I have almost all the native instruments Pianos....yet out of all of them, i keep coming back to the Noire....It sounds very special to me...Its indeed my favourite go to piano....BTW great demo Greg.
and its not only Noire, the melodies you play, I mean I just listen to this while learning for exams too, just so relaxing. really really well done, love it
Ahh... I'm a year late but thank you so much for doing this detailed demo. I'm living for those pleasant hammer noises, especially in 'Dark' and 'Dense'. I'm so in love with this plugin now.
I have a weird relationship with Noir. It hooked me in when I was after a nice delicate sounding soft piano. Something to emulate the Michael Giacchino style in the LOST score. Problem is ever since I bought it I've never really been able to get it to sit in a mix as it just sounds a bit thin and narrow compared to a mic'd up grand. I really want to find a Kontakt piano that's just got that warmth, depth and width of a well recorded piano but I'm struggling to find one that really sounds authentic still. Noir does sound great still don't get me wrong, just hard to make it cut through without killing the dynamics.
I bought this thinking it was a stand alone piano and found out it was not. I am not sure what all it takes to make it sound like yours, but yours sound amazing!
As a follow up on my previous comment. I did some more experimenting and now I like more how the piano sounds. Here's what I did so far. I'm using Logic, but this probably works on any DAW. I added the EQ plugin and loaded the Piano preset. I added the Compressor plugin and let the Default preset. That's it! It doesn't sound like in this video, but it sounds a lot better than when I started. It sounds clearer and crisper.
yeah last minute change of mind this the library im going for and down the line the Una Corde will be a nice bit of variation for scoring... this vst is just so adaptable... Thanks, these videos have helped alot love the preset videos
"Hitting Hard" gave me retro Bruce Hornsby & The Range nostalgic vibes. "Smooth & Deep" gave me Nat Adderley Jr vibes "Silent Keys" and "Tape Maschine" gave me Alicia's Keys subset vibes.
I just purchased it as well. Sweetwater has a deal going on. When I pulled it into Native Access to download it, I knew it was going to be an excellent Piano VST since it is 14.6 GB's worth of information!!. I have NI The Giant and that was only 4 GB's. If anyone gets it, make sure you have about 2 hours for it to download based on your internet speed lol.
I think in studio settings, it can definitely be a nice “real” touch to a piano library, but in live performance, I always keep the mechanical noises low in the mix, or muted entirely.
Thank you for going through the presets Greg. I'm trying to pick a first piano VST to purchase and am torn between Noire and Cinepiano for a classical/concert style of music (I only have Kontakt Player).
Nice! Looks like you do a lot of NI reviews! I have NI K13 Ultimate collector's and don't have time to go through it all hardly. Good to hear other reflections and ideas!!
Hi Greg. You play very well and I'll be getting this, probably during the summer of sound sale from native. Thanks for going through the presets, it helps a good deal. I am an ambient composer but I do quite a lot with piano as well.
thanks for the video - just a few words - let the sounds speak .... something very rare ... are we here to listen to words or to sounds ?? - great video
I would love for your to try the AIR stage piano. They have a free 10 day trial thing so you can try it for free. I would love to hear your thoughts on it, I’ve been stressing over If I should get the Soundiorn Emotional piano, AIR stage piano, or noire. Btw: Noire piano and The AIR Stage Piano are the same price. 149$
Excellent work, I have question though, how do you make the sound of the particle engine so loud and clear, because no matter what I do, I can't make the sound like you. Maybe it has something to do with your DAW? I'd appreciate if you could kindly answer my question.
Hi Jason! This question has come up several times over the past couple of months. I believe that Native Instruments may have revamped their NOIRE presets in a recent update, causing the tone to be different than back when I recorded this video. If you go into the plugin tone settings, you may be able to get the particles to be more prominent. For what it’s worth, I have also found that a slight adjustment in my keyboard’s MIDI velocity curve helps make the piano a bit easier to play consistently and consequently, a little bit louder.
Hi sir. I would like to ask how to upload best quality sound using native instrument pianos. When I uploads it seems like the sound is too compressed and it doesnt sound like the original. How can I upload on youtube with the same sound quality as what I hear while it is still on my daw? Thank you for the reply
Hi! So when I record videos like this, I’m not recording MIDI. I’m actually just recording the audio out of Logic Pro into another recording program (StreamLabs OBS) to capture video with the audio. My first advice would be to make sure you don’t have any additional processing on your channel strips (midi and your mix-buses). It could also be the output settings when you export your audio. If you’re exporting as MP3, you might want to try exporting your project as a WAV file. Try checking if your audio export settings are to 16 or 24 bit depth. In general, you will have a greater dynamic range with a higher bit depth. My export settings are usually PCM (wav) format, 24 bit depth, 48khz sample rate. I know it’s a lot of info, but I hope that helps!
Hi Greg, thank you for introducing this piano, great to see that :) Can I ask you if you use some mastering before upload sound from piano on youtube? Or some EQ changes? Because its still a little bit silent against piano from 4knop popd of Cubase vst. And after upload on youtube ist more silent than in pc :D..thank you for some advice :) Dominik
Hello! The only thing I really did after recording parts was somewhat match levels to keep them all around similar volumes. Other than that, there is no EQ or other processing in post-production.
Hello Mister Greg after hearing these samples I bought the software. I installed everything as it should be. The software is in Komplete Control but I can't find it in Logic Pro. I updated everything...Before I write to support, I would like to ask you how you did that. Sorry for the disruption, but I'd love to hear from you if it's possible.
Absolutely! The instrument will need to be loaded into an instance of Kontakt 6. There is a free version of Kontakt called Kontakt Player that you can install in order to use the instrument inside Logic.
Hi Greg. Excellent demo of the presets. Listening to you play each preset inspired me to try some of them out myself. Thank you! I also like your ambient guitar live streams. You have a great streaming setup. If you don't mind sharing, what camera and cam mount are you using? Are you on Twitch or other platforms, by chance? Cheers!
