Opinions on Alesis NanoPiano
Gary Hollis
Has anybody used one - What did you think about it????
dsg5
I have a QS8, never tried the NanoPiano . . . but if its pianos sound like
the QS8, I can't say very much for it. I like the other sounds (excellent
organs) but the pianos sound hollow, especially in the midrange.
If its piano you want, look elsewhere . . .
Good luck,
--dsg
Gary Hollis <gho...@iamerica.net> wrote in article
<6dp319$kq5$1...@news1.iamerica.net>...
pTooner
Well, I tried one. It sounds like one of those toy pianos where the
pianos hit little bars. The decay is way too fast and the sustain is
too short - come to think of it, it sounds like a Yamaha piano. IMO,
and I do know something about pianos if not synths, Roland has by far
the best piano samples out there.
Gerry
Gary Hollis wrote:
> Has anybody used one - What did you think about it????
--
邢 唷��
GraceNoteX
I didn't find that much useable difference in the piano voices in the NanoPiano
and the NanoSynth. For the difference in price, I just couldn't see buying a
box that was not multi-timbral and had so many fewer patches, so I bought the
NanoSynth.
For piano samples, I really didn't like either one as much as the Kurzweil
MicroPiano or the Ensoniq MR76(now ZR76). I own both of those as well as the
Alesis, and I always find a piano voicing in one of the 2 that I preffer over
the Alesis.
But it's all personal taste. It's just a matter of what sounds better to me.
There is nothing fundamentally or structurally wrong with the NanoPiano. And
dollar for dollar, I got fewer patches and effects in the Kurzweil than I would
have in the Alesis. I just like the sound of the Kurzweil better (and a lot of
people don't agree).
Regards,
Dan
Marzzz
>>For piano samples, I really didn't like either one as much as the Kurzweil
MicroPiano or the Ensoniq MR76(now ZR76). I own both of those as well as the
Alesis, and I always find a piano voicing in one of the 2 that I preffer over
the Alesis.
But it's all personal taste. It's just a matter of what sounds better to me.
There is nothing fundamentally or structurally wrong with the NanoPiano. And
dollar for dollar, I got fewer patches and effects in the Kurzweil than I would
have in the Alesis. I just like the sound of the Kurzweil better (and a lot of
people don't agree). <<
I also much preferred the Kurzweil Micropiano to the Alesis Nanopiano- the
Nanopiano had a very short sustain, and held notes tended to sound kind of
"synthy." I almost went with the Kurzweil, but got the chance to play the new
Korg SG-Rack....and found it far superior with regards to polyphony, tone,
dynamics, effects, and realism of the piano sounds. Of course the Korg piece is
not perfect, but it allows a more natural playing style than the other piano
modules....definitely try one before you make a final purchasing decision.
DaveBryce9
<<I didn't find that much useable difference in the piano voices in the
NanoPiano
and the NanoSynth.>>
The NanoPiano's piano sample is almost the same size as the entire ROM of the
nanoSynth. The nS piano is mono, while the nP is stereo.
I'm very surprised to see these negative reactions to the nP - it sells
amazingly well. We just did a blind listening test to see which piano samples
are going in the DG8 (our new digital piano). A bunch of the samples were
brand new, some of them were other manufacturer's samples, and we threw the
QS8/nP Bosendorfer in there as well. We had a bunch of pretty great players
from the LA area come in; and, the Bosendorfer was consistently in the top
three. Just goes to show that everyone has different ears...
dB
Alesis
Gregg Humphrey
Gary Hollis wrote:
> Has anybody used one - What did you think about it????
Haven't tried the Nano, but you should try a Kurzweil MicroPiano before
you buy anything .... it has a pretty decent group of piano sounds, and
you can pick them up fairly cheap (under $300).
good luck,
Gregg
Adam Levin
GraceNoteX <grace...@aol.com> wrote:
> I didn't find that much useable difference in the piano voices in the NanoPiano
> box that was not multi-timbral and had so many fewer patches, so I bought the
> NanoSynth.
Erm, the NP is the same synth engine as the NS and the QS series --
they're all multitimbral synths.
> For piano samples, I really didn't like either one as much as the Kurzweil
> MicroPiano or the Ensoniq MR76(now ZR76). I own both of those as well as the
> Alesis, and I always find a piano voicing in one of the 2 that I preffer over
> the Alesis.
Just the facts: the Alesis piano sample is stereo and almost 7MB while
the Kurz is mono and (IIRC) around 4MB. The most important thing is
to *listen* to all of them and decide which works best for *you*, as
you mention below.
> But it's all personal taste. It's just a matter of what sounds better to me.
> There is nothing fundamentally or structurally wrong with the NanoPiano. And
> dollar for dollar, I got fewer patches and effects in the Kurzweil than I would
> have in the Alesis. I just like the sound of the Kurzweil better (and a lot of
> people don't agree).
Take care,
-Adam
--
Rutherford, NJ USA Free speech online! _/ Cuius testiculos habes,
http://zen.advance.net/~alevin/________/ habeas cardia et cerebellum.
<*> __________________________/ Or, "When you've got their full attention
-O / in your grip, their heart and mind will follow."
