Topic by lewisalexander2020

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  • lewisalexander2020
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Topic: A thought for Modartt, or a willing manufacturer... The pianoteq Piano

OK, I'm going to put something down here for anyone here to read, so whether you're a manufacturer, or MODARTT staff, etc, just sit back, read through this and think about it for a viable solution...

So, here I am, at home, in my studio / office, I'm working on a solution and while doing this,, a completely separate thought came in to my mind...

Today's market is flooded by the likes of Roland, Yamaha, Kawai, Kurzweil and others, all using a custom firmware chip, a linux kernel of sorts and a piano experience that can be either poor or amazing depending on the price range spent, etc.

Pianoteq is the kind of standard that digital pianos and stage pianos alike should aim for and nothing below it, because in my professional opinion, Pianoteq offers the tools needed for professional pianists as well as students and keyboard players alike, but we are talking about a software only platform and the end user building their setup around the software, or integrating the software into their setup.

What if such a digital or stage piano were to exist, with a usable touch screen interface, a light weight but performance based SLC to run pianoteq and maybe even organteq to offer pianists a blend of both tools for classical work, etc, have the tactile controls needed and a nice, reliable keybed. now, ok, for a stage piano you'd want to cut down on some bits to make it more portable / touring ready, but  at the heart of it, an embedded pianoteq 9 experience, organteq experience, maybe a good strings system.

for an upright / baby grand, that's when you can indulge on the design concepts a bit differently and be more open, so you'd look at a more premium keybed, cabinet / case design, amplifiers and speaker specifications, etc.

I just thought I'd put this out there as a concept and maybe business idea, if MODARTT was interested in opening their platform to system integrators / developers, which would bring further revenue in and expand the R&D spectrum, I think it would be worth it.

just think of what could be done, how far it could go.

In it's current spectrum, we have 3 supported platforms, Macos/iOS, Windows and Linux, now, Windows would be a difficult one for licensing for mass deployment, MacOS again is even trickier because that's now a combined OS and hardware perspective, but if you think of a mac mini as a good example, even in it's base state, it's the perfect driver for Pianoteq and Organteq. So, you're looking at linux as a custom kernel that boots straight to what I'd call the "Modartt Desktop UI" with Pianoteq, Organteq and maybe a couple of other tools available, you could configure it to boot straight in to pianoteq only, switch between pianoteq and organteq, load both together in different zones, etc.

I did put this down on paper some time ago about producing a ready made linux distro dedicated to pianoteq and organteq, so no messing about, or even an affordable micro computer system with an installed audio interface, like a pi or something better, with the OS already configured, ready to connect to any midi keyboard, etc, to take the strain of setup away from the end user, especially on a linux end.

just my thoughts on this. Maybe others could chime in, maybe MODARTT could examine a business model or models there-in.

just my thoughts.

lew

Blind Pianist, organist, composer / producer for classical and synthetic orchestral works, Accessibility solutions developer and consulting specialist. Spreading a light in the darkness each day

Reply by Pashkuli

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Re: A thought for Modartt, or a willing manufacturer... The pianoteq Piano

lewisalexander2020 wrote:

just my thoughts.

It was many suggestions\ideas in one post so could you clarify:

• do you want Pianoteq to open their source code? (because the actual math and physics models are public domain but implementing them into code is another hard work as they get compiled into a usable application or product)

• do you want Modartt or collab to produce a dedicated hardware unit as a digital piano with either mac-mini or linux distro as a host OS (maybe for compatibility with the desktop\android versions)?

• would you like Modartt to go compete or license their 'Pianoteq model' to other known or knew digital piano manufacturers?

Because I think Yamaha, Casio, Roland and numerous chinese brands have their own 'piano engines' embedded and if they wanted to they could have contacted Modartt but why since they are competitors also in the desktop app\plugin market?
Most likely, Yamaha or other such giant will acquire Modartt as recent decades have shown what the tendency is.

Reply by snurrfint

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Re: A thought for Modartt, or a willing manufacturer... The pianoteq Piano

lewisalexander2020 wrote:

OK, I'm going to put something down here for anyone here to read, so whether you're a manufacturer, or MODARTT staff, etc, just sit back, read through this and think about it for a viable solution...

So, here I am, at home, in my studio / office, I'm working on a solution and while doing this,, a completely separate thought came in to my mind...

Today's market is flooded by the likes of Roland, Yamaha, Kawai, Kurzweil and others, all using a custom firmware chip, a linux kernel of sorts and a piano experience that can be either poor or amazing depending on the price range spent, etc.

Pianoteq is the kind of standard that digital pianos and stage pianos alike should aim for and nothing below it, because in my professional opinion, Pianoteq offers the tools needed for professional pianists as well as students and keyboard players alike, but we are talking about a software only platform and the end user building their setup around the software, or integrating the software into their setup.

