Can you create a "felt" piano using Standard or Pro?

This is exactly what the moderator (or "celeste") pedal does, so I presume it's available in all versions of Pianoteq...

PS According to E. Good in his Giraffes, Black Dragons, and Other Pianos: A Technological History From Cristofori to the Modern Concert Grand (1982), the moderator felt (or leather) was "graduated in thickness across its short dimension.  The farther down one pushed the pedal, the farther the rail lowered and the thicker the material through which the hammer struck the strings. With the thicker material, the sound was softer and more muffled." (p.22).  Now, on my own 1790s Koenicke as well as the many other early pianos with moderators that I've encountered over the years I've never seen this sort of behavior (rather, as we have in Pianoteq, it's either on or off), but it still sounds like a cool feature to play with... @devs: 'possible to include this sort of linear scaling of the celeste pedal in future versions?

Hi mowerm,

For Pianoteq Stage, here's a nice routine in 3 steps...

in Pianoteq Stage:

1
Good old Mallet Bounce settings (experiment with 'sync' for rhythmic possibilities - and humanize slider etc. This tool is delightfully set up in the Pianoteq instrument "Cimbalom" BTW - real world reference in other words) BTW this predates the particle engine by years I believe. I'd strongly suggest it could be inspired by it.

2
For 'felt' try setting 'dynamics' all the way right (play soft to get very soft tones, that way your occasional hard strikes can stand out more brilliantly - dynamics is quite a simple but evocative step).

3
For getting deeper 'filmic' overall sound, try long plate reverb (it's a preset in Pianoteq's) and mix it quite high and work it down to suit.

Those things alone are not going to make an exact match - but you can create interestingly "similar" effects just with existing tools available in Stage.

Getting somewhat closer is possible with Pianoteq Standard and Pro, not to mention, esp. with a DAW with a suitable range of production effects.

Definitely _DJ_' suggestion of the celest pedal is spot on (as too are items mentioned by Amen) for softer sound. Why not set up the 4 software pedals (right click them and choose - it's that simple) like 1 celest, 2 harmonic, 3 Mozart rail, 4 sustain. In Pianoteq's interface, left-click the pedals you want to stay down.. then play and tweak. If you have physical pedals with 2 or more pedals, even better control.

There's no single way, nor one correct way to achieve a particular sound - but the above concepts seem to be on a good track (time spent breaking the tools in Pianoteq Standard and Pro (or Studio with all pianos in one go) is simply the best way to learn to fish, so to speak). I make a lot of filmic presets and use all the above often. Although I make my own sounds, I would tend to steer away from highly recognisable famous artist's piano sounds (that's just in my work-flow, but for others it would be a winner to sound like other famous artists).

Having worked with a number of Yamaha Upright pianos in my piano tuning career, I have toyed with the felt damper system in these types of pianos.  The result is a highly muffled sound with comparatively little dynamic range, and relatively quiet sound, even while attempting to play loudly:

1) Set all of the hammer hardnesses to their minimum values;

2)  Reduce the Dynamic Range slider to approximately 15dB or less;

3) Adjust overall volume level to taste.

Cheers,

Joe

Just made an FXP due to these kinds of recent threads and particularly for the OP's mention of the 'particle engine' - FilmEsque for C. Bechstein DG. It's based on various preset tweaks I made in the past and hoping it might show that Pianoteq can certainly be used like the Noir.

If OP or others have different pianos (other than the Bechstein) I could port it for them and upload those too - just let me know here.

I've been hoping to get around to uploading FXPs for a long time - so probably a good time to start.

Interested to know if OP and others hear something they like about it - and would certainly take input about new versions for pianos other than the C. Bechstein DG (if OP ) or making additional 'felt + particle engine-like' changes desired.

It should work for Stage as well as Standard and Pro, since using mainly the existing tools available in Stage. It would be possible to go in any direction from this point I feel.

Although, that FXP addresses more about the particle engine at this stage by providing a humanzied rhythmic rolling echo (different tones), if you disable the 'wah' effect, the piano does have some reasonably similar tones to the Noir.

Just pedaling the celeste and sustain or una-corda pedal really controls tonal shifts.

I figure with more tweaking than I've done towards the felt related aspects, it's likely to be able to get closer to the effects of the felt piano too.

Thank you so much David! Glad it's being enjoyed All my best to you.