Topic: Undamped strings resonance, is it possible? Help please

Hi,

I'm struggling to get a particular resonance on Pianoteq but I don't seem to succed at it, so I wondered whether you folks could help maybe.

The nuance I'm after is the resonance of the undamped neighbour strings while playing a single note (or various), but it should be noticeable since starting to play the very first note already.

It's a rather metallic tail of the sound, not a reverb, not longer decay etc, it's a specific artifact that can be clearly heard especially if played stacatto.

Sampled VST like Noir, Grandeur or even the onboard sound of my Kawai CA97 are perfectly able to reproduce that resonance, wondering if that's possible with Pianoteq.

On another post a fellow user has kindly advised to play with the "damper position" and "damper duration" which changes the sound but not exactly what I'm looking for.

Also on a side note, I've noticed that the "Sympathetic resonance" slider involves all of the strings, soundboard and cabinet resonances at once, if not any other resonances too (as per the popping box when hovering upon the slider), I think it would be much useful to have separate parameters for each type of resonance, perhaps it's not that easy because of the used algorithms but still strange that it's not implemented that way..

P85>Kawai CA97>Numa XGT>FP90X>LX706
Pianoteq 8 Pro (all instruments) + Organteq 2
i7 4790K W11 64bits + UMC1820 + MTM + DT770 pro X
http://youtube.com/DavidIzquierdoAzzouz

Re: Undamped strings resonance, is it possible? Help please

From your description it sounds as if you're trying to get more harmonic resonance. Unfortunately I don't know how to achieve that. IMO resonance in general is one area in which Pianoteq still needs work. It's improved in v8, but still 'not there yet'. I'm not sure why. One instrument that does have some very nice resonance is the 1858 Steinway Square. I've tried morphing it with other pianos in an attempt to get the 'coming alive' effect you get with an acoustic - but my attempts have not been very satisfying.

Re: Undamped strings resonance, is it possible? Help please

Been all evening trying several adjustments and seems like Pianoteq is capable of reproducing the effect what I'm after, only issue is that it comes with further undesired nuances, let me explain:

I've tried to crank the "Sympathetic Resonance" slider all the way up to 4.20 and also added some good deal of "Duplex Scale", about up to 5, now play stacatto and hear the effect I'm talking about, also playing several notes without any sustain pedal results in that specific sound I'm looking for.

It's a bit exagerated here but it serves for the purpose of investigating and trying, I'd eventually adjust it to a more subtle effect.

Now the issue comes when using the sustain pedal, undamping all notes results in a way resonant sound, too dense, it improves a bit if I adjust "Damping Duration" to 0.80, less than that would start to sound awkward.

Still no trick around for this, I'd assume the problem is that other resonances which are included in the "Sympathetic Resonance" pack are simultaneously increased and thus ruining the achieved effect initially.

Not sure if there's a way of modifying that sustain behaviour so that one could balance out the negative result of cranking up the aformentioned sliders..

P85>Kawai CA97>Numa XGT>FP90X>LX706
Pianoteq 8 Pro (all instruments) + Organteq 2
i7 4790K W11 64bits + UMC1820 + MTM + DT770 pro X
http://youtube.com/DavidIzquierdoAzzouz

Re: Undamped strings resonance, is it possible? Help please

davidizquierdo82 wrote:

Been all evening trying several adjustments and seems like Pianoteq is capable of reproducing the effect what I'm after, only issue is that it comes with further undesired nuances, let me explain:

I've tried to crank the "Sympathetic Resonance" slider all the way up to 4.20 and also added some good deal of "Duplex Scale", about up to 5, now play stacatto and hear the effect I'm talking about, also playing several notes without any sustain pedal results in that specific sound I'm looking for.

It's a bit exagerated here but it serves for the purpose of investigating and trying, I'd eventually adjust it to a more subtle effect.

Now the issue comes when using the sustain pedal, undamping all notes results in a way resonant sound, too dense, it improves a bit if I adjust "Damping Duration" to 0.80, less than that would start to sound awkward.

Still no trick around for this, I'd assume the problem is that other resonances which are included in the "Sympathetic Resonance" pack are simultaneously increased and thus ruining the achieved effect initially.

Not sure if there's a way of modifying that sustain behaviour so that one could balance out the negative result of cranking up the aformentioned sliders..

Have you tried to adjust the spectrum profile, as you can adjust the level of the various partials until you get the particular sound you are looking for?

Re: Undamped strings resonance, is it possible? Help please

I've tried the spectrum profile, it changes the character as a whole but it doesn't change sympathetic resonance.

