Bluthner is still my favourite, by far

I usually gravitate to the Model B, finding its sound luscious, but I do enjoy the flexibility of swapping out pianos whenever I tire of the current sound.

And I agree that the newest additions, the Harp and the Harpsicord, while being quite impressive, are not a worthwhile or practical purchase for me.  Now if they modeled a Hammond B-3 with a rotating Leslie speaker and crushed it like they did the Model B, now THAT I'd snap up in a heartbeat!

Yes. Same for me... After playing new models, I always return to Bluthner. The best for me.

These days i use Pianoteq as a VST in Renoise (linux) with a K2 in the left and a Blüthner in the right. Sounds awesome, very nice stereo effect especially with headphones.

I love the sound of the Model B as well, just as much as the Bluthner.  The thing that prevents me to love the Model B as much as the Bluthner is the touch response.  I am unable to get the Model B to respond to my touch the same way the Bluthner does.  Bluthner feels very natural to my touch, almost as an extension of my fingers, whereas the Model B felt "hard", with a smaller tonal colour that I could achieve by varying my touch.  It may be the more brilliant tone of the Model B but I just do not yet feel a natural connection to it when I play it.  I wonder whether this is simply a matter of tweaking the velocity curve and other settings...the good thing about pianoteq is that if you don't like how it sound / feels, I can tweak it till it satisfy, IF I know how to tweak it properly, that is...:-)

So it was a Bösendorfer that Jarrett played for the Köln Concert? I never knew that, only that he was not given his stipulated Steinway. If I had to guess from the recording, I would have said a Blüthner rather than a Steinway - but the difficullty is that the ECM recording has a somewhat unpleasant "hardness" to the sound in the upper midrange (1kHz-5kHz) as I hear it from my original vinyl. By the way, are we aware of the Köln Concert transcription by a pair of enterprising Japanese gentlemen published by Schott? It was absolutely one of my most memorable moments of 20 years internetting to discover there was score which I could use to better understand the music.

From a recordist's point of view, the Modartt Model B is arguably technically their best piano yet. But the Blüthner has qualities of its own that are out of reach of the Model B. For some music, one is better; for other music, perhaps the other. They are very nicely complementary to each other.

Me too -- because of this thread, I've been re-focusing on this piano and am loving every minute of it!

Please do!

OK, so I've uploaded the improvised piece using the Bluthner and the Model B for comparison.

The Model B file is a longer improv - I was really enjoying the subtlety you can achieve with chord voicings, so I kept playing!

This is where the Model B shines, and IMO sets it apart from the other Pianoteq models. It's a tighter, more focussed sound (which is why The Steinway B is considered the ideal recording studio grand).

The Bluthner is a modified version of the Studio Recording BA preset, and the Model B is a toned down version of the Bright preset.

They are in the 'Other files' area (next to the FXP Corner menu at the top of the Forum page)

Steinway B has more pleasure sound to my ears.

I like switching pianos every 2 weeks.  After a while, you start hearing the imperfections and start focusing on them.  Switch to something else and then back again in a week and suddenly it feels new again.

A very informative wikipedia article on the Koln concert is here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Köln_Concert

Bluthner hands down - nothing else really comes close to it - is the best virtual piano I've ever played for my compositional and improvisational genres (primarily classical and jazz). It's unbelievable that the Bluthner company actually blessed this model - a potentially suicidal act for them - when profits for them could not be that large in this niche market. Their endorsement (and involvement in testing) of Pianoteq's model also reflects a certain honesty and open-mindedness on their part, which only further redounds to the virtues of the model. I wonder if Bluthner would be interested in building a high quality keyboard controller featuring Pianoteq Bluthner integration?

That will be great indeed.

...at the same time, I also hope Model-B will be enhanced with that special "fits like a glove" touch responsiveness from the Bluthner.

I think a hybrid "B"/ Bluthner  is in order.  The sympathetic resonance of the Bluthner combined with the bright upper note clarity of the "B."

I started to use the equalizing of the Model B for other Pianos, also for the Bluethner. For me it's a good combination.

You can join (parameter freeze) two pianos together. You can join the Model B unto the Bluethner and vice versa. It can be located via the [square/tick] icon in the menu above [Voicing] and [Design]. You'd have to remember to turn it off though.

I am only a beginner, and have only the basic Pianoteq version and the loudness of the mechanics sound is just killing it for me. In quiet pieces, the thumping sound of that emulated keys in treble is louder than the note itself! So my favorite pianos are those of legacy collection that don't have this.

The sound of the keys and pedals is adjustable in all versions, even the Stage