Bolder Sounds Piano CD

Format : Akai/S-3000, E-MU/ESI-4000, Kurzweil/K2xxx
Review by Eric Johnson
Tuesday, February 23, 1999

I purchased the Bolder Sounds piano CD about a month ago and have been playing with it long enough to formulate my thoughts on it. In short, I am very pleased with it and would highly recommend that you consider it amongst the many choices around.

Now, more details: The disk consists of samples from a Yamaha C7 and a Steinway D. It requires 32 Megs of sample memory as a minimum. There are quite a few sample variations provided. For instance, you can have a looped FF sample, or an unlooped FF sample (and give up a few of the high notes, or low notes depending on which file you load). If you have enough sample ram you could make an entire unlooped sample. Or try the looped velocity switch sample. You are provided a nice pallete to work with.

The Yamaha FF sample is very bright and rich. When I heard it, it sounded just like I would expect a Yamaha to sound, with the thick harmonically rich bass notes in particular. I bet Dave Grusin would even like it! Very good!! The Yamaha MF sample is not quite as bright, and it is probably my favorite sample for a solo sample, it's a bit more mellow, and for me works good because it is not so bright (like I would usually put in a mix). I also liked the Yamaha for the simple reason that I don't need to EQ it to have it be noticed. It's already nice and "noticeable". Way cool!

The Steinway samples are equally as impressive and tonally wonderful! This piano is quite a bit tamer than the Yamaha, and would be more suited for solo songs or something of that nature. It's got a very sweet one that is a pleasure to play. I have a Kurzweil micropiano, and if you have heard that sample, I think this Steinway sample reminded me of it (I have never heard anyone identify the maker of the piano that is sampled in the micropiano, but to me it has a "mellow" sound like a Steinway or a Bosendorfer ...sort of). I A-B'd the Steinway sample against the micropiano to see which I preferred. It was a tough call, because I really liked them both, but the Steinway would probably get my vote.

Another thing that I really liked about both piano samples was while playing a chromatic scale across the keyboard I did not hear any discontinuities. Every keyboard I own with a piano sample seems to have a couple of these that jump out. That can be most obnoxious. Even my wonderful micropiano has a couple of places that two adjoining notes just don't seem to belong together. I think they really thought through this project and listened and listened some more, because it just sounds great.

The bottom line? I am very pleased with this piano CD. It's probably the best sampled piano I have played yet. But who am I to determine what sounds good? I just know that I like it a lot. I have been playing the piano for over 20 years (thanks mom for forcing me to take piano lessons!!!) and I know what I personally like in a piano.

OK, so there you have my thoughts on the bolder sounds piano CD. There are some audio samples at their website, check 'em out!!

Eric