The problem is that the "sympathetic resonance" slider doesn't discern among undamped note resonance and damper resonance, neither does it with the cabinet nor the soundboard resonance, meaning that a substancial increase of the "sympathetic resonance" slider will simultaneously crank up all these resonances, including the damper resonance which is presumably the one ruining my experiment here.

I'd love to see that "sympathetic resonance" slider broken down into multiple separate resonances so you can choose which ones to increase more and which less, sort of what Roland modeled pianos allow..

Perhaps in future versions of Pianoteq? Or is it just me not finding the right settings?

P85>Kawai CA97>Numa XGT>FP90X>LX706
Pianoteq 8 Pro (all instruments) + Organteq 2
i7 4790K W11 64bits + UMC1820 + MTM + DT770 pro X
http://youtube.com/DavidIzquierdoAzzouz

Re: Undamped strings resonance, is it possible? Help please

davidizquierdo82 wrote:

I've tried the spectrum profile, it changes the character as a whole but it doesn't change sympathetic resonance.

The problem is that the "sympathetic resonance" slider doesn't discern among undamped note resonance and damper resonance, neither does it with the cabinet nor the soundboard resonance, meaning that a substancial increase of the "sympathetic resonance" slider will simultaneously crank up all these resonances, including the damper resonance which is presumably the one ruining my experiment here.

I'd love to see that "sympathetic resonance" slider broken down into multiple separate resonances so you can choose which ones to increase more and which less, sort of what Roland modeled pianos allow..

Perhaps in future versions of Pianoteq? Or is it just me not finding the right settings?

I understand what you are looking for, but not certain how the best way to dissociate the various resonances. Another tuning avenue to explore is the Resonance Equalizer in the equaliser section which allows you to adjust level and duration of the different resonances , but again it will be a global setting , but worth trying if you haven't.

Re: Undamped strings resonance, is it possible? Help please

joannchr wrote:

Resonance Equalizer in the equaliser section which allows you to adjust level and duration of the different resonances , but again it will be a global setting , but worth trying if you haven't.

Thank you Joann, I've tried that too, it makes resonance more prominent by extending it (longer decay of the resonance), while it's a feature nice to have, it's certainly not what I'm after.

The resonance I'm talking about should be noticeable and adjustable without adding any reverbs or prolongation to it, you should be able to adjust intensity by perhaps involving more neighbouring strings or more gain if you want, sort of more "harmonic ring"

This is a link to a couple of examples:

- 2 audios from the Noir (Native Instruments)
- 2 audios from my onboard SKEX (Kawai CA97)

each of both shows the difference between with and without "undamped string resonance", hope it works

https://on.soundcloud.com/BZnnm

Last edited by davidizquierdo82 (03-04-2023 09:42)
P85>Kawai CA97>Numa XGT>FP90X>LX706
Pianoteq 8 Pro (all instruments) + Organteq 2
i7 4790K W11 64bits + UMC1820 + MTM + DT770 pro X
http://youtube.com/DavidIzquierdoAzzouz

Re: Undamped strings resonance, is it possible? Help please

davidizquierdo82 wrote:

Been all evening trying several adjustments and seems like Pianoteq is capable of reproducing the effect what I'm after, only issue is that it comes with further undesired nuances, let me explain:

I've tried to crank the "Sympathetic Resonance" slider all the way up to 4.20 and also added some good deal of "Duplex Scale", about up to 5, now play stacatto and hear the effect I'm talking about, also playing several notes without any sustain pedal results in that specific sound I'm looking for.

It's a bit exagerated here but it serves for the purpose of investigating and trying, I'd eventually adjust it to a more subtle effect.

Now the issue comes when using the sustain pedal, undamping all notes results in a way resonant sound, too dense, it improves a bit if I adjust "Damping Duration" to 0.80, less than that would start to sound awkward.

Still no trick around for this, I'd assume the problem is that other resonances which are included in the "Sympathetic Resonance" pack are simultaneously increased and thus ruining the achieved effect initially.

Not sure if there's a way of modifying that sustain behaviour so that one could balance out the negative result of cranking up the aformentioned sliders..

I looks like you are on the right path to get closer to what you are looking for. I think it as matter of fine tuning duplex scale and damping duration, ideally note per note. I wouldn't change much the sympathetic resonance because as you observed it will lead to louder resonances when sustain pedal is moved down. On the contrary the duplex scale won't hurt much the sustain resonances.

Re: Undamped strings resonance, is it possible? Help please

Thank you Philippe, I've been experimenting more and more these last days but no success so far.