Love the questions! I actually started streaming on UA-cam in 2019 or so, and jumped between Mixer and Twitch over the year or so I was doing that. I’m sad that mixer was shut down because I had several dozen live streams on there. I totally have plans to get back into that here on UA-cam now that the channel has grabbed some traction. For my setup, My main camera is a Sony a6000 run into my PC with an Elgato CamLink 4K. The other camera I sometimes use is my Logitech Brio webcam. I’d love to talk gear some more soon. I’ve been moving my studio to a new house since I got married a few months ago, so I’ve been intending to get back into some demos.
@@GregAllison Thank you for sharing. Sorry to hear about your Mixer streams. Congrats on getting married. I look forward to your future videos. Are you gonna put affiliate links for your product reviews? :)
Thanks! I would love to do some affiliate marketing for the products I use and review/demo. I’m needing to reach out to NI to get a contact for their affiliate program if they have one.
ValhallaDSP has some really amazing reverbs and delays. My favorites are Valhalla Delay and Valhalla Shimmer. Any tape or reverb will be a good place to start!
Wow, thanks for doing this, do you take vst requests? How's the SL88 grand, I have the S88 mk2 and I don't like it much, i'm debating b/w the SL88 grand and Casio PX-5S, would love to hear your feedback on the good and bad based on your experience. Thanks!
Sure! I’ll see what I can do with some more VST videos. Apart from a firmware issue and a bug in Logic Pro that would cause the controller to freeze and be non-responsive (that issue was quickly resolved), it’s a great controller on stage and in the studio. It has an incredible action and natural feel. I’d probably give it an 8.5/10 or so. For the price, I don’t think there is a better controller out there. I will say that I’ve never used the PX-5S or S88 controllers, but I’ve used and encouraged several friends to go with StudioLogic keyboards. If you have any other questions, please let me know!
I got it today...it doesn't sound right . Some presets are ok but they don't have the body...fullness like yours . I'm using GarageBand and a MacBook pro with an m1 chip...any recommendations?
Hello! Im seeing several comments like this. I didn’t do any processing on my Kontakt plugin when I recorded this video, so it leads me to wonder if Native Instruments modified the out-of-the-box settings on the instrument. You can definitely that a shot. Something I’ve even done from time to time is adjust the MIDI velocity curve so a steeper amount, so my lighter notes are a bit stronger. Noire is such an expressive, dynamic instrument, so that may also impact how your playing translates through the instrument.
Thanks! I have used the SL88 for several years now. And the keyboard is great. Excellent feel, it’s sturdy, and reliable. I wish it had more on-deck MIDI controls, but overall, it’s been a great midi controller. If I started out from scratch, I’d probably go straight to one of the Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol controllers though.
@@GregAllison thnx for replying!!I like native instruments ,best vst's out there ...but there bords are really expensive ,if I had the money I would go for there top fully weighted one!!
Hi there, When i load up my noire in FL studio, even at 0db volume slider of noire I get -30 LUFs at master. How is your noire sounding so loud and clear at default setting of -6 db ??? 😢 Are you using any compression or gains ???
Great question! Noire has a huge dynamic range and I tried not to do much limiting or compression in post/editing, but I did do some level matching to keep volumes somewhat consistent. I sometimes also just bring my Kontakt output to 0dB to get that little extra volume push before adding other processing on that channel.
@@GregAllison thanks for the reply. But for me 1 more thing was causing me troubles. So i changed my Roland RP302's Touch response to Super Light and now my piano is send some heavy juice to the plugin making overall volume more. And hence I don't have to apply 15 dbs of Gain 🥰. But still i am getting around 18 to 20 LUFs 🥺. I am a bit beginner to this VST things.
I totally understand that. I have a StudioLogic SL88 Grand and the keyboard’s midi velocity curve is linear, but I think Noire’s curve is more exponential, so I had to hit the keys pretty hard to get full volume out of the plugin. I sometimes adjust my controller’s midi velocity curve when I’m playing soft “delicate” parts.
Conveniently, Noire has a “dynamic range” knob on the front interface page, so that’s also helped me dial in a more consistent level from the instrument.
Hi I bought Noire after watching your video. And on my screen I don't see the piano notes from noire as you do on the botom, and I wanted to ask how you get to see them
When you click, it is playing the MIDI note at full velocity (127). So it is essentially playing the loudest samples. Or is it sounding more like it’s glitched?
@@GregAllison yeah when I hit it with my mouse it sounds normal but when I play it with my keyboard it sounds muffled even when I try to hit it super hard
I recorded the audio straight from my Mac via the audio interface into a second PC where I recorded my microphone (for commentary), the laptop output (just playing Noire), and that’s about it.
While piano colors can create similar sounds to Noire, I believe the power of Noire lies in its attention to detail and delicacy. It is meant to be a rich and well-sampled grand piano. Piano colors is predominantly a sound design library that is built from piano samples.
I have Komplete 13 and an Arturia Keylab 61 MKII (+ a MACHINE) I cant find out how to Play Noire and Una Corda through my keyboard controller? Any Suggestions would be highly appreciated!
Hi Thom, my first thought is that it might be a MIDI channel issue. I had a similar thing happen with my controller where MIDI was sending out channel B (or 2) instead of A (1), so Kontakt couldn’t receive midi notes because the plug-ins were set to receive only on channel A.
Great question. I have a 2 computer setup. My MacBook and my (gaming/streaming) pc. The pc has an HDMI capture card with a through port so I can record and see my main display that is captured by OBS For the Audio, I have a TC Helicon GoXLR Mini connected to my pc that allows me to send audio from my Mac to my PC, as well as record the mic input. OBS is actually what records the video and audio sources. I may end up making a video walkthrough of the setup!
@@GregAllison Thank you for sharing your setup. I tried to record the vst inside the reaper but it doesn’t sound good. I believe it needs to pass through some sort of audio interface to get better
thanks for the video, it lead me to purchase it, but i cant get a couple of the presets to work for example Playing at Home. it cuts out after one second and doesnt work, was wondering if you had similar issues. thanks
That sounds like a buffer size issue. In short, your computer is trying to process samples of audio, and due to the complexity/layers of the instrument, your computer may be having difficult playing and the samples are being cut off. Do you happen to know what your buffer size is for your DAW? It would be under preferences under audio settings.
