Should the felts be tinner int hat area?

About the humanizing feature, I'm curious if in a true felt piano the unison get some aleatory variation.

The think about the "humanize" function is that if you play a note on a real piano 10 times you will get a slightly different sound every time. Unless it's a completely prestine, perfectly new high end grand that can reproduce the same sound every single time.

Putting that on the unison is a good idea, because that will create a slightly different timbre every time you hit a key. Maybe "realize" would be the better name, but I guess "humanize" is more clear as to what it does.

Good points indeed.

Putting that on the unison is a good idea, because that will create a slightly different timbre every time you hit a key. Maybe "realize" would be the better name, but I guess "humanize" is more clear as to what it does.

personally, i'd like to see the Humanize feature on as many parameters possible.  of course it makes no physical sense to have string length changing according to some drastic probability distribution, but it could potentially be very cool.  could lead to some really interesting sounds.

Agreed!

Gilles wrote:

It's also possible that it's based on the idea that on a real piano each hammer strike can be slightly misaligned and hit the two or three strings of the note at a slightly different place and generate some slightly varying beatings, maybe also as a function of velocity...not sure about that, Philippe would have to confirm.

I see. Good point. Probably for older, less well maintained pianos, the hammers have a certain lateral "slack" that make them hit slightly differently each time they are played.

Eureka, let’s say this!  Now let’s just say whenever a hammer strike occurs inside one of your felted pianos, probably always a little virtual felt movement is going to effect indirectly the unisons of the strings, to some extent differently with varying force of each hammer strike.

It depends on the speed your attacks take and whether or not the virtual felt strip inside the piano is secured, er how reliably that could’ve been secured.

So, everyone maybe will want to remain cool and humanize his attacks (in at least the music he plays, anyway).  (Laugh.)

It's also possible that it's based on the idea that on a real piano each hammer strike can be slightly misaligned and hit the two or three strings of the note at a slightly different place and generate some slightly varying beatings, maybe also as a function of velocity...not sure about that, Philippe would have to confirm.

I see. Good point. Probably for older, less well maintained pianos, the hammers have a certain lateral "slack" that make them hit slightly differently each time they are played.

I am a bit ambivalent about the "humanize", or more approprietaly "random" function. I don't see this as something that emulates what happens in a physical piano. Does Unison width or whatever parameter change every time a key is struck? IMHO, random parameters make more sense if they are applied across the keyboard range, making each key feel a bit different for any given parameter of the model.

I agree it's a bit out of place with regards to other randomized parameters like Hammer noise or other things related to varying touch but I think it's been added mostly for use in "prepared" felt pianos where some notes can be voluntarily slightly mistuned so a sequence of humanized notes can simulate this effect more easily than completely retuning the whole instrument note by note (in Pro). Using the Condition slider on the other hand detunes the keyboard as a whole. I agree using the random function in note by note edit of the Unison Width would probably do the same thing in a less random way.

It's also possible that it's based on the idea that on a real piano each hammer strike can be slightly misaligned and hit the two or three strings of the note at a slightly different place and generate some slightly varying beatings, maybe also as a function of velocity...not sure about that, Philippe would have to confirm.

Fleer wrote:

Amen Ptah Ra wrote:

Possibly, somebody is going to post a video thoroughly explaining the new Humanize button that’s been added to Unison width, and precisely going over just how it jives with it?  Right now I’m kind of in the dark with it.

Good point. I would like that too.

This short video available on the Modartt site by Jamie Blake describes it at around 1:00 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OgE5wGdH3M&t=4s

Thank you for your info, Gilles.  Personally, I saw the video before you posted it at this site (here).  I saw that while Jamie seemed to suggest something the Humanize button can do in what specifically he described as real time, he somehow neglects to stress its relationship —if any— to a physically real piano, er one chiefly made of metal and wood.

That probably culminates from an oversight —but hardly from his end only!

Let’s just get more details...

Gilles wrote:

Fleer wrote:

Good point. I would like that too.

This short video available on the Modartt site by Jamie Blake describes it at around 1:00 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OgE5wGdH3M&t=4s

Yep. Would love some more.

Well it's the same as everywhere in Pianoteq where a numerical value has a humanize parameter available...Each time a note is struck a pseudo-random number is generated and a value following the probability distribution specified is substituted to the fixed base value. The values in the center are more often generated and those at both tails less frequently. At least that is how I understand it. Humanize in that parameter is a bit of a misnomer because the Unison With is more a piano parameter than a pianist one (should be "randomize" I guess), but in the Felt piano context it could be called that since those pianos can be processed a lot.

Fleer wrote:

Amen Ptah Ra wrote:

Possibly, somebody is going to post a video thoroughly explaining the new Humanize button that’s been added to Unison width, and precisely going over just how it jives with it?  Right now I’m kind of in the dark with it.

Good point. I would like that too.

This short video available on the Modartt site by Jamie Blake describes it at around 1:00 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OgE5wGdH3M&t=4s

Yep. Would love some more.

Amen Ptah Ra wrote:

Possibly, somebody is going to post a video thoroughly explaining the new Humanize button that’s been added to Unison width, and precisely going over just how it jives with it?  Right now I’m kind of in the dark with it.

Good point. I would like that too.

This short video available on the Modartt site by Jamie Blake describes it at around 1:00 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OgE5wGdH3M&t=4s

Possibly, somebody is going to post a video thoroughly explaining the new Humanize button that’s been added to Unison width, and precisely going over just how it jives with it?  Right now I’m kind of in the dark with it.

Good point. I would like that too.