Phil did a great piece on YouTube about how he makes Pianoteq sound good, and in that he said that he didn't like playing Bechstein's with the PHA-50 as the PHA-50 has a Steinway feel, so that combination felt strange to him. That sensitivity to the touch of the keyboard is a long, long way from where I am.

I'm also lucky enough to have a Kawai CA97, and going back to after the PHA-4, it felt amazing.

NickieFønshauge wrote:

Jake Johnson wrote:

Is it possible to output Pianoteq from the Roland FP 10’s speakers? With good results? I’ve liked the sound of the FP10, and wondered if the speakers are in any way tuned for pianos.

I'm not sure you can on the older models. It is, however, possible on the FP-30X, BUT you can not switch off the internal sound, so really not a good idea .

If you can see Roland FP-10 as an audio driver in Pianoteq you can do it, but, as stated above, it's not a very good idea unless you want to layer the internal sound with Pianoteq.

I'm using the Roland FP-30X as well. You can turn off the internal sound by switching off Local Control (Function + F#2). This way you can play just pianoteq through the piano's speakers... doesn't really sound that great even compared to my cheap surround speakers, but it'd work in a pinch.

Ah yes, you're absolutely right. I hadn't noticed that setting, I just saw the Speaker Switch setting and thought that was it. Thanks. I still prefer to play through my  inexpensive speakers, though. They sound much better.

Jake Johnson wrote:

Is it possible to output Pianoteq from the Roland FP 10’s speakers? With good results? I’ve liked the sound of the FP10, and wondered if the speakers are in any way tuned for pianos.

I'm not sure you can on the older models. It is, however, possible on the FP-30X, BUT you can not switch off the internal sound, so really not a good idea .

If you can see Roland FP-10 as an audio driver in Pianoteq you can do it, but, as stated above, it's not a very good idea unless you want to layer the internal sound with Pianoteq.

I'm using the Roland FP-30X as well. You can turn off the internal sound by switching off Local Control (Function + F#2). This way you can play just pianoteq through the piano's speakers... doesn't really sound that great even compared to my cheap surround speakers, but it'd work in a pinch.

Is it possible to output Pianoteq from the Roland FP 10’s speakers? With good results? I’ve liked the sound of the FP10, and wondered if the speakers are in any way tuned for pianos.

I'm not sure you can on the older models. It is, however, possible on the FP-30X, BUT you can not switch off the internal sound, so really not a good idea .

If you can see Roland FP-10 as an audio driver in Pianoteq you can do it, but, as stated above, it's not a very good idea unless you want to layer the internal sound with Pianoteq.

"Ling Ling practises for 40 hours a day...

He must have a time machine

studiosnch wrote:

The PHA-4 is still the best there is around.

I totally disagree... sorry! And I'm not going to extol any other keyboard action above the rest either...

I'm simply going to say that it's what you get used to you can buy a £50,000 grand and hate it initially, but give yourself time and you will settle down and start to love it's unique character. The difficulty lies, when you have to play several different instruments and you don't have the time to become familiar with the touch / feel of the keyboard.

In my case I have two 88-note weighted digital pianos; one is soft the other quite hard. After playing the soft one I find my fingers aren't holding the notes down as well on the hard one and get a lot of undesirable repeated notes, especially with rolled chords. But after a short while re-familiarising myself with the 'action' I'm fine!
    Also when I played an acoustic piano recently, at first I sounded like a beginner, but after a few scales and things managed to get the piano to respond as I wanted and coming home afterwards - found I absolutely adored the soft piano it felt harder and chunky under my fingers. It also takes a bit of time to adapt to the springy plastic keys of my arranger keyboard and digital accordion - but after a while the touch becomes once again 'familiar'.
   There is no 'perfect' or 'best' - it's a salesman's pitch device. The best we can do is practice!

Sorry to be provocative...

