Much, much to try with these pianos.

The effect is rather nice and clear while not being too "in your face."  These are _very_ "mixey" pianos (I've been playing them with drum and flute accompaniment today -- quite excellent!), so I could easily imagine them as being perfect for jazz (I'll even invoke Bill Evans here;  I think he would have a decent, if not even excellent, time with these sounds, being the intelligent, forward-thinking pianist he was).

Too bad the real Yamahas literally (and, IMHumO, negatively) crap out in the bass, too.  They definitely need good equalizing there!  (Which, of course, is much more easily accomplished in the virtual world than in the real world.)  My Kawai upright beat the pants off of that already-beaten-and-battered Yamaha grand from school in the battle of the basses.

I updated my profile with a technical signature. Sorry I hadn't done that before--I know that makes everyone's job a bit easier.

I haven't reverted to 3.0.4 to confirm, I just know that I used to play at 192 samples with 3.0.4 with no glitches, but I had to up it to 320 samples with 3.0.5 to avoid any glitches.

But again, I want to congratulate and thank you all so much for the new Rock add-on. I just purchased it after more testing. It really is sitting well with mixes for me in Rock, Folk, and Blues contexts. It feels more forward to me,  or "focused," as dhalfen said above, and it feels like it can get more "intimate" to me than any of your other models. It sounds fantastic to my ear so far. And you nailed the top end of the keyboard. The Yamaha kind of "craps out" up there in a cool way, and I think you captured that.

3.0.5 seems to be taking a bigger hit on my CPU than 3.0.4 did. I don't know why, but I'm getting a lot more audio glitches. Hmm. Odd.

On which setup (host, cpu, preset, etc) ? Is it something that you can confirm if you reinstall version 3.0.4 ? I've been comparing the standalone of v3.0.3, v3.0.4 and v3.0.5 and did not find any difference in performance. Feel free to contact us on http://www.pianoteq.com/support_form

A rock piano has to sound *very* different than a classical piano. It needs to have a harder attack, a more limited dynamic range, a more metallic overtone, and be brighter. I think for the most part, the Pianoteq team got it right.

Playing along with a Bruce Hornsby mix and a Springsteen mix both fared well. The model cut through the mix well with no EQ, which isn't easy on a dense mix. I recorded (and played) a C5 for years at a studio where I used to engineer, and this model sounds very similar. I especially like the "Studio Close Mic" and the "Studio Mix Recording" patches for these purposes.

Again, for classical music, I'm never going to reach for a Yamaha C5. But for rock, folk, or pop, I'm always going to be interested in at least hearing a C5. Heck, that's most of the work I do these days. I'm really, really glad the Pianoteq team spent time on this model. I had tweaked the C3 model pretty hard to fit into a dense mix, but I think the YC5 will sit in there without too much tweaking.

One thing I'm noticing, though:
3.0.5 seems to be taking a bigger hit on my CPU than 3.0.4 did. I don't know why, but I'm getting a lot more audio glitches. Hmm. Odd.

I just don't like the overall sound much at all, and I think this is mostly my objection to the piano more than Pianoteq's modelling.   Aside from this though, I think the attacks often sound like the felts are too soft, and I notice this all over the place in many of Pianoteq's acoustic pianos.  When I switch to sampled pianos, the extra crispness is really noticable.

Aside from that, I do like the detail in the low notes of this C5 add-on.

My favourite Pianoteq piano is still Erard.

Greg.

After that, about 1/3 of the notes could become disabled (far more than are currently disabled in the demo).

I think this would be fair (if it's easy to implement), especially for users who own the other licenses.

:-)

(P.S. - Yes, these pianos definitely grow on you!  I played a C5 in high school [it was the "band-room" grand, choke, cough], and I wasn't terribly fond of it.  Of course, the school didn't exactly tune/regulate the dang thing at _all_, so the comparison wouldn't be fair.)

The playability it's very good, and it have a nice dynamic.

I would like that Modartt could give just 5 days of full keyboard notes available, for pianoteq forum members. After the 5 days the mute keys would be back to normal.

Well, let's see what people, familiarized with Yamaha C5, will say about this digital modelled version.

Minutes latter...    Well I tried it.  The emulations seens ok to me, despite never played a rea Yamaha C5.  I mean it seens natural, like a real piano. 
Just the lack of woodness that still are present, but also present in some samples, since it's perhaps like the way it is recorded, geting a too pure sound.

The fact is that Yamaha is a well know name, but that do not means a excellent piano.  While Stewinway manufacture one piano, Yamaha manufacture 25, or someting like that.

I notice few characteristics, like a kind of change in "sound essence" from one note to another, Like D3 to E3. I supose the original it's that way too.

I'm not a fan of "piano rock tuning".  But Modartt probably made a good job creating this add on.  For who likes Yamaha it's a very good option.

The mid and low registers, though, suffer to my ears from the same artificial colorations that I disliked in the earlier C1 and C2 that were notably corrected since the C3 was introduced.

Strange. Maybe due to a compromise in the modelling of high and low registers.

Freezing all parameters and applying it to the other presets shows that this singing tone is really part of the YC5 itself and not a simple tweaking of parameters. In fact, the Erard sound much too bright when doing this.

Greg.

Which sample set are you using that you like for rock playing?

Also, I want lots of shimmering metallic overtones for rock - so far I have only heard this kind of thing in the Pianoteq CP80 - none of the acoustics quite manage it. (IMHO of course)  I've recently acquired a sampled piano which is mostly for rock, and whilst it doesn't have the playability of Pianoteq, it has the metallic quality in spades.

Greg.

While I wasn't exactly drooling over the prospect of these new pianos, I now find myself rather excited by them, despite some initial apathy!  The "Stage" has perhaps the fullest sound (I prefer the "Solo Recording" and "Player" settings), whereas the "Studio" has the tightest, most focused response (again, "Solo" and "Player"), whereas the "Chamber" is easily a (somewhat successful) cross between the two extremes ("Detuned" has a lot of character). 

(I think the Chamber gets a bit too muddy too easily -- the "singing tone" comes with a cost and demands some noodling.  If I play it sparingly, though, it has plenty of rich colour, perfect for more restrained, intimate thoughts.  It's kinda like fudge:  tastes good, but can be awfully rich, and you've had enough rather quickly.  However, I _love_ its upper registers!)

The bass on all three pianos needs a bit of added "oomph," not to mention better-defined character;  Studio has the best (read: more than passable) bottom, but the other two definitely require "help" (here comes the attack of the external EQs to firm 'em up!!!)  Even with that help, however, they still sound muddy and lack punch.  Compared to the penetrating, expansive basses of the C3 and M3, though, the new guys are just too "boxy" (or something like that, I guess...), even when I'm just playing staccato.

After all that, I'm now playing with the new guys through the amps, and I have to say:  yummy!  I may actually ignore the vibes for the first time in 2+ months...  (Muddiness is definitely _not_ an issue when you add the FUZZ!!!  Back to the lab...)