Why does the Grandeur piano sound exactly the same as my midi playback in Sibelius?

gggeflat@hotmail.com
gggeflat@hotmail.com Member Posts: 4 Newcomer
edited October 2024 in Kontakt

Hello all,

Long time composer, new to the world of VSTs. A while ago, I purchased the Grandeur with the hope to incorporate it into Sibelius. I have been working with it all day, thinking Sibelius was not interfacing properly with Kontakt Player because the sound product quality was similar to my computer's General Midi player. The sound was not nearly as crisp or realistic as the demos on the product page.

At first, I thought it was because Sibelius simply was not using Kontakt Player, but I tried some of the other free vsts that came with Kontakt and the playback instrumentation changed with that. I also was able to change the timbre in the piano playback by adjusting the tone color, the lid lift, and the recording space by manipulating those options in Kontakt Player.

Could there be some element to my soundcard that limits what Grandeur can do or am I perhaps missing something in Sibelius? Sorry if I'm missing something incredibly obvious.

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Answers

  • Jeremy_NI
    Jeremy_NI Customer Care Posts: 13,856 mod

    Hey @gggeflat@hotmail.com Have you tried in Kontakt in standalone? Could it be this setting? I Hear an Unexpected Piano Sound when Playing my MIDI Keyboard (Windows)

  • gggeflat@hotmail.com
    gggeflat@hotmail.com Member Posts: 4 Newcomer

    No, I don't think so. I'm not using a MIDI keyboard and my Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth is set to off.

  • stephen24
    stephen24 Member Posts: 433 Pro
    1. Is there any sound coming from your piano? (meter in instrument header)
    2. Is there sound coming from some other source? (mute the piano instrument and listen)
  • gggeflat@hotmail.com
    gggeflat@hotmail.com Member Posts: 4 Newcomer

    I'm sorry, but I don't understand what you're referring to.

  • stephen24
    stephen24 Member Posts: 433 Pro

    How to find out whether the sound you hear is coming (solely or indeed at all) from your instrument.

    You may need to look up "instrument header" in the manual.

  • reffahcs
    reffahcs Member Posts: 874 Guru
    edited December 2023

    I don't think they're using an instrument at all stephen. After looking up Sibelius, I'm guessing they're just writing music in the program and wanting to play it back through Grandeur

    @gggeflat@hotmail.com can you confirm this assumption is correct? In which case it's how to make Grandeur sound "better"?

    What are you using for speakers to listen to the audio? Have you tried using headphones at all?

  • gggeflat@hotmail.com
    gggeflat@hotmail.com Member Posts: 4 Newcomer

    @reffahcs You are 100% correct- sorry for the confusion. I am writing a piano score in Sibelius and when I try to play it in Sibelius with Grandeur as the selected instrument, it sounds no different than the regular MIDI output my computer does and nothing like the quality of sound I've heard in Grandeur demos. I can tell the two are interfacing, because I can manipulate the tone controls in Kontakt Player and that does change the tone of what is played.

    I have been using my monitor speakers and I just tried headphones and there was no difference. It still sounds no different from a generic MIDI playback.

    Long story short, even though Kontakt Player and Grandeur appear to be interfacing, I don't think I'm getting Grandeur's sound because it still sounds exactly like normal computer MIDI output.

  • stephen24
    stephen24 Member Posts: 433 Pro

    If tweaking Kontakt changes the sound, it seems pretty likely that both Grandeur and some other synth are being triggered. If you try the 2 simple tests I suggested, you can find out for certain what's going on. All Kontakt instruments have an instrument header, which includes a volume meter and a mute button. Both relate only to the Kontakt instrument itself.

    https://www.native-instruments.com/ni-tech-manuals/kontakt-player-manual/en/the-rack-multi-instrument-mode

    If you confirm this, you'll have to dig into Sibelius to turn off the other synth, whatever it is, and perhaps turn up the volume of the Grandeur (slider, also in the instrument header).

  • reffahcs
    reffahcs Member Posts: 874 Guru
    Answer ✓
    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/120727#Comment_120727

    I think stephen maybe correct, there appears to be many things you have to change.

    I've never used Sibelius before, but I found this tutorial on YouTube on how to setup Kontakt with it. Might be worth a watch, perhaps there is a step you missed? There seems to be a lot of places where you have to make changes for it to use Kontakt.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02P5SixAhmw


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