No, you're not being provocative here. As a matter of fact, your opinion here is the same as mine. There is really no "best" action for playing the piano. It's really just a matter of becoming familiar to its ups and downs (pun intended). What I really wanted to say there was, given the price-to-performance of the PHA-4 action, it can be

As the TwoSet fans would say, "Ling Ling practices for 40 hours a day, so GO PRACTICE!"

One thing that mentally changes how the piano 'feels' is the volume response curve.  As Modartt discusses in how to set things up, you can use concave up or concave down volume curves to accomodate you touch and the sound on 'soft' or 'hard' keyboards, respectively.  And this can be done with a 'global curve' that will still allow individual curves per preset for 'artistic and creative effects' (such as a flat line for harpsichord presets, etc.).

Thanks for your comment.

I am already experimenting with 'volume response curves' or Velocity Curves as I call them. Here's a link to the method I use (just click on the image below)

One thing that mentally changes how the piano 'feels' is the volume response curve.  As Modartt discusses in how to set things up, you can use concave up or concave down volume curves to accomodate you touch and the sound on 'soft' or 'hard' keyboards, respectively.  And this can be done with a 'global curve' that will still allow individual curves per preset for 'artistic and creative effects' (such as a flat line for harpsichord presets, etc.).  Furthermore, if you use multiple 'real' keyboards with Pianoteq, or use multiple VSTs with your one (or more) digital keyboard, and external volume curve manager such as VelPro by Springbeats (https://springbeats.com/velpro/) allows multiple selectable custom curves to be chosen.  I started using this at the advice of the Modartt folks before Pianoteq had a global curve, and I continue to use it just for ease and tweakability (I sent them photos of my piano that they use on their home page example)

Definitely a way to change the 'feel' of any keyboard, at least mentally.

The PHA-4 is still the best there is around.

I totally disagree... sorry! And I'm not going to extol any other keyboard action above the rest either...

I'm simply going to say that it's what you get used to you can buy a £50,000 grand and hate it initially, but give yourself time and you will settle down and start to love it's unique character. The difficulty lies, when you have to play several different instruments and you don't have the time to become familiar with the touch / feel of the keyboard.

In my case I have two 88-note weighted digital pianos; one is soft the other quite hard. After playing the soft one I find my fingers aren't holding the notes down as well on the hard one and get a lot of undesirable repeated notes, especially with rolled chords. But after a short while re-familiarising myself with the 'action' I'm fine!
    Also when I played an acoustic piano recently, at first I sounded like a beginner, but after a few scales and things managed to get the piano to respond as I wanted and coming home afterwards - found I absolutely adored the soft piano it felt harder and chunky under my fingers. It also takes a bit of time to adapt to the springy plastic keys of my arranger keyboard and digital accordion - but after a while the touch becomes once again 'familiar'.
   There is no 'perfect' or 'best' - it's a salesman's pitch device. The best we can do is practice!

Sorry to be provocative...

You are lucky! FP-10 has perfect action with escapement (key-off) technology. Phil Best mentions that Roland keyboards are perfect for Pianoteq's Staeinway D & B. Please share your opinion.

I think Phil has a Roland digital piano with the PHA-50 action, not the PHA-4 that the FP-10 has.
I own an FP-30 (same PHA-4 action), and personally I find it sluggish, since the uptake is quite slow,
making trills sound mushy and needed more finger energy to perform. And the escapement "feel" doesn't
really make a huge difference when compared to its competitors since it's so subtle.

Although -- if given the chance, I'd rather play on the PHA-50 or Kawai's GrandFeel 3 action. Those are superb.
I had the chance to play on a Roland HP-702 (with the PHA-4 action) and a GP-607 (with the PHA-50 action)
and I preferred the feel more on the latter.

It's a learning experience though. And when compared to the competition, the PHA-4 is still the "best" there is around.

Edited: Added quote marks.

Click on the 'Options' button (top right) and then 'Devices'. Make sure that 'Listen to all MIDI inputs' is selected. If your cable is OK and the piano is switched on (!), you should see 'Roland FP-10' listed in the box.

Thank you, dazric, it works, great