Topic: Pianoteq Ultra-Realistic Recording Presets

From what I see (atleast in the FXP corner and the forum) is that there are little to no presets trying to nail the tone of pianos to what people hear in recordings. So, I created my own:

Steinway D (HB) Live Recording
- 4 Mic preset, 2 close 2 room.
- Changed Delay, a little EQ, and totally changed reverb.
- Don't know what I did with the spectrum profile, but just played around with it untill it sounded natural enough to me.
- Change velocity curve to what you want. This is only used for the demo file.

Demos:
Chopin Ballade No2, Op.38
Scriabin Etude Op 8 No 12
Rachmaninoff Moment's Musicaux Op. 16 No. 4
Tchaikovsky - Pas de Deux
More available on the shared files page.

Unfortunately, the middle to upper register of the piano still soua snds synthetic and a little on the plastic side (atleast to my ears).
Any input would be well appreciated. Getting the tone right was almost purely by hearing, which took me hours on end to get to get right, so don't expect something thats immediately perfect the first time you try it. I'll update this mulltiple times, probably to the point where each update takes weeks to improve something.

(yes I know its a steinway, I don't have other references for other instruments. might do later)

Last edited by IndoPlayer (12-09-2026 02:23)

Re: Pianoteq Ultra-Realistic Recording Presets

IndoPlayer wrote:

From what I see (atleast in the FXP corner and the forum) is that there are little to no presets trying to nail the tone of pianos to what people hear in recordings. So, I created my own:

Steinway D (HB) Live Recording
- 4 Mic preset, 2 close 2 room.
- Changed Delay, a little EQ, and totally changed reverb.
- Don't know what I did with the spectrum profile, but just played around with it untill it sounded natural enough to me.
- Change velocity curve to what you want. This is only used for the demo file.

Demos:
Scriabin Etude Op 8 No 12
Rachmaninoff Moment's Musicaux Op. 16 No. 4
More available on the shared files page.

Unfortunately, the middle to upper register of the piano still soua snds synthetic and a little on the plastic side (atleast to my ears).
Any input would be well appreciated. Getting the tone right was almost purely by hearing, which took me hours on end to get to get right, so don't expect something thats immediately perfect the first time you try it. I'll update this mulltiple times, probably to the point where each update takes weeks to improve something.

(yes I know its a steinway, I don't have other references for other instruments. might do later)

Those demos are tremendous. However, the file seems to be unavailable.

Re: Pianoteq Ultra-Realistic Recording Presets

IndoPlayer wrote:

From what I see (atleast in the FXP corner and the forum) is that there are little to no presets trying to nail the tone of pianos to what people hear in recordings. So, I created my own:

Steinway D (HB) Live Recording
- 4 Mic preset, 2 close 2 room.
- Changed Delay, a little EQ, and totally changed reverb.
- Don't know what I did with the spectrum profile, but just played around with it untill it sounded natural enough to me.
- Change velocity curve to what you want. This is only used for the demo file.

Demos:
Scriabin Etude Op 8 No 12
Rachmaninoff Moment's Musicaux Op. 16 No. 4
More available on the shared files page.

Unfortunately, the middle to upper register of the piano still soua snds synthetic and a little on the plastic side (atleast to my ears).
Any input would be well appreciated. Getting the tone right was almost purely by hearing, which took me hours on end to get to get right, so don't expect something thats immediately perfect the first time you try it. I'll update this mulltiple times, probably to the point where each update takes weeks to improve something.

(yes I know its a steinway, I don't have other references for other instruments. might do later)

Thanks. Check my presets if you haven’t - mid/high may be more to your liking

Re: Pianoteq Ultra-Realistic Recording Presets

Kengrayfield wrote:
IndoPlayer wrote:

From what I see (atleast in the FXP corner and the forum) is that there are little to no presets trying to nail the tone of pianos to what people hear in recordings. So, I created my own:

Steinway D (HB) Live Recording
- 4 Mic preset, 2 close 2 room.
- Changed Delay, a little EQ, and totally changed reverb.
- Don't know what I did with the spectrum profile, but just played around with it untill it sounded natural enough to me.
- Change velocity curve to what you want. This is only used for the demo file.

Demos:
Scriabin Etude Op 8 No 12
Rachmaninoff Moment's Musicaux Op. 16 No. 4
More available on the shared files page.

Unfortunately, the middle to upper register of the piano still soua snds synthetic and a little on the plastic side (atleast to my ears).
Any input would be well appreciated. Getting the tone right was almost purely by hearing, which took me hours on end to get to get right, so don't expect something thats immediately perfect the first time you try it. I'll update this mulltiple times, probably to the point where each update takes weeks to improve something.

(yes I know its a steinway, I don't have other references for other instruments. might do later)

Those demos are tremendous. However, the file seems to be unavailable.

Sorry for the link being unavailable before, turns out I had a misstype in the URL. Fixed it now.

Re: Pianoteq Ultra-Realistic Recording Presets

From what I've searched (online atleast and just listening to the differences in tone) this is what I made up
So, I have made some minor adjustments
I would love to hear what feedback I can get on what I've changed from the past few days:
Current Version (1.4)
Next Version (rough sketch, 1.5)

Re: Pianoteq Ultra-Realistic Recording Presets

IndoPlayer wrote:

From what I've searched (online atleast and just listening to the differences in tone) this is what I made up
So, I have made some minor adjustments
I would love to hear what feedback I can get on what I've changed from the past few days:
Current Version (1.4)
Next Version (rough sketch, 1.5)

I love rough sketch 1.5!

You're onto something here. Keep going. Sounds amazing. Very impressed!

Warmest regards,

Chris

p.s. please share .fxp for 1.5

Last edited by sigasa (Yesterday 23:35)

Re: Pianoteq Ultra-Realistic Recording Presets

sigasa wrote:
IndoPlayer wrote:

From what I've searched (online atleast and just listening to the differences in tone) this is what I made up
So, I have made some minor adjustments
I would love to hear what feedback I can get on what I've changed from the past few days:
Current Version (1.4)
Next Version (rough sketch, 1.5)

I love rough sketch 1.5!

You're onto something here. Keep going. Sounds amazing. Very impressed!

Warmest regards,

Chris

p.s. please share .fxp for 1.5

Thanks for the positive feedback. I will add even more complete demos in the FXP corner
Steinway D (HB) Live Recording 1,5
Tweaked some more things such as hammer hardness, tone, spectrum profile, soundboard impeadance, stretch points, and tuning.
A comparison:
Version 1.4
Liszt - Transcedental Etude No. 12
Tchaikovsky | Pletnev - Adagio from Sleeping beauty
Version 1.5
Liszt - Transcedental Etude No. 12
Tchaikovsky | Pletnev - Adagio from Sleeping Beauty

Last edited by IndoPlayer (Today 03:12)