@@GregAllison thanks for the response. I have it set to 64 samples using ASIO4ALL. I set it to 128 and it's working! Thank you now to figure out latency. Is an audio interface the answer there?
Glad to hear that’s helped with the issue! I believe the latency is mostly due to the CPU’s speed at processing the audio (affected by clock speed as well as the number of cores used in processing audio). Do you happen to know what processor your computer has? Or the model of your computer?
What DAW are you using? If you’re on a Mac with Logic Pro, I know it has a low latency function with may be able to help you when you’re playing/recording parts. If you’re on a PC, I’m sure there are other DAW-specific ways to lower your device’s latency without needing to buy new equipment.
Great video, thank you for creating this! When moving from preset to preset, did you change anything else or is this how they come out naturally? I just picked up Noire and am excited to explore.
@@GregAllison awesome, thanks for such a quick reply. The presets are gorgeous so at least it's one less thing I have to fiddle with. :) Great vid! Would you consider making one for Noire Felt? Have a great holiday and New Year as well.
Possibly in the future! I believe Felt actually has the same presets, just with different samples for the instrument, so they have the same effects and processing, just different timbres.
Nice name! Absolutely. There’s an entire page on the plugin’s interface where you can turn down mechanical noises as well as overtones, etc. This can be accessed by clicking the little piano tuning key icon on the top left.
I’m using a Røde Pod Mic. As far as effects, I run my mic through my GoXLR Mini interface with the built in noise gate, light compression, and some low and high shelf EQ.
hello is it true that you have to buy kontakt first and then buy noire otherwise you cant play the piano? or do you just have to buy Noire and the app where you play Noire in is free.
Great question! You don’t need to buy the full version of Kontakt. You can just download the free Kontakt Player to use purchased sample instruments. Check it out at www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/samplers/kontakt-6-player/
I believe 8GB of RAM is enough for Music Production. Although to be safe, I would probably not aim for any less than 16GB. Music production can be heavy on your components, but it’s nowhere near as demanding as video editing. For my Mac, I am blessed to have a near-max spec computer. I’m running a 2019 MacBook Pro 16” 2.4GHz 8-core i9, 64GB 2667MHz DDR4 memory, 4TB SSD (and several external hard drives for samples/storage) and a Radeon Pro 5500M GPU. I’ll be the first to admit that my rig is overkill for what I do, however, it’s how I make a living and I plan to continue to make/mix music and take/edit photos for my income. Hope that helps!
@@GregAllison You have a Monster! Hahahaha. I have a 2015 mac. 2,7 GHz Intel Core i5 dual-core 8 GB 1867 MHz DDR3, ssd 250. when I use kontakt in stand alone, Noire works fine. If I use it with Ableton Live and open 4-5 tracks with kontakt, the cpu goes haywire if noire is present, and especially if "particles"(noir) are active. So I'm forced to increase the buffer with the latency problem while playing. The strange thing is that the problem I have only with Noire "particles" and I do not understand if it is a problem of external audio, or Ram. maybe i have to increase the ram but i have a mac 2015 where the ram is soldered to the board.The only possible update remains that of the HD SSD. Do you think it can solve the problem, increase the hard disk ssd? Do you realize that now I work with just 40gb free out of 250 of capacity. Anyway thank for your answer! :-)
Haha thanks. Its my understanding that the buffer size primarily affects the CPU’s ability to process and send out audio. Which is why when an instrument is loaded into RAM, your computer doesn’t have issues with playback or weird audio glitches. It’s when the project (including its instruments) exceeds the capacity of RAM is where it gives warnings and samples are dropped, causing clicks and pops. A separate, but also annoying warning I used to get was “Hard Disk is too slow” or something like that, which was resolved by moving those samples to an SSD (either external or internal should solve that issues). Something you can do in Kontakt is “purge” samples to help limit the load on your computer. It essentially only loads in the exact samples you’re using in that instance of Kontakt, freeing up some Ram usage. You’ll find Purge near the top where it states your Midi I/O channels as well as the instrument preset. I used a 2011 21.5” iMac quad core i5, 500gb SSD, 8gb Ram, until March of this year, so I am familiar with the pain of using a slower computer for music production. Let me know if purging Samples when Noire is loaded helps at all!
It does sound like it might be a stretch with the i3. You may have some audio glitches when the particles engine is activated. I have a 16” MacBook Pro with an 8-core i9 with 64 GB of RAM (overkill, I know). My computer was a big investment when I began mixing and producing (full time) back in early 2020, so I chose not to cut any corners. For my interface, I use a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2. Hope that helps!
Great demos! Ask me a question please: what is the version of this library? A colleague said that version 1.1.0 has 14GB, but on the Native website it says that Noire has 16GB.
Hello! My desk is actually a custom modified desk I got about 10 years ago back from Office Depot/Max. I needed more surface area for my workspace, so I bought a 5’x2.5’ piece of edge-glued pine from a home improvement store that I placed on top of the original frame of the desk. It gives me a good size space to work, considering the modification was only like $20.
It’s just a different kind of piano plugin. I personally do not own Piano Colors yet, however, I’ve had a buddy let me play around on it and it’s a really cool sound design plug-in for layering different piano-inspired textures. It should be in a future Komplete edition when I upgrade, so I’ll hopefully own it then if it doesn’t end up going on sale this upcoming summer!
im wanting to buy this i think i have enough power what do u think i have i i5-4200u dual core processor 2.3ghz 16gb ram 256SSD im not sure why my cpu usage is at like 30/40 percent on just a small file such as hybrid keys but when i use kontakt as a plug in via my daw it drops to like 10/15 percent. im worried about buying this vst and it doesnt work correctly and how do u install vsts into the ram instead of it being used directly through the cpu as i think this might be why its using so much. i have no drop outs or anything close to max cpu capacity. any thoughts would go a long way thanks
Hey Kyle! Based on what you’ve shared, it seems like the CPU might be the first thing to cause issues as your projects and instruments become more power hungry. I will say that 16GB of Ram is still a good amount for music production though. You don’t actually install anything to RAM as it is designed to be a temporary placeholder for files that are established by the engineers and manufacturers. I would check out the minimum spec requirements (or suggested specs) stated by Native Instruments because I’ve had a good friend buy a VST, and his computer couldn’t even run it because it was an older MacBook Pro. In a sense, I’m realizing I need to be cautious when I’m asked questions about computer specs and buying new instruments. I’m sure you can understand!
