Grand 3 Pianos vs Halion Pianos

Hello,
I have both the original verson of Halion and The Grand which no longer works on my new PC with W764. That being said I am going to upgrade to H4 and was curious if one feels it is worth to upgrade to the Grand 3 being I will have H4 audio library of pianos?

Come on no one uses the Grand and Halion in this forum?

Ok I give I a trial, but it isn’t easy. The answer is “It depends”.

There are some very nice pianos in HALION SONIC, the YAMAHA S90ES is my first choice when ever I start, but I think you get around 30 acoustic pianos to chose from, and some of them are very good. There might be even more piano sounds in H4 that I do not know.

But if you go for something more like a classical grand piano style, nothing compares to The Grand 3. In one way or another the depth is much more pronounced, and HS seems a little flat in comparison. It is difficult to describe, but easy to hear.

Personally for my work, I might not have purchased TG3 if I had HS first, but now that have it, I love it. And even when I have decided a piano from HS, I always have to try how it sounds with TG3, just for fun.

I do not know the original The Grand, but I have a version of The Grand SE (which I think was based on The Grand), which was the reason that I bought TG3. And TG3 is even better than The Grand SE.

It is all about money. If you can afford it get the TG3, if not, live with HS or H4 and you will not be disappointed. But maybe you should try listening to some of the demos on the Steinbergs website.

Best regard Egebjerg

Yeah im a ~Grand 3 fan. Had it a little while now and i have to say i love it. It’s bloody convincing. Its just got such a beautiful sound, its actually astounding at times, you can just kind of picture the most beautiful of instruments as you play.

I have to admit i was surprised a little while back when there was a guy on the gear sluts forum looking for the best piano for film scores n stuff,… anyhow i entered the grand 3 into the conversation and it didn’t get much of a reaction. It wasnt up there kind of thing. For me though this was wrong.

It just sounds great and i dont think many people outhere, who are looking for realism, would be unhappy with what this thing can do.

Thank you for the heads up! I bet you are spot on regarding the quality of that software verses numerous piano patches in H3. I think I will get it, heck it is only a money!

I have both HALion 4 and the Grand 3 and which you would choose depends on your purpose.

Playing the Grand 3 provides a warm and natural sounding piano experience. I also have Ivory II and Galaxy Pianos as well as Pianoteq and the Grand 3 pianos are among the best with high detail and lots of options. I’ve heard other premium sampled Steinways sound about as good, but the Yamaha model in Grand 3 is the best virtual Yamaha piano I’ve heard yet.

HALion provides very good high quality piano samples, but there are not nearly as many samples nor controls and so the sound isn’t as rich as Grand 3 pianos. How I use the pianos in HALion is for combining them with other great things like E pianos, pads, etc. The HALion 4 pianos combine very well and you can brighten them to give more presence and they won’t sound thin and tinny.

For studio recording, I use the Grand 3 Yamaha and Steinway as my lead solo piano instruments, and HALion pianos for rich-sounding piano multi instrument combos.

This was my first impression too. The C7 is particularly good in TG3. I found that I did not like the Steinway in player mode but in close mode it’s very nice. Overall it’s a great package and I’m also surprised that it isn’t more widely appreciated.

I too considered buying HAL4 instead, but the capability of turning down/off the damper pedal is well worth TG3 for me.

It’s true, TG3 doesn’t get near the praise it deserves, all you hear about in the forums, esp. GS, these days is Ivory. Somehow, from the Ivory samples I’ve listened to, Grand3 sounds more brilliant while Ivory is a little darker, and a bit less agressive even at the same velocities.

What amuses me is that EWQL, Native Instruments, Steinberg/Yamaha, Sampletekk, and Synthogy are all sampling those same three grands. More amusing still is that you see all these braggarts out there with all of the above (not speaking to searlstudio :wink: ), but it would seem you would choose the best library with these pianos then move on to the other bazillion instead of buying the same product merely sampled by a different company. :mrgreen: