C3 rattle sound

Could you post mp3 examples that demonstrate the sound with and without the rattle that you hear?

This sounds like numerical aliasing, not distortion. There is a strong component around 8kHz in the first part of your file that is causing this. What internal and external sampling pianoteq rate are you using and what is your soundcard spec in this area?

C3 sounds fine in my setup with Grado SR80 headphones and Tascam US-122 soundcard.

For best performance, and because there are big differences between headphones, each headphone can require it's own EQ, and SONY are known for emphasizing high freqs more than other such as AKG which are rather soft in the upper range. Moreover, extreme EQ settings can produce an unusual sound, particularly with the very sharp Pianoteq EQ that works in pre-processing mode.

When I listen to your demo, I can clearly hear the metallic artifact with my headphones, so this is not an headphone problem. When I play myself with your fxp and reset the Eq back to 0, I don't hear any artifact, the stock C3 worn out also sounds ok. So your problem has to be a sampling rate problem or bad response from your soundcard.

Here is a spectrum of a note from your file at the top, and the same one played by me at the bottom. The peaks circled in red centered around 7kHz is what we hear as an artifact, and none appear in my graph. This is a clear sign of aliasing. Not a C3 problem.

Oh I see... I was missing this info and of course pre-boosting the model by 25dB can generate a completely different sound than the normal C3, more like an electric piano. It is more or less like modifying the spectrum in this area. In that case, I can't hear that artifact with my headphones without this boost. Maybe it is created by your own headphones resonant frequency since almost nothing shows up in the non-boosted graph, or maybe you have better ears than mine

By soundcard effect I thought maybe a mismatch between the pianoteq parameters and the sound card ones that can sometimes be modified independently might also have an effect on the offline rendering that uses these parameters since the renderer might also talk to the sound card driver.

I've noticed this as well. It's there in equal temperament but when in well temperament or Tomas Young temperament it's a lot more pronounced. To me it's sort of like a ringing noise that phases back and forth and then dissipates. It's not quite as high pitched as a CRT TV/Monitor that's left on with a blank input signal but it's pretty close.

For me I can hear it in the  A2-D3 range but it's primarily on C3 that I can hear it. It's there for about 750ms after the key is struck in the f-fff range. I think it's in the 2500-3000Hz range thought I can't be very sure about that.

I use Sennheiser HD 555 headphones as my primary output but I've noticed this on other speakers as well.

Yes, I noticed this artifact a very long time ago as well, in exactly the same circumstance - softly played notes.  I agree that it sounds very much like interpolation noise or aliasing.  It is only in the attacks.

Greg.

I've fixed my ringing problem by just switching to YC5 and not really using C3 as much.

However, I finally had some free time to identify what are the frequencies that bother me.

I start with the C3 Solo Recording preset and set the temperament to well tempered.

I'm going to assume the note C3 equals middle C.

If I play C1 without any equalizer changes I can hear it clearly but in case you cannot here is an eq setting that will exemplify the frequencies that cause the ringing for me. It is most notable in the mf-fff range but I can hear it even at p.

Equalizer = [3514, 3515, 3860, 3861, 4420, 4421, 4461, 4462, 4623, 4624, 4697, 4698; -25, 0, 0, -25, -25, 0, 0, -25, -25, 0, 0, -25]

This will really bring out the offending noise. They are very high order harmonic frequencies.

If I use this eq setting then the ringing noise is pretty much gone.

Equalizer = [3514, 3515, 3860, 3861, 4420, 4421, 4461, 4462, 4623, 4624, 4697, 4698; 0, -25, -25, 0, 0, -25, -25, 0, 0, -25, -25, 0]

However, it's only for that one note. You still get these obnoxious very high overtones in the rest of the bass. Setting the cutoff and Q factor doesn't help since it kills the high notes and makes them too flat (in the timbre sense).

I only have the standard edition but I don't know if even in the pro edition you can control overtones that high.

What is most interesting is if you set the temperament back to equal the ringing is not as offensive (i.e., loud / noticeable). So this leads me to believe that the model has some harmonic resonance at whatever freq C1 is when set to well tempered. Or something.

I wish I knew what causes this and how to control it since this problem limits how much I can play the C3.