@@GregAllison I mean I have no issues running vsts with a 123ms buffer I never experience any drop outs or problems I'm just concerned that my CPU usage is overly high for such a small vst file when used in kontakt by it's self but when it's used via a plug in into my Daw the CPU usage dramitcally decreases and I can't for the life of me work out why. I'm confident I'll be able to run noire but maybe just without the partical engine as that looks very CPU hungry.
0:35 basic pure
1:08 beyond pure
1:35 ambient grand
2:08 almost electric
2:32 compressed
3:01 bowed Piano
3:30 ambient tremolo
4:07 circuit bent
4:30 Dark
5:07 brushed duo
5:32 breaking up
6:08 deep plate
6:33 dense
7:01 charmer meets mallets
7:36 crystal pad
8:16 edgy
8:46 emotional
9:12 cloud
9:46 dark shadows
10:23 funk house
10:57 extra body
11:32 deep dive felt
12:08 eternity
12:47 hitting hard
13:08 forte piano
13:37 deep down
14:12 fast tremolo
Thank you ❤️
Great tutorial thanks. Please question can I delete churchch sound or no?
Hello! I don’t think I understand your question.
@@GregAllison OK thanks bro I'll try 😉
I'm almost 100% sure that by "church sound", he meant reverb. :)
I have almost all the native instruments Pianos....yet out of all of them, i keep coming back to the Noire....It sounds very special to me...Its indeed my favourite go to piano....BTW great demo Greg.
Do I need yet another piano library? No. Am I still getting Noire? Yes.
I bought Noire a year and a half ago and I'm still discovering it today. I'm so glad I bought it.
Grand Piano
0:35 Basic Pure
2:32 Compressed
4:30 Dark
6:34 Dense
8:46 Emotional
10:57 Extra Body
13:10 Fortepiano
14:43 Fragile
17:08 Gloomy
19:16 In Concert
21:19 Jazzy
23:30 Lid Closed
25:34 Pop Grand
27:50 Pure Felt
30:02 Scoring
32:27 Smooth & Deep
34:35 Snooze
36:06 Vibrant
38:08 Wide Open
Particles
1:08 Beyond Pure
3:01 Bowed Piano
5:08 Brushed Duo
7:01 Charmer Meets Mallets
9:13 Clowd
11:33 Deep Dive Felt
13:37 Deep Down
15:11 Filling Gaps
17:40 Follow Me
19:48 Four Hands
21:51 Frozen Strings
23:57 Gamelan Grand
26:09 Pizzicato Sequence
28:20 Riding on Hammers
30:40 Shaking Shadows
33:08 Silent Keys
36:31 Sparkling Chords
38:46 Spherical Drift
39:49 Strummer
Sound Design
1:36 Ambient Grand
3:32 Ambient Tremolo
5:32 Breaking Up
7:37 Crystal Pad
9:47 Dark Shadows
12:08 Eternity
14:12 Fast Tremolo
15:47 Glossy Pad
18:20 Harpsi Grand
20:24 Moving Slow
22:28 Muted Touch
24:36 Over The Top
26:50 Resonant Metal
28:55 Reversed Pad
31:19 Rhode Bass
33:35 Torn Apart
35:02 Ultra Resonant
37:05 Warm Pad
Vintage
2:08 Almost Electric
4:07 Circuit Bent
6:06 Deep Plate
8:15 Edgy
10:24 Funkhaus
12:48 Hitting Hard
16:29 Mellow & Noisy
18:48 Mono Broadcast
20:53 Noise Box
22:55 Noisy Performance
25:02 On Record
27:24 Playing With Tape
29:31 Pure Melancholy
31:54 Quiet Recording
34:06 Tape Maschine
37:41 Tubes & Tape
39:21 Turntable
40:21 Yesterday
Thank you so much!
and its not only Noire, the melodies you play, I mean I just listen to this while learning for exams too, just so relaxing. really really well done, love it
Yasemin, I appreciate the kind words and wish I would have responded sooner! Thanks! 😊
32:27 Smooth and Deep - Sounds amazing
GOSH this piano is beautiful. My ssd is packed but I have to get this bad boy eventually.
Very useful demonstration ! I like theall warm softh mellow pianos so peaceful many thanks
Ahh... I'm a year late but thank you so much for doing this detailed demo. I'm living for those pleasant hammer noises, especially in 'Dark' and 'Dense'. I'm so in love with this plugin now.
I have a weird relationship with Noir. It hooked me in when I was after a nice delicate sounding soft piano. Something to emulate the Michael Giacchino style in the LOST score. Problem is ever since I bought it I've never really been able to get it to sit in a mix as it just sounds a bit thin and narrow compared to a mic'd up grand. I really want to find a Kontakt piano that's just got that warmth, depth and width of a well recorded piano but I'm struggling to find one that really sounds authentic still. Noir does sound great still don't get me wrong, just hard to make it cut through without killing the dynamics.
I had goosebumps the moment you played the first notes! This is so beautiful! Thank you for this video :)
When "Ambient Grand" (1.35) started I suddenly thought "Oh, Titanic's soundtrack? What an unusual choice..."
And at the fourth chord..."oh, anyway"
I felt that might cross some people’s minds. Didn’t want to get a copyright strike. 😂
@@GregAllison ahaha I can relate! Great taste and great content by the way :D
I bought this thinking it was a stand alone piano and found out it was not. I am not sure what all it takes to make it sound like yours, but yours sound amazing!
