Topic by GeorgeTheMerlin

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  • GeorgeTheMerlin
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  • From: Germoney, Rockenhausen
  • Registered: 23-05-2012
  • Posts: 4

Topic: Sound, dependent on equipment and adjustment

Hi - I found here many happy people - and some very harsh critics.

For me ALL this critisism is not very helpful, when equipment and adjustment oft this equipment, and even adjustment of pianoteq, is not mentioned. For me, this point of right adjustment is not easy to handle.

Using AKG phones direktly on my EMU 1616m, I first heard the nice and natural piano sound.
My even expensive transmissionline speakers gave a very dull sound - artificial, not piano like.

The headphone experience showed very well, where the mistake was. It was a very hard work, to adjust speakers in the room, amp, subwoofer that it sounds similar to a piano IN THIS SPECIAL ROOM. On one hand, speakers are never a piano - but one can do a lot - right or wrong way! A common mistake is f.e., that the subwoofer is adjusted too loud. In this case an upgrade, giving more bass and "fullness" - will sound very unnatural compared to a bright smaller sound. This is only one example, how an improvement can make it more worse to some people.

At the first time I heard Pianoteq on a CD from a music test magazine. They tried to be ABSOLUTELY objective. They made ONE midi file and tested all the virtual instruments. Pianoteq sounds VERY artificial. Later I came to the homepage of Pianoteq, heard some examples with my headphones and liked it much. By this, I learned, that you have to play an instrument - live with it - that a maschine-like test with a midi file played on another instrument is a mistake and even not objective.

After buying it, I had this hard difference between headphone sound and speakers and had some hard work to like it again. I think, even a real piano you can make sound bad by giving it a wrong place and a bad sounding room.

For me, adjustment is much more a critical point than how Pianoteq sounds by itself - this I can get directly behind D.A. of my interface by studio-headphones and is always a little bit better than speakers and room.

greets George

Reply by Kramster

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  • Kramster
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  • Registered: 23-12-2011
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Re: Sound, dependent on equipment and adjustment

All so true.... the sound can change alot from changing equipment used to listen with and position. At least Pianoteq is a great place to start.

Reply by RaymondRobijns

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  • RaymondRobijns
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  • From: The Hague
  • Registered: 10-07-2009
  • Posts: 53

Re: Sound, dependent on equipment and adjustment

My equipment: EMU1616M PCIe, AKG K271 MKII, KRK Rokit 8, PianoTeq 4 Pro latest update.
I did a calibration on the headphones. I prefer listening to piano recitals, recorded in a small or medium ambience with the impression of being the player himself (as they call it: close mic'ed). I am not very fond of those concerthall recordings with huge reverbs and colouring output.

To judge the PianoTeq and getting the sound as close as possible to the real thing, I always make a midifile of the piece put on the test. Then with or without some midi host I play the piece together with the score in sight and the CD recording at hand. I always switch from one to another getting the comparison right and immediate.

It is not always possible to get that exact sound, because I don't have the same equipment as used in that hall/room and I am not the same pianist/interpreter and not the mastering engineer...... but with this method, using the headphones all the way, I can come very close to it. Sometimes my ears get fatigue and then I stop working, have a good long walk or postpone the project for a couple of days.

One thing I noticed is, that with headphones everything sounds the same in the end, the brain gets used to the sound and translates it to "what we expected". Therefore a break is necessary. Finally I will play it thru my monitors and the really top quality system in my living room.

... and still there are some flaws, some settings that sound a tiny bit better or worse..... one can experiment until kingdom comes, a decision has to be made "is this what I want."

Judging recorded CD's is a trade on its own, no one sounds the same, not even the different pieces on one CD. Getting PianoTeq work for you is just a matter of taste and choices.

Raymond

Website (only in dutch for now) http://www.demuziekvanraymondrobijns.nl