Topic by WalterTheMusicianYoutube

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  • WalterTheMusicianYoutube
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Topic: Adding randomness of playing noises sounds, especially the felt pianos

Hi, I really love the updated Pianoteq 7.4.2.  It nails a beautiful piano sound. Its now in my top two pianos, each equally loved.   
     I'd like to ask that you add the ability to add randomness to the loudness of the playing noises... playing noises that are  random from note to note. This would make the pianos, especially the felt presets, more musical and quirky in a great way.  Pianos that have this option of variation from note to note in the playing noises are the Fracture Sounds Woodchester felt piano, Native Instruments Noire, and Una Corda.
This shouldn't be too hard to add this option with a slider from no randomness, to extreme... i.e. one finger sounds a louder hammer strike, another a softer, and it can change which ones will be louder randomly. Hit the same note twice, and that too would offer different noises, on subsequent strikes.   A Felt piano with no random noises, is for many things too boring.

in another recent post, I asked for the missing presets from 6 to be returned.  I am annoyed that Pianoteq version 7 seems to have taken away many of the factory presets from 6. I especially notice it on the Kawai and the Yamaha, but in others as well. In my Kawai and Yamaha and Steingraeber Please bring back all of those presets.  I always use the close mike presets. Please people, don't tell me to program them myself.  Ease of use is smart, not dumb. Ask the many software companies that went out of business because they didn't want to update to Windows from msdos.
I have about 200 software instruments, and hundreds of fx plugins, so have hundreds of thousands of presets.
    P.S. I really love the 7.4.2 sound updates. Now 7 really nails a beautiful piano sound.

Last edited by WalterTheMusicianYoutube (27-07-2021 10:59)

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Reply by AdrianB

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Re: Adding randomness of playing noises sounds, especially the felt pianos

I'm not sure if this will help but some parameters have a "humanization" feature. E.g., you can right-click on "Unison Width" slider and click Humanize button then adjust the degree of randomization. This is available on some other sliders too. Check the video from Modartt: https://youtu.be/6OgE5wGdH3M


PS I noticed the NY Steinway Felt II preset has humanization on some of the parameters already. Maybe that's a starting point to explore.

WalterTheMusicianYoutube wrote:

Hi, I really love the updated Pianoteq 7.4.2.  It nails a beautiful piano sound. Its now in my top two pianos, each equally loved.   
     I'd like to ask that you add the ability to add randomness to the loudness of the playing noises... playing noises that are  random from note to note. This would make the pianos, especially the felt presets, more musical and quirky in a great way.  Pianos that have this option of variation from note to note in the playing noises are the Fracture Sounds Woodchester felt piano, Native Instruments Noire, and Una Corda.
This shouldn't be too hard to add this option with a slider from no randomness, to extreme... i.e. one finger sounds a louder hammer strike, another a softer, and it can change which ones will be louder randomly. Hit the same note twice, and that too would offer different noises, on subsequent strikes.   A Felt piano with no random noises, is for many things too boring.

in another recent post, I asked for the missing presets from 6 to be returned.  I am annoyed that Pianoteq version 7 seems to have taken away many of the factory presets from 6. I especially notice it on the Kawai and the Yamaha, but in others as well. In my Kawai and Yamaha and Steingraeber Please bring back all of those presets.  I always use the close mike presets. Please people, don't tell me to program them myself.  Ease of use is smart, not dumb. Ask the many software companies that went out of business because they didn't want to update to Windows from msdos.
I have about 200 software instruments, and hundreds of fx plugins, so have hundreds of thousands of presets.
    P.S. I really love the 7.4.2 sound updates. Now 7 really nails a beautiful piano sound.

Last edited by AdrianB (28-07-2021 01:46)

Reply by Key Fumbler

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Re: Adding randomness of playing noises sounds, especially the felt pianos

WalterTheMusicianYoutube wrote:

..

in another recent post, I asked for the missing presets from 6 to be returned.  I am annoyed that Pianoteq version 7 seems to have taken away many of the factory presets from 6. I especially notice it on the Kawai and the Yamaha, but in others as well. In my Kawai and Yamaha and Steingraeber Please bring back all of those presets.  I always use the close mike presets. Please people, don't tell me to program them myself.  Ease of use is smart, not dumb. Ask the many software companies that went out of business because they didn't want to update to Windows from msdos.
I have about 200 software instruments, and hundreds of fx plugins, so have hundreds of thousands of presets.
    P.S. I really love the 7.4.2 sound updates. Now 7 really nails a beautiful piano sound.

I agree there should be more presets for the YC and the K2. I'm on Standard, but the amount of presets is a bit limiting for those two on Stage, and Stage is people's entry to the world of Pianoteq so it could help to promote the product. 

However it is my understanding that the K in K2 does not stand for Kawai, it is simply modelled on multiple characteristics of ideal pianos, not any one make or model.  OTOH I believe an earlier K1 was designed around Kawai, but could be wrong.

