Native Instruments Akoustik Piano

by Glen Heffner* - 1st January 2006 -

Let's get something out of the way first. Yes, I have heard and played the Ivory piano softsynth from Synthogy and it is indeed a wonderful instrument. It features three pianos, (while Akoustik Piano provides four), they both have effects including reverb, (but Native Instruments provides a gorgeous convolution reverb covering four different acoustic spaces, but no chorus effect). Both have good EQ control also… Suffice me to say, while both are wonderful instruments, don't think that larger libraries always mean better sounds. In this case, the Akoustik Piano library requires about fifteen gigabytes of hard disk space while Ivory requires a whopping forty-one gigabytes of space (for one less piano even). Possibly something to think about when making your final decision on "the" piano softsynth for you… Nevertheless, Native Instruments, (to be called NI here on out), have made an instrument that is just about a "toss of the coin" when you compare the two! Personally, I prefer…, well … read on to find out what great labors they have taken to make this possible.

Registration

Open the box of Akoustik Piano and like the usual high quality of NI products, you will find a manual along with the CD all packaged carefully in a cardboard insert that makes sure that nothing gets "bounced around" during shipping. Open the CD, insert it into your computer and in a few minutes, you'll be ready to go. NI requires that you authorize your software within 30 days of installation. Three options are available: do it via mail, via the internet, or on the internet with a different computer). Perhaps the easiest way is to use the Registration Tool that is inside all NI software programs. It is quick, simple and so easy to do. Just click on "Register Now" and you'll be off to the NI website where you can fill out the simple information requested. Within a few minutes, you will have an authorization number and you can actually click on "Paste from Clipboard" on the Registration Tool and it will fill in all the numbers for you! It couldn't be easier. In addition to that, NI also sends you an email with the authorization code for your records. I have a lot of NI products now and I honestly believe that this is the easiest registration process that is available.

Requirements & Supported Interfaces

The supported interfaces are the usual suspects but it is nice to see that the "Stand-alone" is becoming a standard also:
Stand-alone, VST, Audio Units, RTAS, DXi, ASIO, Core Audio & DirectSound

PC Minimum Requirements:

Pentium III/Athlon XP 1.4 GHz, 512 MB RAM, DVD Drive
250 MB for the installation (and 15 GB for the entire sound library)
A sound card compatible with Windows XP
Windows XP

PC Recommended System:

Pentium/Athlon XP 3 GHz, 1 GB RAM, DVD Drive

Mac Minimum Requirements:

Apple PowerMac G4 1.25 GHz or faster, 512 RAM, DVD Drive
Audio interface compatible with Core Audio
CoreMIDI compatible MIDI interface for connecting a MIDI keyboard or an external sequencer (only for the stand-alone version)
250 MB for the installation (and 15 GB for the entire sound library)
MacOS 10.2.6

Mac Recommended System:

Mac G5 1.8 GHZ, 1.0 GB RAM, DVD Drive
Mac OS 10.3.X

General Description

The Pianos

Piano Descriptions

While the descriptions are wonderful to read about and listen to once you've purchased Akoustik Piano, they don't do you much good before purchasing it do they! Therefore, here is a brief rundown of each piano included in Akoustik Piano:

1. Steinway Concert Grand D - NI hired the finest Model D available directly from Steinway, Hamburg. A three year old German Concert Grand D, it has been personally maintained by the Steinway professionals and its intonation and regulation were optimized for the lightest style so even with very light strokes, very controllable nuances in tone are produced. Of note, the piano was recorded at 443 Hz, (instead of the usual 440 Hz tuning), to ensure that the "singing" tonal quality was retained. The Concert Grand D is highly prized for solo piano work as well as new age, classical & jazz music.

2. Bosendorfer 290 Imperial Grand - In 1828 Ignaz Bosendorfer established himself as a master piano maker in Vienna. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, his company was connected with the Vienna musical renaissance and today remains the only company which continues to build pianos in the highly regarded Vienna fashion. Known for its amazing power, yet mellow tone and a resonance that seems to last forever, most credit these characteristics to the incredible craftsmanship and design which has allowed Bosendorfer to endure. The Imperial has the largest soundboard of any piano in production and is the only concert grand with nine sub-bass notes - down to bottom C - giving it a full 8 octave range! It is truly an incredible piano capable of producing huge sound from a whisper to a roar.

3. Bechstein D 280 Grand - The Bechstein D 280 has been one of my "dream" pianos for years. The reason why is because, I love the calm to moderate tonal sounds that it produces especially in the upper registers of the keyboard. The bass end is super smooth or as NI calls it, "velvety". This was wasn't by accident of course. Carl Bechstein, in 1853, had become somewhat disillusioned with the piano techniques of the day so he set out to design a new type of piano. He wanted one with a resonating body plus an extensive span of sound expression. While the D 280 Grand is known for its clean, thin treble and strong, smooth bass, it does produce beautiful subtle harmonic overtones which add to the tonal color and help produce the sound that simply can't be realized in any other piano. I'm not along in loving this particular piano. Artists such as The Beatles, Rick Wakeman, Elton John, Claude Debussy and Franz Liszt are/were partial to the D 280 Grand.

