Gated Microphone Feature Request

That is exactly my default position in almost 100% of cases

Then, Pianoteq is updated and upgraded and something unexpected is improved or added and I'm humbled by how sharp Modartt can be.

Perhaps I could satisfy all my imagined uses for this, if the feature was limited to 2 or maybe 1 gated mic - if resources are at issue.

I regularly use all 5 mics but understand that 2 is adequate for so many purposes - but I am already maxing out the mic infrastructure to create my sound stage - often audience perspective - therefore wouldn't argue that a gate on 1 of those would add too much more on top of this particular pudding.

I'd hate to see bloat or other UX blunting of tools on-board. Goes without saying for me.

In the case of a noise gate per mic, hopefully it's not so much bloat as it remains out of the way, in PRO only perhaps, and only used by someone serious about the mic capability of Pianoteq. It's something a studio would find appealing in a sales pitch. "This could save us many hours".

You can  of course do this in DAWs (eg. track 1 = output from 4 mics - normal plus say track 2 = output from a distant mic - then apply a gate in DAW). I'm not saying this is impossible - but it is a long process by comparison to a couple sliders

Plus, it's in real time in Pianoteq - you play hearing what the outcome could be when shined up later.

If it's just a saved mic setting - wow, that's infinitely more elegant than even having to load a DAW (and set up other plugins and choose each of their settings before comencing playing) to begin with - it's no simple thing to set up a "sound stage" and then have to tinker with tracks and gates on inputs.

I just sometimes want to sit down and play - and like a petulant child, this desire to have a finished mic kit on-board is pestering me, like asking "are we there yet?" every 10mins

This is not to argue that you wouldn't do that at all in DAWs - you do/will and should if it's en element in the sound design (for whatever reason).

But - for a few clicks in Pianoteq, you could create a final mic array with a distant gently gated mic with a treble bias - save in Pianoteq and use that in any DAW environment to you heart's delight.

The power of that alone is stunning - maybe not for anyone but the more perfection driven among us and those in more professional settings.

Many hours saved - in my case I will have to spend many more hours in a DAW drawing volume lines and/or tweaking rack effects for track 2 (or more) when I want to emulate a gated mic.

Thats basically bloat in my workflow which could be made immeasurably more convenient with an elegant addition to the Pianoteq mics.

Passionate about this - because of all the above and more - and yet, you know, I'm not going to stomp about it not being implemented either

Simply, out of all the things I could want for in Pianoteq, to me, this would be my dream for the software and literally complete it. Future updates and upgrades will of course be knocking my socks off though, I'm sure of that also.

In the real recording situation, this gated effect in something which happens in real time BTW - it's not something necessarily compartmentalized off to post production. You can always save time (resources - time is money etc.) by implementing once, and editing less.

I was about to ask the same question...

Hum... if I understand it correctly, what you're looking for is more an expander than a gate, I think, or an "inverse compression". It could be indeed a nice addition, but if you need it for each individual mic, that's asking a lot...

I think I've collected some relevant pointers to an example which should explain better than my million words.
Have been working with this kind of thing in mind since the '80s myself. It would be brilliant to have it in a few clicks in Pianoteq, rather than requiring a, by comparison, complex set-up in a DAW - it would be a fascinating compliment to the microphones and tools already inside/on-board Pianoteq.

For possibly most notable and illustrative example of this kind of (mis?)usage of microphones, this YouTube snip of Toni Visconti video describing his usage of 3 mics (1 close, 1 mid distance gated, 1 distant gated). Obviously, the effect he's engineering here would be different for different goals and instruments but illustrative it is:

Toni Visconti - gated mic technique on Bowie's Heroes - Video

Article on Visconti mic technique on Bowie's Heroes quoted from Reverb.com

It has been "legendary" in modern studios more or less since the '70s - but this very thing is wonderful for what might be considered experimental at most, or nuanced at least and it can really broaden out the available headroom (un-cloud) the mid-range which can become messy - until you want the extra "boom" or "blossom" from distant reverb - as if the room reaches a tipping point.

I see it as a fundamental design tool - it's like an extra colour on a painter's pallet. It would appeal more to those using Pianoteq in a modern styles perhaps but not to say it's only/just for that.

Equally applicable to modern or classical recordings IMO.

Article on Visconti mic technique on Bowie's Heroes quoted from EnmoreAudio.com

This would not likely be overused by anyone recording a pristine classical repertoire, except in the most subtle way perhaps.

Regardless of how hard to hit any given nail with this hammer here's the line, from the above quote, of most import IMO:

"Remarkably, Bowie and Visconti pulled it off with just one open track on a 24-track machine, part of the motivation for the multi-mic strategy"

In their case, the mother of this invention was saving tracks in an analog recording environment.

