James Newton Howard Piano vs C7 Grand

The most significant difference between these two grand piano libraries lies in their source instrument, character, and overall scope. James Newton Howard Piano specifically captures a renowned Steinway Model D with a focus on cinematic warmth, while C7 Grand samples a Yamaha C7, offering a brighter and cleaner modern sound suitable for general recording, classical, and jazz.

Technically, James Newton Howard Piano provides a far more extensive library at 162 GB, capturing 25 velocity layers and 6 microphone positions, including five distinct production-ready mixes by Alan Meyerson. In contrast, C7 Grand is significantly smaller at 2.41 GB, utilizes 3 microphone positions, and features advanced sympathetic resonance modeling based on sampled real resonances, and detailed pedal functionalities.

Choose James Newton Howard Piano if your priority is a rich, cinematic Steinway D sound with professional mixes readily available, ideal for film scoring and expansive productions. Opt for C7 Grand if you require a bright, modern Yamaha C7 tone for classical, jazz, or general recording, valuing advanced sympathetic resonance simulation and a more compact library size.

Products Compared

• James Newton Howard Piano
• C7 Grand

Insights from Real-World Use

James Newton Howard Piano

• The James Newton Howard Piano offers incredible expressiveness and great value for money.
• The 25 dynamic layers make the James Newton Howard Piano expressive and beautiful to play.
• This piano inspires a lot of themes.
• Mic selection and width adjustment add beauty and control to the piano sound.
• Back mic has a nice ring but sounds distant.

C7 Grand

• I did not add any external effects, just played with the instrument settings like mics and velocity. Velocity curve can give a big difference to sound and playability.
• I have this piano VST but can't get it to sound this good. May I ask what mic settings/amounts you had loaded? Did you do any other mixing to the piano track or was this stock right from the VST?
• I compared the White Grand from the Nord Piano 5 with the Keyscape C7 Grand ... samples or 704 individual audio files just for that patch. I can assume the...
• 3 the pedal issues are the worst part, there's no Una Corda simulation (let alone samples) ... The actual “LA Custom” Keyscape Yamaha C7 grand piano has been used.
• I compared the White Grand from the Nord Piano 5 with the Keyscape C7 Grand ... samples or 704 individual audio files just for that patch. I can assume the...