Topic: Room Acoustics - Deadened notes

I just got my Roland HP203 and fired up PT and instantly loved it.  I have the audio going back through the line-in on the piano.  I even moved the PT microphones to approximately where the speakers are on the HP203 and the effect is quite convincing.  The built-in Roland piano voice didn't sound that bad but it's nowhere near the quality of Pianoteq.

But... After a few minutes of playing, I noticed that a few notes around E5-G5 sound muted.  I can hear the overtones when I hit the keys harder, but it sounds like the primary harmonic is being suppressed.  I switched back to the built-in piano voice and it has the same problem, so it's definitely not a Pianoteq problem, but maybe someone has encountered this in other pianos...

It has to be an acoustic problem with either the piano or the room, because it sounds perfect on headphones.  So my main questions are:

- Is there any way it's a defect in the piano's speaker system?  I doubt this is the case because the muted frequency band is so narrow and the other notes sound perfect, and I really hope it's not the piano.

- If it is an acoustical oddity of the room, what are the most likely culprits?  Could it be the distance from the wall, type of carpet, furniture placement, or even the shape of the room itself?

It's not the heaviest digital piano, but it's still not the easiest thing to move around the room, and my placement options are somewhat limited without a lot of rearrangement of furniture, etc.

Last edited by JerryKnight (11-05-2009 16:42)

Re: Room Acoustics - Deadened notes

It is probably the crossover frequency of the built-in speakers combined with the position of DP in your room. But more likely the speakers.

If headphones play it correctly, then it's all clear.

Hard work and guts!

Re: Room Acoustics - Deadened notes

You could try two things to test it, assuming that you have not a pitch wheel on your piano.
First transpose your keyboard one tone just to test if it's a mechanical problem (but it shouldn't because of the headphones playing right).
Then use a different tuning on PT (maybe a quarter of tone lower) to check out if it's  a resonance or crossover problem. Increase it by 10 cents everytime to find the place where cancellation occours.