Q&A with the creators of Noire, Claire, and the new Claire: Avant piano

Kaiwan_NI

Meet the Galaxy Instruments team – the minds behind Noire, Claire, and our latest experimental piano, Claire: Avant.

The avant-garde Claire

Not just another piano in our catalog – Claire: Avant takes the grand piano into bold, experimental territory. Recorded with the lid off, it captures raw textures, whispers, and resonances that most plugins smooth over. Think brushed tones, damped una corda, flageolet, metallic hits, and more. With the Particles engine and presets for Kontakt 8's brand-new Patterns Tool (Have you seen the update?), this is a true sound design playground perfect for film scores, experimental music, and beyond.

👉 Check it out here and get your copy or upgrade:

https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/keys/claire-avant/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJYJ2WyXinA

Claire: Avant vs. Claire vs. Noire – What’s the difference?

We've seen a lot of questions about how Claire and Noire compare, especially with Noire being such an iconic library. Now that Claire: Avant in the mix, even more comparisons are most likely gonna pop up. Is Claire the same as Noire? Or is Noire closer to Claire: Avant?

To clear things up once and for all, I've invited the Galaxy Instruments team, the minds behind these libraries, for a Q&A!

💬 Drop your questions below, and the Galaxy Instruments team will answer a selection of them right here starting Monday, February 17th through Friday, February 21st, 2025.

Kaiwan_NI

Joining our Q&A are Uli Baronowsky, Stephan Lembke, and Achim Reinhardt. To learn more about Galaxy Instruments, check out their details here.

MLARS

Quick feedback/wishlist

• - Please improve MIDI CC support on Claire, lots of parameters cannot be controlled - it was better on Noire (make sure same improved MIDI CC support exist on Avant)

• - Please make a deal with NI on a mid cycle release for Noire to reach parity (improved scalable GUI, new features etc) in design with Claire (current Noire graphics already look pixelated)

• - Please make a deal with NI on a mid cycle release or sequel for Una Corda to reach parity (improved updated scalable GUI, new features etc) in design with Claire (maybe larger sample size?)

Would love to have a similar UX on all the current pianos in the NI/Galaxy piano series meaning the older ones should have planned upgrades (preferably a Kontakt 8 version).

Question
Any plans for a Model D next?

Titeuf2013

Hi Galaxy Team,

Thanks for the opportunity to ask some questions about this impressive product,

I'm interested in the recording process of the Grand piano (Speaking of Claire Avant),

In the walkthrough video, you mention the various techniques you used during recordings, like Using Brushes, Different picks, Flageolet, and so on…assuming time is of the essence while working with such an instrument in this space you used, did you already plan all the technics you want to try based on the character of the Library/Instrument? how much experimentation are you able to do and how far can you push it? what was recorded but was left on the editing floor as they say?

P.S.: Great playthrough video as well, keep them coming.

Thanks in advance, The Piano sounds amazing!🎹

Serhii Vilka

Hey!

Being an owner of K15 Collector’s Edition, I have I have all piano libraries except both Claire instruments.

Despite that topic title suggests to compare Claire with Noire, I’d like to compare Claire: Avant with Piano Colors. I’m curious what’s the difference between these two libraries except that they were sampled on 2 different pianos in 2 different studios.

Thanks!

LostInFoundation

Mine is just a suggestion: next time, make a Q&A BEFORE realizing a product instead of just when it’s time to sell it.

In that way, you’ll have infos about what users think it’s important BEFORE developing it

NeuroPete

Noire is my go-to piano, and indeed my favourite virtual instrument. I was a bit disappointed with Piano Colors, which has a more advanced particles engine, but I don’t use that much anyway. I don’t like the piano sound as much, even though both are sampled from the Yamaha CFX Grand, which I seem to prefer over the Steinway emulations (Garritan CFX is my second favourite).

I am interested in Claire, but I would like to know more about how it compares to Noire. I realize that the piano is different, but what else? I’m especially interested in knowing how many velocity layers are sampled in each, plus any other factors you believe might make it worth spending money on yet another piano emulation.