As a follow up on my previous comment. I did some more experimenting and now I like more how the piano sounds.
Here's what I did so far. I'm using Logic, but this probably works on any DAW.
I added the EQ plugin and loaded the Piano preset.
I added the Compressor plugin and let the Default preset.
That's it!
It doesn't sound like in this video, but it sounds a lot better than when I started. It sounds clearer and crisper.
Yes Greg this is very helpful. It helped me to go ahead and upgrade to 13.
Enjoy!
You play beautifully Greg and have really brought these presets to life.
Thanks Darren, I appreciate it!
your demo's are Great! Not rushed, no yabber yabber talking.
deep dive felt ...... is deeply felt
Loved watching you play these you really bring the patches to life
I never post comments…. Just had to say, Thanks. Beautiful and very helpful.
Thanks so much for the kind words Allen! Noire is such an amazing piano.
Incredible video. Thanks for showcasing the presets. I’m getting this today
Thank you for making this. This is an enormous help.
yeah last minute change of mind this the library im going for and down the line the Una Corde will be a nice bit of variation for scoring... this vst is just so adaptable... Thanks, these videos have helped alot love the preset videos
"Hitting Hard" gave me retro Bruce Hornsby & The Range nostalgic vibes.
"Smooth & Deep" gave me Nat Adderley Jr vibes
"Silent Keys" and "Tape Maschine" gave me Alicia's Keys subset vibes.
I just purchased it as well. Sweetwater has a deal going on. When I pulled it into Native Access to download it, I knew it was going to be an excellent Piano VST since it is 14.6 GB's worth of information!!. I have NI The Giant and that was only 4 GB's. If anyone gets it, make sure you have about 2 hours for it to download based on your internet speed lol.
I will ever understand the fascination with including hammer noises in so many presets. Sure one or two as a novelty, but it is in so many.
I think in studio settings, it can definitely be a nice “real” touch to a piano library, but in live performance, I always keep the mechanical noises low in the mix, or muted entirely.
amazing.. thank you. just impressed of Noire. Next week I get my first Midi controller with Noire, so excited
Which midi controller did you get?
Thank you for going through the presets Greg. I'm trying to pick a first piano VST to purchase and am torn between Noire and Cinepiano for a classical/concert style of music (I only have Kontakt Player).
You bet! Noire is definitely one of my favorite pianos. If you’d like any other instrument demonstrations, let me know!
@@GregAllison Great - thank you Greg
so beautiful. great player. each tracks raise me up.
I will get it just for Jazzy!
Nice! Looks like you do a lot of NI reviews! I have NI K13 Ultimate collector's and don't have time to go through it all hardly. Good to hear other reflections and ideas!!
thank you for this Greg. Appreciate you going through each and every preset for inspiring.
My pleasure!
Great video! The Noire sounds amazing!
Amazing piano playing.
Thanks Mehul!
this is a lot of work, good video!
Thanks Yazan. I’m glad you enjoyed it!
Great video and beautifully played. The library is on sale right now, so I will get it today.
Thank you for this fam
I got you 👊
Great, thank you
Noire my go to piano VST
Sounds amazing.. . Thanks for the demo. Is this library compatible with the free version of kontakt player?
You bet! I have several friends that don’t own the full version of Kontakt, so they just use the Player.
Thanks so much for this! I just love this library.
Courtney, hope you're doing well! Glad you enjoyed the video!
Thank you!
great job
Hi Greg. You play very well and I'll be getting this, probably during the summer of sound sale from native. Thanks for going through the presets, it helps a good deal.
I am an ambient composer but I do quite a lot with piano as well.
Love to hear it Scott! Native Instruments has some of my all time favorite sounds for ambient music. What Reverb plug-ins have you been using lately?
Awesome. I’ll check it out. I’m a huge fan of Valhalla DSP’s reverbs. Everything they do is fantastic. I use ValhallaShimmer quite a bit.
Just bought it today
You deserve lot more views, great video!
Thanks Andrea! I’ll have some more Every Preset videos coming soon!
@@GregAllison i’ll be super happy to watch them!
You really played each song according to their names, you really captured the vibe of the patches and that’s why this is top tier! 🤎
thanks for the video - just a few words - let the sounds speak .... something very rare ... are we here to listen to words or to sounds ?? - great video
Amazing
Thanks!
Thanks for this!
Great video, thanks. Question, are you able to turn down the pedal volume like the other NI pianos?
Definitely. The variances in the pedal noise is huge in the presets, but yes, you can turn the various noises off.
awesome
Nice
This VST would definitely be good for Rod Wave Type Beats
great thanks
wow! Thanks
I would love for your to try the AIR stage piano. They have a free 10 day trial thing so you can try it for free.
I would love to hear your thoughts on it, I’ve been stressing over If I should get the Soundiorn Emotional piano, AIR stage piano, or noire.
Btw: Noire piano and The AIR Stage Piano are the same price. 149$
Just got it!
Congratulations! Let me know what you think!
Excellent work, I have question though, how do you make the sound of the particle engine so loud and clear, because no matter what I do, I can't make the sound like you. Maybe it has something to do with your DAW? I'd appreciate if you could kindly answer my question.
Hi Jason! This question has come up several times over the past couple of months. I believe that Native Instruments may have revamped their NOIRE presets in a recent update, causing the tone to be different than back when I recorded this video. If you go into the plugin tone settings, you may be able to get the particles to be more prominent. For what it’s worth, I have also found that a slight adjustment in my keyboard’s MIDI velocity curve helps make the piano a bit easier to play consistently and consequently, a little bit louder.
@@GregAllison Thank you so much for the tip!🌹
Hi sir. I would like to ask how to upload best quality sound using native instrument pianos. When I uploads it seems like the sound is too compressed and it doesnt sound like the original. How can I upload on youtube with the same sound quality as what I hear while it is still on my daw? Thank you for the reply
Hi! So when I record videos like this, I’m not recording MIDI. I’m actually just recording the audio out of Logic Pro into another recording program (StreamLabs OBS) to capture video with the audio.
