Some time ago I noticed that the hammer noise always sounds exactly the same. You can hear it pretty well when you click on a key on the GUI keyboard, hold down the mouse button, move the mouse "above" the keybaord (to assure the velocity of the notes is minimal) and then move your mouse left and right, so that a lot of notes will be triggered. Due to the low velocity you'll practically just hear the hammer noise and that it has this "machine-gun" kind of effect we know from samples (w/o round robin etc.).

I guess some kind of randomization could easily be introduced here?!? I'm not sure, whether this would actually result in any noticeable improvement, but my assumption is that it might help to create a feeling of the piano being more "alive"... if you know what I mean...

Wolfgang

Aah yes, but this isn't the actual noise I'm refering to, what you explained here is that dampening a vibrating string in different places are going to leave some overtones ringing do to the very nature of how waves work. The noise I'm referring to is that squerky or buzz noise as skip called it, that comes from the strings actually repeatedly hitting the damper. I expect this is probably very hard to do, but, I do feel the damper has sort of like a "fade out" character to it.. And I do have a half pedal or rather 4 different levels, so not fully continuous but still not just on/off.

And the NE window I haven't tried since I only have the play version and there don't seem to be a demo of pro..

oh and Philippe, I also have a totally unrelated question if you happen to pop by again; If I later were to upgrade from play to the standard version, will I get an additional year of free updates?

Thank you for your time.

The buzz noise itself is in the damper noise.

Concerning your other question: in each upgrade case (play->standard, play->pro, standard->pro), you are considered a new owner for the upgraded version, and thus you benefit from one year of free update calculated from the date of activation of the upgraded version.

EDIT: Re the sampled releases (damping sounds), I had forgotten that I had cranked the volume of the releases WAY up,  so I could really hear them. So, it's a CERTAINTY that I was not listening to something that was in any way authentic.

Greg.

EDIT: Ok, comparing with sampled releases, the sampled ones sometimes have a more chaotic sound right at the beginning.  Pianoteq's transition into the damped sound is very smooth - possibly smoother than the real thing. I don't have a real piano to compare with at the moment, but I have to be careful when comparing with a sampled piano, because the sampled one may not integrate the release samples with the sustain samples authentically.

Re: the song example ("Forces", by Bad Plus), I can't hear any interesting damping sounds in a YouTube recording I found, and nor did I notice any in an iTunes preview. I don't want to buy the song just so I can hear this damping effect. ;^) Do you have a publicly accessible recording you can point to?

Greg.

You have several controls on the noise produced by the dampers falling back on the strings. These controls are:

• Damper position in the action panel (pianoteq standard and pro versions). The damper position determines the overtones that are badly dampened. These overtones are approximately multiples of the string length ratio where the damper lies. For example if the damper lies at 1/7th of the string, then overtones 7, 14, 21 … will be badly dampened.

• Damping duration in the action panel (pianoteq standard and pro). The longer the duration, the more the badly dampened overtones keep on ringing.

• Damper noise in the NE window (pianoteq pro only).

These effects are mostly noticeable when releasing the key slowly (which requires a keyboard sending note-off velocity and setting an appropriate note-off curve in the velocity panel (click several times on the velocity button to display the note-off curve)), or when releasing slowly the sustain pedal (requires a progressive pedal).

Aah yes, but this isn't the actual noise I'm refering to, what you explained here is that dampening a vibrating string in different places are going to leave some overtones ringing do to the very nature of how waves work. The noise I'm referring to is that squerky or buzz noise as skip called it, that comes from the strings actually repeatedly hitting the damper. I expect this is probably very hard to do, but, I do feel the damper has sort of like a "fade out" character to it.. And I do have a half pedal or rather 4 different levels, so not fully continuous but still not just on/off.

And the NE window I haven't tried since I only have the play version and there don't seem to be a demo of pro..

oh and Philippe, I also have a totally unrelated question if you happen to pop by again; If I later were to upgrade from play to the standard version, will I get an additional year of free updates?

Thank you for your time.

Considering that:
a)  My mother was born in 1915,
b) There are Dominion pianos that were built circa 1900 that have newer styling than "our" Dominion, it's quite apparent that the piano dated fairly well back into the 1800's.
c)  The styling of the topic piano looks newer and cleaner than the Dominion.

Our family piano had been played a lot (my grandmother and mother were piano teachers), so it was an interesting piece of furniture full of junk parts.

The reason for my rambling, is to illustrate why I don't have much use for unregulated, clickety-clackety, squeaky, thumpy pianos - I've spent too much time on them already.

The subject piano introduced by Mario is interesting and parts of the sound are OK, but it reminds me too much of the piano I grew up on.

Glenn

Thanks!

Greg.

• Damper position in the action panel (pianoteq standard and pro versions). The damper position determines the overtones that are badly dampened. These overtones are approximately multiples of the string length ratio where the damper lies. For example if the damper lies at 1/7th of the string, then overtones 7, 14, 21 … will be badly dampened.

• Damping duration in the action panel (pianoteq standard and pro). The longer the duration, the more the badly dampened overtones keep on ringing.

• Damper noise in the NE window (pianoteq pro only).

These effects are mostly noticeable when releasing the key slowly (which requires a keyboard sending note-off velocity and setting an appropriate note-off curve in the velocity panel (click several times on the velocity button to display the note-off curve)), or when releasing slowly the sustain pedal (requires a progressive pedal).

Rytmenpinne wrote:

then I mostly refer to what I started the thread with, damper to a vibrating string noise which all pianos have. New, as old and worn.

Do you mean the buzzy sound that can sometimes occur, if the dampers are lowered slowly? That would be a cool thing, yes.

Greg.

That is precisely what I mean

then I mostly refer to what I started the thread with, damper to a vibrating string noise which all pianos have. New, as old and worn.

Do you mean the buzzy sound that can sometimes occur, if the dampers are lowered slowly? That would be a cool thing, yes.

Greg.

http://www.youtube.com/user/latribe#p/s...9vbJxPhN3Y

Tuned to an unequal temperament, by the way. A well temp., I think.

But this example is unfair? I do take the point that a good, well-regulated piano is better than an old wreck of a piano. But there are some old pianos out there that gain beauty with age and the effects of time...And some sample libraries make a point of being based on aged pianos, even being advertising as old, if not exactly coo-coo clock befouling  instruments.

(OT: There are several other videos of that piano played at Emeson College (UK) on that site. Some beautiful Liszt pieces and another Schumann piece. Some of them bring out the flaws in the instrument more than the above video.)

The only thing which seems to be of great importance is that the amount to which each of this funky bits are added can be controlled by the user (fortunately, this seems to have always been natural to the Modartt team ).

BTW, there is an Italian programmer of VST plugins (Genuine Soundware) who has developed an awesome modelled Hammond plugin called VB3 and one of his advertising tags is "imperfection is a feature"...
And what would a perfect Hammond organ sound like? Like a couple of pure sine waves stacked upon each other...horrible thought!

Oh yes...certainly an intersting idea, Greg. Though I dislike the idea of having to buy a second copy of pianoteq, cause mine doesn't sound that good... xD

Greg.

Jake, I'm sure if you drive out to Vancouver Island, we can round up a few more of the beauties that you like so much.  Some of these babies are worth less than their equivalent weight in firewood (firewood is already cut into usable lengths and split).

Right now, I'm going to have a look in the cuckoo clock - it's been in storage for quite a few years, and who knows what might be in there now.

Glenn