Pianoteq 4 impressions!. (Page 5 of 5)

Hello Beto-Music

In a word, the answer to your question is an resounding "No!"

The origin of the sound is in front of you, as you are seated at the piano (presumably with the lid raised), but it is an indirect sound as opposed to the direct sound dispersion of a set of loudspeakers.  Interestingly, when you are seated at a 7' to 9' grand, the hammers' noises are a few feet in front of you, and noticeably below your seated ear height.

I am amazed at how many of my students, on whom I teach on a Steinway or Kawai grand, are overwhelmed by the intensity of the sound.  This includes students who own digital pianos such as a Yamaha Clavinova, or an electronic keyboard connected to monitor speakers.

You are also aware that the reflections from the raised piano lid make additional sounds be heard from overhead as you are seated at the piano.

On large, excellent-quality grands, the sound can be very loud, but not loud in the way a pair of smallish speakers seem to "scream" at you!

You are aware of the location of the hammers' impacts, which is often a few to several feet in front of the actual musical sound emitted from a large grand.

Depending on whether your piano is placed on a carpeted vs. wooden vs. tiled floor, you will immediately sense differences in the way the sounds emanate from below the soundboard -- literally in front of your knees.

If you are playing in any room larger than a recording studio, you will immediately sense the direct sounds coming from the piano case, itself;  accordingly, the reverb you will hear (including early room reflections as well as longer, delayed reverb tails) will be perceived as coming from everywhere except the piano!!

Hopefully these recollections will help you grasp a visceral feeling of when you sit down and play a very good, large acoustic grand piano.

Cheers,

Joe

Thanks Joe.

I played some grands, but it was not in a decent acoustic place, neider were in great shape.

Roland claimed that RG-7 (digital grand piano)has some "scaps" to try simulate the sound feeling from a real grand.

I once imagined separated speakers (low power) to sound noises, as for hammer, to a digital piano.  But now you comment about sound reflecting on the ground, it would be near insane to manufacturers to put speakers everywhwere.

What about the Kaway digital piano that uses a real soundboard ? 
Ok, it simulates a small upright... but perhaps have the most natural sound dispercion for a digital piano.

Uhhnnn... Why any grand digital piano tried to do something similar, using a real soundboard (with transducers) ?

Someone once said that acoustic pianos was a species in extintion process, due digital pianos became popular and getting progress in quality.  But until the sound dispersion problem be solved, a fine real grand piano can't be replaced.

Hello Luc,

My post was only an answer to Beto-Music's question, which, if you recall, was a question directed to people who have played a many great acoustic grands and many high-quality digital baby grands:  He asked for a comparison of sound dispersion between the two sources.

In agreement with your own statement, I am also a tremendous fan of Pianoteq, especially for its expressiveness and musicality.  Sound dispersion characteristics aside, Pianoteq Version 4 (especially with good-quality headphones) allows me "make music" through my digital keyboard in a way that no other software-based piano has allowed me to do before now!

Cheers,

Joe

If you are a multimilionaire or bilionaire, and can afford to buy 33 pianos, variable high quality grands and historic pianos, harpsichords, electrics percursion instruments, and hire a 24hrs a day piano tuner to tune and needle every piano as you wish, and can also build a large mansion with 30 different acoustic environments...
I suggest you to put pianoteq by side.