4. Steingraeber und Soehne Upright Piano - This is the real "surprise" of the bunch. NI has opted to include a Vintage Upright piano. Who would have expected that? I most certainly didn't, (but I'll bet that you will love it). The piano company began making pianos in 1820 in Thuringer, Germany and by 1852 had become Bavaria's largest and most important manufacturer of upright and grand pianos. The Steingraeber 130 is a vintage upright that is warm but definitely has some quirks and small imperfections in its sound, but that's what makes it so perfect for the "artist who doesn't want to follow the crowd". You can use this piano in Blues, Jazz, Country and any other of different forms of music. A few artists that have utilized the 290 are Johnny Cash and Tom Waits.

The Sounds

Native Instruments did a STUNNING job in recording ALL the samples for the pianos. In a word, the samples are "immaculate". These dazzling samples are obviously recorded for the duration of the original sound. No looping is going on here! While I did go into the actual sample list to discover that they did not record each note of the piano, (they sampled all the white notes C-D-E-F-G-A-B), it is really extraordinary because you would be hard pressed to find the original sample vs. a stretched one. This, of course, is a major factor in the difference of hard drive space required vs. Ivory which recorded every note. I should point out that NI also have a series of samples for key noise and other goodies incorporated into their interface that you'll read about shortly. I applaud NI for their prudent utilization of hard disk space because I'm no longer impressed by the old "common wisdom" that bigger sample sets automatically insure better sample sets. It isn't necessarily so.

So, how did they do it? Layer morphing technology is the buzz word from Native Instruments. In essence, they have come up with a first-rate way to "morph" from one sample to the other. So, as you play dynamically, via your own personal playing technique and style, the morphing technology moves seamlessly through the samples to provide a constant timbre and velocity slope which delivers incredibly realistic sound. I found this to be consistent across all four pianos and it truly enhances the playing experience. The emulation of the soft, sustenuto and sustain pedals also added perceptibly to this and when tweaking the sustain and release resonance, key noise, and other parameters, you can make each piano your own! With my weighted keyboard, I really felt like I was truly playing the real thing!

All four of the pianos offer tremendous sound. I found myself leaning most of the time to the Bechstein, but then I have also been a die-hard Beatles fan and this was the piano that they used the most. Each piano really sounds phenomenal and the character of each piano was so impressive that I found myself spending days instead of hours just playing with each. My personal opinion on each is below:

Steinway Concert Grand D - Real! I really felt that this piano was as close as you could get to the real thing.
Bosendorfer 290 Imperial Grand - Wow, those bottom 9 notes are HUGE! Impressive, smooth & rich, I could use this piano on almost any recording session.
Bechstein D 280 Grand - My favorite! As I mentioned above, I love the subtle tone of this instrument but it is also rich with plenty of brightness when you need it. This instrument best shows off Native Instrument's "layer morphing technology" in my opinion.
Steingraeber und Soehne Upright Piano - Quirky, fun, and most definitely the "oddball" of the bunch. Nevertheless, this instrument adds a certain charm that can't be realized with the other three pianos. Precisely why I think that NI included it in the collection! A true gem… Now, back to the facts…

The Architecture

The Acoustic Environments (Convolution Reverbs - and the "other" reverbs)

As you've already seen from looking at Photo 1, the right hand side shows 4 different rooms that the pianos can be placed in. NI used Convolution Reverbs for this. If you don't know what this is, let me just say that it is really the "state of the art" in realism in reverb. Basically, Convolution Reverbs are carefully sampled recordings of actual rooms that can then be applied to any instrument. They sound incredible but they can cause a "hit" to your computer in terms of CPU cycles. To NI's credit, they have thoughtfully included an "ECO" in the Reverb section of the Editor which will change it to a standard reverb if it is taxing your computer too much.
As mentioned earlier, the rooms that NI selected are all perfect as far as I'm concerned. A Cathedral with marble floor material, Concert Hall with Parquet (wood), Jazz Club on hardwood and a Recording Studio on linoleum make for wonderful acoustical settings. Each room is smaller than the previous one respectively with the Recording Studio being the smallest. You can also edit each of these reverbs from within the Editor to make some very good alterations to the Convolution sounds. The Convolution reverb that is included in Akoustik Piano is FIRST CLASS and truly is a major plus to this package.

The Pedals (Continuous Controller Info)

Using standard MIDI control changes the following pedals can be engaged.
Damper Pedal (CC 64): The Damper Pedal or Sustain Pedal was designed to "dampen" strings after they were played. With the pedal depressed, the damper pedal would lift off the strings so that the strings were free to sustain. Every note on the piano, with the exception of the top two octaves, is affected by the Damper Pedal.
Una Corda (CC 67): Meaning "one string" or commonly know as the "soft pedal", this pedal shifts a piano action slightly so that its hammer doesn't hit all three strings as it normally would. Obviously this softens the note(s) and changes the tone.
Sustenuto (CC 66): This is the "mysterious" middle pedal on higher quality pianos. The purpose of this pedal is to sustain any notes depressed even after the player's hand has released the note(s). To use this effectively, the player must depress the sustenuto pedal down before the player releases the note(s).

