Topic: Is PianoTeq ever going hybrid?

As a user of an old (~2008) MacBook I appreciate the fact that PianoTeq is so resource-friendly, but from a strict sound-perspective it seems to me like many people are raving about what today's hybrid pianos, combining physical modelling and sampling, are delivering. One of the more famous ones is endorsed by Chick Corea, Lyle Mays and Russ Ferrante, which in my book constitutes some sort of Ultimate Seal of Approval, and when I listen to samples it sounds like a real piano (granted my ears are nowhere near refined).

Anyway. What are the chances PianoTeq will go in this direction in upcoming versions?

Re: Is PianoTeq ever going hybrid?

I don't think it'll go hybrid beyond how "hybrid" it currently is (it uses samples for pedal and key noises).

Hard work and guts!

Re: Is PianoTeq ever going hybrid?

Physical modelling...?

Hybrid pianos like modelling+samples???

Don't be so sure this exist exactly as you think !!!


Pianoteq is modelled, but it's it's not the ordinary modelling that media push, cause pianoteq generate the core sound itself alowing change things like impedance, piano size, hammer hardness.
Many products called "MODELLED" don't do this, cause it's not really modelled, and do not generate the sound from mathematic equation, but instead just have samples and apply some advanced filters over that.

Filters to enhance samples for a piano library or DP exist since 7 years ago or more.  From Kornel Mezzo symphatetic resonance scripts, to GEM Pro Mega 3 digital piano's ability to create several intermediate velocities from given number of samples for key velocity plus piano resobnance and key resonance. And such products were honest enough to do do call thenselves as modelled.

The small softwares that have some filters to add sympathetic resonance and large velocity keys, that today are selled as hybrid of modelled and sampler, it's nothing more than a very small sampler with many digital filters. It's just marketing to say that it's HD friendly, but it's not modelled at all, at least from my perspective.
Such products can't change hammer hardness, piano size, unison etc...  It's no way modelled as pianoteq.

The only hybrid approuch I can imagine for pianoteq, is to use some samples of some woodness effects to lay over the piano sound .But how would be possible to record just some woodness sounds???  Maybe by modelled itself (leaving a computer computating it for hours to get very natural)

Re: Is PianoTeq ever going hybrid?

What matters most to me, is the result, not the fact if it's modeled, sampled or some hybrid approach. As a gigging musician I am using some mostly sampled piano with little bit modeling. Of course, I am loosing some qualities which PTQ can give but on the other hand I get some presence and warmth (someone might call it woodiness) which I don't get from PTQ. I would not so easily curse those hybrid approaches in principal, they might be the best of both worlds at the moment.

Re: Is PianoTeq ever going hybrid?

Beto-Music wrote:

But how would be possible to record just some woodness sounds???

If adding reverb, from a room, is so accurate as to handle St Paul's, say, and that's got essentially from sampling the response of the target space in air, why wouldn't a similar approach work via sampling, per note if need be, in a target sound board?

Re: Is PianoTeq ever going hybrid?

I made a post some time back where I added an IR of a piano cabinet to PianoTeq. I did some tweaking on it and found it to be useful in some circumstances. Actually quite dramatic in others. Try adding a Piano Cabinet IR to a convo verb and see if it does anything for you. They're out there.

You might be able to find several IRs. One based around the cabinet. One for the hammers. maybe use one of the tape machine plugins, and a microphone modeler too might help, etc... Who knows.

Regards,
Steve Steele
stevesteele.com
Music theorist, composer, Vienna Ensemble Pro templates, YouTube channel (Mains: 2 Mac Pros, Digital Performer, Vienna Ensemble Pro, and an iPad Pro.)

Re: Is PianoTeq ever going hybrid?

nightwatch wrote:

I made a post some time back where I added an IR of a piano cabinet to PianoTeq.  .....  too might help, etc... Who knows.

