L7 Natural (Dec 19, 2025) - FXP

Grand Steinway D (New York)

Hey fellow musicians! After countless late nights tweaking parameters and reading through years of forum wisdom, I think I've finally landed on settings that make Pianoteq's Steinway D feel genuinely inspiring to play not just technically impressive, but musically satisfying. The biggest breakthrough for me was discovering the Condition slider. Moving it from "Mint" down to around 0.18–0.22 completely changed the character suddenly there's this warmth and subtle imperfection that makes phrases sing instead of just sound "correct." I also tweaked the Spectrum Profile (2nd harmonic to -4.3, 3rd harmonic to +0.6), which shaped the tone into something that actually responds to touch the way I expect a real Steinway to. For those of you fighting that harsh, glassy treble during loud passages lowering Duplex Scale to 0.9 and softening the Forte hammer hardness really helped me find that singing quality in the upper register. And a quick tip on the Dynamics slider: it controls how much volume difference exists between your ppp and fff. I keep it around 35–40 dB for practice sessions so I can actually hear my soft passages without cranking up the speakers, but bump it to 50 dB when I want that full concert grand dynamic range.

Has lot of parameters modified: Tuning, Voicing, Design, Action, Effects, Mics & Mix, etc.

But something I found really helpful was using a Bricasti M7 reverb through WAV impulse response import in Pianoteq. You can actually get these IRs for free, they're comparable in quality to the LiquidSonics ones (free, January 2025) and were released in October 2023: https://samplicity.com/bricasti-m7-impu...nse-files/

Or in its free VST version "Magic7" by Wave Alchemy (November 2024): https://www.wavealchemy.co.uk/product/magic7/

The reverb presets I liked most (in order of preference): Scoring Stage > Sunset Chamber > Studio B Far > Studio A

FXP: L7 Natural (Dec 19, 2025)
https://forum.modartt.com/file/1i31k5zg

Demo: Fragment "Fast Piano & Stuff" included for demonstration was created by Misaka to testing.
https://forum.modartt.com/download.php?id=6398

Demo: "April 7, 2025" Composed and performed by Lemuel Acevedo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhvzS_fAsHM

Demo: Alicia - E33 (Cover) Pianoteq 9.1 (without reverb) > Magic7 "Scoring Stage" preset Out: -10dB > FabFilter ProQ 4 - 24 point EQ match with original by Caliko:
https://forum.modartt.com/uploads.php?f...ver%29.mp3

Original cover by Caliko:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0s0xbeDbz7c

Grand Steinway D (New York)

Hey fellow musicians! After countless late nights tweaking parameters and reading through years of forum wisdom, I think I've finally landed on settings that make Pianoteq's Steinway D feel genuinely inspiring to play not just technically impressive, but musically satisfying. The biggest breakthrough for me was discovering the Condition slider. Moving it from "Mint" down to around 0.18–0.22 completely changed the character suddenly there's this warmth and subtle imperfection that makes phrases sing instead of just sound "correct." I also tweaked the Spectrum Profile (2nd harmonic to -4.3, 3rd harmonic to +0.6), which shaped the tone into something that actually responds to touch the way I expect a real Steinway to. For those of you fighting that harsh, glassy treble during loud passages lowering Duplex Scale to 0.9 and softening the Forte hammer hardness really helped me find that singing quality in the upper register. And a quick tip on the Dynamics slider: it controls how much volume difference exists between your ppp and fff. I keep it around 35–40 dB for practice sessions so I can actually hear my soft passages without cranking up the speakers, but bump it to 50 dB when I want that full concert grand dynamic range.

Has lot of parameters modified: Tuning, Voicing, Design, Action, Effects, Mics & Mix, etc.

But something I found really helpful was using a Bricasti M7 reverb through WAV impulse response import in Pianoteq. You can actually get these IRs for free, they're comparable in quality to the LiquidSonics ones (free, January 2025) and were released in October 2023: https://samplicity.com/bricasti-m7-impu...nse-files/

Or in its free VST version "Magic7" by Wave Alchemy (November 2024): https://www.wavealchemy.co.uk/product/magic7/

The reverb presets I liked most (in order of preference): Scoring Stage > Sunset Chamber > Studio B Far > Studio A

FXP: L7 Natural (Dec 19, 2025)
https://forum.modartt.com/file/1i31k5zg

Demo: Fragment "Fast Piano & Stuff" included for demonstration was created by Misaka to testing.
https://forum.modartt.com/download.php?id=6398

Demo: "April 7, 2025" Composed and performed by Lemuel Acevedo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhvzS_fAsHM

Demo: Alicia - E33 (Cover) Pianoteq 9.1 (without reverb) > Magic7 "Scoring Stage" preset Out: -10dB > FabFilter ProQ 4 - 24 point EQ match with original by Caliko:
https://forum.modartt.com/uploads.php?f...ver%29.mp3

Original cover by Caliko:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0s0xbeDbz7c

dikrek wrote:

Lemuel wrote:

Grand Steinway D (New York)

Hey fellow musicians! After countless late nights tweaking parameters and reading through years of forum wisdom, I think I've finally landed on settings that make Pianoteq's Steinway D feel genuinely inspiring to play not just technically impressive, but musically satisfying. The biggest breakthrough for me was discovering the Condition slider. Moving it from "Mint" down to around 0.18–0.22 completely changed the character suddenly there's this warmth and subtle imperfection that makes phrases sing instead of just sound "correct." I also tweaked the Spectrum Profile (2nd harmonic to -4.3, 3rd harmonic to +0.6), which shaped the tone into something that actually responds to touch the way I expect a real Steinway to. For those of you fighting that harsh, glassy treble during loud passages lowering Duplex Scale to 0.9 and softening the Forte hammer hardness really helped me find that singing quality in the upper register. And a quick tip on the Dynamics slider: it controls how much volume difference exists between your ppp and fff. I keep it around 35–40 dB for practice sessions so I can actually hear my soft passages without cranking up the speakers, but bump it to 50 dB when I want that full concert grand dynamic range.

Has lot of parameters modified: Tuning, Voicing, Design, Action, Effects, Mics & Mix, etc.

But something I found really helpful was using a Bricasti M7 reverb through WAV impulse response import in Pianoteq. You can actually get these IRs for free, they're comparable in quality to the LiquidSonics ones (free, January 2025) and were released in October 2023: https://samplicity.com/bricasti-m7-impu...nse-files/

Or in its free VST version "Magic7" by Wave Alchemy (November 2024): https://www.wavealchemy.co.uk/product/magic7/

The reverb presets I liked most (in order of preference): Scoring Stage > Sunset Chamber > Studio B Far > Studio A

FXP: L7 Natural (Dec 19, 2025)
https://forum.modartt.com/file/1i31k5zg

Demo: Fragment "Fast Piano & Stuff" included for demonstration was created by Misaka to testing.
https://forum.modartt.com/download.php?id=6398

Demo: "April 7, 2025" Composed and performed by Lemuel Acevedo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhvzS_fAsHM

Demo: Alicia - E33 (Cover) Pianoteq 9.1 (without reverb) > Magic7 "Scoring Stage" preset Out: -10dB > FabFilter ProQ 4 - 24 point EQ match with original by Caliko:
https://forum.modartt.com/uploads.php?f...ver%29.mp3

Original cover by Caliko:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0s0xbeDbz7c

Thanks. Did you upload the right version? The harmonics are not tweaked in the preset, for example.

Did you try mild octave stretching?

You're welcome!
This is an initial version, and I should clarify a redaction error: when I mentioned harmonics, I was actually referring to the Spectrum Profile settings, specifically the 2nd and 3rd overtones.

Current & Planned Settings:

Octave Stretching: I haven't modified this in Advanced Tuning yet, but in a future update I plan to set it to 1.18
Mics & Mix: 4 "Perfect" Omni mics with D (Hamburg) "Player" positions
Valhalla Delay (compatible values): Early reflections configured to simulate a natural 25' × 30' room, applied before reverb, paired with Concert Hall at 8.5 m
EQ matching using 5–10 points in Pro-Q 4, based on an original cover by Caliko performed on a Steinway
Full Effect Chain (preliminary): Pianoteq → Delay → EQ → EQ → Reverb →  Limiter (set to −12 dB, or alternatively -1 dB)