Topic by skipgilles

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  • skipgilles
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Topic: How do presets work?

First of all, I am very happy with pianoteq. The dynamics of sound really made me enjoy playing digital piano so much more than before (when I used the nord-electro 3 piano's which re alos pretty good). I like it so much that I hardly ever feel the need to change anything to the sound, or select a different instrument: I'm just playing!

That being said, I have one thing that I really don't get yet:

What is the logic of the presets?

some questions:
1) I don't get AB and the green light. I see that there can be one preset in each of them, is this meant as two "variations" of the same sound?
2) How do different parameters apply to different pre-sets, A/B, and instruments? E.g., how can I change the velocity curve of all my presets?
3) what defines through what list you walk by clicking left and right at the preset selector?
4) how does mini-presets relate to full presets (in the "(mini) preset manager")

These are just some questions. I could probably think out the answers to all these questions myself, if I understood the basic logic of what presets are. Can someone help me?

Thanks a lot!

Last edited by skipgilles (19-05-2015 15:12)

Reply by EvilDragon

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Re: How do presets work?

All the answers to your questions are more or less contained in Pianoteq's manual...

Hard work and guts!

Reply by skipgilles

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Re: How do presets work?

Hi Evil Dragon,

I did of course read de manual, but I didn't really get the logic. Really, I just re-read it and I still don't know the answers to my questions. E.g., I see that I can freeze someparameters and select another sound, but is there not something like general settings? And AB is surely not clearly explained. Are these two presets or two instances of one preset? And why is it there? And why the green indicator for something that you would need so rarely as knowing whether they differ. And why are some presets also called AB and BA. Does this have to do with the AB selector?

Altogether, I just got the feeling that I totally miss something about the logic of presets. That's why I ask.

Reply by jcfelice88keys

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Re: How do presets work?

Hello Mr. SkipGilles,

Explanation of AB versus BA piano presets: 

Short Answer:  The virtual stereo microphones' channels are swapped (LR ===> RL) when you switch from AB to BA.  All other parameters of the same piano preset's BA counterpart remain unchanged.

Background:
When you are listening to a grand piano from a concert audience perspective, especially in the first few center rows in the venue, you tend to perceive the highest notes as coming from the "left" (shortest side) of the piano, because the piano's overall length is positioned perpendicular to the concert audience.  (We may credit Franz Liszt for this convention, because he wanted the ladies to swoon at him in profile as he performed in public.)

During beta testing, some testers felt disoriented when the high notes arose from the left channel, and the lower notes arose from the right channel.  The concept of BA reversed the audio channels of L-R to R-L, such that the playing experience is more like one hears when actually playing the piano.

Here's hoping this information has answered your original question.

Cheers,

Joe

Reply by skipgilles

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Re: How do presets work?

Hi Joe,
Thanks a lot, that definitely answers the question about the AB and BA in preset names. Makes a lot of sense.

Reply by EvilDragon

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Re: How do presets work?

skipgilles wrote:

E.g., I see that I can freeze someparameters and select another sound, but is there not something like general settings?

Freezing is what you need to do if you want to have exactly the same value for a certain parameter across all presets (like velocity curve, for example). That's just how it's implemented.

skipgilles wrote:

And AB is surely not clearly explained. Are these two presets or two instances of one preset? And why is it there?

A/B can be used in two ways. One way is quickly swapping between two very different sounds, say a piano and a clavinet, or between an electric piano and a celesta. Whatever strikes your fancy. The other way is when you're tweaking the patch, you can easily duplicate the currently loaded patch to B, and then you can always revert to it. You can copy things over from A to B at different stages of your patch design, so you can have a sort of snapshot you can return to. That's why the green indicator is there, to show you that changes happened. If you right-click the A/B button, you will actually see which sections have changed.

Hard work and guts!

Reply by skipgilles

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Re: How do presets work?

Post edited, see below.

Thanks EvilDragon, I get the logic more or less now.

What confused me is probably that the preset has a name which is the name of the "A-slot". To me, it would seem a bit more logical if you could have a preset called, for example, "my_two_pianos" and then have piano A: piano_x, and B: piano_y. But now I understand, I should see it more like a vinyl single with a B-side. This B-side offers the copy tricks you explained. Cool.

Edit: The above is incorrect.
For anyone who does not understand the A/B slots (maybe I'm the only one, sorry in that case):

A and B are the two active presets between which you can switch easily by clicking the A/B button.
So, it is NOT the case that A and B are two instances of one preset (that's what I understood erroneously). Whenever your are working in "slot" A and select another preset, this preset will then be active in A. B stays unchanged. (And vice versa)

Last edited by skipgilles (22-05-2015 10:31)