Topic by kwonyuri608

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Topic: Help a Beginner out! Pianoteq Guide

Hi! Hope you guys are all doing alright!

So I'm a beginner who really wants to record songs that he plays from his digital piano onto his laptop but I have no idea how to record it without a good mic (cause phone recordings just dont cut it ._. ). Then I came across with pianoteq and I have a few questions:

1. Does pianoteq "record" the sound of your performance LIVE? or do you still need a mic for it?
              > And when it does, can you export your piano audio recording from pianoteq as a MIDI and then make a synthesia out of it?

2. Does pianoteq record sustains in digital pianos?
3. Can pianoteq make a low quality digital piano sound good? because I'm contemplating if it's worth it to buy a new digital piano since my old digital piano does not sound as good.

Sorry if these questions may sound dumb .. I really want to record stuff but as you can see.. I have no experience with any of these nor how to operate a digital piano together with a laptop...

Thank you all and have a great day!

Reply by sjgcit

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Re: Help a Beginner out! Pianoteq Guide

Try the demo - it's fully equipped.

1. Pianoteq records all performances as MIDI with the option to export to WAV file.  MIDI replays should sound identical to live playing on Pianoteq and playing back WAV files.

1.1. Pianoteq itself is generating the piano sound.  Audio made by your digital piano itself is not used at all.  Pianoteq does not have any facility for mixing audio - you need to use a DAW application for that and mix sound output from Pianoteq and your hardware piano that way.

2. Sustain actions will generate a MIDI signal that's fed to Pianoteq (as note data is) using MIDI.  Pianoteq will record that.  In some cases the specific MIDI controller ID used by the sustain pedal will not be automatically recognized as such by Pianoteq, but it's easily configured in the options menu.

3. Pianoteq generates all the piano sound so it doesn't matter what sound quality from your keyboard is.  You'll normally be listening to pianoteq via your laptop or PC using headphones or speakers.  Personally I'm using it with two basic (very basic) velocity sensitive MIDI keyboards and the sound via my headphones (which is how I normally use it) is just fabulous - way better than my playing can exploit in all honesty.  You keyboard is just that - a keyboard.  Unless you use a DAW it's own sound generation is irrelevant and can be turned off (or set to zero volume).

Note your keyboard must be MIDI capable.  There are a few digital pianos (Korg B1 if I recall correctly is an example, whereas the newer B2 has MIDI) that do not have MIDI interfaces (USB or traditional MIDI interfaces).

StephenG

Reply by Mk4UmHa

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Re: Help a Beginner out! Pianoteq Guide

You can export the MIDI file to wave file and it sounds like the piano/preset you use. You can export it with different piano settings too.

Reply by dazric

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Re: Help a Beginner out! Pianoteq Guide

The great thing about Pianoteq is that you can try all of these things in demo (subject to restrictions) for as long as you like before purchasing.
Just one point to add to no. 3: it's well worth taking the time to understand the velocity curve, or you may be disappointed with your results. With a good velocity curve, it's possible to get tolerable results even with an unweighted keyboard (although they're not recommended for Pianoteq). If you're thinking 'what the heck is a velocity curve?' and can't find the answer on the forum, don't be afraid to ask!

Reply by kwonyuri608

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Re: Help a Beginner out! Pianoteq Guide

dazric wrote:

The great thing about Pianoteq is that you can try all of these things in demo (subject to restrictions) for as long as you like before purchasing.
Just one point to add to no. 3: it's well worth taking the time to understand the velocity curve, or you may be disappointed with your results. With a good velocity curve, it's possible to get tolerable results even with an unweighted keyboard (although they're not recommended for Pianoteq). If you're thinking 'what the heck is a velocity curve?' and can't find the answer on the forum, don't be afraid to ask!

Thank you so much!

Reply by kwonyuri608

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Re: Help a Beginner out! Pianoteq Guide

Thank you so much for taking time to reply!

sjgcit wrote:

Try the demo - it's fully equipped.

1. Pianoteq records all performances as MIDI with the option to export to WAV file.  MIDI replays should sound identical to live playing on Pianoteq and playing back WAV files.

1.1. Pianoteq itself is generating the piano sound.  Audio made by your digital piano itself is not used at all.  Pianoteq does not have any facility for mixing audio - you need to use a DAW application for that and mix sound output from Pianoteq and your hardware piano that way.

2. Sustain actions will generate a MIDI signal that's fed to Pianoteq (as note data is) using MIDI.  Pianoteq will record that.  In some cases the specific MIDI controller ID used by the sustain pedal will not be automatically recognized as such by Pianoteq, but it's easily configured in the options menu.

3. Pianoteq generates all the piano sound so it doesn't matter what sound quality from your keyboard is.  You'll normally be listening to pianoteq via your laptop or PC using headphones or speakers.  Personally I'm using it with two basic (very basic) velocity sensitive MIDI keyboards and the sound via my headphones (which is how I normally use it) is just fabulous - way better than my playing can exploit in all honesty.  You keyboard is just that - a keyboard.  Unless you use a DAW it's own sound generation is irrelevant and can be turned off (or set to zero volume).

Note your keyboard must be MIDI capable.  There are a few digital pianos (Korg B1 if I recall correctly is an example, whereas the newer B2 has MIDI) that do not have MIDI interfaces (USB or traditional MIDI interfaces).

Reply by budo

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Re: Help a Beginner out! Pianoteq Guide

definitely get the demo and spend some time with it.  i did that before buying, and after almost no time realized that this is a great way to record. 

(1) you make a midi file of your performance using your controller and pianoteq.

(2) you take the midi file and edit it using a DAW or a program like Midieditor.  this is only if you want to fix wrong notes, poorly articulated notes, etc. 

(3) after editing you can render the midi file to wav or flac or whatever you like, using pianoteq.  there are already a lot of excellent digital effects built-in to pianoteq, and many different presets that show different mic configs, reverb/delay choices, etc. 

one of the most fascinating parts of the process is that you can record in (1) using whatever preset you like and then can render in (3) with something totally different.  for instance, want to hear how the Bach fugue you just recorded in (1) on a Bechstein sounds like on a Grotrian?  or a Fender Rhodes?  or a vibraphone, harp, or spacedrum? no problem.  more seriously, you can record with a "player perspective" (mics are placed to simulate what you hear at the bench) with a "recording perspective" (mics are placed to simulate positions within a studio or recital hall). 

incredibly, they make all these features available in the free demo.  the demo restrictions are pretty insignificant for learning what the software is like.   the main limitation is that you can only have the software open for 20 min (there are also some missing notes, but you can work around that, at least if you're improvising).  i guess they're confident enough in the quality of their product.  certainly that strategy worked with me!

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