Topic by hougtimo

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  • hougtimo
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Topic: The future of Digital Pianos

Hello all,

This is something I've been idly musing to myself about, but I'm interested to hear what other people's thoughts are!

There are some fantastic DPs out there, which I've been lucky enough to spend a lot of time with, but the one thing that lets them ALL down, is the sound reproduction / sampling. I suspect that a lot of  this is down to hardware limitations - whether it be chipsets or speakers.

Technology is at a point now, where for example, an iPad has tremendous computing power, and can run a selection of sampled VSTs - obviously there is room for improvement here - but I think I've heard it mooted on this forum that Pianoteq may well become available for ARM chipsets. This is excellent news, not because I want to run it on an iPad (I don't own one!) but because it gives us hope that technology such as PianoTeq could be bundled into some actual hardware - whether that's a DP or a MIDI sound module.

This brings me onto my next question: Will we get to the point where a manufacturer provides a digital piano 'chassis' with an excellent action, and speaker system, but allow users to install certain sounds / patches? I'm thinking along the lines of Dexibell, but with some decent internal memory so that several "high quality" sounds could be installed on the instrument.

MY 'ideal' would be something like Casio's Grand Hybrid (or for those with a larger budget, something with a 'proper' action such as an N1x or NV10), with an excellent speaker system, and software that could be  accessed via an app to tweak parameters / install new sounds. This would enable the piano just to have a power button and volume control. Obviously I'd LOVE for a manufacturer to tie up with Pianoteq and offer an 'integrated Pianoteq DP', but I can't imagine that's likely to happen for the following reasons:

1) Yamaha, Kawai, Roland & Dexibell have invested heavily in sampling & modelling themselves - they will want to develop this in-house.

2) Casio are tied up with Bechstein, so I'm assuming there are commercial agreements in place which would prohibit a relationship between Casio & Pianoteq (although I guess Pianoteq have 'authorised' PTQ's version of their concert grand!)

Thoughts?

Reply by robinlb

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Re: The future of Digital Pianos

Steinway, Bluthner or Petrof can produce Baby Grand A/DP with Pianoteq inside, playing by transducers on their proud soundboard in digital mode, likes Steigreaber do I think.
Manufacturers can make professional adjustments or tweaking with Ptq to achieve sound effects that best fit and match the acoustic characteristics of their pianos.
IMO, modelling signals are better than sampling VSTs for soundboard playback.

Last edited by robinlb (21-10-2021 03:31)

Reply by Key Fumbler

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Re: The future of Digital Pianos

robinlb wrote:

..
IMO, modelling signals are better than sampling VSTs for soundboard playback.

Presumably you think this because with samples a certain amount of uncontrollable resonances and reverberation is baked into the captured samples?

Reply by hougtimo

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Re: The future of Digital Pianos

robinlb wrote:

Steinway, Bluthner or Petrof can produce Baby Grand A/DP with Pianoteq inside, playing by transducers on their proud soundboard in digital mode, likes Steigreaber do I think.
Manufacturers can make professional adjustments or tweaking with Ptq to achieve sound effects that best fit and match the acoustic characteristics of their pianos.
IMO, modelling signals are better than sampling VSTs for soundboard playback.

Are you saying that these brands already work with PTQ to provide their silent systems?

That's very interesting, if so...

Reply by hesitz

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Re: The future of Digital Pianos

hougtimo wrote:

. . .  I think I've heard it mooted on this forum that Pianoteq may well become available for ARM chipsets. This is excellent news, not because I want to run it on an iPad (I don't own one!) but because it gives us hope that technology such as PianoTeq could be bundled into some actual hardware - whether that's a DP or a MIDI sound module.

Pianoteq already runs on ARM systems running Linux, e.g., on the tiny Raspberry Pi.

Korg doesn't advertise it, but it's been reported that Raspberry Pi's form the brains of several of their recent synths: Opsix, Wavestate, and Modwave:  https://www.synthanatomy.com/2021/01/ko...roids.html

Regarding MIDI sound modules, I think Zynthian (also Raspberry Pi powered) qualifies as one, and has been able to run Pianoteq since 2018.  Demo video here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvZG-m5IgV8&t=1s

Last edited by hesitz (23-10-2021 23:58)