Topic by Otis

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  • Otis
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  • Registered: 28-05-2016
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Topic: Blues piano sound

I want to have a New Orleans style piano sound. I use the different Presets and use the slider towards worn out. Are there any more possibilities to do that? This special out of tune sound is very hard to get by on a real piano. If you listen to recordings by Dr. John, Prof. Longhair, Otis Spann, James Booker you can hear what I mean. There is so much in Pianoteq to tweak around, so I thought it would be the best to ask. I would appreciate it very much if you could tell me something about your gear you're using, like for instance digital pianos, masterkeyboards, stage pianos and so forth. I tried a lot of boards but sampling just isn't designed to give me the result I'm looking for.

Thx,

Otis

Otis Spann 'Walking the Blues'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIzRpjXcfwY

Otis Spann 'This is the Blues'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjwJ-JcRDrw

Last edited by Otis (28-05-2016 18:36)
U4, YC5, D4, K2, Pianoteq Standard 5.8.1, Win7 x64
Dell Latitude, Intel Core i5 2520M
CPU@2.50 GHz

Reply by jcfelice88keys

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Re: Blues piano sound

Hello Otis,

The special out-of-tune sound heard in the two submitted videos ... is concocted!  Why?  If a piano is genuinely out of tune as in the two examples, then they should be about one or two semitones flat; these pianos' diapasons (in Pianoteq-speak) are very close to A440.  The oxymoron connection is an "out of tune" piano that is "in tune" as regards to the note A above middle C corresponding to 440Hz.

One way to achieve the desired effect in Pianoteq is to increase the Unison Width slider to values over 5 or 6.  If you were to modify only the Condition slider, the entire piano would go flat, as expected.  Ironically, the pianos in the two videos are out of tune ... but not flat.

Cheers,

Joe

Reply by SteveLy

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Re: Blues piano sound

jcfelice88keys wrote:

Hello Otis,

The special out-of-tune sound heard in the two submitted videos ... is concocted!  Why?  If a piano is genuinely out of tune as in the two examples, then they should be about one or two semitones flat; these pianos' diapasons (in Pianoteq-speak)

Maybe so, but in Pianoteq one could mess up the tuning to sound similar: definitely doable in the Pro version, and perhaps in the Std also with some clever tweaks.

3/2 = 5

SteveLy's Website

Reply by Otis

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Re: Blues piano sound

I increased the Unison width and changed the Hammer hardness also. What is this with the Piano (Default: 0,33), Mezzo (Default: 0,95) and Forte (Default: 1,6) all about? In addition to all that I also changed the Condition to around 50 %. I'm getting very close.

Otis

U4, YC5, D4, K2, Pianoteq Standard 5.8.1, Win7 x64
Dell Latitude, Intel Core i5 2520M
CPU@2.50 GHz