2. Select View (see Photo 1): This is the standard view that loads up when you start up Akoustik Piano

The Editor View

Piano Details Section

1. Sustain Resonance: Sustain Resonance actually controls the sustain sample resonance and release sample volume. Let me repeat this: Sustain resonance actually controls the sustain sample resonance and release sample volume! Now think about that for a minute…Are you thinking about what this implies? Native Instruments have actually provided a way for you to extend the resonance (or tone) as well as the sample volume (AFTER you've released the damper pedal). This is BRILLIANT! Any pianist knows that all incredible pianos have their own special qualities regardless of the fact that they're made on the same day at the same plant maybe by the same people. Years ago when I purchased my Steinway Grand, I flew to their plant and auditioned many different grand pianos until I found the exact one that suited me. Not only was I listening for the opening sound, but I wanted to hear what happened "after" the note. Think of the Sustain Resonance control as a way to create tonal nuances produced by the strings and body of the piano after the dampers are lifted. I would have bought Akoustik Piano for this one feature alone.

2. Release Resonance: Continuing with my high praise, the Release Resonance control performs an almost identical effect on undampened high notes, generating overtones. This control will control the intensity of the release samples and the overall volume of these tones.

3. Key Noise: Key Noise is an essential component of any real piano. The Key Noise control when centered is the sound as originally recorded. You can increase or decrease Key Noise to your liking.

4. Pedal Noise: Just like Key Noise, this control will control the volume of the Pedal Noise that you hear within the piano that you use.

5. Lid: Three positions (open, half-open and closed), are graphically provided which give three very realistic versions of how the piano would sound in that special setting.

6. Dynamic: Another graphic setting, this allows the user to adjust the difference between the lightest and hardest keystroke settings. This is also adjustable in dB's (shown inside the graphic)

The Recorder

Controls include:

1. New Document: This creates a blank template for your song. Simply type in a name for it at any time
2. Load: Load any previous songs that you've saved and best of all, you can load in standard MIDI files!
3. Save: Saves your song to the destination that you choose.
4. Export Audio: Another nice touch is that you can render the current MIDI or song to a WAV file. So, if you're working on a new idea and you really like it, just save it as a WAV file and burn it to CD.

Conclusion

So there you have it! If you're a piano player, then this should be at the top of your "Christmas Wish or After Christmas List" this year. If you're a composer, studio player or home musician, believe me, this program should still be at the top of your list. In no nonsense terms, Akoustik Piano is an astounding software package that won't let you down in any way. All four pianos are ideal choices that give a nice "spread" in terms of variation and degrees of sounds and the convolution reverbs, tonal controls and the amazing quality of the samples, especially the sustain resonance samples, put this instrument into a class all by itself.

So does it outshine the Illio Ivory? Let me put it this way, for my money, the recorder, the seamless, amazingly dynamic samples, convolution reverbs, beautiful layout and exceptional collection of controls make Akoustik Piano the winner to me. Yes, Ivory sounds great, but Ivory's choice of pianos aren't as varied as presented here and I don't think that they really quite as meticulous with their samples either, (as easily revealed when you listen to both instruments and find it nearly impossible to find out which one is using the largest amount of samples).

The ability to utilize a number of alternate tunings, seven different velocity curves, adjust pedal and key noise, three band parametric EQ and choose between three "lid positions" and four miking positions, among many other features that most importantly, are so easy to use, is a major achievement. It is about time that a softsynth allowed the musician more time to work on music instead of manipulating a plethora of controls.
When playing Akoustik Piano as a solo instrument, it simply sings. Warm, sparkling, stunningly powerful to tranquil, subtle, elusive sounds were easily coaxed out of my keyboard controller. When working within the context of music productions, the Akoustik Piano had the ability to fit into my mixes very well without taking up all the "space". All the pianos seemed to be able to retain their distinctive tonality and I didn't find myself "fighting" to keep them present in the mix. The Pan and Width controls helped immensely in this regard, but I suspect that it is the actual character of the precisely selected pianos that Native Instruments chose that made the real difference.
Seriously, you really can't go wrong with Akoustik Piano. It sounds astounding, offers superb functions that add more realism than I've ever heard in a piano softsynth before and when you couple the convolution reverbs, the recorder and the outstanding number of control features; this is the piano to beat. DON'T BE SWAYED by Gigabytes of Samples Only. Do a side by side blind test; because if you're really listening, I believe that you'll walk away with Akoustik Piano firmly tucked underneath your arm. Ten Stars! BRAVO!

* Glen Heffner is a midi specialist, keyboardist and engineer located in North Carolina, USA. He has a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano and he operates a 48 track studio. Currently he is working on an instrumental CD. You can check him out at www.majormidi.com or contact him at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .