Steingraeber using a transducer fed with Pianoteq

Woaw, really cool! I think it sounds amazing, perhaps even better than Kawai and Yamahas transacoustic and Aures lines and with the flexibility with Pianoteq. One thing I wonder with these instruments, how does it work if the acoustic strings are not in tune with the digital source? I guess the pedal releases the dampers so there is real string resonance...?

There is a part 2-video on the subject up now where the pianist describes actual acoustic string resonance with the digital source:
https://www.steingraeber.de/en/innovationen/transducer/

Fantastic - this is such a fine time in the history of the development of the piano.

I'm extremely proud of Philippe (To be titled a piano sound guru by Steingraeber is immaculate praise well deserved and his ongoing work is certainly foundational in so many ways which many here will know) and Modartt and the SWR Experimentalstudio and not least, Steingraeber for taking note of modern inherent desires for revelling in the inspiration provided by both the real piano and accompanying tech. Not only have they taken the mission seriously but substantively placed monumental markers for the world of piano manufacturing to sail towards in time.

It says so much that a piano house with such a history as Steingraeber takes such a confident aproach to combinations of tech to continue to develop what is 'the piano'. Rather than worrying that tech will make physical pianos less desirable, they are instead proving just how relevant their piano is, as it stands and into the future.

Praise without holding back, I know but when I see this, I cannot help but note that it is such a rare gift to the world that it should be cherished, for all humanity (Honestly, imagine a great composer from the past having these 'both world' luxuries, tuning possibilities etc - what would Beethoven et al say? Likely similar things said by Simon Vincent here in the videos).

As an aside, the second half of Part 5 was really enjoyable for the conversation between Simon Vincent (Composer) and Michael Acker about the Steingraeber piano with system being apparently simple on viewing, yet having the Devil in the detail (amusingly, the same Devil across the Chanel).

Another eye opener, was learning (also from Part 5) that transducer tech was patented in 1905. Today, thanks to Philippe there's software more than worthy of controlling such a piano in utterly realistic fashion (for me nothing else can approach the levels of realism and playability, nothing new to say this). Astounding when you consider all of the trails of discovery converging in this way.

This kind of piano by Steingraeber is truly the stuff of dreams, realised for our times - congratulations to all who foresaw the possibilities and achieved it. Truly magic work which does not go unappreciated.

Re: Steingraeber Transducer piano.
Indeed very exciting, fascinating stuff. I can see this being embraced by contemporary composers and also musicians exploring historical and experimental tunings, no doubt.
I would like to find out how much a Pianoteq preset has to be modified to blend in with the natural resonances of the Steingraeber soundboard, frame, etc. Really curious about how the Pianoteq parameters used by Simon Vincent look like! I can only guess that one typically turns down a lot of resonance parameters? If Phillipe reads this: are you allowed to share an fpx file ?

Also,  many questions come to mind. For one thing, it seems to me that using a specific piano as a "speaker" kind of goes against the inherent flexibility of physical modelling. For instance, If a performer  wants to play a Steinway or Bechstein or Pleyel Pianoteq model on the Transducer piano, I am pretty sure that it would not sound quite right!  I realize that the transducers can be moved, but it's probably not something one would do routinely, and even less in a live performance...

On the question of "amplifying" the Steingraeber natural sound: it can probably be useful...for a relatively small increase. As BM and Qexl (IIRC) have pointed out in these pages, the sound of a grand piano is already quite loud, so amplifying it further would risk being quite uncomfortable for the player! Unless this is used mostly for playback of a prerecorded performance.

Don't get me wrong: I think that this stuff is very interesting, even just from a research point of view. Is it the future of piano and other acoustic instruments? In some form or another, probably. However, I am of the opinion that  physical modelling itself, like in Pianoteq, has the potential to create (or re-create!) the acoustic properties themselves, and that we have yet to develop the kind of neutral, versatile transducers/speakers capable of enveloping the performer/listener in the proper sound environment.

You are of course right that using a soundboard instead of a 'neutral' speaker brings some additional color to the sound. I don't know exactly how that has been compensated here (several solutions can be involved, from EQ to adapted impulse), this should be asked to Michael Acker who did all the fine tuning of Pianoteq for that particular use.

If I remember correctly, he was using Pianoteq at SWR Experimental Studio (Germany) and mentioned us to Steingraeber.