Garritan Abbey Road CFX Lite Virtual Piano

Name: Garritan Abbey Road CFX Lite Virtual Piano
Brand: Garritan
Rating: 4.5 (29 reviews)

Yamaha CFX Concert Grand Piano Virtual Instrument Recorded at Abbey Road Studios - Mac/PC AAX, VST, AU

29 reviews Write your review Item ID: CFXLite

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Most software is compatible with both Mac and Windows computers, but check to make sure.

If you're using Pro Tools, AAX plug-ins (or RTAS for older versions) are what you need. Most other Mac DAWs support AU plug-ins. VST is compatible with a number of Mac and Windows programs. Be sure you choose plug-ins that work with your DAW!

To learn more about software compatibility, check out our buying guide.

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CFX Lite

At Sweetwater, you'll find an extensive selection of acoustic grand piano virtual instruments, but even among these, the Garritan Abbey Road CFX Concert Grand stands out. That's because this instrument combines three extremely cool elements in a way that offers authenticity, sonic clarity, and flexibility. First off, Garritan chose a premium Yamaha CFX Concert Grand piano, which is one of the most astounding instruments of its type ever produced. Next, they recorded it extensively in Abbey Road Studios' Studio One, one of the best-sounding recording rooms on the planet. Finally, they put it all together in their ARIA Player, offering you a ton of playing expression for live performance and musical composition.

Garritan CFX Lite gives you a streamlined sample set curated from the full version CFX Concert Grand, retaining all the expressive detail of the original. Note: CFX Lite offers one mic perspective — Close Classic — instead of the three (Classic, Contemporary, and Player) included with the full version.

Garritan Abbey Road CFX Lite Features:

Streamlined soundset of Garritan's CFX Concert Grand
The realistic sound of a Yamaha CFX Concert Grand piano recorded in one of the best sounding rooms on Earth
Hand-built Yamaha CFX Concert Grand piano is one of the finest pianos money can buy
All samples recorded using top-of-the-line equipment by the expert staff at Abbey Road Studios
Recordings capture the warmth and natural reverb of Abbey Road Studios' Studio One
Includes 1 mic perspective (Close Classic)
Aria Player supports AAX, VST, and AU plug-in hosts on Mac and Windows PCs

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Tech Specs

Software Type: CFX Lite Virtual Piano
Platform: Mac, PC
Upgrade/Full: Full
Download/Boxed: Download
Bit Depth: 64-bit
Format: AAX, VST, AU
Hardware Requirements - Mac: Multi-core Processor, 8GB RAM or more recommended, SSD Hard Drive, 22GB drive space
Hardware Requirements - PC: Multi-core Processor, 8GB RAM or more recommended, SSD Hard Drive, 22GB drive space
OS Requirements - Mac: macOS 10.12 or later
OS Requirements - PC: Windows 8.1 or later
Manufacturer Part Number: 13-GCFXLTDCO

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Customer Reviews

4.5 out of 5

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I mostly used Waves Gold before this and tested a few plugins, but this is perhaps the most realistic grand I have heard in a plugin. Can't recommend it enough. For the price, I don't see anything else that touches it.

I bought Garritan CFX Lite v1.010 a few days ago - with some risk since I have a 10-year old laptop PC (i3-4000M, 4Gb RAM, spinning HDD not SSD) that doesn't meet the published required specs (multicore CPU, 8Gb RAM, and SSD) to run CFX Lite. But the demos sounded great, and I gave it a try.

Using the standalone player, the Compact sample sets worked fine and fit comfortably in my available RAM. The Full samples sound better, and I wanted to try to use those. However, using the Full samples eventually led to stutters and increased latency after playing for about 5-15 minutes as the RAM Total usage approached the Max Engine RAM Allocation setting (I tried 1Gb, 1.25Gb, 1.5Gb, 2Gb, and 3Gb). At that point, as disk drive was accessed more frequently, it couldn't load new samples fast enough. A higher RAM Allocation setting deferred the onset of the stutter but didn't prevent it. So my options were to to add more RAM to my PC and/or to replace the HDD with an SSD. Taking the cheaper and easier route first, I bought a compatible additional 4Gb RAM upgrade for $, installed it into the laptop, so now have 8Gb total RAM.

I'm happy to say this fixed the problem, so now I can set Max Engine RAM Allocation to 4Gb, and only if the RAM Total rises above 4Gb do I potentially get the stutter and latency problems. After an hour of playing, I did hit the 4Gb threshold, but no stutter or increased latency - probably because most of the notes and layers I typically played were already in RAM. I can optionally add a Reverb and play with no stutter or latency issues. To lessen the memory usage I load the smaller size preset Full 00_Default_Nosoftped which the same sample set as the Full 00_Default, less the soft pedal samples. I don't use a soft pedal, so those extra samples are not needed.

Other parameters in my below-spec configuration that work well are: ASIO4ALL v2 audio driver, sample rate 48000 Hz, buffer size 128 bytes, Inst. Disk Pre-Caching 128kb. I also turn on Airplane Mode so Windows doesn't try to sneak in a Windows Update download while I'm playing.

Bottom line this is a great piano implemented with stable software with a variety of sized sample sets and adjustable user settings that accomodate various hardware configurations.

I am using this VST with my Casio GP310, and it is truly fantastic. Choose the "01-Full - 000 Default" option in the presets menu and you get the perfect grand piano sound after only slight modifications. I initially thought it might be a problem to download 20 GB over the internet, but the zip folder provided turned out to be only 2.4 GB and that was no problem at all. At first, I repeatedly got some annoying crackling when played with pedal but somebody in an internet forum told me I should reduce the Max RAM allocation to 1.5 GB and pre-caching to 32 kB and that helped. No more crackling. The sound is so good, I can hardly imagine the full version provides additional benefit. Buy the Lite version and you get the best VST available.

...there is a trick I found in a forum.
Windows user can exclude the Garritan-Folder from the defender/antivirus scan. This shortens the loading time enormously.
Of course at your own risk. But it helped me tremendously!

Start Menu -> Settings -> Update & Security -> Windows Security -> Virus & Threat Protection -> Manage Settings (under Virus & threat protection settings) -> Add or remove exclusions (under Exclusions) -> Add an exclusion -> Folder -> Select folder where Garritan is installed -> Click select folder -> done!

This is an excellent library. The most natural sound I found so far. Gonna upgrade to full version soon.
Highly recommended.

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