Synthogy Ivory v1.5 Concert Grand Piano Plug-In

[jdjustice]

Does anyone here have any experience with this plug-in?? There is no demo allowed, and I think I want to purchase it but it would be nice to get a little feedback.

Yes I know that a real Bosendorfer and a Yamaha C7 sound much better when they are real but I cannot afford one (don't even have the space for it)..

Thanks in advance,

J.D.

[ptbarnum]

i use ivory all the time. in my opinion, it sounds fantastic. very stable and there are tons of velocity layers..very sensitive to your playing. the only drawback is that the library is huge, you almost need a harddrive dedicated to just ivory.
i say go for it.

[jdjustice]

thanks for the reply. that restored some confidence in my decision to purchase it...


cheers,

J.D.

[jdjustice]

bump

[timjames]

ivories is very good... the c7 sounds fantastic... the bosendorfer doesn't hold a candle to the mach five stock bosendorfer... the steinway is passable but it has a little " kurzweil 2500 piano expansion" sound to it.... i use it and again this is one opinion coming from someone who doesn't enjoy tweaking it.

[Dr.Wu]

I like it a lot.
Its one of the few plug ins that sound like a real instrument.
Theres a lot to tweak for a piano and i really like the pad feature that adds some nice padsound to the piano.
Perfect tool for composing!

[theblotted]

my go-to sample piano.

[gsilbers]

sounds awsome.

u can also only instal one of the pianos and save around 24 gigs of HD space.. i have the yamaha piano only which is ore than enough.

you migtht also consider going for the akustik piano from NI. i like it better, just bypass the presets though. it has cool features and i think it has demo.

[Football]

Ivory is pretty amazing, especially the Yamaha.

[theother]

Originally Posted by timjames

ivories is very good... the c7 sounds fantastic... the bosendorfer doesn't hold a candle to the mach five stock bosendorfer... the steinway is passable but it has a little " kurzweil 2500 piano expansion" sound to it.... i use it and again this is one opinion coming from someone who doesn't enjoy tweaking it.

...and I absolutley LOVE the Ivory Boesendorfer. I had almost every sample piano on the market and the Ivory Boesendorfer is the only one I'd use instead of a real one.

It's awesome! Ivory really raised the level for all sample based pianos. I also liked the EW Boesendorfer 250 but it had too much room for my taste so I sold it again.

[ajfarber]

I use Ivory all the time for commercials and TV scores. I would only use a real piano for a record date.
The Steinway D sample is the best one for me.

I don't bother with the YAMAHA. I avoid real ones anyhow. I like Stienway, Mason&Hamlin, Bechstein and Grotrian pianos. Some Baldwins can be good too. The Yamaha is bright and brassy but doesn't have much richness. The Bosendorfer is a rich man's Yamaha.

Just my opinion, I'm full of Sh#t anyway.

Ivory is the best FAKE piano out there for now.

[stereotype]

It's the best I've used short of the real thing. I've been a working pianist/keyboardist live and in the studio for over 30 years. There are some studios that I use Ivory instead of the real piano they have. I also keep it in my Powerbook for use on stage. I tried the NI Akoustic piano and hated it. I don't mean disliked........I mean HATED! There was another called "The Grand"; it was a joke. I also own the Bardstown piano samples for Kontakt and found them to be tolerable sounding in lieu of anythng better at the time; just not really dynamic.

There are great adjustments for velocity and control, but it is however VERY subject to what you're using as a keyboard controller. For instance, it plays better from some keyboards than others. My M-Audio Keystation does an ok job. My Motiff (with wieghted keys) does better. An older Korg I have with weighted keys though does terrible. Of course, YMMV greatly on this.

Make sure you pay attention to system requirements and they;re realtion to whatever software you may being running in conjuction. It's about all my Powerbook 867 can do to run just Ivory as a VST through the Rax vst player software, although that seems to work best of what I have tried. And while I can run several other host applications like Pro Tools, Diigtal Performer or Cubase, adding Ivory to those will choke it down. On the other hand, this is only from the internal drive and considering that the internal pwerbook drive is only 5400 RPMs, that's really not too bad. On my 3Ghz P4 and streaming from a dedicated drive for samples, it does great.

[jayman]

ajfarber,

Did you have to mention Grotrian and Bechstein? I've been happy with my Yamaha C7 for the last year and I successfully put the Grotrian and Bechstein (especially the Grot) out of my mind until you brought them up! Alas, my C7 will have to do for now. Steingraber is another killer most guys don't know about.... have you played one of those before?

Ivory is great by the way. Use it all the time. Buy it.

j

[elambo]

Originally Posted by ptbarnum

the only drawback is that the library is huge, you almost need a harddrive dedicated to just ivory.
i say go for it.

Very true. I did just that - a dedicated drive for any streaming samples like Ivory, BFD, Symphony Orchestra, Kontakt - and it runs very smoothly. Never any problems with Ivory, as long as your machine can handle it. I have to say that it was very CPU hungy at first but the newer updates seem to have smoothed it out. No problems anymore. You can always limit the number of velocity levels it uses and turn off other CPU-intensive options. That helps too.

But the sound is fantastic. Play it with a nice weighted keyboard and good monitors and it's really close to the real deal. At a savings of over a few hundred thousand $$ it's a no brainer.

