Re: Pianoteq 6.1
I am enjoying reading all of the various comments, especially how this new 6.1 version "throws people off" with respect to their favorite instruments and their favorite presets. I too am experiencing the same thing. One thing that I have learned about the 6.1 versus the 6.0 is that it absolutely excels at 'opening things up' and making them more realistic for various player microphone presets, especially with multiple notes at the same time spread up and down the keyboard. This was something that I thought lacking when I was first introduced to Pianoteq at version 5. Playing pieces with rapid sequences of specific and separately articulate notes tended to get muddy – that is no longer the problem.
Additionally, I have long since realized that the brightness or dullness of the different presets depends almost entirely on what speakers or headphones that each person is listening through. I realized this when I had my favorite presets that I used at home, and then when I tried playing the same presets on a pair of over-the-ear relatively inexpensive but half-decent stereo headphones – I found that when using the headphones I tended towards the more muted presets, versus using my monitor speakers alongside my upright piano I tended towards the brighter presets to achieve the same sound image in my brain. So, when someone says that it's too bright, this may be largely speaker-related.
In fact, when I started first putting together my "player piano" (it's not really a player piano, as the keys don't move, but it is set up to sound as much like a real piano with pianoteq playing as with my stop-bar pulled out and the real acoustic piano playing), I started using monitor speakers pointed towards me. This I found to be quite unsatisfying for many reasons: it was very positional, as when I moved my head around the stereo image seem to change too much; it was very tiring with what I have heard others call "ear fatigue"; and it was very bright. I ended up completely improving the overall sound and stereo imaging of the piano by turning the monitor speakers on either side of the piano so that they point to the ceiling, and even placing them specifically at a height where there is no direct line between my ear and the speaker cones (the sideboards at either side of the keyboard's fallboard are vertical walls that prevent me from directly hearing the cones). As I said, this completely improved the imaging and made it sound much more like a real piano. Unfortunately, this also took out the brightness even more than I needed, so I ended up getting more realism by installing a smaller second pair of satellite speakers with individual volume controls at either side of the piano but facing just outboard of each of my ears – these I "dialed down" so that they produced just enough of that brightness that I need for realism, without "wearing me out". Thusfar I have not changed anything on the system for at least a year, but I must admit that the new version of Pianoteq, version 6.1, now has me drifting towards the less-bright presets and even towards a change in my favorite piano instruments:
For quite some time with version 6.0, I thought that the Steinway D was the absolute best. I always like the sound of the Grotrian, but it never seemed quite as fun to play. I did not like the Steinway B back with version 5, but in version 6.1, the Steinway B has now moved to the top of my ranking, sounding the most like my upright 1885 Steinway F. And, where I had been tending to mechanically make the presets a little brighter to sound like my real piano, they are now so airy with 6.1, that I am starting to gravitate towards less airy presets. For example, the "Home" presets for each instrument tend to be the most realistic sounding on my set-up, with the Grotrian being the Concert Royale as the equivalent of "Home" on the other instruments. In fact, one of my current favorite presets for sounding like a real piano is the Grotrian Intimate, which is just soft enough and yet has a presence as if it is there in front of me as a real piano. (versus the other 'Intimates', which, well, aren't quite so intimate) And, overall, the Bluethner still seems to be quite the standby when anybody is trying to simulate any other piano, with available home-made presets ranging all the way from upright ragtime and honky-tonk pianos on up through the Steinway D and the Grotrian to the Bosendorfer Imperial at the other far end of the spectrum from the Ragtime pianos – the Bluethner is just the most versatile and reliable instrument with which to bend and twist to make any other piano.
In any case, Philippe, Julien, and Niclas, as well as the others whom I don't know, bravo! Pianoteq 6.1 is supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, in Mary Poppins' lingo!