Hi all,
On the home page it says "Steinway & Sons have approved the sound and playability of the Pianoteq virtual instruments Steinway Model D and Steinway Model B".
But what exactly does that mean?
Do they just think they're nice sounds? Or that they're pretty good Steinway emulations? Or that they're EXACTLY the same? Or...?
In PIANOTEQ, any Steinway & Sons piano whether Steinway Model D or Model B or even New York Steinway square piano is representative of both the company Steinway & Sons and MODARTT, officially.
The models actually are virtual copies of largely made of wood and metal physical models from Steinway & Sons. Which realistically are in turn just like any others you can find inside a modern piano dealership or showroom, if you yourself were to go out right now and purchase one before it’s routinely shipped to you at your home.
And, indeed they all do sound exactly like Steinways!
Besides the sound and the accuracy it's also a matter of copyright I think. The "approval" allows Modartt to use their brand name and their logo. As a company you should probably check the quality of something that comes out under your brand if you want to mantain the legacy. To my mind in so far only 2 VI have received approval by Steinway: one was the Garritan Steinway (a sampled piano which is now discontinued and lost forever) and the current Steinway model D and B in Pianoteq (whose quality you can judge by yourself).
I think in order to use a brand’s name in a product’s title and marketing, you must obtain that company’s permission or you are violating copyright law.
If Pianoteq wants to say “Steinway D” instead of “American D” or “Hamburg D,” then they need to have Steinway’s permission. Typically, they pay for that privilege. Steinway, being interested in preserving their reputation, likely won’t authorize the use of their brand name unless the product meets a certain standard. So Modartt has to work on the instrument model and possibly tweak it to Steinway’s acceptability standards before Steinway will take Modartt‘s money for the use of their name.
I think that’s the way it would work with Steinway. Other manufacturers might appreciate the advertising providing by Modartt and authorize for less or even for free; there are different business decisions at work in every case I’d think.
Besides the sound and the accuracy it's also a matter of copyright I think. The "approval" allows Modartt to use their brand name and their logo. As a company you should probably check the quality of something that comes out under your brand if you want to mantain the legacy. To my mind in so far only 2 VI have received approval by Steinway: one was the Garritan Steinway (a sampled piano which is now discontinued and lost forever) and the current Steinway model D and B in Pianoteq (whose quality you can judge by yourself).
Garritan Jazz & Big Band still comes with samples of a Steinway B grand piano, samples which were powered by Kontakt software technology. (I’ve a copy needing an upgrade.) The grand piano included in its instrument list has always been listed as Steinway B grand piano. The company introduced the aforementioned Garritan Steinway after JABB had already been released sometime, about 2006. And, it was about 2006 when also PIANOTEQ first was introduced. (A copy of which I got shortly after the middle of 2007.)
Although about this time, before I personally was made aware of PIANOTEQ of course, I was happily using a NATIVE INSTRUMENTS piano software then AKOUSTIC PIANO. It fused grands a Steinway D™, Bechstein D 280™ and Bösendorfer 290 Imperial™ into one application and a vintage upright Steingraeber 130™ to round off the collection inside the software.
So, since Garritan now makes available the sampled sounds of Garritan Abbey Road Studios CFX Concert Grand sound library and NATIVE INSTRUMENTS made the Bösendorfer 290 Imperial™ available with trademark names (et al.), apparently, the assertion MODARTT runs into problems only because Yamaha won’t permit outside usage of its name or owned trademarks, has been merely speculation from the members at this forum who have commented such...
Hi all,
On the home page it says "Steinway & Sons have approved the sound and playability of the Pianoteq virtual instruments Steinway Model D and Steinway Model B".
But what exactly does that mean?
Do they just think they're nice sounds? Or that they're pretty good Steinway emulations? Or that they're EXACTLY the same? Or...?
Man, just where are my manners? Let me welcome you to this forum.
Woah, what have I started? :-) Sorry I've done nothing since the original post but I'm trying to meet a deadline. Thanks for your responses. I'll be back soon-ish to contribute too.
Cheers, Billious
I know I can have a tendency to sometimes sound a bit furious. I got it from somewhere sometime ago. (Laugh!)
I find it surprising whenever a piano brand recognizes a virtual physical model. This is good for the brand, which receives disclosure and recognition from technology companies; also for VST, which receives credibility. As for the sound, we know that Modartt has the ability to do so even without any brand incentive.
On the other hand, I see the humility of renowned and traditional piano brands, who surrender to technology and recognize that this is a losing battle. The popularity of digital pianos and the incredible magnitude of VST's are long overcoming the unviability of traditional acoustic pianos. economic unfeasibility for acquisition, maintenance, physical space, mobility and transportation, etc.
This recognition makes smart companies like Steingraeber look for inevitable new features for the future of the piano. As is the case with "The Soundboard Transducer", Steingraeber Creates New Artistic Possibilities With Electronics.