My first advice would be to make sure you don’t have any additional processing on your channel strips (midi and your mix-buses). It could also be the output settings when you export your audio. If you’re exporting as MP3, you might want to try exporting your project as a WAV file. Try checking if your audio export settings are to 16 or 24 bit depth. In general, you will have a greater dynamic range with a higher bit depth. My export settings are usually PCM (wav) format, 24 bit depth, 48khz sample rate.
I know it’s a lot of info, but I hope that helps!
@@GregAllison Got it. Thank you sir
Hi Greg, thank you for introducing this piano, great to see that :) Can I ask you if you use some mastering before upload sound from piano on youtube? Or some EQ changes? Because its still a little bit silent against piano from 4knop popd of Cubase vst. And after upload on youtube ist more silent than in pc :D..thank you for some advice :) Dominik
Hello! The only thing I really did after recording parts was somewhat match levels to keep them all around similar volumes. Other than that, there is no EQ or other processing in post-production.
Hello Mister Greg after hearing these samples I bought the software. I installed everything as it should be. The software is in Komplete Control but I can't find it in Logic Pro. I updated everything...Before I write to support, I would like to ask you how you did that. Sorry for the disruption, but I'd love to hear from you if it's possible.
Absolutely! The instrument will need to be loaded into an instance of Kontakt 6. There is a free version of Kontakt called Kontakt Player that you can install in order to use the instrument inside Logic.
Thanks I have now found everything in Komplete Control. Apologies
No worries. Take care!
@@GregAllison 👍
Thank you 🙌🏻
You’re welcome 😊
Wow i didn't know it had different sounds How do you change the presets?
Hello! Underneath the name in Kontakt, there are little arrows to the left and the right. That is where you can change the instrument’s presets.
@@GregAllison thank you very much for your answer and for the eye opening video
Hi Greg. Excellent demo of the presets. Listening to you play each preset inspired me to try some of them out myself. Thank you! I also like your ambient guitar live streams. You have a great streaming setup. If you don't mind sharing, what camera and cam mount are you using? Are you on Twitch or other platforms, by chance? Cheers!
Love the questions! I actually started streaming on UA-cam in 2019 or so, and jumped between Mixer and Twitch over the year or so I was doing that. I’m sad that mixer was shut down because I had several dozen live streams on there. I totally have plans to get back into that here on UA-cam now that the channel has grabbed some traction.
For my setup, My main camera is a Sony a6000 run into my PC with an Elgato CamLink 4K. The other camera I sometimes use is my Logitech Brio webcam.
I’d love to talk gear some more soon. I’ve been moving my studio to a new house since I got married a few months ago, so I’ve been intending to get back into some demos.
@@GregAllison Thank you for sharing. Sorry to hear about your Mixer streams. Congrats on getting married. I look forward to your future videos. Are you gonna put affiliate links for your product reviews? :)
Thanks! I would love to do some affiliate marketing for the products I use and review/demo. I’m needing to reach out to NI to get a contact for their affiliate program if they have one.
Have u used any effects on noire ??
Totally. Some of my favorites are reversed tape delays and reverbs to give a cool ambient texture with the piano.
@@GregAllison which plugin you used exactly
ValhallaDSP has some really amazing reverbs and delays. My favorites are Valhalla Delay and Valhalla Shimmer. Any tape or reverb will be a good place to start!
Wow, thanks for doing this, do you take vst requests?
How's the SL88 grand, I have the S88 mk2 and I don't like it much, i'm debating b/w the SL88 grand and Casio PX-5S, would love to hear your feedback on the good and bad based on your experience.
Thanks!
Sure! I’ll see what I can do with some more VST videos.
Apart from a firmware issue and a bug in Logic Pro that would cause the controller to freeze and be non-responsive (that issue was quickly resolved), it’s a great controller on stage and in the studio. It has an incredible action and natural feel. I’d probably give it an 8.5/10 or so. For the price, I don’t think there is a better controller out there. I will say that I’ve never used the PX-5S or S88 controllers, but I’ve used and encouraged several friends to go with StudioLogic keyboards. If you have any other questions, please let me know!
I got it today...it doesn't sound right . Some presets are ok but they don't have the body...fullness like yours . I'm using GarageBand and a MacBook pro with an m1 chip...any recommendations?
Hello! Im seeing several comments like this. I didn’t do any processing on my Kontakt plugin when I recorded this video, so it leads me to wonder if Native Instruments modified the out-of-the-box settings on the instrument. You can definitely that a shot. Something I’ve even done from time to time is adjust the MIDI velocity curve so a steeper amount, so my lighter notes are a bit stronger. Noire is such an expressive, dynamic instrument, so that may also impact how your playing translates through the instrument.
@@GregAllison after playing it for a while and messing around with the parameters it’s a little bit better. Ty .
I really like how you play !!! Is the sl 88 still good?Would you still recomand it ????
Thanks! I have used the SL88 for several years now. And the keyboard is great. Excellent feel, it’s sturdy, and reliable. I wish it had more on-deck MIDI controls, but overall, it’s been a great midi controller. If I started out from scratch, I’d probably go straight to one of the Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol controllers though.
@@GregAllison thnx for replying!!I like native instruments ,best vst's out there ...but there bords are really expensive ,if I had the money I would go for there top fully weighted one!!
Hi there,
When i load up my noire in FL studio, even at 0db volume slider of noire I get -30 LUFs at master. How is your noire sounding so loud and clear at default setting of -6 db ??? 😢
Are you using any compression or gains ???
Great question! Noire has a huge dynamic range and I tried not to do much limiting or compression in post/editing, but I did do some level matching to keep volumes somewhat consistent. I sometimes also just bring my Kontakt output to 0dB to get that little extra volume push before adding other processing on that channel.
