Well, I just spent several hours that I should have spent arranging instead auditioning soft synth piano collections on the web. I found an interesting site that features MP3's of the same pianist playing the same two compositions, once on a real piano and once a MIDI instrument triggering a soft synth. When these recordings were first released, it were not identified which was which -- the point was for people to guess which is which.

To me -- and I suspect to the majority of users on this list -- the difference between the real and sampled versions was instantly obvious in both cases. My non-musician girlfriend said she had trouble telling the difference, but she still guessed right in both instances. But a lot of people on the thread (presumably all of them pianists of some sort, or at least interested enough in grand piano sample libraries to participate on a forum about them) seem to have guessed wrong! The creator of the sample library also makes all sorts of outrageous claims like:

"We finally came to the point that we can honestly say that we have come so close to a real sampled grand piano that you can fool even the most acomplished concert pianist with our samples. "

Which, in my experience, is utter B.S. Don't get me wrong, these samples are pretty good -- the best I've heard so far, in fact. When I get my new Mac, I think I will probably get a software sampler and this piano collection, unless someone points me to something even better. But the idea that you could fool even a relatively inexperienced pianist or even a sensitive lay listener with these samples seems laughable to me.

But hey, go and have a listen for yourself -- the thread is here:

http://www.northernsounds.com/cgi-bin/ ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=3;t=004373;p=

Or just skip straight to the MP3s:

You Needed Me Take 1:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~mpost/demos/Sound%207%20you%20needed%20me.mp3

You Needed Me Take 2:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~mpost/demos/Sound%207%20you%20needed%20me%202.mp3

Psalm 145 Take 1:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~mpost/demos/psalm%20145.mp3

Psalm 145 Take 2:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~mpost/demos/psalm145%202.mp3

... and then click here for the answer:

http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/ ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=3;t=004373;p=4

(Scroll down to Michiel Post's post.)

- Darcy

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I don't know why
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But heaven knows we try
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Let's drop the Big One and see what happens

- Randy Newman, "Political Science"

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