Prosonus Grand Piano | SoundsAndGear.com

Today I'm checking out a single instrument from Big Fish Audio. The Prosonus Grand Piano. My reason for doing so is because it comes in akai format, and since Native Instruments Maschine now imports akai format, I wanted to test it out on a native akai library. So let's check it out.

What is the Prosonus Grand Piano?

It is a sample Steinway grand piano, optimized for use in digital samplers.  This library comes from the days when a piano wasn't multiple gigabytes in size. The largest patch in this library is 128mb, may not sound large, but don't let that fool you.   Remember many keyboard workstations don't even come with a gig of sample rom. So size isn't always equal to quality In addition to the 128mb patch, you get the same piano in 64mb, 32mb, and 16mb, each size comes with more/less detail, with 128 being the most detailed.

How does it sound?
It actually sounds pretty good, in a day and age when physically modeled and extensively samples pianos are the norm, this well sampled, well programmed library can stand with the best of them. You get more detailed instruments depending on which program you load.  The 16mb is sampled in major thirds and 1 velocity level, the 32mb patch is major thirds in 2 velocities, 64mb patch comes in with whole steps in 2 velocities, while the 128mb patch is sampled in half steps in 2 velocities. I know what you're thinking...only two velocity levels?  Trust me, it still sounds great. The tone is clean, ready for your own reverb or other processing.  This is an example of the great sampling and programming companies had to do when memory was more of a luxury than a commodity.


What's the bottom line?

The bottom line is it's a solid, good sounding piano.  

My main goal was to test the akai format in Native Instruments Maschine, so anyone looking for a plug and play way to expand the stock piano sounds in Maschine should definitely check this out. The price is right, the size is right, and the sound is nice. I gave this a 4 out of 5 subs. I think it stands it's own ground in a world of gigantic multilayer piano libraries. If you don't feel like loading up a 2 gig piano patch, check out the Prosonus Grand Piano over at Big Fish: Prosonus Grand Piano