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Arturia introduces the Augmented Grand Piano plugin for “outside-the-box” piano sounds


satya

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Not trying to be cynical, but I have Arturia Piano V that you can layer with any other synth in Analog Lab in a 2-part layer. I have NI Noire and The Giant, which both have some "augmented" pianos that are quite nice.

And also the free 1928 Steinway piano in Soundpaint that you can morph with another sound, such as anything from the Free Angels or Free ASMR libraries. Some great piano pads to be explored in there! Plus now that you can drag and drop your own samples into Soundpaint, the creative possibilities become endless. And Soundpaint also has a decent on-board FX section. So the morphing and FX can only be limited by your imagination.

So I'm wondering if this is really worth $49 for me to crossgrade to Augmented Piano. Augmenting a piano is not really that difficult if you have some cool sounds to layer it with, and some reverbs to finish off with.

So just asking for a friend... do we really need this? :)

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7 hours ago, abacab said:

So just asking for a friend... do we really need this? :)

For me it was only 29 euro - and I like Arturia as a company - the products are good and upgrades a reasonable price.

They tend to credit you with any extra purchases you've made when/if you upgrade a bundle so I'm happy to give them some money

LOTS (most?) companies don't seem to do this (NI, I'm looking at you!)

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6 hours ago, simon said:

For me it was only 29 euro - and I like Arturia as a company - the products are good and upgrades a reasonable price.

They tend to credit you with any extra purchases you've made when/if you upgrade a bundle so I'm happy to give them some money

LOTS (most?) companies don't seem to do this (NI, I'm looking at you!)

I have most of Arturia's instruments, and a KeyLab MkII controller. Totally an Arturia fan!

Let me rephrase my question... would I need this even if it was free? Will it be useful to me in a way that other things are not? I have the full Augmented Strings and find that unique.

It's not a financial decision for me. Actually I'm trying to scale down the number of tools (toys) on hand to a palette of essentials in order to avoid unnecessary distractions. Duplication is distracting for me, and more options doesn't equal more productivity, at least for me. I probably need to avoid the deals forum for a year or so! Not just to protect my wallet, but for my sanity! ?

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13 minutes ago, abacab said:

would I need this even if it was free?

once you open that door where will it end ? :)  

Before you know it you will just select a reduced and great working subset of all the plugins you own,  which will streamline your workflow..... then really focus on making some great music instead of worrying about missing out stuff you don't really want and will never use.  That sounds awful and goes against everything this forum stands for.

Seriously, I quite like it but it's going to get used once, on one track, that I could have used another random VSTi on.   It's sounds lovely but really not an 'essential' plugin IMO

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6 minutes ago, simon said:

then really focus on making some great music instead of worrying about missing out stuff you don't really want and will never use.  That sounds awful and goes against everything this forum stands for.

I guess it's not really GAS that keeps pulling me back in here, it's more like FOMO.

There might actually be something here really new & unique that I DO NEED!!! ?

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2-3 weeks ago I spontaneously wondered if MSoundFactory's Meldaway Grand could be tweaked to do per-note, velocity-responsive pre-paired modifications.  I need to teach myself more about how to do deep sound development with MSF.  So far, I have just learned some basics.  One idea is to simulate a ping-pong ball on two adjacent sets of string that bounce differently based on velocity, including bouncing inside the piano's structure. Other ideas include simulating a set of keys on a key ring.

Maybe other prepared pianos like the ones mention already have macros that can do these kinds of things?   

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24 minutes ago, User 905133 said:

Maybe other prepared pianos like the ones mention already have macros that can do these kinds of things?   

Interesting question. Prepared pianos are typically prepared by human hands before a piano is sampled with microphones. The results are a "prepared" sample library.

Simulating these effects with macros could allow you to blend in the dry samples with the prepared ones. AFAIK using algorithms to simulate them would be more like physical modeling, although not aware of any pianos that are currently capable of this in real-time. I might be wrong, and if I am surely someone will point it out.

The NI Noire piano has a pure grand piano and a "prepared" felt grand piano library, as well as a "particles engine". https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/keys/noire/

"Use the innovative particles engine to automatically generate clouds of pulsating, swirling harmonic elements based on what you play. The particles engine instantly adds motion to your playing and pushes you to explore new possibilities."

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1 hour ago, Fleer said:

I think the Augmented Grand Piano is an interesting alternative for Noire, as it also combines a regular with a felt version, albeit a Steinway D (while Noire’s is a Yamaha grand if I’m not mistaken). 

I think Noire sounds much better - if I had to pick one it would be Noire.

 

 

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I downloaded the demo and I really like this.   I also have a demo of the voices and own the strings.  

I own the V8 but my favorite Arturia synths right now are Pigments and the Augmented series.  There are some good things in the V Collection but these are more the kinds of thing I like to make finished pieces with.

It's $99 for me now, but why buy when I can play with fully functional demos?  Augmented Piano seems like  a sure bet for V collection 10, so I will wait until that comes out and goes on sale.   

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