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Only in my opinion..

Reubens pianos are just fine lot of work went into them he did a good job..
You should try them . think it is a Yamaha c5 ,, I would like to try a Yamaha C7 .

After playing his piano's in comparing them to the Rom or Factory pianos. I went back to the factory pianos and now I have peace of mind I was trying all kinds of samples from other people. And wasted more time looking for the best piano sound I could get,

I should have been just playing.

98% of the people that listen to me and I ask can I hear a difference in the pianos ..most said ,no, and when I play restaurants or bars no one there cares if I'm playing a steinway or a Casio..
Yeah I'm looking for a piano sound to do a gigantic concert action use a different set of keyboard..

Korg wants to sell keyboards so they put the best in that they can do I'm sure it's all about the money...
If you EQ the piano different yo get it brighter sound or a more dull sound depends on what you like.

All new piano sounds at first sound new and fresh and exciting but after a little time they turn out to be just average..

And ask would they be an improvement on say 4x Italian piano , I would say no the factory does the best but it will sound different you should try them good luck have fun most of all make music

once again this is my oh pinion I've been wrong before..

A spilt beer into a piano is as bad as into an arranger! But it often takes longer for the issues to show up when the wood swells and sticks down the road!

Install Reuben’s patches, nothing to loose, plenty to gain.

IMO they are much better than the Italian Grand

taichi wrote:....
However I have been thinking about Reubens pianos, would they be an improvement on say 4x Italian piano ? Some like Harry say that Reubens are his go to pianos. Would appreciate your views on this plus some instructions on how to download and install Reubens pianos please.

Thanks

I agree with Harry as well. Reuben's piano has a very acoustic quality. Factory pianos are a massive upgrade from the Pa800/2x days. I like them and use them for pop/light jazz...etc...but for anything with a classical twist I go back to his soundset. I'm just drawn to it when I'm going for that type of sound. I find it more inspiring for that type of music.

Thanks all for replies. Duby 2. Your post has said exactly what I have been thinking for ages, I have spent time on stuff when I could have been playing songs. Well done for the reminder. My new Mantra now is “Just keep playing songs”. That’s what I bought the keyboards for in the first place.

However “Out Of The Box” settings are not good. Korg 1 gave me his Maxx Master EQ settings and they transformed the sound of my Pa4X. (My “out of the box” settings were not even turned on). Plus now I am playing around with MENU /Master Effects / Track Controls / Mixer Tuning. But just learning.

Biggles, Sam I will get back to you on Reubens Pianos, thanks. “Just keep playing songs” yes, but it will only work if we get rid of “Out of The Box” settings. Until then no amount of downloads will sound great will they ??? Is this why so many Korg new owners are disappointed ?? Surely they want to play from the start not read manuals. Another thing to consider when purchasing a new keyboard.

Thanks

taichi wrote: Biggles, Sam I will get back to you on Reubens Pianos, thanks. “Just keep playing songs” yes, but it will only work if we get rid of “Out of The Box” settings. Until then no amount of downloads will sound great will they ??? Is this why so many Korg new owners are disappointed ?? Surely they want to play from the start not read manuals. Another thing to consider when purchasing a new keyboard.

Thanks

I don't know about that. Do we know for fact many new owners are disappointed? I wouldn't make such an assumption. For one thing many new owners could be total beginners. Weak playing skills can make anything sound terrible regardless. A skilled performer can absolutely make a factory sound shine. Unless you post 2 demos ...one of factory and one with new user settings, so we can compare them side by side, there isn't a whole lot to say about the subject. It would be like trying to review some food without actually eating the food type of thing.

Even with real acoustic pianos there are contrasting tastes and opinions. Same thing with advanced sample libraries.

Rubens Piano Set is great. But in terms of the factory / preset piano sounds a number of factors can make a difference first the global Eq settings, and then the individual Eq of the sound. Sometimes tweaking the cutoff can make a difference.

Thanks Native Angels regarding the “cut off settings”. I found a video of this by Korg Gurus and it explained all. Another video by Korg Gurus covered “release”. They were excellent, simply explained.

