Grand Piano AUv3 2 4+

Like a lot of piano apps, if it’s got AUv3 and you take the time to set up the ‘ambience’ this can be a decent instrument. There are others that sound ‘smoother’ and gentler (CMP for example) but this is just a more forceful sound. A nice enough tone to me and it has a useful pianissimo and fortissimo on-screen keyboard, it can be selected to be more FORTE as you strike lower on the on-screen keys. Useful, because not everyone can smack the screen hard enough or with the exact intended effort.

This feature, permits even the ham-fisted to more accurately and repeatably, get about the volume/velocity they want.

Tip: for a lot of good piano sounds, use either the app’s own chorus and reverb, and save this as a piano preset to easily recall it. Tip 2: For a more ‘jangly’ sound and to fill it out a bit (same goes for any piano this is not a criticism), add in the merest sliver of 1/16 echo in say GarageBand’s FX slot. The standard echo supplied with GB. Knock the mix way down to a couple of percent, and the time the effect applies for, almost to nothing as well.

This has the effect of quite a Bruce Hornsby sound. Jangly and lively, without being brash or messy. If you’re not an absolute wizard on the ivories, this will help flesh out the playing. It essentially, sounds like you are playing more notes than you actually are. Yet, the duration is so short, and they are not at full volume, it just doesn’t interfere with the next note you hit. Worth a try if you have not done this trick before.

It’s really a good ‘all-in-one’ piano playing app. In that, you don’t need a lot of effects separate to the app itself, which may make it rather efficient in terms of CPU and memory etc? And, with GarageBand having a restricted number of FX slots, the built-in ones make sense. I do like it, it’s just in a crowded space of offerings, but no less good for all that.

I had deleted this app some while ago because I didn’t think it was very good and I had far better piano apps that didn’t take up so much space.

But I downloaded the update and tried it again.

The first thing I noticed was that Bluetooth wasn’t spelt correctly on the main page, and then the app crashed.

Deleted.