Steingraeber vs Steinway, Grotrian and Bluethner

Thanks.
Am I wrong in thinking Steingraeber sounds like the best of Steinway and Blüthner combined?
And then there's that extra pedal and the Mozart rail.

Edit: the interpretations are not identical, though, if you listen to the Blüthner at 0:19 for instance, compared to the others. Some notes missing I believe.

It's a very interesting question, but it would be very difficult for me to answer.  However, I think that the Steinway sound is incomparable to other pianos, and I find that the Bluethner has almost no attack compared to the Steingraeber.

Yes, the piece has been replayed voluntarily on each piano, because you can't play with the same feeling on a Steingraeber as on a Bluethner.

Wow, thank you for the very interesting comparison, Pierre!

It was very nice to hear the piece performed on all the 4 pianos above with the same setting and your description sounds quite accurate to me.

Personally, I like the Grotrian the nicest sounding of the 4 at this moment. It's warm and rounded, yet clear and quite natural to my ears. It's the sound I like when I'm playing daily.
The Steingraeber is quite good, but the brightest of the bunch. It does indeed have a thinner sound. My impression is that it would fit baroque and classical music quite well. Baroque especially. It fits the current piece very well, maybe the best, but it's not my fave.
The Steinway and the Bluethner sound quite nice. Warm, yet powerful, but I don't like them so much lately. They seem to me less natural sounding than the Grotrian. Less refined. This despite the fact that before buying Pianoteq, I used the Bluethner a lot in trial mode and I was sure that was the one. Maybe it has to do with the brighter headphones I was using at the time, or the fact that the Grotrian was only recently launched and I didn't get to try it enough to appreciate it.
When I bought PT I was actually split if I should get another instrument beside the Bluethner which I knew I wanted, and I was oscillating between Model B and the Grotrian. I'm glad I god the latter. That's virtually all I play since I got it.

********************************************************* GAVLE CONCERT HALL RECORDING TESTS *************************************************************

Below is a new version of the recording tests in a concert hall of approximately 10,000 cubic meters (the room volume for which grand pianos are designed for optimal acoustics). This is a simulation of Gävle Konserthus in Sweden.

Again, all the recordings were made with the same microphones configuration, in this same concert hall, without eq to correct the defects.

The purpose is only to compare each piano with a raw sound in a realistic recording setup.

Steingraeber E-272

https://soundcloud.com/modelling-audio-...eber-e-272

Sound caracteristics:

- always so very bright and clear
- very incisive attack

Grotrian Concert Royal

https://soundcloud.com/modelling-audio-...cert-royal

Sound caracteristics:

- always a little intimate and shy
- both warm and bright
- round

Bluethner Model One

https://soundcloud.com/modelling-audio-...-model-one

Sound caracteristics:

- large sound with a lot of sustain
- majestic
- boomy sound disappeared (due to a better and more appropriate concert hall)

Steinway Model D

https://soundcloud.com/modelling-audio-...steinway-d

- typical Steinway sound
- warm
- clear and powerful basses
- underwater sound disappeared (due to a better and more appropriate concert hall)

Thank you! and sorry, I’m Mickael… Pierre Wolf is the pianist I work with for recording tests.

I also love Grotrian. It was my favorite, but now I hesitate with the Steingraeber.
Modartt really did a great job with this new instrument.

I also think that the Steingraeber is actually very good for baroque and classical music, because according to me, it is closer to harpsichord and fortepiano than other pianos.

Here's what Steingraeber & Söhne say on their website (https://www.steingraeber.de/en/instrume...nos/e-272/):

At the latest test of eleven concert grand pianos from all of the top manufacturers, Le Monde de la Musique (Paris) wrote that “… these days it would be hard to find a better instrument for interpreting Bach, Mozart and Beethoven.”

In doing this test, we wanted to verify it with Bach, and we will do it later with Mozart and Beethoven.

Of course, this piece of Bach from the French Suites doesn’t represent all the music of Bach, but it gives an idea to compare.

Wonderful test, Pierre.
Still favor the Blüthner, then the Steingraeber.

Edit, sorry Pierre, I mean Mickael.

Sorry, in that case, thank you Mickael! (and Pierre) 

In the second piece it's harder for me to pick a favorite. I like how the clear sound of the Steingraeber fits the piece. And I also like the Bluethner quite a lot. However, I'm thinking that there aren't very loud notes to hear the bottom end of the pianos, so I don't really know what to expect in that stage simulation.
Nonetheless, the idea is wonderful and the sound is indeed fantastic through all four.

Actually, DP manufacturers used to play loud pieces with quick notes because they masked certain weaknesses in their sound. And now when they pick a slow piece, with long sustained notes, it's to show that they're not afraid to use such exposing music for their sound engines.
If you have a porridge of notes, it's harder to clearly hear each note and to hear each detail.

This represents my feelings also. Held notes on DPs force interactions between notes that are sometimes quite unpleasant, yet of course won't be heard on 'single note' recordings. As a case in point, PT 6.2 somehow has reduced what I can only characterize as a kind of deep background IM distortion (it probably isn't that, really), as compared with 6.1--but I only notice the difference in a big way when using a lot of sustain and a fair number of played notes.

I also think that loud pieces tend to mask the weaknesses of the instrument (when there are any) because they usually distract the listener from the interpretation. As far as Pianoteq is concerned, I can also say that the biggest challenge is in long helded notes and slow tempo pieces, because that's where you can demonstrate the realism of the instrument, the brain having all the time to evaluate the difference with an acoustic piano.

That said, I think it's also important to show the instrument's capabilities with pieces including more chords, bass and treble notes.
We are therefore preparing new tests that we will publish soon.

don't tell Beto-Music that!    https://www.forum-pianoteq.com/viewtopi...11#p954611

Isn't it just!

Come to think of it, if Bach were alive, he might just go for Pianoteq Pro.

Thank you so much for this! It's wonderful! I've been offline for the last while after an accident while cleaning my computer :-) What a wonderful treat!

That soft yet slightly percussive "ping" is still found in some modern Bechsteins, but it is much less obvious.

I bought a new and more powerful computer, but when I fix my old one I think I'll leave it permanently on top of my digital as my Pianoteq station. It's hard to imagine I didn't like Pianoteq until very recently. It's as if 6.2 tripped a switch in my brain.