Also, I sometimes notice that the PTQ sound sounds 'muddy' and/or harsh. Interesting fact: when I play piano on a later occasion, the sound is brilliant again. I've come to believe that my mood of the moment is a great factor of influence here. Any body who thinks the same?

Have a nice day!

very much so.
the frame of mind I'm in, is a huge factor. possibly the biggest. 
thank you for making that observation.
for me, its always true, whether I'm aware of it, in the moment, or not.

1)  If you happen to use other VST programs other than Pianoteq (Native Instruments, Hauptwerks, etc.), the VelPro lets you set your velocity curve ONCE which then is applied to all of your music virtual instrument programs.

2)  Specifically within Pianoteq, the velocity curves are saved with the FXP presets.  Therefore, many creators of presets use the velocity curves for creative purposes, making them flat for electronic instruments or simulations of (such as a modified piano that is made to sound like an organ), making them soft for delicate detailed instruments, or making them hard for instruments to sound bright and lively - if you use the Pianoteq velocity curve function to 'normalize' your hardware keyboard, and 'lock it' with the parameter freeze function, then you miss out on these characteristics of any presets that you may download.

dklein wrote:

... I will repeat that I am a fan of the third-party program "VelPro" by Springbeats

I think that I don't understand why one should want to use VelPro, since Pianoteq has the possibility to change the velocity curve as well (and to set various curves).
Is VelPro doing that job better than PTQ?

Also, I sometimes notice that the PTQ sound sounds 'muddy' and/or harsh. Interesting fact: when I play piano on a later occasion, the sound is brilliant again. I've come to believe that my mood of the moment is a great factor of influence here. Any body who thinks the same?

Have a nice day!

Velpro lets the user adjust the velocity response of each key individually., whereas the Pianoteq velocity curve sets all notes to the same curve.

... I will repeat that I am a fan of the third-party program "VelPro" by Springbeats

I think that I don't understand why one should want to use VelPro, since Pianoteq has the possibility to change the velocity curve as well (and to set various curves).
Is VelPro doing that job better than PTQ?

Also, I sometimes notice that the PTQ sound sounds 'muddy' and/or harsh. Interesting fact: when I play piano on a later occasion, the sound is brilliant again. I've come to believe that my mood of the moment is a great factor of influence here. Any body who thinks the same?

Have a nice day!

Incidentally, if you are unaware of the MODARTT web page of Piano-e-competition performances, I've a link to it.  You may find the performances interesting!

I knew about the e-competition but didn't know that Modartt had a special page for the midi files - thanks for the link! (Ah, they're just audio files, but at least the midi can be found on the e-competition website).

Happy to help . When I was new to Pianoteq (coming from the world of acoustic pianos) I lost count of the number of hours I spent trying to understand the velocity curve...

Know the feeling well!!!

Warmest regards,

Chris

Incidentally, if you are unaware of the MODARTT web page of Piano-e-competition performances, I've a link to it.  You may find the performances interesting!

You see I've assumed the Yamaha Disklavier Pro represents the caliber of the velocity which the PIANOTEQ Normal keyboard VELOCITY has been based.

Only as objectively as possible you have still to take into some account your playing ability, along with your honest mistakes, whenever you do the fine edit on your curve after your initial calibration.

A fair point. That's why I think it would be useful to have some benchmark audio files, i.e. 'this is what x preset should sound like if you are playing mezzo forte', etc. (Edit: it would be even better to have some test midi files that were calibrated to play accurately with the 'Normal keyboard' curve. Then we could make our own audio files from any preset, as desired).

For me, it's a big disappointment that it doesn't assign numerical values to the control points, as the Pianoteq curve does.

I agree; it certainly is disappointing.  Like the appearance of velocity curves in posted presets, some insist are artistic.  While dklein can vouch, empathically, I’m always failing to understand and get his designer velocity curves concept.  Which presumably he applies to all the curves showing up at FXP Corner.  I am attempting to account for none of them!  They’re just completely beyond my understanding and comprehension combined.  Imagined, they each might as well apply somehow magically to your board playing, be that on a Kawai, Yamaha, Roland, Casio, Disklavier or anything else.  It is as though one size was intended to fit all equally and just as artistically.

Suffice to say, my account is different.  I explain their appearing, differently; I see them more mistakes than I do art, admittedly.

Now in sharp contrast to any of the above rant, dazric, your idea that anybody should fine tune his velocity curve while he plays back his own recorded MIDI file is convincingly noteworthy, that is, if Guillaume will look into it.  Maybe he’ll see its potential enough to include it when next he updates a manual!

Only as objectively as possible you have still to take into some account your playing ability, along with your honest mistakes, whenever you do the fine edit on your curve after your initial calibration.

maybe someday they will have built in presets.   

since there are no built in presets, I'm not interested in it right now.

You get the Windows demo there!  Better yet, just click onto this link: VelPro Windows Demo Download.

the demo is for Mac only.

and there are many empty slots to create user presets.

I guess I would only get it if there were built in presets.

thanks again. 

Curious on the "only Apple" thing - I use mine on a Windows Surface via windows.