Thought I'd share my opinion on the EXS2 Grand Piano. I have a Performance Diploma in Piano, so am a competent amateur-pianist (I also compose for Theatre, TV and other projects in Ireland).
Anyway, I'm nearing completion of a piano composition for the play "Oleanna" to run in The Mill theatre in Dublin. I decided to compose this on one of my piano sample libraries because the piece will be replayed as a recording at the beginning of the play, during the interval and at the end.
Having attempted performing some sketches using various EastWest and NI piano libraries, none sounded convincing as piano performances when listening back solo.
But - EXS2 on OASYS has truly shone. I've been sketching, composing and scoring on the ESX2 for over a week, using very nice Sennheiser HD650 headphones, keeping the volume of the OASYS at no more than about 3 (of 10) and to my utter satisfaction, I'm finding it to be truly top notch - and - loving playing it.
While I've always respected this piano, I felt originally it was not quite naturally pianistic enough for standard classical-based piano playing; but having lived with it for a week ( from 3 - 10 hours on various days); I have to say, I have fallen in love with it.
I realise much of that is just getting used to it - but - to me, it truly is delivering. I find it neutral and uncoloured - perhaps initially a bit of a turn off or why some feel it a little cold - but this has allowed me to approach my composition from a balanced perspective, and allowed for much more honest pianisitic performances. No matter what I try to do with the EastWest pianos, they sound (to me) either too coloured, or their dynamics just don't sound quite right on my various weighted keyboards (OASYS, K2500XS, DX1 and P1500 Clavinova). And - the recordings sound very natural and realistic.
Anyway, felt worth posting as I have found a new modus operandi for piano compositions; am loving EXS2 and felt it worth sharing.
I'll aim to post the composition on Soundcloud in a week or so when complete (pending permission from the director!) and hopefully it will convey the natural pianistic nature of this perhaps under-rated sample pack on OASYS / Kronos
EXS2 Grand Piano - loving it.
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Kevin Nolan
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Kevin Nolan
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I've just completed piano music commissioned for a production of David Mamet's play "Oleanna" showing in Nov. 2013 in Dublin, which I composed and performed on the OASYS EXs2. Hope you enjoy it, and agree the EXs2 delivers a convincing piano performance.
Here's the link to Soundcloud:
https://soundcloud.com/knect/oleanna
Kevin.
Here's the link to Soundcloud:
https://soundcloud.com/knect/oleanna
Kevin.
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Kevin Nolan
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Thank you!
Interesting you should ask that - I own a Jupiter 80. I have struggled significantly with it over the past year - it lay against the wall of my studio for 6-7 months and I contemplated selling it (I have never sold any of my equipment so that would have been a first).
A major issue for me is that you can really only use the instrument at the Registration level, where one registration is 4 layers, with two of those being Livesets of four synth tones each, and each synth tone equivalent to three synthesisers of one oscillator per voice.
Overall - outrageously complicated to edit (and I hugely depend on programming my own sounds). To boot, virtually none of the 100+ Registrations and 2000+ Livesets supplied with the instrument do anything for.
But - I gave the instrument a lot of thought and have figured out a way to use to - I'm currently creating a set of Registration templates at various levels of complexity, from just one partial in one synth tone, upwards and outwards. So, if I want to use the instrument and edit it in any particular way I just need to choose the correct template as a starting point and off I go.
There are many other issues - as in - virtually all of the JP80s surface controls are pointless - most especially all of those gorgeous looking illuminated buttons - I'll never use them and they may as well not exist. What a waste of effort and what a pointless control surface.
So the JP80 is an enigma to me - I just do not 'get' its design and see it as overly elaborate, confused, non-optimal and utterly frustrating at all levels. That said - it sounds absolutely gorgeous. Cello, a former OASYS owner and huge advocate of the JP80 on Rolandclan forum, has produced some beautiful pieces of music that demonstrate the JP80s depth and beauty (and indeed Cello has been hugely helpful to me in getting to grips with the JP80). So finally I'm getting used to the JP80, and figuring out a way to use it.
All of that said, for this particular theatre production - I've delivered three other variations of parts of the full piano piece pointed to above, tempered and tailored to usage in the play, and all three of those produced pieces are indeed from the JP80! So it's the JP80 versions that are actually being heard in the theatre.
Overall, I find ESX2 to be valuably and cleverly uncoloured, unbiased and neutral in tone and dynamics to deliver a balanced and convincing (virtually) true 'piano' performance - and its sound is big - as you can hear in the bass end in the latter stages of the piece. It really is a sound one can be convinced by.