What if such a digital or stage piano were to exist, with a usable touch screen interface, a light weight but performance based SLC to run pianoteq and maybe even organteq to offer pianists a blend of both tools for classical work, etc, have the tactile controls needed and a nice, reliable keybed. now, ok, for a stage piano you'd want to cut down on some bits to make it more portable / touring ready, but  at the heart of it, an embedded pianoteq 9 experience, organteq experience, maybe a good strings system.

for an upright / baby grand, that's when you can indulge on the design concepts a bit differently and be more open, so you'd look at a more premium keybed, cabinet / case design, amplifiers and speaker specifications, etc.

I just thought I'd put this out there as a concept and maybe business idea, if MODARTT was interested in opening their platform to system integrators / developers, which would bring further revenue in and expand the R&D spectrum, I think it would be worth it.

just think of what could be done, how far it could go.

In it's current spectrum, we have 3 supported platforms, Macos/iOS, Windows and Linux, now, Windows would be a difficult one for licensing for mass deployment, MacOS again is even trickier because that's now a combined OS and hardware perspective, but if you think of a mac mini as a good example, even in it's base state, it's the perfect driver for Pianoteq and Organteq. So, you're looking at linux as a custom kernel that boots straight to what I'd call the "Modartt Desktop UI" with Pianoteq, Organteq and maybe a couple of other tools available, you could configure it to boot straight in to pianoteq only, switch between pianoteq and organteq, load both together in different zones, etc.

I did put this down on paper some time ago about producing a ready made linux distro dedicated to pianoteq and organteq, so no messing about, or even an affordable micro computer system with an installed audio interface, like a pi or something better, with the OS already configured, ready to connect to any midi keyboard, etc, to take the strain of setup away from the end user, especially on a linux end.

just my thoughts on this. Maybe others could chime in, maybe MODARTT could examine a business model or models there-in.

just my thoughts.

lew

I said a couple of years ago, that if any of the 3 top dogs in the digital piano space parters up with Modartt to integrate pianoteq into thier lineup, they would instantly become the defacto leader in the space.

And concidering one of those, Kawai, partnered up with modartt to realease the SK-EX. I can only spcuelate it is slowly but surely becoming a reality, I would not be surprised if the latest models of Kawai hybrid pianos and premium acustic pianos with silent systems already have parts of this integratad, or will have it soon. But I might be mistaken. I think it makes sense Kawai gets something back out of this partnership. Can't imagine they let Modartt, a competitor in the digital piano space, use their name for free.

https://youtu.be/0xLO2hsU0Oo?t=314

This grand piano was released a few months after Modartt partnered up with Kawai, just saying. I know it uses samples, but kawai also states this:

"This naturally expressive Shigeru Kawai sound is further enriched by resonance algorithms which model the complex tonal interactions produced by the strings and various other parts of an acoustic piano. SK-EX Rendering generates resonances for the damper pedal and all 88 keys progressively, allowing the AURES 2’s digital piano sound to behave just like an acoustic piano."

This piano have a full fletched soundboard speaker, meaning transducer elements are attached to the actual soundboard.

A few month later, painoteq 9 is releases with focus on a new soundboard model and improved resonance. Coinsidence? maybe, maybe not, who knows.

Reply by budo

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Re: A thought for Modartt, or a willing manufacturer... The pianoteq Piano

well Yamaha is a corporation with about $3B in revenue over the past 12 months.  Casio is smaller but not far behind, Roland still smaller but with revenue about $500M.  these are titans.  pretty sure Modartt is much smaller.  i would love to see something like what you're talking about but somehow i'm not optimisitc.

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Reply by toadhall

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Re: A thought for Modartt, or a willing manufacturer... The pianoteq Piano

I personally wouldn't mind a basic digital piano with a quality keybed that just has K2 presets. Anything else would just be icing for me.

Reply by Bellyman

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Re: A thought for Modartt, or a willing manufacturer... The pianoteq Piano

I have often thought it would be nice to be able to "install" Pianoteq onto a keyboard of my choosing such that it is then completely onboard. Maybe it will be possible in years to come. Not here yet, though, as far as I know.

Best I can do right now is using an iPad to run Pianoteq via MIDI from my keyboard (RD-2000). However, if I had it to do over again, I'm not sure I'd have gone with the iPad. I think I'd have taken a different path, either with a Nuk and Linux with a small monitor to put on my music stand, or a Mac Mini and a similar small monitor for my music stand. I think either of those would have been way more capable than the iPad, more screen real estate, too. But since I already have the iPad, I'll certainly use it.

One thing I have enjoyed with using Pianoteq live is being able to mix in other sounds that are native to my Roland keyboard (strings, a bit of bass, a bit of percussion, etc.). And there are numerous other possibilities using the iPad (stems, backing tracks, etc) that I haven't really explored that deeply yet. My biggest problem to date is running out of fingers. I can only play so many notes at a time and only spread out just so far.