Thanks very much.

dickiefunk

I'm a huge fan of Noire and despite owning numerous more expensive piano libraries and trying demo versions of pretty much every piano available, Noire is still a prime goto for me though there is still room for improvement.

When Claire was released I was extremely excited to try it but I was left with very mixed feelings. I found the overall tone to be my favorite of all the Fazioli libraries I've tried and the gui and workflow is wonderful. However, I found this library didn't sound as natural as Noire. The release samples still seem off despite trying the latest updated version? Also, the lower octaves sound like they have an unatural sub frequency boost despite the sub feature being turned off? If these issues were fixed in an update I would find Claire to be very useable as a solo piano. As it is, I find Claire is way more suited to sound design where I think it comes into its own.

There are some features in Claire that I would love to have in an updated version of Noire such as the "Richness" feature, editable touch response curve, selectable time/samples adjustable release samples and an extra EQ band with individually selectable freqency band. Also, Claire has a soft pedal feature and there isn't any mention of this being sampled. If this has been modelled, I would love a modelled Una Corda pedal for Noire. Claire has tons more presets for the 'Particles' engine which would be great to have in Noire. I also love the extra mic perspectives in Claire and badly wish NI/Galaxy Instruments captured a roomier mic perspective that could be blended with the dryer sound. However, I think I could achieve something similar using either the Spitfire Air Studios, Samplecity Berlin Studios or Inspirata reverbs.

Please could we have an updated version of Noire incorporating these additional features as this would take an already great piano library to another level?

Also, are there any plans to update Claire to improve the release samples and unnatural sub frequency boosts in the lower octaves?

Kymeia

It would be great to have the Particle engine as a Tool so available for everything in Kontakt

Super8boy

anybody there? lol

Monochrome

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/211468#Comment_211468

💬 Drop your questions below, and the Galaxy Instruments team will answer a selection of them right here starting Monday, February 17th through Friday, February 21st, 2025.

Does this answer your question?

overlord25

For blind users, access to the Claire controls come primarily via the Komplete Kontrol keyboard plug-in edit mode using speech access, the NKS implementation is therefore of paramount importance for the majority of blind & vision impaired users for ground up sound design.

The ability to select the sample source articulations directly through NKS is an crucial tool for users to shape their own sounds.

Noire featured this under 'Piano Source' where we could choose brush, mallet, plucked etc as the sample source.

This has been missing in Piano Colors, Vocal Colors, and now also Claire, could this be considered for a future update please?

packet-rat

Brand new to Native Instruments, Kontakt 8, etc. I've installed most everything and starting to use. My very first library I tired in the studio is the Claire grand piano. I've found that all Bb keys from Octave 1-4 are significantly lower in volume. I've tried several presets and have rebooted/restarted apps and system several times.

All of the other keys are fine, these these 4 Bb keys.

packet-rat

In follow up to the above: I've reloaded Claire and have found that the same issues exist with other presets (for example 'dead' Db keys). [Is there a more appropriate venue to get this resolved?]

Adrien B

hello, I already have Alicia’s Keys and the gentleman, there are both very playable and a pleasure to perform with.

I recently bought Claire, but I have a VERY BIG ISSUE with the release samples time, that make impossible to play staccato or simply « not legato » notes without the pedal. It is not fluid, not payable and I am very very sad because I really like the particules and sound of the Fazioli. For example, impossible to play a mid tempo rhythm alternating simple bass and chords ! Sounds too long !

In the past I played two real grand fazioli pianos but I never had these problems with release ! It was fluid.

Please, can you fix this problem as soon as possible ? We are many pianists complaining about this in several forums online.
thank you very much for your answer !

Markrosoft

Are there any plans for a serious update to Claire? I use Noire all the time — it’s my favorite piano in my library. I was really excited about Claire and bought it immediately, but like many others, I’ve found it unusable due to strange overtones and release issues. In RX, I can see these overtones triggering about a quarter-second after the note, creating an unfocused, weird sound. (This is with the driest, most-basic setting and all overtones, etc.. turned off). Given this, I’m hesitant to spend another $100 on Claire Avant. Are you aware of this issue, and will there be a fix? And if this “issue” is actually the intended behavior for Claire, is it present on Claire Avant?