Duby 2 was spot on, just keep playing and adjust the sounds. Reubens pianos are great, love them. Plus I have some of his Midi files converted to styles, really good. So thanks Reuben. This has been a good OP for me, learnt a lot.

Thanks all

I still think that most acoustic piano sample sets are TOO perfect, too ‘in tune’, too well intonated. Take a listen to any classic pop, jazz, rock, you name it. It’s rare to find a piano that is completely perfect. There’s always a note here and there that isn’t as in tune as the rest. Wolf notes that ring out a bit too much or don’t ring out enough!

A piano is a living, breathing piece of mechanical complexity, and age and treatment makes them ALL a bit different. Sadly, I feel all too many sampled pianos lose that character in an effort to be ‘perfect’. I don’t know about you, but ‘perfect’ is the last thing I want if I want realism!

No, I don’t want completely beat up and clapped out (although that has its place!), but I wish more sample makers were willing to let the character survive the sampling process. I’ve got an old piano set for my K2500 taken from the upright that was in Motown’s studio, and they didn’t spend too much time tuning it to perfection. To this day, despite the limited RAM size of it, it sits in tracks and is utterly convincing that it is ‘real’.

The reality is (or was before sampled pianos) that it was rare for a studio piano to be perfect, and even a freshly tuned one would have spots that weren’t perfect after a couple of takes.

You want to sound ‘real’? Stop trying to sound ‘perfect’!

Korghelper wrote:I still think that most acoustic piano sample sets are TOO perfect, too ‘in tune’, too well intonated. Take a listen to any classic pop, jazz, rock, you name it. It’s rare to find a piano that is completely perfect. There’s always a note here and there that isn’t as in tune as the rest. Wolf notes that ring out a bit too much or don’t ring out enough!

A piano is a living, breathing piece of mechanical complexity, and age and treatment makes them ALL a bit different. Sadly, I feel all too many sampled pianos lose that character in an effort to be ‘perfect’. I don’t know about you, but ‘perfect’ is the last thing I want if I want realism!

No, I don’t want completely beat up and clapped out (although that has its place!), but I wish more sample makers were willing to let the character survive the sampling process. I’ve got an old piano set for my K2500 taken from the upright that was in Motown’s studio, and they didn’t spend too much time tuning it to perfection. To this day, despite the limited RAM size of it, it sits in tracks and is utterly convincing that it is ‘real’.

The reality is (or was before sampled pianos) that it was rare for a studio piano to be perfect, and even a freshly tuned one would have spots that weren’t perfect after a couple of takes.

You want to sound ‘real’? Stop trying to sound ‘perfect’!

Thanks Korghelper for a really helpful post. “Sound real not perfect” I can relate to that having had upright pianos from an early age. Maybe that is what I was looking for in my OP ??? A real sounding piano. Yes it was and your post has swung it for me. Keep playing as Duby 2 said and sound real not perfect.

The upright that was in Motown Studio`s is very interesting. Hearing lots from Motown here in the UK at the moment as a way of helping people through Covid and saying how music stimulates the brain more than anything else.

PS The spilt beer was a bit of humour, love my upright and do my best with humidity and away from radiators and hot sun. Getting a piano tuner at the moment is impossible due to Covid.

Thanks all for replying

Great posts. Yea, I can relate to imperfect pianos alright. Time was, you'd turn up at a gig and you got whatever old piano happened to be there. Some were just fit for the knacker's yard. Anyway, with the depth of tweaking on our boards now, it surely can't be too difficult to build a bit of 'character' into your favoured pianos.

I would say that most of the pianos have the stretched tuning. You can easily hear it when playing the pianos. I hear this even on the PA700 I have.

I happen to like Reuben's pianos because they sound rich and are much more bright than the stock ones on the PA700.

When you try to adjust the high EQ on the piano sounds, you can hear unnatural artifacts when adjusting it. You can hear almost a metallic sound because you are unnaturally trying to make it brighter and it will not translate well.

I tried to do all sorts of things to the stock piano sounds, even the RX Demo sound, on the PA700. They did not turn out well. Even the 'Bright Grand' was too dull-sounding and upping the high EQ only brought in the unnatural artifacts I mentioned above.