In my case and hopefully others' usage case, it would be to save the same

I hope it's better understood and I hope it can be seen that, simple controls in the Pianoteq interface would delete the time spent creating a new DAW environment, setting up extra tracks/gates in that environment, esp. when just sitting down to play Pianoteq - and loading my own mic settings.

Having the ability to save all our microphone settings is magic - and I'd love to include any gates at the source

Thank you sincerely for bearing with me

[edited for grammar]

Thanks Philippe, I've made an example for classical piano recording on the Bluethner, in 5 mp3 files.

These illustrate the clarity or optional production value attainable - 4 close mics alone, the distant mic alone, the mix of those 2 tracks in DAW, then the gated mic alone to show how it sounds outside the mix, then the final mix in DAW of the 4 close mics plus just the one distant gated mic for comparison.

1:

4 close mics (NO gates)

2:

1 distant mic, solo (NO gate)

3:

The mix (NO gate)

4:

1 distant mic, solo (With gate)

5:

The mix (file 1 and file 4 With the gate)

In effect, this example shows how the gate gently "sculps" the reverb out of way in a sense until the bigger moments. This can help un-clouding mid levels which can be a little overridden with unnecessary reverb and so on.

It could be made more or less subtle to taste of course but it can really lift the end result, esp with a buttery smooth gate attack and release

Last thing I can think to re-iterate in support of this idea: this could be achieved and saved with my mic settings in Pianoteq with the requested addition of mic gate(s) however at this time, it is something to be wrangled with some greater complexity when having to split/rework tracks in DAW and run multiple instances of Pianoteq etc. I'd like to be able to play the one instance of Pianoteq and not have that extra overhead/time spent but fully understand if it's something too out of the ordinary or too heavy a burden on the engine.

I hope it's achievable but of course, I'm shooting for the moon with a rather esoteric request I do understand

Cheers!

Magic, I'm very pleased!

Music in this case paints a thousand words

Thank you sincerely again for your time and attention Philippe and Luc.

Absolutely yes, that certainly does sound optimal Philippe.

Simplicity in supplying this general effect in this way could be rather profound I feel.

I'm imagining some kind of a Logarithmic basis for control?

Min = OFF no effect
Slide towards Med = maybe most 'sane' (similar or softer than examples above)
Max = reverb baloons to satisfy modern production tastes (cue Mr. Visconti!)

I know I'd use it

Many thanks - hope it's something not only doable but of some benefit to a wide user base in the end.

Cool Kramster1, glad it's worth wading through

In the interests of posting interesting observations about my interest in the very interesting world of wrangling interesting reverb..

Here's a smidgen of a next step in the design illustrated by the MP3s above.

1.
I've shined up the sound stage a little more (more subtle reverb all 'round but still stands tall within sane limits - some DAW tools incl. multiple rack effects like Compression, EQ and a couple of multibands) but also ...

2.
to include some 'left to right' flow for the distant mic by altering the left/right volumes and the delay between those (inside Pianoteq's existing tools) - the result is more of a sense of the piano's lid throwing that louder sound off to the back of the auditorium to the right which has the slight delay.

The sort-of mashing together of player perspective and in-audience perspective means taking some liberties with reality but man it's truly crazy how much that reality can be made extremely flexible in Pianoteq these days. It approaches my ideal for a modern studio style piano recording variant.

3.
Lastly for this model, an interesting result comes also from tuning the 2 different instances of Pianoteq on those 2 tracks differently - can often sound awfully wrong with just any tuning but I've found this to work beautifully..

The 4 mics instance of Pianoteq is tuned with a Bernard Stopper tuning and the instance with the distant mic is tuned with Bourdelle1 (Scala files) - in a way it gives credit to the way sound travels over distance with waves coming and going, crashing Doppler effects all over the hall (think like a subtle but complex chorus effect) - the reverb "swims" just that little bit more, esp. when 'travelling' to the right-back of the space and thus can be turned down that tiny bit more also - helping to shine up the sound further. There's a nice sense of cut-through from the higher register among the lower because of all these factors I believe. Just loving it. Still taking some time deciding if it's as goooood an idea with a few more days of A B testing with fresh ears. It might turn out this trick is just nonsense and will end up hurting my brain in years to come listening back to that 'wrong tuning' period But seems strangely right just now. At least worth some further experimentation maybe leading to improvements and/or something else I haven't yet uncovered inside Pianoteq.

Feels a little too much like cheating keeping some of this to myself in this instance, so love to share here in hopes it's inspirational to others as much as a possibility to bake the secret sauce into Pianoteq.

Never suggesting it's totally revolutionary, nor something that's not already done outside the engine but man, I do think that it could turn some heads when people are trialing the demo, let alone mean less being stuck in DAWs on those rainy days.

Hope that makes for some more thought provoking musing for anyone interested in trying some esoteric techniques to spice up or trim their reverb with this kind of thing.