Note OFF Midi - how important ?

My experience has been that, while Note-Off capability is not essential to playing Pianoteq, it does make a difference. I do not notice it much when listening to recordings, but when playing, it increases my sense of playing a real acoustic piano. If you have a good keyboard that you are otherwise pleased with, I would hesitate to say that you should abandon it. On the other hand, if you are searching for a new keyboard, I would suggest finding one that recognizes Note-Off velocity.

By the way, many of the "big box" stores (such as Guitar Center), now have Pianoteq on a CPU, along with other software, so that you can test it. Here in Atlanta, the CPU is kept in the monitor and headphone room. They have it connected to an Axiom or some other small MIDI keyboard.  If you are serious about testing out a keyboard, I'm sure that they would let you connect it to listen to how the keyboard interacts with Pianoteq. (The stores do not make a big thing of having the software available for testing. My theory is that they do not want kids and us playing around with it much, since it is simply loaded onto a computer, and anyone could easily change the settings or generally mess it up.)

Thanks to the two responders for their thoughts.

I've done some experimentation on this and the results are that you can use the "note off" velocity map to interesting effect even without a keyboard that sends note-off signals.  This also suggests that note-off velocity has a definite impact on the piano models ( and hence the sound you make ).

It turns out that ( for keyboards that don't send note-off ) Pianoteq seems to always generate a "fake" input note-off velocity of 63 or 64 ( my visual estimate on the note-off map display ).

But you can alter this simply by changing the note-off map curve.  A value of zero leaves you with a sustained note and a higher value means a faster dying of the sound.  Basically you're going to be mapping the constant input value that Pianoteq generates ( that 63 ) using the map.

So rather useful to know if your keyboard does not support note-off, as the map does affect the rate the note dies at if you know you can make use of the thing, perhaps using the map to affect the way different pieces you play sound.

This also means that the models must actively use note-off velocities to control the rate the note dies at when keyboards support note-off.  This does seem rather important for more serious players.  I've no idea how closely this reflects how pianos work in practice, but I'd assume Pianoteq didn't do this by accident.

The note-off velocity also seems related to the generation of a key release noise ( which is documented in the manual ).  I often mute or reduce this anyway ( not being from an acoustic piano background myself it's just distracting to me - I'm sure some people will be horrified by this, not least the people who implemented the code :-) ).

As I had (stupidly) ignored the note-off velocity map when I found my keyboard did not send note off signals I apologise if I wasted anyone's time with this and hope this information will be useful to someone.  Also note I'm using STAGE 5 so I can't be sure this is valid for any other version.

Yes, this is Standard, and works just fine for any instrument which does not require any variation in Note-Off Velocity.

I strongly disagree.  I would think that commonly in real playing, a note struck very strong and loud would be held for a long time, through much sound decay, and finally released slow and gentle.  Likewise, I would think that a note struck very soft and gentle might want a quick, instant release to end that gentle sound exactly as required.

Sjgcit--in any case, I hope that you will get the opportunity to play Pianoteq on a keyboard that does register Note-off velocity. Although it may not be essential, I think that people might be surprised by the way it contributes to the sense of playing a real instrument. It's not so much on single notes that I sense the difference. It's more when playing chords. Hard to describe the sound, but there's just more of a sense of the notes sustaining a  little longer, in varying degrees, until the dampers fall. One has more of a sense of being connected to and controlling the sound, and I hear a little more of both the rattle and shimmer that emerges from a real piano.

I might add that I did not go out intentionally seeking a keyboard that sent Note-off velocity. I instead bought an old  GeneralMusic RealPiano 2 after finding one at a low price. I only wanted to compare the sound to Pianoteq and to my other hardware and software pianos. At first, I did not understand why the RealPiano made a difference in Pianoteq, but once I did understand, I came to value this seemingly small feature.

One more thing--the resulting sound, to me, is better through monitors than through headphones. Something about the varying cutoff delays increases the sense of a real piano with the strings spread out in front of me across the stereo field.

Thanks to both Jake Johnson and jcfelice88keys for your posts.

Jake :

I am obliged to use headphones ( house rule - death penalty in force :-) ), but I do find this is quite immersive, especially now I understand the binaural sound model.  My playing is, let's be clear, utter beginner level, so fine nuances are not really an issue.  But I'm a techie and I also don't want to learn to play in a way that won't work well later on ( maybe on a keyboard that does use the note-off midi command ).  And this issue has helped me a lot in getting my head around some things and more involved in learning.  Your comments were helpful.

I'm space constrained to 61-keys, which you guys might find rather limiting ( but as a beginner, no such issue ).  As I gather from reading that starting at age 50 means I'll probably never develop the muscles etc. needed for a "real" piano keyboard, I suspect semi-weighed is the best I'll end up using.  So at present I think the el-cheapo 61-key velocity sensitive model I have will do me fine.  On the rare occassions I do play well ( by my standards ) it does seem to deliver.  Which won't stop me lusting after something "better" ( Nektar Impact LX88 has my eye at present - I heard good things about them ).

JCFelice :

As I have Stage I'm not quite certain if Standard has the option you mention.  My impression is that it has a global damper setting and not the three tabs you describe.  Anyhow Stage has not got it ( or I'm not seeing it ).  I think I'm effectively doing something similar if not quite the same using the velcity-note-off map to change note-off velocity from 64.  Works for me so far, anyway.  A small note-off velocity has the effect of letting the sound die slowly, so a careful use of this gets you in the ballpark, so to speak.  Rather important to turn off reverb to check this, of course, or it gets rather confusing what you're hearing.

Does this mean you also have a keyboard that does not issue "proper" note-off messages ?  I'd assumed from your many posts and demos that you would be blessed by the finest hardware known to man.  Or perhaps even the finest hardware is plagued by lazy software developers or, more likely, software developers who are constrained by having to match out-dated standards ? :-)