The JP80 Piano is more curious to me. Playing the supernatural piano on the JP80 keyboard is the first problem - it just doesn't feel like a piano (and it's not connected into my main set up yet so playing though the OASYS keyboard was not an option on this job). Conversely, one can tell that, however Roland do it in 'supernatural synthesis' that the fluidity of tone across the keyboard, and sheer smoothness of dynamics are far more natural and advanced than a sample only piano. Once you start to play / improvise on the JP80 piano, and edit the sound to your own desire, it is something beautiful and special - I adore the sound for sure.
But I also find it more difficult to achieve a convincing piano recording from the JP80. At mp to pp dynamics, the relationship between the JP80 keyboard the Supernatural piano sound is incorrect - it's too muted - and nothing I could do could correct it (I spent several hours at this). So it was challenging to play the keyboard to get a convincing mp dynamic from it and as a result I'm personally not impressed with the end result so far. The director of the play liked it however - I think he liked the overall more processed sound compared to the more raw and natural ESX2 sound, and hence why the JP80 was used for the versions used during the play itself.
So its a mixed picture for me w.r.t the JP80 Supernatural Piano. Within the confines of the sound, the supernatural acoustic engines delivers utterly smooth and transparent gradations from base to treble and across the dynamics of the sound; it provides excellent edit parameters; but ultimately any recordings from it are (currently) unconvincing to me because the keyboard (although great for synth sounds) is not adequate for piano playing, the sound is perhaps too processed and the dynamic response of the sound to the JP80 keyboard is wrong, especially at lighter dynamic levels.
Finally, I will say that the actual synth engine is exquisite. I have edited it a lot at the single synth tone level - 1 to 3 partials - to get a feel for the various parameters; and to me its oscillator waves are excellent, while the offer of about 300 PCM samples, many from the JD800 (I know the JD800 inside out) make the JP80 synth absolutely wonderful, capable of delivering a huge range of sounds from the Virus to the Nord Wave/JD800.
Most important of all - its filters are very good indeed. The various filter types are ver characteful. But overall, the 'filter package' and 'envelope package' in the JP80 synth engine are first rate and are significantly undervalued. You can get strong, sharp, punchy sounds from this synth; and you can get soaring rich, luscious textures that are simply out of this world. And with the capacity to layer up to about 26-27 tones (however frustrating to actually program
), the possibilities are nevertheless endless. Properly programmed and with proper MIDI CC controller set up, this thing can give the likes of Omnispehre (in all its multifaceted capability) a true run for its money. I just adore filter sweeps on the JP80, with or without resonance, and I begrudgingly admit its a far truer 'synth' than the likes of AL-1 (which I love as well!).
Sorry for such a long answer but your one question prodded many current thoughts and experiments through this job; a job which was particularly interesting and thought provoking because composing for piano is, apart from general compositional consideration, also intimately interconnected with ones own performance capabilities and 'keyboard gestural approach', and that is of course radically affected by the piano keyboard and sound at ones disposal; and for this job, the OASYS and JP80 were used (the budget just not allowing for studio time with a real grand piano).
To me, the JP80 should have been released in a 88 weight note version too - I just feel that all of its piano and electric piano tones would be hugely served by that. But as said, its piano engine is highly sophisticated and I have high hopes for exploiting it earn I integrate it into my studio eventually.
Kevin.
Interesting you should ask that - I own a Jupiter 80. I have struggled significantly with it over the past year - it lay against the wall of my studio for 6-7 months and I contemplated selling it (I have never sold any of my equipment so that would have been a first).
A major issue for me is that you can really only use the instrument at the Registration level, where one registration is 4 layers, with two of those being Livesets of four synth tones each, and each synth tone equivalent to three synthesisers of one oscillator per voice.
Overall - outrageously complicated to edit (and I hugely depend on programming my own sounds). To boot, virtually none of the 100+ Registrations and 2000+ Livesets supplied with the instrument do anything for.
But - I gave the instrument a lot of thought and have figured out a way to use to - I'm currently creating a set of Registration templates at various levels of complexity, from just one partial in one synth tone, upwards and outwards. So, if I want to use the instrument and edit it in any particular way I just need to choose the correct template as a starting point and off I go.
There are many other issues - as in - virtually all of the JP80s surface controls are pointless - most especially all of those gorgeous looking illuminated buttons - I'll never use them and they may as well not exist. What a waste of effort and what a pointless control surface.
So the JP80 is an enigma to me - I just do not 'get' its design and see it as overly elaborate, confused, non-optimal and utterly frustrating at all levels. That said - it sounds absolutely gorgeous. Cello, a former OASYS owner and huge advocate of the JP80 on Rolandclan forum, has produced some beautiful pieces of music that demonstrate the JP80s depth and beauty (and indeed Cello has been hugely helpful to me in getting to grips with the JP80). So finally I'm getting used to the JP80, and figuring out a way to use it.
