And at any rate, any of the four demos show Pianoteq in a very good light IMO.  Certainly would be hard for me to imagine someone easily choosing the NI or Ivory pianos over Pianoteq after hearing those demos side-by-side.  The East West pianos also sound great to my ears.

I am somewhat troubled by the clipping of note G6 (at the very beginning) as rendered by The EastWest Bosendorfer and Bechstein samples.  This same effect occurs in a number of other locations throughout the piece.  The clipping is less noticeable in the EastWest Steinway, but is still there.  It also occurs in the Native Instruments renderings.

My own Roland KR7 can render this G6 note (with a duration of almost two measures) quite nicely as can Pianoteq.

I suspect that sample based software can't read the nuances of Pedal Controls (from zero to 127) that some pianos can produce and it sometimes produces odd results when rendered by samples.  Looking at the Event List of the midi file, it's apparent that the performer's piano generates Control 64 values other than zero, 64 and 127.

You describe the presets as "glassy." How did you create the sound that you prefer? (If I'm not mistaken, I think the sound that you're describing as glassy may come from the way that the presets are intended as almost perfect--the direct sound & soundboard contribute equally to the timbre. Much of the smooth sound comes from the soundboard.)

I tend to move both the Direct Sound and the Impedance sliders much closer to the far left. Then detune the unisons a little more by moving the Unison slider to the right a bit.

Is this what you did to create the less perfect sound that you prefer?

Guillame, sorry you don't feel my file put Pianoteq's best foot forward!  It was all sort of accidental - just a casual post on vi-control which ended up with Bryla's group of files.

You sure like glassy sounding pianos!  Or maybe it's me that has a thing for small, warm sounding instruments.  Honestly, there's great and not so great aspects to all four Pianoteq mp3's referenced here, but I do like mine a wee bit better.  Perhaps Pianoteq is better represented at East West than your predilection for bright sound leads you to conclude?  If my piano sounded that bright I'd have a tech in here pinning the hammers in a flash...I'm just noodling, not pounding out Liszt though.

And at any rate, any of the four demos show Pianoteq in a very good light IMO.  Certainly would be hard for me to imagine someone easily choosing the NI or Ivory pianos over Pianoteq after hearing those demos side-by-side.  The East West pianos also sound great to my ears.

one other thing has to be understood I never wrote that EW was a bad product its just doesn't do it for me

For the Love of the music

Thomas

I am note quite sure which variant I prefer among the three because I often change my mind, and none of them is as good (*) as the B variant described in the post from 17-07-2008 which I think fits the best to the style of this piece.

(*) of course this is a pure matter of taste

[Edit] correction: I used cubase for exporting the audio file because I needed to augment the tempo to 90 for having the same tempo as the original demos.

May I ask what software version of Pianoteq you used in this thread, and also which sequencer and version number you bounced it with?

@ranger: As Nick Phoenix states in the thread linked to on vi-control is that the Yamaha preset is not suited for this piece.

Best,
Thomas

I agree that EW trys to make their demo better, but still pianoteq shines

Hi,

Thought I'll just comment on this thread, since it is me playing and I did the test. Nick Phoenix from EastWest only made the audio-files for the EWQL Pianos! As stated early the pianoteq version was made by Johnny Marks from vi-control and the rest was made by me. If Johnny Marks choose the not-so-optimal preset for the demo it was not to make it look bad.
Nick Phoenix also followed the rules of not tweaking any preset or the midi-file.

@Guillaume: I own the full copyright, so the midi-file is only for the purpose of this test

BTW I really like the C2 Chamber!

Best wishes
Thomas Bryla

    With more woodness, soft warm sound, Pianoteq would be incredible and clear superior to all those EQWL pianos.

(*) For best results, a midi file should be exported to audio in the exact conditions in which it was recorded by the pianist, because the pianist always adapts his play to what he hears and the subtility of his play can be lost by changing instrument.