Sounds-like-a-record tip and an ongoing sonic issue

Hi,

I managed to pinpoint what my issue with Pianoteq sound is. I prepared a short (5sec) .wav file but I am not sure if it is a good idea to upload it among full recordings in the shared files section since it would make clutter.

I'll try to make a description as precise as I can.

Some notes, and I should underline some notes - not all, sound like having a strong 'attack' or thump in the beginning. It is almost a click and makes that note to sound like a poke in my ears. True legato, where notes transition to another and are not just placed one by another, is impossible. Notes that don't have this issue sound gorgeous.

If I didn't know how the sound is created, I would say that a very short initial part of the transient is missing. You can somewhat recreate this on an acoustic piano by playing a fortissimo and staccatissimo chord with a staccatissimo depressed right pedal and with very quick repedaling. This should make a very loud attack and catch some of the release part of the sound. Those notes in Pianoteq sound somewhat like suffocating or like a piano is prepared.

Truth to be told, this issue can regularly be found in both sampled VST pianos and acoustic piano recordings. It might have to do with applied compression in both cases or some action malfunction.

I didn't manage to solve this, but while trying, and thanks to Philippe posting .mid of Schubert sonata, I stumbled on an effect processing method that helped Pianoteq sound more like a record. At least as I hear it.

It is side-chain compression. I think that I know what I achieved in technical terms by this (minus 0.1 attack compression), but I might be wrong as well.

Here is what I did. I used Reaper.

1. Sent Ptq channel to a new channel.
2. Disabled routing (Alt+click on the icon).
3. Delayed new channel for 20ms.
4. Inserted compressor on a new channel.
5. Routed Ptq channel to a compressor for side-chaining.
6. Set up the compressor with the following settings.

Threshold -36 (set by taste). Note that Pianoteq output was lowered by 6db.
Pre-comp: 0.10ms
Attack: 19.90ms
Release: 15ms
Ratio: 1.500 (also by taste)
Knee size: 6 db.
Detector input: Auxiliary input L+R
Lowpass 5000Hz
RMS size: 0ms.

Sound before: It had 'everything', as I say it. Too much of lows, too much of low mids, too much of high mids, too much of highs. It was just too fat.

Sound after: Lows and low mids are cleaned out. Bass has that effect of 'coming from everywhere'. Highs are more prominent, so EQing is needed. Pianoteq sounds less 'plasticky'. Higher octaves have that 'pearl-like' quality.

In technical terms (as I understand it): the dynamic range of transients is reduced a bit with almost perfect preservation of transient curve and without any saturation/distortion added. (This could also be a great Pianoteq bulit-in plugin, Leveler or something, that would perfectly reduce transients' dynamic range.)

With this, my initial sonic problem became bearable, although still present.

Now I can commit more to composing and less to eqcompsaturation part.

Hope this helps,
Marko