A great idea. Apart from these superb ideas I think there is no need for pianoteq to go "more" hybrid as it is. At least I love the idea behind how it is now, and dropped using all of my sample-based pianos. Well, different tastes and different wishes, of course.

Re: Is PianoTeq ever going hybrid?

The Hybrid piano you are referring to (endorsed by Chick Corea) is the Yamaha Avantgrand series. These are called "hybrid" because they have a real Yamaha grand piano action, NOT because the sound engine is a hydrid.  The basic sound generation is still based on samples, albeit using multi point sampling to try to recreate the sound field of a grand piano.  They also feature, on some models, vibrational feedback to create the illusion that one is playing on a real piano.  In my opinion, this is the fundamental flaw with this approach, I.e. that the sound is based on samples and not on a physical computational model.  No matter how finely resolved the samples are, or how much digital signal processing is used, fundamentally one is listening to a recorded sound, and therefore it is inherently inferior to a modelled sound which is a "live" sound, albeit created in-silico, where the notes can interact with each other as they would with physical vibrations by strings. 

Of course the sound samples sound great on Yamaha's website, but I am prepared to put money on the fact that once you have played using a modelled piano engine you will not be satisfied with a sample based one (I speak from experience). If I had an AvantGrand for the keyboard action, I would bypass the internal sound and use the midi conection to my laptop with Pianoteq, and then route the sound back into the Avantgrand's audio in to use its amp and speakers.

Last edited by Stangy (23-09-2012 07:51)

Re: Is PianoTeq ever going hybrid?

Stangy wrote:

The Hybrid piano you are referring to (endorsed by Chick Corea) is the Yamaha Avantgrand series. These are called "hybrid" because they have a real Yamaha grand piano action, NOT because the sound engine is a hydrid.  The basic sound generation...


Interesting Stangy - I knew nothing about that piano until now. I've been thinking about how a hybrid piano would work.

I use WIVI (modeled orchestral brass and woodwinds). Works well, but sometimes sounds organ-like. I also have sampled pianos and orchestral instruments. I generally find the whole thing frustrating, but at least I can either make good mock-ups, or decent enough commercially released productions, which is good enough for me.

But a hybrid piano. How would that work? In WIVI, the instrument and space is modeled. For a piano, what part of that would be sampled? I also have a product that is a guitar amp's cabinet and room simulator (Live G in DP). It's a combination of IRs for the cabs, and room models (I believe).

Would the strings/notes be sampled, maybe mixed with molded strings and room, with soundboard and hammer IRs? Or am I way off base? I don't know if mixing string samples and models would work or not. Seems like any phase issues could be fixed but not sure if overtones would create problems. I don't know enough about acoustic physics to know, but I'm curious.

Sample Modeling (the company) makes hybrid brass. I'll look into that. But it seems like a hybrid piano would be very difficult. There is so much going on in a piano.

And of course, we're listening to these products through a pair of speakers. And a different pair of speakers and environment for each person.

I like the efforts made by those that are building special speaker cabinets and adding IRs and such. Such a great idea.

Here's the Sample Modeling link...

http://www.samplemodeling.com/en/technology.php

Last edited by nightwatch (22-09-2012 22:15)
Regards,
Steve Steele
stevesteele.com
Music theorist, composer, Vienna Ensemble Pro templates, YouTube channel (Mains: 2 Mac Pros, Digital Performer, Vienna Ensemble Pro, and an iPad Pro.)

Re: Is PianoTeq ever going hybrid?

@nightwatch  Interesting article!  I do find it surprising that there should be such difficulty in achieving a realistic sounding computational model for a brass instrument, which I would have thought has less complexity (from a physics point of view) than a piano.

Regarding the original post by nothingbutblues, I would argue that the current version 4.0 of Pianoteq, in particular the Steinway D model, is so good already, that I am not sure there is any advantage to be gained by adopting a similar hybrid approach as was mentioned in the article.  I think it's great that the objective behind Pianoteq seems to follow the purist approach and simply to make a better and better physical piano model.