On a positive side, I've learned a lot of stuff while exploring the possibilities and also I've got a better sound to my ears, more genuine, more imperfection if you want, which is what I enjoy from a piano sound.

Also, I've been playing with the note-off curve which wasn't totally clear to me what effect/nuance it triggers, I just noticed a longer decay when lowering the curve/line.

After a lot of thinking and analysing, I came to the conclusion that even I'm getting more resonance, nicer attack for the harmonics etc. I'm still no getting the artifact described a couple posts above, that harsh ring at the very begining of the note attack.

Not sure what it is, but I can only imagine it's some sort of the played note exciting the verry immediate strings only, not the harmonics whatsoever, and that should be possible without pressing the sustain pedal nor playing any other notes.

Also, when pressing the sustain pedal, this effect shouldn't be affected, not exagerated or anything but it should rather vanish. To my understanding, this is the difference between what I'm after and what the "sympathetic ressonance" slider does.

P85>Kawai CA97>Numa XGT>FP90X>LX706
Pianoteq 8 Pro (all instruments) + Organteq 2
i7 4790K W11 64bits + UMC1820 + MTM + DT770 pro X
http://youtube.com/DavidIzquierdoAzzouz

Re: Undamped strings resonance, is it possible? Help please

Don't know if this can help but when I am looking for this type of rich sound my go to 3 steps are as follows:
1. Increase the Unison width to some values around 1.10
2. Increase the Cutoff as well to values around 1.10
3. Decrease the Q factor to values around 0.90
I apply this to presets without ambience mic and where the recording perspective is closer to the soundboard strings. If I feel the bass becomes too muddy I only apply it to the mid and upper region of the piano or slightly decrease the sympathetic resonance. This is a patch of the Petrof Mistral with such changes and no reverb or delay:

https://forum.modartt.com/uploads.php?f...accato.mp3

It sounds somewhat similar to me but not sure if you're after this or something different.

"And live to be the show and gaze o' the time."  (William Shakespeare)

Re: Undamped strings resonance, is it possible? Help please

Hey Chopin87, that's a really nice tweak - simple but effective. Adjusting the note-off curve helps, too.

Re: Undamped strings resonance, is it possible? Help please

Thank you @Chopin87, those are useful tips. I've been tweaking those parameters in the note editor along with some other parameters, that opened a whole new dimension to editing sound, what a beautiful tool I was missing all this time.

However, I'm still not able to reproduce the effect mentioned above, I get very close by increasing "sympathetic resonance" but then there are other nuances there ruining my experiment, I wish I could isolate those so I could keep the wished one, I guess.

Nonetheless, I'm indeed getting a more natural (imperfect) sound to my ears, not what I was after but hey not a waste of time at least, learnt a lot about editing sound.

@dazric how exactly does note-off curve help? Are there any clear parameters affected by "note-off" curve? I've been experimenting but couldn't really determine what nuances are involved there, all I could observe is a longer decay of the sound when reducing the curve..

Last edited by davidizquierdo82 (10-04-2023 20:04)
P85>Kawai CA97>Numa XGT>FP90X>LX706
Pianoteq 8 Pro (all instruments) + Organteq 2
i7 4790K W11 64bits + UMC1820 + MTM + DT770 pro X
http://youtube.com/DavidIzquierdoAzzouz

Re: Undamped strings resonance, is it possible? Help please

Do you have the note-off curve on a slope, similar to the main velocity curve? If so you will be able to get the fuzzy effect of the vibrating string when the key is released slowly.
For reference, here's the note-off curve I use for Roland FP-30: Note-Off Velocity = [0, 127; 5, 127]

Re: Undamped strings resonance, is it possible? Help please

dazric wrote:

Do you have the note-off curve on a slope, similar to the main velocity curve? If so you will be able to get the fuzzy effect of the vibrating string when the key is released slowly.
For reference, here's the note-off curve I use for Roland FP-30: Note-Off Velocity = [0, 127; 5, 127]

Yes, I have some sort of note-off curve although I don't really hear a big difference other than a longer decay (no pedal effect) the lower note-off value it is.

It's not like sound is bleeding as some pianists would decribe it when dampers aren't quick enough, that's another thing I'm missing on Pianoteq, no matter how much I played around with the "damping duration" I just cannot get the wished effect, at least not as prominent as in some recordings and samples.

P85>Kawai CA97>Numa XGT>FP90X>LX706
Pianoteq 8 Pro (all instruments) + Organteq 2
i7 4790K W11 64bits + UMC1820 + MTM + DT770 pro X
http://youtube.com/DavidIzquierdoAzzouz