Reply by WalterTheMusicianYoutube

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Re: Adding randomness of playing noises sounds, especially the felt pianos

Thanks, soon I'll try it.  I would love the randomness and quirkiness of the Woodchester Piano from Fracture Sounds. I'm not connected to them. I actually haven't bought it yet, but soon.  For felt pianos, I have the free spitfire felt piano, Noire, Una Corda.  I think the demos for the Woodchester piano sound by far the best I've heard anywhere.   Felt is all it does, but with wonderful character plus changing over time synth pad options. Pianoteq users could get the synth pad  added by layering synth with Pianoteq felt.   It was a treat for Pianoteq to give us felt options for free, and they can only get better, but I hope they listen to the Woodchester piano demos, and also the Spitfire British Drama Toolkit, to inspire them on what they could program as options into Pianoteq. Extreme quirkness and unique character that changes over time, are sounds I look forward to experimenting with.
So please Pianoteq, check them out and think on how you can bring felt piano options that have real unique character.

AdrianB wrote:

I'm not sure if this will help but some parameters have a "humanization" feature. E.g., you can right-click on "Unison Width" slider and click Humanize button then adjust the degree of randomization. This is available on some other sliders too. Check the video from Modartt: https://youtu.be/6OgE5wGdH3M


PS I noticed the NY Steinway Felt II preset has humanization on some of the parameters already. Maybe that's a starting point to explore.

WalterTheMusicianYoutube wrote:

Hi, I really love the updated Pianoteq 7.4.2.  It nails a beautiful piano sound. Its now in my top two pianos, each equally loved.   
     I'd like to ask that you add the ability to add randomness to the loudness of the playing noises... playing noises that are  random from note to note. This would make the pianos, especially the felt presets, more musical and quirky in a great way.  Pianos that have this option of variation from note to note in the playing noises are the Fracture Sounds Woodchester felt piano, Native Instruments Noire, and Una Corda.
This shouldn't be too hard to add this option with a slider from no randomness, to extreme... i.e. one finger sounds a louder hammer strike, another a softer, and it can change which ones will be louder randomly. Hit the same note twice, and that too would offer different noises, on subsequent strikes.   A Felt piano with no random noises, is for many things too boring.

in another recent post, I asked for the missing presets from 6 to be returned.  I am annoyed that Pianoteq version 7 seems to have taken away many of the factory presets from 6. I especially notice it on the Kawai and the Yamaha, but in others as well. In my Kawai and Yamaha and Steingraeber Please bring back all of those presets.  I always use the close mike presets. Please people, don't tell me to program them myself.  Ease of use is smart, not dumb. Ask the many software companies that went out of business because they didn't want to update to Windows from msdos.
I have about 200 software instruments, and hundreds of fx plugins, so have hundreds of thousands of presets.
    P.S. I really love the 7.4.2 sound updates. Now 7 really nails a beautiful piano sound.

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Reply by WalterTheMusicianYoutube

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Re: Adding randomness of playing noises sounds, especially the felt pianos

With version 7, I updated to Pro, but at first was disappointed. The 7.0 piano sound wasn't good enough to justify the update.  With later patches, they really fixed my reservations.  Now I love it. It's as good as a virtual piano can get.
    More presets for all pianos would be great. I wonder if when releasing 7, they forgot to update all the existing presets in 6.  My memory could be wrong, but I dont feel like checking 6 to find out. 
   As to the K2, you may be correct.  I never liked the sound of the Kwai pianos that I played.  It may be just bad ones I encountered.  I love the K2 piano, and if it's not Kwai, that could explain it. 

Key Fumbler wrote:
WalterTheMusicianYoutube wrote:

..

in another recent post, I asked for the missing presets from 6 to be returned.  I am annoyed that Pianoteq version 7 seems to have taken away many of the factory presets from 6. I especially notice it on the Kawai and the Yamaha, but in others as well. In my Kawai and Yamaha and Steingraeber Please bring back all of those presets.  I always use the close mike presets. Please people, don't tell me to program them myself.  Ease of use is smart, not dumb. Ask the many software companies that went out of business because they didn't want to update to Windows from msdos.
I have about 200 software instruments, and hundreds of fx plugins, so have hundreds of thousands of presets.
    P.S. I really love the 7.4.2 sound updates. Now 7 really nails a beautiful piano sound.

I agree there should be more presets for the YC and the K2. I'm on Standard, but the amount of presets is a bit limiting for those two on Stage, and Stage is people's entry to the world of Pianoteq so it could help to promote the product. 

However it is my understanding that the K in K2 does not stand for Kawai, it is simply modelled on multiple characteristics of ideal pianos, not any one make or model.  OTOH I believe an earlier K1 was designed around Kawai, but could be wrong.

WalterTheMusicianYoutube's Website