Transducer + Physical Modeling = Possibilities
available on the website: https://www.steingraeber.de/en/innovationen/transducer/
Yamaha, it seems, resists acquiescence to the inevitable. It maybe perceives PIANOTEQ very seriously a threat!
Perhaps now I am too speculating.
This article actually really excites me about the direction in which Modartt is going for the future. The next upgrade to Pianoteq 7 looks very promising after reading this article about Steingraeber. I cannot wait.
I think in order to use a brand’s name in a product’s title and marketing, you must obtain that company’s permission or you are violating copyright law.
I don't think you can actually copyright a single word. But it can be protected by trademark law. So yes, permission is usually needed.
Sorry if this seems pedantic, but I think it's important for musicians to be well informed about the difference between copyright, trademarks, patents and urban myths. These days there is so much public domain music and software that we can share freely and legally, so it's good to be clear on where the boundaries are and why they exist.
If I mean to take the chords and melody from a song but use my own lyrics, I can expect people will disapprove and soon want to come after me.
Man, am I free or protected to make it a new love song?
A love of money might prevent it! That in a modern society clearly does exist.
Yamaha, it seems, resists acquiescence to the inevitable. It maybe perceives PIANOTEQ very seriously a threat!
Perhaps now I am too speculating.
IMHO, all piano makers benefit from VST's because a lot of people start learning music with midi controllers and VST's and some of them will end up buying the real thing. In fact the acoustic instruments are more in demand than before, because the numbers of people practising music has increased thanks to digital technology.
If Yamaha was afraid of digital technology they wouldn't sell digital pianos , given a digital piano is nothing more than a midi controller and a VST packaged in one bundle.
Amen Ptah Ra wrote:Yamaha, it seems, resists acquiescence to the inevitable. It maybe perceives PIANOTEQ very seriously a threat!
Perhaps now I am too speculating.
IMHO, all piano makers benefit from VST's because a lot of people start learning music with midi controllers and VST's and some of them will end up buying the real thing. In fact the acoustic instruments are more in demand than before, because the numbers of people practising music has increased thanks to digital technology.
If Yamaha was afraid of digital technology they wouldn't sell digital pianos , given a digital piano is nothing more than a midi controller and a VST packaged in one bundle.
I've been merely speculating; Yamaha seems against it possibly having its name shown anywhere PIANOTEQ is currently appearing on the interface of any VST!
However, you may presume someone indeed at MODARTT has already sought a right to use legally the Yamaha name: whether or not new students requiring pianos are on a real rise in significant numbers...
A retained market share and corporate interests are perhaps paramount at Yamaha, if it's been really against any association with MODARTT!
Yamaha, it seems, resists acquiescence to the inevitable. It maybe perceives PIANOTEQ very seriously a threat!
Perhaps now I am too speculating.
Maybe they want to "save" their digital offerings for their own digital pianos, like the Clavinovas.
Although Yamaha has long developed its proprietary MIDI XP format used in the Disklavier Pro series, it apparently has just dropped it in favor of MIDI High Resolution Velocity Prefix control change number eighty-eight (88) now supported within the current Clavinova line. Probably, it has just approved usage of the MIDI dialect that was previously only widely supported by competitors. (Roland and Casio both have been using Hi-res MIDI on some of their boards to meet customers with possibly growing demands —including higher resolutions in MIDI data— whereas Yamaha perhaps used its eXtended Precision MIDI XP format for similar reasons exclusively on Diskavier Pro series and Mark IIXG PRO and Mark III PRO pianos.)
Digital pianos whether hardware or software based possibly cannot benefit at all by high resolution MIDI so long as the pianos might indeed rely upon sampled piano sounds. Which obviously might mean millions of piano playing customers becoming limited always to no more than a paltry sixteen samples of velocities available to them per piano note on whatever digital sold by a manufacturer such as Yamaha.
In fact I’m willing to say very likely none of the corporate (board) members at Yamaha are wanting to admit to anything lackadaisical perhaps on their part, or, from them any lack of some real enthusiasm (that is) what MODARTT can bring to digital piano manufacturers in making instruments truly expressive and in a way acoustic pianos are and have long been (as far as any piano recordings go, anyway).
(Acoustic piano performances unlike most digital model ones hardly limit a pianist’s virtuosity to some one hundred twenty-seven {127} or in reality sixteen {16} variations of velocities given to an artist to perform her or his entire repertoire.)
Today in markets digital piano sounds might encompass very important selling points a corporate body can advertise chiefly within the sale of digital pianos which can happen inside numerous households of still prospective piano buyers.
I’m saying just that nobody at Yamaha wants to announce publicly that digitally MODARTT can reproduce a full spectrum of sounds from a piano manufactured by the company er corporation Yamaha better than really Yamaha itself!