(By chance, is your first name Don?)
I have daily access to a Steinway Model M and a K. Kawai grand, on which I and my piano students practice and give recitals. Would you care to know on which instrument I make most of my recordings? No, not the Steinway or K. Kawai -- most of my recordings are made via Pianteq PRO Version 4.
The most logical question is, "Why would anyone forsake freshly tuned and prepared Steinway and K. Kawai grands for Pianoteq?" Here are my answers, based on actual experience:
1) Ambient noise cannot be controlled: Heating and air conditioning vents, outside road traffic, other people in the building, etc., wreak havoc on my live recordings of acoustic grand pianos. One only needs to "listen" through headphone monitors to hear hiss and other ambient noise that cannot be eliminated through the microphones. (This is not a soundproofed recording studio; rather it is a church setting.)
2) Reverberation is hard to control: Surely the church setting has natural reverb, but to deal with its constant presence, I need to position the microphones to a distance too far away from the piano to have reverb to be heard (rendering too "wet" of a piano sound), or position the mikes to closely to the piano to get rid of reverb (but then hearing too much directionality and mechanical piano noise -- Steinway's infamous 1980's teflon bushings, piano bench squeaks -- plus whistling nose hairs(!) from the pianist).
3) Truly world class microphones are too expensive to acquire: The various commercial brands of dynamic microphones at my disposal are too noisy, sometimes too directional, etc.).
4) The natural dynamic range of the piano tends to be too wide for my recording equipment: If I reduce the recording level to avoid percussive signal overload, then the balance of a given piece is recorded too quietly. I tend to attempt to modify my playing style, so as not to overload the signal, nor bury the pianissimo passages in the room noise.
5) In order to control all of the above, I must then run the recording through a de-noiser, dynamic multiband compressor, equalizer, etc., etc.). By the time all of the electronic trickery has been completed, the sound of the real piano does not sound as naturally as can be achieved by Pianoteq!
6) The pianos at my disposal (nominally 5'7" and 5'8") are too small to compete with the sounds of concert grands. These pianos' low strings are very lacking in their fundamental frequencies, and they sound comparatively "twangy" to 9' concert grands (and Pianoteq). Excessive bass tweaking only "muddies" the final sound and ruins dynamic range.
7) In my own opinion, the recorded sounds I am able to achieve via Pianoteq PRO Version 4 (albeit mostly in classical repertoire) more closely approach those of commercial recordings, rather than my rather futile attempts to record the sounds of real pianos at my personal disposal.
I am sure there are other reasons, but these are ones that come immediately to mind.
Others are welcome to chime in, if they so desire.
Cheers,
Joe
EDIT: Added a Postscript
P.S. I personally believe that my access to real pianos helps the way I am able to emote via Pianoteq. Pianoteq behaves very closely to the way I am able to play on good quality, properly maintained grand pianos.
Last edited by jcfelice88keys (02-09-2012 01:15)
