware that like all piano libraries, Akoustik works best with a weighted controller.

Ernie

 

Apologies for degressing, but whilst we're on the subject of flaws, I've found one with Ivory. (I don't own Ivory, but found the problem out along with the Ivory product specialist (from Ilio in the USA) who was demoing it at the Sounds Expo show in London this month.)

Quick step-over to AP: I explained to Jeff (the Ivory specialist) that besides the faults with AP being discussed here, one of my smaller complaints is the way AP's string resonance is re-introduced. For example:

Hold sustain pedal down, then play chord with string resonance (SR).... sounds lovely.... Release sustain pedal & the SR goes (which is right). If at this point you hold down the sustain pedal again, the SR comes back again (correct) BUT (IMHO) it has quite an unnatural swell-like re-introduction... it should have a bit slower build-up IMO. It can be got around a bit by turning the SR level down a little, but then the SR's sadly not so prominent with the initial chord-strike....

So, back to Ivory... I ask Jeff to 'demo' Ivory's SR to hear how its 'sound' is re-introduced on a second down-pedal, post-initial note-trigger. And you know what? (And this is the flaw in Ivory). It seems Ivory can't re-trigger string resonance AFTER the chord has been played - the sus' pedal HAS to be depressed BEFORE the played chord for the SR (for that chord) to sound......

This may sound like a small thing, but if you analyse what your right foot is doing with the sustain pedal when performing a piano piece with block-chords and sustain with each chord, it's usually normal that you release the sus' pedal & depress it again just AFTER each chord-change (so the chords' tail/start overlap a fraction). Playing in this way with Ivory (in its current version at least), the string resonance for the new chord will NOT be played..... At least that's what Jeff & I discovered at Sounds Expo, & that's quite a flaw in my book....

But hey, I may be wrong. If anyone here has Ivory, perhaps they can try it out. Jeff said he'll speak to Synthogy about it & let me know.

I guess AP isn't all bad

Cheers,

Jason

 

Sorry guys....doesn look as if it is happening soon...

Check my posts on "Update ETA " (second at the moment)

I know how you feel...I just bought it last nigth and I am very dissapointed!!!! ((

Do love the sound of it tho.

Cheers Johnny

 

Hi all,

Just spoke to some German dude from NI and I wished I could have recrded the conversation....
Looks like they dont a clue when these updates will be done. He said something about having to update/re design all there sampler engines and AP is about 3rd or 4th on the list...so he estimates anopther couple of weeks....

If any of you feel like hassleing the NI support team, feel free...they've got your (and my) money!!

Tel: Berlin - Phone: +49-30-61 10 35-0

Cheers (final post)
Johnny

 

I just couldn't resist to ay something, even if I do not have AP. But I do work in the software business...

1) This is classical exampel of bringing a software that is not ready to the market. Example: How would you react if you bought a brand new car and realized that the windscreen wipers could not be used if you have the lights on? Strangely, that kinds of errors are "allowed" when releasing software.

2) It wont help to harass the support people at NI. It will actually slow them down. As I find the NI Software I have to be rather impressive (B4), I do believe they are clever anough to know that the AP have some "unreleased potentials".

3) Many software companies would be better off setting realistic time schedules than resorting to the(in)famous "in a couple of weeks" type of schedules. Lots of us do not believe them anyway - we only get frustrated with a company that creates an impression of no control whatsoever.

--gordon

 

Here's a question

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I just recorded a CD as a conductor/arranger with an orchestra consisting of strings, woodwind, horns, soloists and piano. The repertoire is a mix between classical (with a soprano) and jazz (with a Blue Note jazz singer/jazz soloists). The orchestra (strings, harp, woodwind etc.) is real but because I was unhappy with the piano at the studio (Boesendorfer, bit too dark for my taste) I opted to everyone's surprise to use the sample from my Yamaha s90. Now, there has been a lot of critisicm regarding this sample but here's the scoop: the piano on the CD sounds much, much better then any demo I heard both from Synthogy and/or AK. I know that Yamaha used much less samples to produce their S-sample, how can this sound better? If someone wants to hear the piano I can put on some tracks at soundclick. There is one their already in a jazz-setting, but in this piece the piano is not the most important instrument. You could take listen anyway:

http://www.soundclick.com/util/getplayer.m3u?id=3617082&q=hi


P.S. also posted this in another thread but I feel it is more suited to this thread actually