I'm curious to know what sort of external speakers and placement you are using with Pianoteq? I have a Yamaha C3X with Enspire and sometimes use pianoteq, but mostly through headphones. There are speakers mounted under the C3X that I can route Pianoteq to, but it doesn't sound all that good. I imagine using external speakers that are more elevated would sound better. Thanks for any insights you have!
I'm curious to know what sort of external speakers and placement you are using with Pianoteq? I have a Yamaha C3X with Enspire and sometimes use pianoteq, but mostly through headphones. There are speakers mounted under the C3X that I can route Pianoteq to, but it doesn't sound all that good. I imagine using external speakers that are more elevated would sound better. Thanks for any insights you have!
I've recently been busy trying to find out the right speakers for Pianoteq, read a ton of forums and reviews and seems like there's no universal consense on the "best" speakers.
Also, you have to take into account that room accoustic treatment is as important (if not more) as the speakers themselve.
One of my findings was that bigger is not always better, apparently bigger speakers are not that recommended for typical "home studio" use as they move more air than the smaller ones at same volume, 5" better than 8" in this sense.
Also, frontal air outlet is better than rear ones if you're placing your monitors "right against" the wall, since rear outlets will lead to some undesired direct reflexions which might be quite annoying.
Interestingly, some users find Hi-Fi equipment better than near field active monitors, while some other users rave about shelf powered speakers, the ones you can get for a couple hundrer bucks a pair in Amazon..
Last and not least, there're some active monitors that are capable of doing some accoustic corrections so that they will let your music sound good regardless of the shape/size of the room, they're provided with a mic that captures the sound they emit and they'll then make the needed EQ so you hear it in the proper way (the way the emitted sound was suppose to sound at that point where the mic is placed when caputured it back).
Some of these models are Genelec (can't recall the series), KRK G4 (available in multiple sizes) and iloud MTM which I'm personally considering as my next acquisition.
My 2ct..
My monitors are presonus eris 3.5, not so bad but I would hope for better, I can't imagine a real piano in front of me. I play mainly with headphones (open seinnheiser hd599 or hd540, open is in my opinion more realistic and confortable). The problem with headphones is that although the sound is very good the piano moves with my head and I can hear the sound between my ears when I would like to have it in front of me, even with binaural presets. Recently I installed on my DAW the 'nx waves abbey road studio" plugin which simulates, with a bluetooth headtracker, the real sound of studio monitors. The effect is great and really impressive as soon as I activate it, the sound is immediately projected one meter in front of me and I totally forget I have headphones on my head, I can move, turn and the sound always stays in the same place, I even remove the phones to check that I haven't left the monitors connected. I think the sensation is close that if I own very expensive monitors...
I am however obliged to use the vst version thus losing the advantages of the standalone.
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In reply to the OP, I have a Yamaha N3, which has about 500w of internal amplifiers and speakers, and found that Pianoteq sounds much better when routed, in addition, through a pair of Mackie HR824 MK2s placed either side of the piano on 3’ speaker stands. I use the multi-mic modelling function to place the virtual mics in the positions of the speakers, with two mics over the body of the virtual piano routed through the speakers in the N3, and two mics roughly in the positions of the Mackies. I have an old-ish Akai external USB sound card, which is four-channel, to facilitate this, and the setup sounds very good.
If I’m ever feeling flush I may plump for a Focusrite multi-channel sound card and route a fifth ambient mic channel through my Motion Sound Pro3T/LoPro stack, set on stationary. Pianoteq, with its multiple virtual mic options offers more than my kit can deliver at the moment.
Pianos with their soundboards are huge and loud resonant bodies. I feel that big resonant speakers are helpful.
I have two Emotiva Stealth8 monitor speakers flanking my piano on stands, at keybed level, facing the ceiling. Then I have two Emotiva AirMotiv4s speakers flanking the piano, potted down a bunch, but turned towards me for some direct treble. Lastly, I have an 8 inch sub under the keyboard on the left side, turned down and barely audible at 50 hz and down, but palpable.
The whole set-up does sound like I'm sitting in front of a piano.
I'm curious to know what sort of external speakers and placement you are using with Pianoteq? I have a Yamaha C3X with Enspire and sometimes use pianoteq, but mostly through headphones. There are speakers mounted under the C3X that I can route Pianoteq to, but it doesn't sound all that good. I imagine using external speakers that are more elevated would sound better. Thanks for any insights you have!
I have a pretty simple setup: two QSC K8.2 active monitors, on stands on my left and right, head-height aimed toward my seating position.
The sounds is clean and strong, and comes as close to the sound through headphones as I've been able to get.
I chose the 8.2s (8-inch woofers) as a compromise--I want to be able to take them to an occasional gig, but also to look nice and not too large in my home studio.
They weigh 27 lbs. and are easy to carry with built-in handles, durable and can do 2000 watts of power each. You really want a lot of power, IMO, to simulate a piano, because an acoustic piano moves a ton of air and you just can't get that "big" feel without a lot of power. Doesn't necessarily have to be played loud to benefit from it.
The 10 or 12 inch speakers would probably be even better (for the low notes of the piano) but as I said it's a compromise. I opted for smaller and lighter.
sharpnine keyboard/speakers setup
Thanks for the feedback and info everyone. Gives me some ideas to think about. Thanks!