A piano lover's delight! 
by Bill Drendel from Saint Louis, MO, USA, August 2007
Music Background:  Aspiring classical pianist

I have the latest version of Akoustik Piano running as a standalone on a Dell PC running Windows XP Media Center Edition at 3.2GHz, with 2GB of RAM. My MIDI keyboard is an 88-key piano action Kurzweil PC2X. I use a Creative Labs ASIO driver with my Creative Labs Audigy II ZS sound card set at about 10ms latency. I had to turn off certain programs that were running in the background to avoid crackles. The above setup is giving me absolutely gorgeous grand piano sound! To be completely satisfied I had to tweak the parameters on the factory presets, but that's very easy to do with the program's interface. The results is at least 3 fabulous sounding grands--Steinway D, Bosendorfer, and Bechstein (I rarely use the included upright). As I have never used them, I can't comment on the other major software pianos out there--Ivory or the upcoming Garritan-Steinway collaboration, or Quantum Leap Pianos. I suspect they'll all be quite good too, but I do highly recommend the Akoustik Piano. It's very affordable, easy to use, and sounds fantastic, at least for my purposes, which is primarily classical piano, especially Rachmaninoff.

  Decent for recording, not good for live 
by Chris Plante from Amesbury. MA USA, August 2007
Music Background:  Professional musician, live shows, film scoring

I was expecting a seriously good sound out of Native Instruments based on their awesome B4 II. I must say I was disapointed. It isnt very effecient with the CPU on my computer. And the sound has that distant, slightly muffed, fake piano sound to it coming out of an amplifier. Listening with headphones is a different experience, and I assume it will be good for recording, but for live shows it really doesnt cut through guitar bass and drums. I had to go back to my Roland JV1080 for the 64 voice piano which has all the punchyness you need. I am still searching for a better piano sound.

  The best out there, with a grain of salt 
by BK from Wash, DC, February 2007
Music Background:  composer, pianist, music director

With the choice of 4 different pianos, the incredibly flexible and extensive settings, and the smooth interface, Akoustik Piano is probably the best software piano on the market right now. I'd buy it just for the simulated Steinway -- I can't imagine a virtual piano responding any better. If you read message boards, you'll notice that v1.0 of AP was a big mess; thankfully, v1.1 fixed just about all the big problems and added some really fantastic presets (even some with enhanced overtones). Great sounding stuff.

However, keep in mind that a virtual piano will never be a replacement for a real piano. As long as you don't enter the market with any misconceptions, you'll have few complaints with AP.

  "This is it" 
by David anthony from NYC.NY, September 2006
Music Background:  Mix Engineer/Producer/Remixer

For that Old Piano feel . this works very well. The grand Piano also Rocks Punchy clean ... Like your right there.. R&B HipHop Replays get that real earthy sounds with the Upright. Secrests out this is it.

  Great software Piano 
by Steven Hickman from Nashville, TN, August 2006
Music Background:  Pro musician

I'm using the current version 1.1 R2 of Akoustik Piano. I'm playing it from two different PC's, one a 3GHz Pentium D and the other a 2.4GHz Pentium both with one Gig of RAM running Windows XP Home. I use Akoustik Piano both as stand alone and in V-Stack. Based on my experences over the last month or so, I'm a little surprised by some of the other reviewer's comments. Akoustik Piano works flawlessly in both of my computers. All three grand pianos sound better than I expected. I do wish that they had included samples of a Yamaha C7. I've never used Ivory but I have used many other sampled pianos including PMI pianos, East-West, Giga, etc. and digital pianos from Yamaha and Roland. This is by far the best sampled piano I've ever used. I don't use the included reverb or EQ perfering Waves and Altiverb, but they do sound good and work perfectly as well. I've never heard a snap, crackle, or pop and it's never crashed. I wrote this review because after reading the other reviews I felt that other potential buyers would benefit from hearing the opinion of a pro musician who has had an excellent experience with Akoustik Piano. I don't hesitate to recommend it highly.

Great deal great sound. 
by Matt Johnson from Wallingford, VT, October 2005

They all sound really good. I really like that they threw in the upright, it produces a vintage sound that has a lot of character. I've tried the Bechstien the least. I feel like who ever purchases this is getting more then what they paid for. I've been playing a lot more now that the piano's have so much personality. It really feels a lot better to play then I expected. Great job Native Instruments!

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