DaveBryce9
<<Erm, the NP is the same synth engine as the NS and the QS series --
they're all multitimbral synths.>>
While it is true that the nano modules use the same engine as the QS series,
the nanoPiano is *not* multitimbral, nor is the nanoBass. The nanoSynth is the
only nano module that can do more than one channel
<<Just the facts: the Alesis piano sample is stereo and almost 7MB while
the Kurz is mono and (IIRC) around 4MB. >>
Not so. The MicroPiano and PC88's piano samples are less than 1.3 meg, I
believe. There is a 4 meg version of that sample, but to the best of my
knowledge, it's only available on the daughter board for the K2500. Also, the
4 meg version is stereo.
<< The most important thing is
to *listen* to all of them and decide which works best for *you*, as
you mention below.>>
Fully agreed.
dB
Alesis
Reinard van Loo
DaveBryce9 wrote:
> <<Just the facts: the Alesis piano sample is stereo and almost 7MB while
> the Kurz is mono and (IIRC) around 4MB. >>
> Not so. The MicroPiano and PC88's piano samples are less than 1.3 meg, I
> believe. There is a 4 meg version of that sample, but to the best of my
> knowledge, it's only available on the daughter board for the K2500. Also, the
> 4 meg version is stereo.
>
sorry, but how much memory is used to store a piano sound is absolutely *not*
interesting.
Korg used 8 Mbyte uncompressed to store an absolutely terrible piano. With terrible
I mean 'not sampled with love for the piano sound', it just doesn't feel right.
Kurzweil uses a very high compression technique (If I remember well, 'instead of
30Meg it costed us 2 meg' someone?) to store their piano samples (legacy of the
Kurzweil 250...), so 1.3 meg doesn't seem much, but actually is a hell of a lot
more. (imagine what the 4Meg version for the K2500 must be...) Plus they sampled
the piano with love to the sound, which can be heard. (ok, bias here, I have the
micropiano...) For a taste how the PC88/Micropiano can sound live, listen to Bonie
Raitt's CD 'Road proven', track 13 ('I can't make you love me'). Bruce Hornsby
plays the PC88. ahhh.....
I also have the SO-PCM04 grand piano card of Roland. 1 Meg compressed (so
actually 2 Meg), but very well sampled. Liked it, but Kurzweil piano sound is much
better; more character. The Roland piano on the session-board and in the RD-600 and
A90ex use more memory and are really good *because* sampled with care. They are,
however, a bit too 'slick' for my taste.
Notice that Yamaha doesn't even advertise (at least, I haven't heard it..) with
the size of ROM in their P-series pianos. Also like that sound very much. p50
module sucks, because sustain phase of sounds is very dull, static.
Oh yeah, 'I like a sound'='it plays well for the music I make' (ballads, soul,
funk, musical, solo stuff) One thing that the MicroPiano cannot be used for is
Rock'n Roll and house... For that I use the standard piano in my JV880. More
'bite', can be heard in a mix. And that piano sound uses less than 400 Kbytes.
(very rough estimate...)
> << The most important thing is
> to *listen* to all of them and decide which works best for *you*, as
> you mention below.>>
> Fully agreed.
>
and that's it. Listen to them, and see if the sound is appropriate for the music
you (want to) make.
---Reinard
DaveBryce9
<<Plus they sampled
the piano with love to the sound, which can be heard.>>
I do not believe that Kurzweil are not the only people who have "love to the
sound". We take extraordinary care in sampling and voicing our pianos. If
Kurzweil has so much love, why haven't they done a PC88/Micropiano II with the
bigger, stereo version on board? Perhaps the $$$ thing is outweighing the
love...
<<Bruce Hornsby plays the PC88. ahhh.....>>
Very nice. So do a lot of other folks. Meanwhile, Oscar Peterson, Suzanne
Ciani, Keith Emerson, Tom Schumann (Spyrogyra), Leon Russell and both of
Whitney Houston's keyboard players (among others) use our piano sound. The
point is not that ours is "better", just that there are some pretty talented
keyboardists who like both machines.
dB
Alesis
Reinard van Loo
DaveBryce9 wrote:
> <<Plus they sampled
> the piano with love to the sound, which can be heard.>>
>
> I do not believe that Kurzweil are not the only people who have "love to the
> sound".
:-) I said Roland and Yamaha did also...
> We take extraordinary care in sampling and voicing our pianos.
I wouldn't expect anything else...
> If
> Kurzweil has so much love, why haven't they done a PC88/Micropiano II with the
> bigger, stereo version on board? Perhaps the $$$ thing is outweighing the
> love...
>
I don't know, but that's about love for the *customer*; not the musicallity of the
person(s) that did the sampling/sound creation.
> <<Bruce Hornsby plays the PC88. ahhh.....>>
> Very nice.
I didn't say the PC88 is good because Bruce plays it... I said that to hear how
the PC88 can sound you should listen to that song in which -accidentally- Bruce
played the PC88.
> So do a lot of other folks. Meanwhile, Oscar Peterson, Suzanne
> Ciani, Keith Emerson, Tom Schumann (Spyrogyra), Leon Russell and both of
> Whitney Houston's keyboard players (among others) use our piano sound. The
> point is not that ours is "better", just that there are some pretty talented
> keyboardists who like both machines.
>
duh....
---Reinard