[ajfarber]

Originally Posted by jayman

ajfarber,

Did you have to mention Grotrian and Bechstein? I've been happy with my Yamaha C7 for the last year and I successfully put the Grotrian and Bechstein (especially the Grot) out of my mind until you brought them up! Alas, my C7 will have to do for now. Steingraber is another killer most guys don't know about.... have you played one of those before?

Ivory is great by the way. Use it all the time. Buy it.

j

Naturally your C7 will do for now. I didn't mean to talk sh#t about Yamaha pianos. They are quality instruments, and are always reliable in concert and recording situations. I just happen to prefer a darker piano with a more complex tone. Yamaha and Bosendorfer tend to be more pure in tone and therefore more generic.

Some people prefer this. Oscar Peterson plays Bosendorfer and so does Chick Corea. Herbie Hancock digs the FAZIOLI, an instrument I forgot to mention before. I've played one. They're to my mind a cross between a Bosendorfer and a Bluthner.

But who doesn't dig Steinway?

[jayman]

Naaaa, I didn't take it that way. In a round about way, I was just admiring Grotrians and Bechsteins. Most guys don't even know about these pianos and they're rarely mentioned in this forum. They are truly remarkable and if anyone has a chance to play one, they should.

j

[jdjustice]

bump.....

I wanted to ask, are there any latency issues associated with running Ivory? And do you absolutely need an external HD? I have a 2GHz iMac G5 with 2GB SDRAM memory and a 400GB Hard Drive; should this be sufficient?

I want to run Ivory in Pro Tools LE 7.1.

Thanks in advance!

[reid]

One potentially serious issue with Ivory is if you want to use multiple instances of the plug - whenever I tried to run 2 or more instances in Logic, it would inevitably fall over.
Synthology do nothing to make users aware of this fact, but if you query it with their support team, you get the following answer:

Problems with multiple instantiations in the same session is a known
issue. At this time, Ivory does not work well when instantiated more
than once in the same host. The developers of Ivory are aware of this,
and it may be addressed at some point in a future version of Ivory, but
there is no time-frame in place.

One thing you can try is to reload the keyset, this seems to restore
audio in some instances.

The best workaround would be to 'freeze' one Ivory track before adding
another. In Logic Pro just click the Freeze button on the track in the
Arrange page. This will convert to file to audio and allow you to run
multiple Ivory tracks. If you want to edit the track later, simply
'un-freeze' the track.

As to latency & seperate discs; personally I run Ivory from an external FW800 drive, with no issues. Latency buffer set to medlium - nothing noticeable there either. It's a great piano plug; barring the multiple instance issue I think you can buy with confidence.

[papiel]

Ivory is great. OLD LADY piano is even better!
(you can get it for 50$ at http://www.postpiano.com/ )

[Jan Folkson]

The Steinway and Yamaha sounds a very good. The Bosendorfer is so-so. It needs a lot of computer though.

[Football]

Just for a completely opposite opinion, I own both Ivory and Old Lady.

I think Ivory is far superior (For Me) and I regret buying Old Lady.

[MattiMattMatt]

Originally Posted by ajfarber

Naturally your C7 will do for now. I didn't mean to talk sh#t about Yamaha pianos. They are quality instruments, and are always reliable in concert and recording situations. I just happen to prefer a darker piano with a more complex tone. Yamaha and Bosendorfer tend to be more pure in tone and therefore more generic.

Some people prefer this. Oscar Peterson plays Bosendorfer and so does Chick Corea. Herbie Hancock digs the FAZIOLI, an instrument I forgot to mention before. I've played one. They're to my mind a cross between a Bosendorfer and a Bluthner.

But who doesn't dig Steinway?

I have a fairly serious piano background and am familiar with these different instruments.

I prefer Steinway.

The Yamaha is great and has a more "pop" vibe to it than the Steinway.

A great piano technician (actually, a great piano voicer, regulator, and action guy) can give that extra sparkle to a Steinway so it's the best of both worlds.

The Bosendorfers, Bluthners, Faziolis, Bechstiens --- they're more "European" and are extremely well made but less - it's hard to articulate - less down and dirty than the Steinway. The Steinway has more of an edge to it, it's more like a responsive sports car than a squishy-riding luxury car, its dynamic range is more immediately available. It's like the Steinway just responds immediately to everything you want to do. The pianos whose names start with B have this even beautiful sound and action, but everything is kind of pastorale and comparitively muted somehow. Perfect for French piano music, but you just can't drive them like you can drive a Steinway.

Given the choice between performing on a Bosendorfer, the "rolls royce" of pianos or a Steinway, I'd always choose the Steinway. Most pianists feel the same way. I know of a few concert halls at least in the U.S. that have Bosendorfers as well as Steinways for any visiting artist to play, and pianists almost invariably choose the Steinways.

For some reason, the very best yamahas I've come across are in recording studios where the studio keeps them in great condition.

-matt

[Mind-Over-Midi]

Originally Posted by timjames

ivories is very good... the c7 sounds fantastic... the bosendorfer doesn't hold a candle to the mach five stock bosendorfer... the steinway is passable but it has a little " kurzweil 2500 piano expansion" sound to it.... i use it and again this is one opinion coming from someone who doesn't enjoy tweaking it.

It's funny how we all hear things differently. I'm 180 degrees opposite. I have Ivory and Mach 5 and after comparing the Mach 5 Bosendofer to the Ivory Bosendofer I haven't even thought about using the Mach 5 one since.

[Tone Laborer]

Do any of you run Ivory with DKFHS?