I looked at the Yamaha AvantGrand, and I was tempted for a while (certainly by the on-paper specs and the website samples and videos) but when I actually tried one out I didn't like it.  Sure the keyboard action is fantastic (after all it is a real grand piano keyboard), but from a performance point of view, it was frustrating (as I was used to using Pianoteq) - it just didn't feel like a real piano, in spite of the keyboard.  One also needs to consider the cost and weight (the mid range model is already around 100kg) - in the end you're probably better off  buying an upright acoustic piano with a silent mode (using Pianoteq, of course) for the silent practising and then you have the best of both worlds!  This is what I did in the end - I have a Bechstein A124 with the Vario HD silent system, but I use Pianoteq as the Vario sound module is not really up to scratch.   I use the pro version of Pianoteq, and this allows me to calibrate each individual note - it turns out that the Bechstein has small variabilities in the midi velocity curve for each note in when using its midi-mode.  It was a tiresome process, but now I have very little difference in my playing experience (from a practising point of view) between the silent mode and the acoustic mode, and this is so much better than any sample based piano, even the Kawai MP10 stage piano I used previously which has an excellent (sampled) piano sound.

Re: Is PianoTeq ever going hybrid?

Stangy wrote:

  This is what I did in the end - I have a Bechstein A124 with the Vario HD silent system, but I use Pianoteq as the Vario sound module is not really up to scratch.   I use the pro version of Pianoteq, and this allows me to calibrate each individual note - it turns out that the Bechstein has small variabilities in the midi velocity curve for each note in when using its midi-mode.  It was a tiresome process, but now I have very little difference in my playing experience (from a practising point of view) between the silent mode and the acoustic mode, and this is so much better than any sample based piano, even the Kawai MP10 stage piano I used previously which has an excellent (sampled) piano sound.

But what about recording? Would you rather mic a piano in a room or use PianoTeq? (in general). That's a situation where you have a real piano, being mic'd, in a room, getting tracked and heard through monitors vs PianoTeq through monitors.

Or are you saying, maybe due to the Pro version, and any sound analysis you may have done to customize PianoTeq Pro, you feel completely comfortable with the outcome? And this could be in any musical situation... solo piano, classical, jazz, pop, etc..

Or is this a non-issue for you? Maybe I'm not talking about the same thing as you. Make sense?

Just a small example. One of my sample libs is Piano In Blue by Cinesamples... It's the Steinway used on Kind of Blue (Bill Evans) and Gould's early Goldberg session (I think), in the same room with the same mics (I think). I hear it's flaws sometimes (noise floor, sample layers, etc...), but it mixes well in some situations. It sounds real. PianoTeq too, but in different situations. Sometimes neither really works. Just an example. Any thoughts?

I understand your point about creating tones instead of playing back recorded tones.

Regards,
Steve Steele
stevesteele.com
Music theorist, composer, Vienna Ensemble Pro templates, YouTube channel (Mains: 2 Mac Pros, Digital Performer, Vienna Ensemble Pro, and an iPad Pro.)

Re: Is PianoTeq ever going hybrid?

Hi

My needs are simple. I need the ability to practise silently so as not to disturb the neighbours, using a setup that is as close as possible in touch and response to the acoustic piano.  So I need as realistic as possible keyboard AND as realistic as possible sound behaviour.  I was halfway there with my previous setup which used a Kawai MP10 stage piano with Pianoteq, but I found that MP10 was "too easy" to play compared to a real piano, particularly when one is trying to play Pianissimo in a controlled way (I.e it was easier to play PP reliably on the MP10, so I had issues during my lessons or during performance).

I would still prefer to play the acoustic piano all the time if I could, and if it came to recording I would typically go for the miked acoustic piano.  I have done Pianoteq recordings in the past and admittedly they're pretty damn good (and also more convenient!) but of course you need a good reproduction system to get the best out of them