Topic: Which are, in your opinion, the best 3 pianos in PTQ atm?

Like, if you had to choose which 3 pianos to use to the rest of your life, what these would have to be? Which are, in your opinion, are the most convincing, immersive and suite almost any piece you would wish to play? The ones you consider well worth paying 50 euro for (assuming you didn't choose them when purchasing the software itself, and have to buy it separately)?

Just wondering which one to add to the set I already have as a gift to myself for Xmas

Was thinking about Bechstein, Steingraeber or Petrof. Out of the three, Steingraeber seems like the most unique one - that sounds interesting.

Last edited by AlexS (05-12-2022 19:08)

Re: Which are, in your opinion, the best 3 pianos in PTQ atm?

Strictly for playing:
Steingraeber
Steinway D
Steinway B

If recording is a main usage, it gets more complicated. I have used Bechstein and Petrof Mistral a lot for rendering/recording, as well as Steingraeber. But that was before The Steinways were so vastly upgraded in Pianoteq 8. My overall for 3 only would probably be:
Steingraeber
Steinway D
Bechstein DG


AlexS wrote:

Like, if you had to choose which 3 pianos to use to the rest of your life, what these would have to be? Which are, in your opinion, are the most convincing, immersive and suite almost any piece you would wish to play? The ones you consider well worth paying 50 euro for (assuming you didn't choose them when purchasing the software itself, and have to buy it separately)?

Just wondering which one to add to the set I already have as a gift to myself for Xmas

Was thinking about Bechstein, Steingraeber or Petrof. Out of the three, Steingraeber seems like the most unique one - that sounds interesting.

Last edited by aWc (05-12-2022 19:56)
PT 7.3 with Steinway B and D, U4 upright, YC5, Bechstein DG, Steingraeber, Ant. Petrov, Kremsegg Collection #2, Electric Pianos and Hohner Collection. http://antoinewcaron.com

Re: Which are, in your opinion, the best 3 pianos in PTQ atm?

I'm going to be boring and say literally all of them are worth having pretty much equally,  but the D is an absolute no brainer. If I was making Pianoteq you wouldn't get a choice on that one, you'd just get the D package with it - if you wanted acoustics. That's how it used to be by the way, before the official licenses. You got the D and the excellent K, the latter based on no one specific real world model.

I mostly use the electrics. Rhodes, Wurly, Hohner and CP80 after the D and B. 

I would now go for:
1) Steinway Model D NY & Hamburg.
2) Hohner Clav collection. 
3)Rhodes & Wurly electrics

The free KIViR package has 3 nice sounding pianos too (that includes the aforementioned CP80, with Errard and Pleyel).

Add the B afterwards and K and Grotrian and..

Last edited by Key Fumbler (06-12-2022 10:52)

Re: Which are, in your opinion, the best 3 pianos in PTQ atm?

The Blüthner has an unique and very different sound, I would choose Steinway D, Blüthner, and then another in the pool Bechstein, Petrof, Steingraeber and Grotrian. I used to love the K2 but not anymore, same for YC5, works sometimes, depending on your mood. By the way, I don't like Steinway B very much, but everyone loves it.

Last edited by marcos daniel (05-12-2022 21:54)

Re: Which are, in your opinion, the best 3 pianos in PTQ atm?

Hi AlexS,

”……to choose which 3 pianos to use to the rest of your life, what these would have to be?”

         Petrof Mistral, Steinway B, Bluethner (or Steingraeber).

I love all Modartt instruments and are now using many of them in my music (as for example in my Contest entry).

Best wishes,

Stig

Pianoteqenthusiast, Organteqenthusiast, Harpteqenthusiast, Harpsichordteqenthusiast, CP-80teqenthusiast, experimenter and Graf/Grimalditeqenthusiast, Celesteteqenthusiast, Vibraphoneteqenthusiast, Erardteqenthusiast and Church Bellsteqenthusiast

Re: Which are, in your opinion, the best 3 pianos in PTQ atm?

For the playing the chosen preset seems to me as important as the instrument. Personally, I first preferred the "Steingraeber warm" then the "Bechstein player" then the "Steinway B binaural", today I mainly play the "Steinway NY D Inside".
Tomorrow will be an other choice I mean...

Re: Which are, in your opinion, the best 3 pianos in PTQ atm?

1) I almost exclusively use Steinway D classical recording. These days I use it without the reverb, and I insert a Mturboreverb instead.

2) not a piano, but the new guitar. I love it, especially the classic gentle preset

3) the cimbalum "a la piano" from kivir, equally with the classic harp

Re: Which are, in your opinion, the best 3 pianos in PTQ atm?

robisme wrote:

1) I almost exclusively use Steinway D classical recording. These days I use it without the reverb, and I insert a Mturboreverb instead.

2) not a piano, but the new guitar. I love it, especially the classic gentle preset

3) the cimbalum "a la piano" from kivir, equally with the classic harp

Yes, when working in a DAW another reverb is required to apply reverb over multiple tracks.

The free Cimbalom sounds great. One of my favourites.

The D was always good, it was a little over sharp in version 7 but nonetheless improved from previous versions. 8 is definitely better.

I've edited my last post to clarify my suggestions for the OP. We are both partly discussing the freebies and the D.

Re: Which are, in your opinion, the best 3 pianos in PTQ atm?

Let me thank all who shared their thoughts here. I expected it will be Steinway D all the way, tbh Yes, it's excellent voice, and I have it in my collection already. Though I must admit often I found it too much, of sort. Too perfect, too far away from our everyday life

So I hoped to see some fans of the less hyped ones, to get myself a solid alternative to the D. And it seems like Steingraeber is my boy (I already have Bluethner, selected it as one of the three included instruments pack). Thanks again for your time!

