Regarding the piano...

[Synthoid]

Just thought I would ask everyone this question and see where things go from here.

[cnegrad]

Piano and Rhodes have always been my instruments of choice.

[yamaha135]

ditto... with the addition of an organ

[mikee72]

~80% of my music has piano in it. It's a cornerstone of my music.

[Diego]

I'm a pianist, so I use my keyboard for solo-piano performance performance, too.
It's very very important for me a good piano, ep, rhodes and organ sound.

regards

[Synthoid]

Wow....I thought we would have more "strictly electronic" musicians participating.

[chordial]

I compose and play almost all my stuff on the piano patch (combi000), even if it ends up as something else.

Cheers

[GregC]

I am still inspired by timeless classical piano pieces.

The piano might be the most perfect musical instrument invented.

No filters or ring modulators needed for the acoustic piano.

[Sharp]

I guess nearly everything I sequence uses a Piano, but I wouldn’t mind that Cheeseburger right now

Regareds.
Sharp.

[Stephen]

I have used piano extensively, but since I am not a pianist, and can't play what I hear, the way I hear it, most of the time, and cnegrad lives too far away, to hire him, I'm using it less, and reverting more to the guitar.
Stephen

[SLR]

I rarely get to go near my keyboard let alone a piano as I'm always on the web finding out how others are doing it ! and NOT actually doing it myself

I am not a pianist either but if I had to choose a sound that does it for me, it'd be a Rhodes. When I do write (or try to, before the web distracts me), it's normally around the Rhodes' sound.

[Lorenzo]

Piano RULES! I'll never stop studying it
Lorenzo

[Timo]

I voted "It's nice once in awhile...", but in truth to me it's much closer to being crucial, but I don't use it every track, so didn't think I could vote that entirely. Although I don't use it in every track (more, say, about a half to two-thirds of my own tracks), I could NOT live without the piano sound.

About the "I do strictly electronic music....no piano." option:- I think Piano is an instrument, if indeed the only(!) instrument (ok, maybe possibly guitar too, at a push), that can transgress any genre and still not sound a jot out of place - even on the hardest of hardcore electronic music.
It's a very powerful instrument, but at the same time beautfully subtle with much variation and expression, and sounds great in absolutely any context.

Still understated since its incarnation, and never tiring.
Yet it's so complex, that it's almost un-emulatable (without sampling!).

Although not the only element of my music, it IS, however, my favourite instrument.

[JohnnyAardvark]

It's a very powerful instrument, but at the same time beautfully subtle with much variation and expression

Hence Piano Forte...


I also voted "It's nice once in a while...", but I often use piano (or guitar) when coming up with ideas or writing songs.

Sioux recently posted this article.

Jarre Hybrid interviews - (Hybrid link has now changed)

I remember a comment mentioned in the Hybrid interview about composing on Guitar before moving onto more complex arrangments. I agree with the idea that if all the lights go you can still perform.

I guess the same is true for a piano providing you have a "real one" laying around!

I do like purely synthetic stuff though and get quite a bit of inspiration from creating new sounds.

Regards,

Steve

[olivio]

I always try to find a melody with Combi (000). I always start with the piano and add more sounds afterwards. It seems to me that I find my way and get something concrete through it. I have a work basis.