What to do before purchasing Pianoteq for the first time

Hi everyone,

I am seriously considering purchasing Pianoteq 8 stage and would like to pick people's brains beforehand.

Does anyone have any advice to give me prior to purchasing? Is stage even worth purchasing or am I going to be displeased and need to stump up the money for an upgrade to standard? What's the most affordable way to make my purchase? I've heard of the JRR shop, I've read around here that people may sell their licenses (How often does that option come around?).

I have been listening to the examples provided in the 'Listen' section of the website to try to determine which 2 I want to register first. I reckon Steinway D is a safe bet due to its popularity. I'm into romantic classical, so for my 2nd I was thinking of the Ant Petrof. If anyone wants to chime in with their thoughts, there are no wrong answers. I'm genuinely interested to hear what people think.

I am an amateur, played piano as a kid but stopped in my rebellious teens. Now, more than 20 years later I'm keen to dabble on the weekends.

I would start with the stage version, as upgrading is always an option at a reasonable cost, relative to purchasing it outright; indeed that's what I did.

It's hard to know what to suggest without knowing what your precise use case is. I am a classical pianist, but do need to make tracks via my DAW from time to time and need extra flexibility. I also appreciate using it to practice harpsichord and have other instruments available. There's a wealth of free instruments including early pianos available as well. Even so, I barely scratch the surface of what the standard install provides.

remember you can apply equalization (at the computer side !)

someone is selling their Pianoteq Standard license with the Petrofs, Steinway D-s, Electric Pianos and Blüthner Model 1

HKROB wrote:

Thank you everyone for the replies. I have a pretty good idea of what I'm going to do. I have already played around with the demo, so I think I'll just make sure of my instrument choices before making the purchase on JRR shop for a discount. Gonna start with stage and wait for a future sale to possibly upgrade to standard.

If there are no obvious pitfalls and regrets ("I wish i'd done this instead of this" type thoughts), or recommendations of a better purchase channel than the JRRshop then I reckon I'll be playing with my new instruments by the weekend. Cheers everyone!

drukqs wrote:

I would start with the stage version, as upgrading is always an option at a reasonable cost, relative to purchasing it outright; indeed that's what I did.

It's hard to know what to suggest without knowing what your precise use case is. I am a classical pianist, but do need to make tracks via my DAW from time to time and need extra flexibility. I also appreciate using it to practice harpsichord and have other instruments available. There's a wealth of free instruments including early pianos available as well. Even so, I barely scratch the surface of what the standard install provides.

I think from everyones responses so far, it is definitely a good idea to start with the demo, then make the purchase of stage first. I am intrigued by the morphing ability but I think I'll leave that upgrade to a point when a big sale might come along. It's hard for me to stump up an extra 120 Euros for the extra features at the moment.

Ultimately I'm just going to practice and play for the pleasure in my own home. Maybe when I'm comfortable and tipsy I'll serenade my wife too.

sjgcit wrote:

remember you can apply equalization (at the computer side !)

Curious about the reason to apply equalization on the computer side instead of using the built in EQ in Pianoteq? Incidently, I got a nice pair of Bayerdynamic 770 headphones purely for listening to classical music at length. The velour earpads allow for long sessions.

TheodorN wrote:

someone is selling their Pianoteq Standard license with the Petrofs, Steinway D-s, Electric Pianos and Blüthner Model 1

Thanks for the heads up. I'll definitely consider it. The JRR shop has a roughly 20% discount with a code GROUP which I am leaning towards. It'll be a bit more expensive for 4 instrument packs with standard in that case, but I'll have more flexibility in being able to choose.

Be aware that the 770s are a closed design, which makes them less than optimal for longer sessions because of increased pressure on your ears leading to listening fatigue. Additionally, because the sound can't "escape", they tend to take on some of the resonant frequencies of the shell itself. Manufacturers compensate by using lots of dampening materials leading to a less well defined sound stage.

I love the 770s by the way, but their use is more for monitoring during recording (shorter sessions where sound doesn't escape back into the microphone).
The 990s or possibly the 880s are recommended for what you use them for.

I have the 990s and have used the 770s a lot during recording sessions in the studio or on radio stuff.

Curious about the reason to apply equalization on the computer side instead of using the built in EQ in Pianoteq ?

Here's my understanding.

The equalization applied in Pianoteq is not the same as equalization you apply directly at the output stage to headphones or speaker/monitors.

There are two types of equalization available in Pianoteq.  One has it's own button to open a control window.  In the manual it states :

this EQUALIZER works in pre-processing (modifying the model before computing sound).

That's a change to the model, not a "simple" equalization adjustment of the output audio.

The other equalization is under effects and is a 3-band equalizer.  Again this is to adjust the output of the model, just at a different stage in the pipeline from the other equalizer.  Sometimes no "Eq 3" is applied in a preset, sometime there is more than one.

The problem with these is that it's the wrong place to adjust for deficiencies in the headphones (or personal tastes).  Headphones have frequency responses ranging from awful to pretty good, but I would describe none as ideal.  I personally tend to aim to adjust computer's own equalizer to obtain a frequency response that matches a Harman curve and there are equalization settings for these available online.  Whether you feel the need to do this (or any computer-output-side equalization) is a personal choice.

What you ideally want is to adjust your headphones for general use and use an equalization setting for them independent of the Pianoteq model being used.  The "internal" equalizations available fare or adjusting the model's output to a generic sound system, whatever it is.  If you rely on the internal equalization in Pianoteq for headphone corrections, you may end up with presets that only work well with a particular headset.  Change headset and you end up with a quite different sound.  If you instead equalize the computer's output per headset then it will (ideally) produce the same sound balance each time, and should also work with other media played through the computer.