All of that said, for this particular theatre production - I've delivered three other variations of parts of the full piano piece pointed to above, tempered and tailored to usage in the play, and all three of those produced pieces are indeed from the JP80! So it's the JP80 versions that are actually being heard in the theatre.
Overall, I find ESX2 to be valuably and cleverly uncoloured, unbiased and neutral in tone and dynamics to deliver a balanced and convincing (virtually) true 'piano' performance - and its sound is big - as you can hear in the bass end in the latter stages of the piece. It really is a sound one can be convinced by.
The JP80 Piano is more curious to me. Playing the supernatural piano on the JP80 keyboard is the first problem - it just doesn't feel like a piano (and it's not connected into my main set up yet so playing though the OASYS keyboard was not an option on this job). Conversely, one can tell that, however Roland do it in 'supernatural synthesis' that the fluidity of tone across the keyboard, and sheer smoothness of dynamics are far more natural and advanced than a sample only piano. Once you start to play / improvise on the JP80 piano, and edit the sound to your own desire, it is something beautiful and special - I adore the sound for sure.
But I also find it more difficult to achieve a convincing piano recording from the JP80. At mp to pp dynamics, the relationship between the JP80 keyboard the Supernatural piano sound is incorrect - it's too muted - and nothing I could do could correct it (I spent several hours at this). So it was challenging to play the keyboard to get a convincing mp dynamic from it and as a result I'm personally not impressed with the end result so far. The director of the play liked it however - I think he liked the overall more processed sound compared to the more raw and natural ESX2 sound, and hence why the JP80 was used for the versions used during the play itself.
So its a mixed picture for me w.r.t the JP80 Supernatural Piano. Within the confines of the sound, the supernatural acoustic engines delivers utterly smooth and transparent gradations from base to treble and across the dynamics of the sound; it provides excellent edit parameters; but ultimately any recordings from it are (currently) unconvincing to me because the keyboard (although great for synth sounds) is not adequate for piano playing, the sound is perhaps too processed and the dynamic response of the sound to the JP80 keyboard is wrong, especially at lighter dynamic levels.
Finally, I will say that the actual synth engine is exquisite. I have edited it a lot at the single synth tone level - 1 to 3 partials - to get a feel for the various parameters; and to me its oscillator waves are excellent, while the offer of about 300 PCM samples, many from the JD800 (I know the JD800 inside out) make the JP80 synth absolutely wonderful, capable of delivering a huge range of sounds from the Virus to the Nord Wave/JD800.
Most important of all - its filters are very good indeed. The various filter types are ver characteful. But overall, the 'filter package' and 'envelope package' in the JP80 synth engine are first rate and are significantly undervalued. You can get strong, sharp, punchy sounds from this synth; and you can get soaring rich, luscious textures that are simply out of this world. And with the capacity to layer up to about 26-27 tones (however frustrating to actually program
), the possibilities are nevertheless endless. Properly programmed and with proper MIDI CC controller set up, this thing can give the likes of Omnispehre (in all its multifaceted capability) a true run for its money. I just adore filter sweeps on the JP80, with or without resonance, and I begrudgingly admit its a far truer 'synth' than the likes of AL-1 (which I love as well!).Sorry for such a long answer but your one question prodded many current thoughts and experiments through this job; a job which was particularly interesting and thought provoking because composing for piano is, apart from general compositional consideration, also intimately interconnected with ones own performance capabilities and 'keyboard gestural approach', and that is of course radically affected by the piano keyboard and sound at ones disposal; and for this job, the OASYS and JP80 were used (the budget just not allowing for studio time with a real grand piano).
To me, the JP80 should have been released in a 88 weight note version too - I just feel that all of its piano and electric piano tones would be hugely served by that. But as said, its piano engine is highly sophisticated and I have high hopes for exploiting it earn I integrate it into my studio eventually.
Kevin.
Cong Kevin for that work, wish i could attend...
I agree about Oasys, so good instrument for music production.
I have a piano piece too with the Exs-2 piano here, i hope to enjoy it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDN2GrXch20
I agree about Oasys, so good instrument for music production.
I have a piano piece too with the Exs-2 piano here, i hope to enjoy it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDN2GrXch20
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Absolutely wonderful!Kevin Nolan wrote:I've just completed piano music commissioned for a production of David Mamet's play "Oleanna" showing in Nov. 2013 in Dublin, which I composed and performed on the OASYS EXs2. Hope you enjoy it, and agree the EXs2 delivers a convincing piano performance.
Here's the link to Soundcloud:
https://soundcloud.com/knect/oleanna
Kevin.