Last edited by AlexS (07-12-2022 15:32)

Re: Which are, in your opinion, the best 3 pianos in PTQ atm?

AlexS wrote:

Like, if you had to choose which 3 pianos to use to the rest of your life

Just wondering which one to add to the set I already have as a gift to myself for Xmas

to me it depends on the music piece... Steinway D seems quite versatile... Yamaha seems bright and confident and is not suitable for some pieces like the Moonlight Sonata 1st Movement... K2 is quite sweet and caring and I suspect it is rebuilt with some Kawai parts... is quite suitable for many pieces... I also found that with K2, it doesn't muddy up the piece so much, so we don't have to do Legato pedaling as much with K2 (maybe true for Kawai pianos too... somebody said he doesn't do too much Legato pedaling using a Kawai ES520).  Bechstein is a gentle and grand sound and is quite suitable for many pieces... but I guess it is like, to each his own (cup of tea). 

To my experience... if it is paying US$400 for 4 sounds and then adding 2 more sounds later on, it may as well be buying the Studio version during Black Friday / Cyber Monday sale for $675 for all sounds, so you can keep on trying different sounds for different pieces.

Last edited by kennethpiano (07-12-2022 16:20)

Re: Which are, in your opinion, the best 3 pianos in PTQ atm?

AlexS wrote:

Let me thank all who shared their thoughts here. I expected it will be Steinway D all the way, tbh Yes, it's excellent voice, and I have it in my collection already. Though I must admit often I found it too much, of sort. Too perfect, too far away from our everyday life

For perfection or grot and anything between the condition slider is your friend!

The Bluethner aliquot strings add some character to that piano. Maybe it's rose tinted glasses (or the aural equivalent of that) during Pianoteq 5 that was a definite favourite for stronger resonant behaviour. It lost that cuddly sweetness in comparisons after that version.

It might be nice if one day the Bluethner becomes a pack of two or more models.

You might want the Errard and the Pleyel from the KIViR freebies, especially the latter which sounds to me somewhat closer to the sound of a characterful upright than a modern high-end grand. Not forgetting the U4 pack.
The free Errard is a nice sounding piano with character too, probably slightly more usable than the Pleyel in modern music.

Re: Which are, in your opinion, the best 3 pianos in PTQ atm?

Can somebody clarify the difference between Steinway D NY and Hamburg? I know it's all pretty subjective, but I'm nonetheless interested in your thoughts and which you'd choose if you could get one of them?

Re: Which are, in your opinion, the best 3 pianos in PTQ atm?

Baltguy wrote:

Can somebody clarify the difference between Steinway D NY and Hamburg? I know it's all pretty subjective, but I'm nonetheless interested in your thoughts and which you'd choose if you could get one of them?

This on the real pianos:
https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.p...ew%20York.

Supposedly then Hamburg cleaner yet the NY version's sound projects more, it's fruitier with more character, or more flawed in its purity depending on your perception of their relative strengths. Differences here being relatively subtle.

Re: Which are, in your opinion, the best 3 pianos in PTQ atm?

robisme wrote:

1) I almost exclusively use Steinway D classical recording. These days I use it without the reverb, and I insert a Mturboreverb instead.

2) not a piano, but the new guitar. I love it, especially the classic gentle preset

3) the cimbalum "a la piano" from kivir, equally with the classic harp

I would echo this! The revoiced Steinway D is great. Very versatile.

The new guitar is my favorite, and the classic gentle is a wonderful starting point. It really comes alive if you make heavy use of pedals and aftertouch (if available, or use an expression pedal). Assign a footswitch to pinch harmonics, another to toggle mallet bounce, assign expression pedals (or faders / encoders if you're out of pedals) to celeste and buff stop, and just get lost for hours exploring and learning to control it. You can play around with parameter automation too, for some really interesting performance options and/or map more parameters to other controls.

I demoed a lot of this in my Pianoteq Video Contest submission. I don't want to spam the link all over these forums, but it's post #13 in the 2022 contest entries thread if you're curious.

Re: Which are, in your opinion, the best 3 pianos in PTQ atm?

AlexS wrote:

Let me thank all who shared their thoughts here. I expected it will be Steinway D all the way, tbh Yes, it's excellent voice, and I have it in my collection already. Though I must admit often I found it too much, of sort. Too perfect, too far away from our everyday life

So I hoped to see some fans of the less hyped ones, to get myself a solid alternative to the D. And it seems like Steingraeber is my boy (I already have Bluethner, selected it as one of the three included instruments pack). Thanks again for your time!

If you end up with the Steingraber, you will have chosen exactly the same models, I did. I like my choices, but you can't go wrong with any of the other piano models, either. They all have their characteristics, and it's really a toss up which one to go for.

I also like the K2 and Bechstein, and the YC5's brightness appeals to me, if I will need a preset for rock or pop, that should work right out of the box. The Petrofs and the Grotrian each have a certain character, as well as the U4, which would be my last choice. I'm not after another upright, have some sampled ones, which I rarely use.

Last edited by TheodorN (07-12-2022 22:27)

Re: Which are, in your opinion, the best 3 pianos in PTQ atm?

Baltguy wrote:

Can somebody clarify the difference between Steinway D NY and Hamburg? I know it's all pretty subjective, but I'm nonetheless interested in your thoughts and which you'd choose if you could get one of them?

i've played on both in real life and i don't know if i could clarify the difference in any useful way   they are both beautiful pianos.  i guess i could say that i've found European pianos to have mellower tone than American pianos in general, and that was true for those two.

Re: Which are, in your opinion, the best 3 pianos in PTQ atm?

My best 3:
Steinway D
U4
Petrof