That is why I loaded in Reuben's piano sounds. They were detailed and had the brightness where it needed to be. There are no adjustments to be made, other than a bigger Reverb (if that is your thing - it is my thing). The sample set is from a Yamaha C5.

Say what we will about Yamaha's synths/arrangers/etc..., but they get pianos right. They've been making them for over 125 years. That says something.

I would also load a Kawai piano sample in, if I could, because I really like Kawai's piano sound.

I have played some fantastic pianos of all price ranges. I have also played on some clunkers. The piano I had when I was taking lessons was an old Pre-WWII spinet piano from Wurlitzer. It had its quirks as well, and my parents still have it at their home. I started lessons when I was 7 and I am 50 now.

I remember the sound of that thing and how we did our best to keep it in tune. Mostly, it was.

Now that I am where I am in my career and life, I expect to play pianos that are in tune and sound good. I also expect my piano sounds on my keyboards to be the same.

What I do though is find a piano sound that sounds good to ME and I run with it. I have some custom piano sounds I have created on my Korg Kross 1 that sound GREAT. I use them live and they cut through the mix but are not overly bright to where the sound hurts. I also layer a lot with other synth sounds/pads/strings, so there is that to figure in.

For studio work and solo piano recording, I will certainly use my Lowrey/Kawai digital piano over everything else. For arrangements and such, I will use the Yamaha C5 piano in the PA700 because it sounds great that way.

The Kronos has great pianos on it. So does the PA4X. I believe that the PA1000 has other piano samples than the PA700 does and I hear they sound good.

I am from the school where it is the player that really makes the sound. Sure, a great piano sound is preferred, but I have played on $100 Casio keyboards and made them sound good because of my technique. I am not trying to brag by any means. It is like with guitars. A true talented guitar player can make a $50 yard sale guitar sound pretty good because of the technique of the player, not necessarily the guitar...

Find something close to your liking, make adjustments, and let the music flow through you

Grace,
Harry

Not the best piano sound,but factory piano sounds ok in gennerall.
Only problem i ever had was that while it sounded ok at home,it didn't sound nice on live gigs.
For that reason i tweaked it a bit,along with my Maxxaudio settings,and now it sounds great on any stage,plus i don't have to use any external samples.
Really fat low and i don't lose the pianobody anymore while giging,but still in the mix,and i can tell i am happy with it,i also tested it in various recordings,it sounds really good.

There are two demos in the link bellow, one uses the factory sound,and the other is the tweaked one.The bright one is the tweaked one.

You can find it on my site here : https://pasongstyles.com/item/ivory-sz- ... korg-pa4x/

Hi Harry, thanks for your post. I hear and respect every paragraph that you write, as I always do. Some good stuff there for us all. Other posts here have opened up a discussion about pianos in general, really pleased about that. Keyboards, uprights, pianos from the past “be real not perfect”. Thanks all.

Just one thing, Reverb that you mentioned. The manual for pa700, 1000 and 4X shows many settings for Reverb. Menu – Master Effects – FXB – Drop Down Menu – choose. I have chosen O Verb as a test but there are so many. Lots to learn, one day at a time. Will be different settings for each instrument I suppose ??

Keep playing yes, keep it natural and learn the “BASICS” from the manual and this forum. That is where I am at the moment. Well done all, thanks.

Hi Harry, thanks for your post. I hear and respect every paragraph that you write, as I always do. Some good stuff there for us all. Other posts here have opened up a discussion about pianos in general, really pleased about that. Keyboards, uprights, pianos from the past “be real not perfect”. Thanks all.

Just one thing, Reverb that you mentioned. The manual for pa700, 1000 and 4X shows many settings for Reverb. Menu – Master Effects – FXB – Drop Down Menu – choose. I have chosen O Verb as a test but there are so many. Lots to learn, one day at a time. Will be different settings for each instrument I suppose ??

Keep playing yes, keep it natural and learn the “BASICS” from the manual and this forum. That is where I am at the moment. Well done all, thanks.