@@GregAllison thanks for the reply. But for me 1 more thing was causing me troubles. So i changed my Roland RP302's Touch response to Super Light and now my piano is send some heavy juice to the plugin making overall volume more. And hence I don't have to apply 15 dbs of Gain 🥰. But still i am getting around 18 to 20 LUFs 🥺. I am a bit beginner to this VST things.
I totally understand that. I have a StudioLogic SL88 Grand and the keyboard’s midi velocity curve is linear, but I think Noire’s curve is more exponential, so I had to hit the keys pretty hard to get full volume out of the plugin. I sometimes adjust my controller’s midi velocity curve when I’m playing soft “delicate” parts.
Conveniently, Noire has a “dynamic range” knob on the front interface page, so that’s also helped me dial in a more consistent level from the instrument.
@@GregAllison Yes. Agreed. I also tweeked this knob to get more sound.
Hi I bought Noire after watching your video. And on my screen I don't see the piano notes from noire as you do on the botom, and I wanted to ask how you get to see them
Hi! That’s a Kontakt interface setting. Here’s a video for setting that up. ua-cam.com/video/4Bu6SF6pjyQ/v-deo.html
@@GregAllison tthanks
@@GregAllison also I have something weird that Noire sounds different when I play it on my midi then when I click the notes with my mouse
When you click, it is playing the MIDI note at full velocity (127). So it is essentially playing the loudest samples. Or is it sounding more like it’s glitched?
@@GregAllison yeah when I hit it with my mouse it sounds normal but when I play it with my keyboard it sounds muffled even when I try to hit it super hard
Nearly a 16 GB download for this!
Where is the voice output coming from?
The piano speakers or the laptop external speakers?
I recorded the audio straight from my Mac via the audio interface into a second PC where I recorded my microphone (for commentary), the laptop output (just playing Noire), and that’s about it.
Is there much of a point in getting this now that Piano Colors is out? What can this do that the other cannot?
While piano colors can create similar sounds to Noire, I believe the power of Noire lies in its attention to detail and delicacy. It is meant to be a rich and well-sampled grand piano. Piano colors is predominantly a sound design library that is built from piano samples.
I have Komplete 13 and an Arturia Keylab 61 MKII (+ a MACHINE) I cant find out how to Play Noire and Una Corda through my keyboard controller? Any Suggestions would be highly appreciated!
Hi Thom, my first thought is that it might be a MIDI channel issue. I had a similar thing happen with my controller where MIDI was sending out channel B (or 2) instead of A (1), so Kontakt couldn’t receive midi notes because the plug-ins were set to receive only on channel A.
@@GregAllison Thanks so much for the input Greg
Great review. How did you record the sound? Loopback audio interface? Portable recorder?
Great question. I have a 2 computer setup. My MacBook and my (gaming/streaming) pc. The pc has an HDMI capture card with a through port so I can record and see my main display that is captured by OBS
For the Audio, I have a TC Helicon GoXLR Mini connected to my pc that allows me to send audio from my Mac to my PC, as well as record the mic input. OBS is actually what records the video and audio sources.
I may end up making a video walkthrough of the setup!
@@GregAllison Thank you for sharing your setup. I tried to record the vst inside the reaper but it doesn’t sound good. I believe it needs to pass through some sort of audio interface to get better
thanks for the video, it lead me to purchase it, but i cant get a couple of the presets to work for example Playing at Home. it cuts out after one second and doesnt work, was wondering if you had similar issues. thanks
That sounds like a buffer size issue. In short, your computer is trying to process samples of audio, and due to the complexity/layers of the instrument, your computer may be having difficult playing and the samples are being cut off. Do you happen to know what your buffer size is for your DAW? It would be under preferences under audio settings.
@@GregAllison thanks for the response. I have it set to 64 samples using ASIO4ALL. I set it to 128 and it's working! Thank you now to figure out latency. Is an audio interface the answer there?
Glad to hear that’s helped with the issue! I believe the latency is mostly due to the CPU’s speed at processing the audio (affected by clock speed as well as the number of cores used in processing audio). Do you happen to know what processor your computer has? Or the model of your computer?
@@GregAllison I have a 6700k cpu. 4 cores
What DAW are you using? If you’re on a Mac with Logic Pro, I know it has a low latency function with may be able to help you when you’re playing/recording parts. If you’re on a PC, I’m sure there are other DAW-specific ways to lower your device’s latency without needing to buy new equipment.
13:08
Great video, thank you for creating this! When moving from preset to preset, did you change anything else or is this how they come out naturally? I just picked up Noire and am excited to explore.
Great question! I chose to leave the presets exactly how they loaded.
@@GregAllison awesome, thanks for such a quick reply. The presets are gorgeous so at least it's one less thing I have to fiddle with. :) Great vid! Would you consider making one for Noire Felt? Have a great holiday and New Year as well.
Possibly in the future! I believe Felt actually has the same presets, just with different samples for the instrument, so they have the same effects and processing, just different timbres.
hi, does it work on garageband?
Hello! I believe you can use 3rd Party Plug-ins like Kontakt in GarageBand!
Is it possible to decrease the volume of the sustain pedal release?
Nice name! Absolutely. There’s an entire page on the plugin’s interface where you can turn down mechanical noises as well as overtones, etc. This can be accessed by clicking the little piano tuning key icon on the top left.
What mic is that? Do you use any mixing plugins to get the sound?
I’m using a Røde Pod Mic. As far as effects, I run my mic through my GoXLR Mini interface with the built in noise gate, light compression, and some low and high shelf EQ.
@@GregAllison thanks!
hello is it true that you have to buy kontakt first and then buy noire otherwise you cant play the piano? or do you just have to buy Noire and the app where you play Noire in is free.
Great question! You don’t need to buy the full version of Kontakt. You can just download the free Kontakt Player to use purchased sample instruments. Check it out at www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/samplers/kontakt-6-player/
@@GregAllison wow that awesome! Thanks for the fast reply.
Nice video! what kind of technical specifications does your mac have? ram? do you think 8gb is enough?
