Tough challenge don't want brittle tone but don't want muddy non distinctive high notes either.

But in context this high note brittleness does not stop me from the Pianoteq 6 being my favorite and default acoustic piano. And recognize my system has a lot to do with it.

Monitors vs headphones seem to help the brittleness problem - perhaps the room mitigates the brittleness.

Just to follow up and say that I've improved the brittleness in the end by:
... and most significantly, by having to resort to adjusting the Velocity curve downwards a little and accepting that for my keyboard I'm therefore not going to get the range of dynamics I'd like. The velocity curve seems to have by far the biggest effect on tone of any of the other potential adjustments.

Do you have the pro version or not?  The best way to correct it would be to adjust the dynamics of the offending notes in the note edit of the pro version and for the most part change nothing else.
FWIW, I just use a completely linear velocity curve on the Casio with the ends flatten out in a way that more velocity is created at some what less than the highest output of the Casio, and soft end is modified similarly where I believe a key stroke of something less than a totally soft tone produces a soft tone, or perhaps the opposite. The velocity curve is something that is in fact rather hard to comprehend.  I can figure it out at the keyboard, but not now away from the Pianoteq software.

Are there videos that show exactly what every adjustment of the pro-version does and how to go about adjusting the various parameters?  I don't understand what I believe is called the "sound spectrum" at all.

Here's what I want to know:  Are the Pianoteq "pianos" just built from tweaking the parameters of the pro version or are they something else to which pro-version tweaks can be applied?  In other words could any alleged piano be created by just adjusting the various parameters of the pro version, or is something more required that the end user does not have access to?

Lanny

- increasing the 1st fundamental slightly
- moving the microphones away from the keyboard slightly

... and most significantly, by having to resort to adjusting the Velocity curve downwards a little and accepting that for my keyboard I'm therefore not going to get the range of dynamics I'd like. The velocity curve seems to have by far the biggest effect on tone of any of the other potential adjustments.

(Has anyone else developed a good velocity curve for the Avantgrand N2?)

As for bass, my Emotiva 8" Bas-X subwoofer that I added, with the crossover and the volume set really low, gives the realistic visceral 'feel' that I was lacking before, but if I turn up it's relative volume or extend its range, things get really muddy really quickly.

An analogy:  If you have ever had access to a 97-note Bösendorfer, whose lowest note went down to the C below the normally lowest A note, the piano does NOT sound bassier (unless those low notes are specifically played -- and that is hardly ever in classical repertoire).  This is because those longer strings resonate at the same higher pitches as their harmonic neighbors when the damper pedal is pressed.

Cheers,

Joe

P.S.  I would agree that a 4" woofer cannot physically excite enough air pressure to recreate the fundamental frequencies of the lowest octave of notes, with much accuracy.  Yes, they can reproduce "something", but that something is nowhere the same as the original volume of the same low frequency.  (Hint, that's why there are no commercially successful powered subwoofers with 4" cones.)

Sorry, I do not wish to sound condescending to you in any personal way.  On some models, people will rave about them and others will hear things that drive them crazy.  This is true on Grotrian, Blüthner, Steinway D & B, and others.  Obviously, if a great number of users complain about a certain note on a certain piano, played at a certain velocity, then Modartt may do something about it in a free upgrade.
Joe

I certainly agree.  The B Steinway drives me nuts from low C on down.  I think it must by my small 4" woofer which is just not bassy enough.  Too much harmonics and not enough fundamental, but I don't know how to adjust or possibly tune the harmonics even with the pro version.  Changing the string length dosen't help at all in my particular case.  Same lousy sound just produced by an alleged longer string.  The other models I have such as the K2, Bluthner, and historic models don't have the same issue.

http://www.forum-pianoteq.com/file/183mhzu4

By the way, I was not criticizing the Grotrian's sound in general. I was just trying to adapt it to this very demanding Chopin piece with a lot of high register ff notes where the hammer noise could be too obvious. As was mentioned, Chopin composed these pieces for a much softer instrument and I'm sure concert pianists have to adapt their playing to modern grands so as not to overemphasize.

Another way is to reduce the hammer noise only in the high register with the Pro version. Here is part of of the Ballade on a modified Grotrian Recording 3 preset :

http://www.forum-pianoteq.com/uploads.p...nd2.xp.mp3

Too bad I can't upload as wav or flac, a lot of details get blurred with mp3 in my opinion...

Thanks Gilles, I like that sound very much. Unfortunately I only have Standard, so I can't modify selected notes. Would you be kind enough to upload an fxp?
On the subject of distant mics, there is an fxp 'Grotrian Distant', uploaded by Nathan Shirley, which works well (IMO) for classical recordings, especially if you are not a fan of 'head stuck inside the piano lid' style micing.
As for the K2, it's just one of the very few instruments I just don't 'get' in v6. I can't say I care much for the YC5 either - but then I suppose I'm lucky to have so many other piano (and other) sounds in Pianoteq which I do enjoy very much! We can't all like everything...

http://www.forum-pianoteq.com/viewtopic...73&p=2