This is my favourite pianoforte.
So there are a few pianos and electric pianos on iOS/iPadOS, and I have some of them. Not the most expensive out there, but I have listened to some renditions on the most expensive. On first hearing this CMP piano downloaded, it seemed unremarkable. However, adding the necessary reverb and the tiniest sliver of echo/delay really livened it up. I always have to add some of Apple’s GarageBand initial compressor, because it has a slider to amp-up the dB on it, on most Audio Units.
The standard limiter in your DAW, then at the end of the FX chain, the EQ to add ‘air’ and remove the lowest rumble of sub-60Hz, and it’s really very good.
Right at the beginning of course, there’s the ability to alter the velocity curve in the app, which helps because my 61-key MIDI controller/keyboard is average in that department.
These are my ways of setting-up this pianoforte to succeed. Once you have this sort of essential respect given to the overall tone and ambience your instrument is playing in, it is amazing how much the underlying sound qualities come through.
I moved on to setting up a preset in ‘mixbox cs’ to fulfil some of the FX needs, but GB’s standard track compressor and EQ, leave you just needing reverb. The main reason for using an all-in-one FX is not the sound quality but because a preset can be saved, allowing multiple drop-ins in other tracks easily accomplished, at precisely the same settings ie you can try several pianos, confident the playing-field is level.
But that’s all done once, and except for shortening the reverb ‘tail’ if playing faster, or similar tweaks to accommodate particular playing, it’s set then. How CMP piano comes across now, is that it really is able to deliver nuances of playing, true pianoforte, that I cannot normally get out of my keyboard. My experience tells me two things usually create this result: a fast response of the app to the MIDI incoming data; and somehow the sounds are gradated to actually have the expressiveness there, waiting to be brought out.
That’s why it’s my favourite. It’s warmer, and more nuanced, and sounds ‘smoother’ somehow, is my impression overall. But most of all it actually does pianissimo and fortissimo, making it five stars.
The standard limiter in your DAW, then at the end of the FX chain, the EQ to add ‘air’ and remove the lowest rumble of sub-60Hz, and it’s really very good.
Right at the beginning of course, there’s the ability to alter the velocity curve in the app, which helps because my 61-key MIDI controller/keyboard is average in that department.
These are my ways of setting-up this pianoforte to succeed. Once you have this sort of essential respect given to the overall tone and ambience your instrument is playing in, it is amazing how much the underlying sound qualities come through.
I moved on to setting up a preset in ‘mixbox cs’ to fulfil some of the FX needs, but GB’s standard track compressor and EQ, leave you just needing reverb. The main reason for using an all-in-one FX is not the sound quality but because a preset can be saved, allowing multiple drop-ins in other tracks easily accomplished, at precisely the same settings ie you can try several pianos, confident the playing-field is level.
But that’s all done once, and except for shortening the reverb ‘tail’ if playing faster, or similar tweaks to accommodate particular playing, it’s set then. How CMP piano comes across now, is that it really is able to deliver nuances of playing, true pianoforte, that I cannot normally get out of my keyboard. My experience tells me two things usually create this result: a fast response of the app to the MIDI incoming data; and somehow the sounds are gradated to actually have the expressiveness there, waiting to be brought out.
That’s why it’s my favourite. It’s warmer, and more nuanced, and sounds ‘smoother’ somehow, is my impression overall. But most of all it actually does pianissimo and fortissimo, making it five stars.
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