Topic: Problem with PTQ sound
I don't own PTQ (at least not yet) because of the following problem. So this discussion is based with my experience with the evaluation version. I really want to like it and buy it, because I feel I need it, but I have this one problem which is stopping me.
Before describing that, let me add that I really love the PTQ software. I just play the piano and don't care at all about having a "recording studio" on my fingertips. I am not an audio engineer and don't want to become one (not even as a hobby). Looks like all competing products are not really competing for a pianist, just for tinkerers. I love how with PTQ I don't have to consult Google for every single thing in the interface (NINJAM, OSD, SF2, SFZ, Channels, VST, LV2 and gazillion others). I am greatly fascinated by the science behind the way PTQ works. It contains many useful features (such as the "condition" slider) to sound more life-like instead of "computer-perfect-like". I like how people (e.g. Phil Best) say that's more responsive than other software pianos.
Now, in general, I very well hear the difference between an acoustic piano and a software one (even in recordings played from the same speakers/headphones). And I am ok with that: they are different thing (even when the software piano is sampled and "pretends" to be a recording, but then it's used differently). So I'd be ok with some subtleties being different. I'm not talking about something subtle here, I'm talking something major.
Here is my problem. The lowest two or three octaves of PTQ sound horribly dull. The lowest one is totally unacceptable, then gradually becomes better. Try playing any scale starting from one of the lowest notes of the instrument, and compare that with something else (better if it's acoustic, but competing software piano or digital ok). I mean, no real acoustic piano that I have played (at church, friends and teachers houses, piano stores) or heard (in intimate concert settings) is so dull in those octaves. I certainly could not try all the combinations of existing instruments in all "flavors" that the PTQ demo offers, but I tried many. I tried messing up with settings, and here is what I found. I increase the hammer hardness, all of three of them, keeping the relationship between them equal. Very dramatic increase, making the forte close to the maximum. This way, I can achieve a more credible sound in those octaves. How much exactly to increase is a matter of taste and/or mood and/or a matter of "I want to make PTQ sound similar to this particular one piano I've heard", but the default in my opinion is unacceptable. However, if I increase that hammer hardness even to the lowest level that makes the lowest notes at least decent, the midrange and the upper range become unacceptable bright, almost (if not completely) like an harpsichord. Now, I am aware that with the "Pro" version I could get a note-by-note editing and "solve" that problem, but besides the cost it'd be an extremely tedious work to perform for each instrument (and each variation of each instrument), and a nightmare to manage the many, many, many files.
So I'm coming to believe that this one is my own problem in my setup, because it can't be that everybody hears PTQ with such a dull sound in the low octave(s) and they just like it that way. It sounds (pardon the pun) even more shocking that the PTQ developers decided to make it on purpose (or overlooked the fact that is accidentally) so dull in those octaves! When the software is perfectly capable to be much better sounding! No, this is impossible -- it must be something in my settings. But I can't figure out what.
In case it helps, here is my setup:
- Latest PTQ evaluation standard version (but same thing happens with older versions)
- Various Linux computers, mostly running Ubuntu at the moment -- all from different makes (none particularly new, if that's important) -- all with ALSA.
- Occasionally I can (and did) try MacBook Pro
- For a couple of weeks I tried the FocusRite Solo interface, but it was the "sound engineer rabbit hole" so I returned it. I vaguely remember that it had the same problem. Otherwise I use simply the normal audio card each computer has
- Yamaha NU1 midi-over-USB output (but in the past I had other instruments, e.g. one old Kawai CA series)
- I tried the linear velocity mapping, the suggested velocity for the NU1 from this site, and some random things which I tried to make it better (without success)
- Most often I feed the soundcard output into the line-in of the NU1
- to rule out the audio chain of the NU1, I should add that the lowest octaves of the NU1, while not sounding very convincing either, are much closer to being "right" than PTQ
- to rule out the previous even strongly, used headphones (Philips SHP9500) straight from the computer
- other recordings of acoustic pianos played from the same computer sound ok (including my poor ones, of my grand piano recorded with a Tascam) and certainly don't have such a problem, potentially ruling out an issue with frequency response
- performance tab in PTQ settings does not show anything wrong (granted, playing just one note at the time with no pedal....)
Does anybody have any clue on what might be wrong?