I believe 8GB of RAM is enough for Music Production. Although to be safe, I would probably not aim for any less than 16GB. Music production can be heavy on your components, but it’s nowhere near as demanding as video editing.
For my Mac, I am blessed to have a near-max spec computer. I’m running a 2019 MacBook Pro 16” 2.4GHz 8-core i9, 64GB 2667MHz DDR4 memory, 4TB SSD (and several external hard drives for samples/storage) and a Radeon Pro 5500M GPU.
I’ll be the first to admit that my rig is overkill for what I do, however, it’s how I make a living and I plan to continue to make/mix music and take/edit photos for my income.
Hope that helps!
@@GregAllison You have a Monster! Hahahaha. I have a 2015 mac. 2,7 GHz Intel Core i5 dual-core 8 GB 1867 MHz DDR3, ssd 250. when I use kontakt in stand alone, Noire works fine. If I use it with Ableton Live and open 4-5 tracks with kontakt, the cpu goes haywire if noire is present, and especially if "particles"(noir) are active.
So I'm forced to increase the buffer with the latency problem while playing. The strange thing is that the problem I have only with Noire "particles" and I do not understand if it is a problem of external audio, or Ram. maybe i have to increase the ram but i have a mac 2015 where the ram is soldered to the board.The only possible update remains that of the HD SSD. Do you think it can solve the problem, increase the hard disk ssd?
Do you realize that now I work with just 40gb free out of 250 of capacity.
Anyway thank for your answer! :-)
Haha thanks. Its my understanding that the buffer size primarily affects the CPU’s ability to process and send out audio. Which is why when an instrument is loaded into RAM, your computer doesn’t have issues with playback or weird audio glitches. It’s when the project (including its instruments) exceeds the capacity of RAM is where it gives warnings and samples are dropped, causing clicks and pops.
A separate, but also annoying warning I used to get was “Hard Disk is too slow” or something like that, which was resolved by moving those samples to an SSD (either external or internal should solve that issues).
Something you can do in Kontakt is “purge” samples to help limit the load on your computer. It essentially only loads in the exact samples you’re using in that instance of Kontakt, freeing up some Ram usage. You’ll find Purge near the top where it states your Midi I/O channels as well as the instrument preset.
I used a 2011 21.5” iMac quad core i5, 500gb SSD, 8gb Ram, until March of this year, so I am familiar with the pain of using a slower computer for music production. Let me know if purging Samples when Noire is loaded helps at all!
@@GregAllison if I Understand, do you mean to delete the files of other virtual instruments, from the user folder? right?
Not deleting. It’s actually a function that “unloads” unused samples from Kontakt.
please can you share your pc specs and audio interface? i really want to buy this but i think that my intel i3 3225 and 8 gb ram won't be enough
It does sound like it might be a stretch with the i3. You may have some audio glitches when the particles engine is activated. I have a 16” MacBook Pro with an 8-core i9 with 64 GB of RAM (overkill, I know). My computer was a big investment when I began mixing and producing (full time) back in early 2020, so I chose not to cut any corners. For my interface, I use a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2. Hope that helps!
Great demos!
Ask me a question please: what is the version of this library?
A colleague said that version 1.1.0 has 14GB, but on the Native website it says that Noire has 16GB.
Valid question! My Noire Library folder is roughly 15.77 GB and I have the up-to-date version 1.1.0.
Got it, thanks for the feedback! This piano timbre is one of the most beautiful I've ever seen, when it comes to VSTI.
what desk do you have
Hello! My desk is actually a custom modified desk I got about 10 years ago back from Office Depot/Max. I needed more surface area for my workspace, so I bought a 5’x2.5’ piece of edge-glued pine from a home improvement store that I placed on top of the original frame of the desk. It gives me a good size space to work, considering the modification was only like $20.
Is Piano Colors superior or just different?
It’s just a different kind of piano plugin. I personally do not own Piano Colors yet, however, I’ve had a buddy let me play around on it and it’s a really cool sound design plug-in for layering different piano-inspired textures. It should be in a future Komplete edition when I upgrade, so I’ll hopefully own it then if it doesn’t end up going on sale this upcoming summer!
@@GregAllison I just bought the "Piano Suite" bundle with The giant, Una corda, Noire and Piano colors for just 199€!! ;)
Awesome! The NI Summer sales will be coming soon, so definitely keep an eye out!
im wanting to buy this i think i have enough power what do u think i have i i5-4200u dual core processor 2.3ghz 16gb ram 256SSD im not sure why my cpu usage is at like 30/40 percent on just a small file such as hybrid keys but when i use kontakt as a plug in via my daw it drops to like 10/15 percent. im worried about buying this vst and it doesnt work correctly and how do u install vsts into the ram instead of it being used directly through the cpu as i think this might be why its using so much. i have no drop outs or anything close to max cpu capacity. any thoughts would go a long way thanks
Hey Kyle! Based on what you’ve shared, it seems like the CPU might be the first thing to cause issues as your projects and instruments become more power hungry. I will say that 16GB of Ram is still a good amount for music production though.
You don’t actually install anything to RAM as it is designed to be a temporary placeholder for files that are established by the engineers and manufacturers. I would check out the minimum spec requirements (or suggested specs) stated by Native Instruments because I’ve had a good friend buy a VST, and his computer couldn’t even run it because it was an older MacBook Pro.
In a sense, I’m realizing I need to be cautious when I’m asked questions about computer specs and buying new instruments. I’m sure you can understand!
@@GregAllison I mean I have no issues running vsts with a 123ms buffer I never experience any drop outs or problems I'm just concerned that my CPU usage is overly high for such a small vst file when used in kontakt by it's self but when it's used via a plug in into my Daw the CPU usage dramitcally decreases and I can't for the life of me work out why. I'm confident I'll be able to run noire but maybe just without the partical engine as that looks very CPU hungry.
Greg... what cant you play haha
Bagpipes. He can’t play bagpipes
That’s fair.
But in my defense, almost nobody plays bagpipes anyway.
thats also a fair statement