Topic by ellgor

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  • ellgor
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Topic: How Pianoteq5 should sound.

Hi all,

New user here, not so new in the age stakes, my rig is as follows a Fatar Studio 900 Masterkeyboard (old  I know) AMD 64 Quad core desktop, 500Gb hd, mediocre sound card (soon to be upgraded), good speakers? (Aegis Eco 3) and running PTQ 5.1.1. I'd seen a few of the demos before I got ptq and was impressed enough to purchase it, the Linux version that is.

I have tried every combination of presets, downloded from the fxp corner, and still cannot find a sound that performs at every level that I would be happy with, for example, one that sounds fabulous in the bass range just sounds tinny in the upper regions or even encroaching on an organ sound, at one point I thought  I have some old soundfonts that sounded better.

Then I found this :

http://youtu.be/mF9xh5YHW8w 

If I knew how to post a proper link I would, anyway, if this is not a vindication of PTQ then hit me with a mallet.
One of my own observations after watching this (a good number of times now) is that the sound in the video in general is of high quality (compared to others I've seen) the equipment in use, a Roland V Piano no less, is of the highest quality.

My question, is it going to break the bank to get a decent sound?

Regards, Ellgor.

Reply by Kridlatec

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Re: How Pianoteq5 should sound.

Hello, ellgor! As I remember, Phil used factory presets for this video, without tweaking them. I can imagine only five reasons, why you can percieve it as better sounding:
1. Soundcard. I guess he uses some expensive stuff*.
2. May be it's the result of final rendering. When you export to wav you can choose "high quality settings". Try it.
3. In this video you hear Pianoteq 5.0. Now we have Pianoteq 5.1 with revoiced D4. It sounds different.
4. There is big influence of velocity curves on sound. May be your controller is harder or softer then this roland. Experiment with curves.
5. Phil is an experienced and wonderful player. It can affect your perception of PT sound. As musicians in Russia say: "Don't get Amati, just learn to play"

If you love different presets in different ranges, you can purchase PT Pro to make complex presets. It is big discount right now on Pro version
And of course, you don't need to buy V-Piano) With Pt it works like an usual midi-controller (oh, yes, good controller with good keys and mechanics!). It doesn't influence final sound (except keys hardness)

*RME Babyface

Last edited by Kridlatec (27-11-2014 23:34)
Pianoteq 6 Pro (D4, K2, Blüthner, Model B, Grotrian, Ant.Petrof)
Studiologic SL88Grand, Steinberg UR22mkII

Reply by Beto-Music

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Re: How Pianoteq5 should sound.

Perhaps Modartt could create a few presets for D4, following the treble voicing of 5.0 version.

When sundcard make difference... Latency issue besides, I believe if a sound music, CD of piano recording or example, sounds good and natural, it will not make huge diferences for pianoteq sound naturality.
Something similar can be said for speakers.

Velocity curves needs more attention.

Reply by EdwardianPiano

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Re: How Pianoteq5 should sound.

Sounded great- was really pleased to hear some of the Kremsegg pianos!

Reply by tacbd

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Re: How Pianoteq5 should sound.

Hi Kridlatec,

In what manner would a RME Babyface contribute to the sound quality?  I just went to their webpage and read a page of technical detail on it, and it's difficult for me to make out even what it is.

Does it sit in between the controller and the input and process the sound?

Reply by jcfelice88keys

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Re: How Pianoteq5 should sound.

Hello Mr. Ellgor, and welcome to the forum with your first post,

As someone who furnishes a number of classical demo recordings for Pianoteq, I can certainly attest that I use the factory presets (in my case, usually the AB Concert Recording, or similar type of preset) with no modifications to the preset except for perhaps changing a 30dB dynamic range to about 36dB, and then adjusting the master volume slider to about -6dB, so as to avoid clipping and not making the preset's limiter work terribly hard.

Absolutely no modifications are made to microphone choice or placement; no modifications made to impedance or hammer hardness, or reverb or anything else.  In fact, I even leave the velocity parameters ruler straight from 0 to 127.

Regarding a soundcard, I use an Apogee Duet (original version) as an audio interface with my MacPro, and I use an ancient 24-year old Roland A-80 mother controller keyboard.   

Cheers,

Joe

Last edited by jcfelice88keys (15-12-2014 19:23)