Heya Dulistan, no prob - thanks for trying to get to the bottom of it.
Always is kind of interesting that while some may feel that when playing, some new versions improve, and it surely will also make some others feel it is not how they prefer. Here are some thoughts hoping to help you thresh out what you experience there. Thanks for such interesting observations there re velocities and esp. your sense about ver. 8.0.3. having a different ceiling.
I can't confirm I've noticed those myself - and I think your use of piano (playing regularly in similar situation for others) you are more likely than I am to discover a feeling that something is particularly different.. my use cases are often about squeezing something particular from a particular piano/preset in a particular piece (and my own many-piano experiments and variable practice sessions where I tend to use 'wrong' piano choices for certain pieces, to stretch myself somehow. Nobody's way is better/worse and all that blah blah stuff - but it always amazes me how well Pianoteq suits so many musicians with so many ways for working.) My general sense is that 8.0.5 is giving me the best results yet - and the reason I care to post is not to say "it should work for you" but maybe to express ways to find "why it may not be working as well for you" and hopefully uncover, IDK some strategic way of thinking about the dpiano/velocity curves, playing even (not that you're in need of anyone telling you 'how to play' - just inre electronics, it CAN be beneficial to work within the wiggle room between reality and what comes out of speakers with some extra layer of "I need to do some things a little different" at times, in my exp.
Not sure exactly how else to help for now (so will think/write some unedited thoughts out below - I know these get long but I truly try to lasso things into a way that reading through might trigger that ol' "AHA" moment) - but from my exp. with 8.0.5 it just seems possible that if you have exp. shorter tails or a feeling of a tighter piano generally that perhaps altering (loosening) the damper settings a little might help with your perception there?
Unfortunately it seems impossible other than for you to describe how you receive ver. 8.0.5 - the null test indeed can only show that output 'same MIDI' file is near identical - but, I still think that only a video showing your 'touch' response of both versions, as you perform on the diff vers. would allow others to inform an opinion *such as "Ah, I can see that if he moved velocity curve a tiny bit here and here it could help" etc. In a way, that will remain up to you I guess.. and for sure, you know you can contact support (in case some others are wondering - as this is a user-to-user forum).
Should mention before I forget entirely, the 'Local OFF' button on my dpiano quite often gets bumped (I rarely want to toggle it - but it's the most common "Whoops!" here, prob because a qwerty keyboard sits on the dpiano near that button right where my thumb might want to be when I pick up the little qwerty slab) - just because I didn't consciously toggle that sucker doesn't mean th'it't'izn't toggled - it happens to most over a long enough time-frame I'd guess Often when someone suggests "Check if X or Y is ON/OFF" types of things, it can be from experience, that we've noticed we bumped some button more than a few times in our time, or that it is a common thing anyone might overlook -
But please definitely don't for some reason overlook checking your 'Local OFF' setting. Esp. if local off is engaged (I hate these double-negative on/off toggles!), then maybe starting Pianoteq first, then turning on your dpiano might work (as the good Professor Leandro Duarte mentioned).. no reason not try that? - it's been many posts/days but no confirmation you checked that one. Beyond that, if that didn't work for you..
Keep on it though - I feel it's possibly a confluence of your curve or something else which can be altered (remembering you have worked through to find your improvements necessary in the past).
Apart from feeling here that 8.0.5 is better here, which could be placebo, I can't say exactly why or how other than it feels more like a real piano keyboard and my audio gives me a sense of immediacy and depth - and not sure if any recent updates would touch on those things, so I guess I just internalized it as 'placebo effect' - but indeed definitely not worse - so still kind of a mystery why that's different in your case - but indeed, I experience 8.0.5 as better so there's hope you can too - and I feel, overall, if we allow ourselves to believe 'something' is mildly different in feel.. if it's good here (presuming for others too? welcoming any observations always) that a small tweak which you made previously, might be able to be tweaked 'back' or 'up/down' a notch here or there to take into account any new sense of change?
Give thought esp. to bounds of your curve, or middle of curve .. how much curve vs. how much flatness or min/max ranges etc.. it can turn out that you find a real "Aha moment" (posting that because I still seem to do that at least 2 times per year "Argh why haven't I tried this before?").
Inre shapes/extents.. truth being, infinite choice requires bounds and we can't all try every combo forever although some of us try - not always finding a perfect 'default for all' curve, but definitely I have curves for pianos/presets which really make those feel wonderfully personal and fitting, compared my previous curves.. also make a little time for a 'sanity check' occasionally, using default curve - that can absolutely help because it really does seem better with each major vers. upgrade - and our own curves whilst great for versions in the past can become extinct unless pruned and watered (None of that is specific only to Pianoteq - any VST ever with settings/velocity etc. can benefit from keeping some kind of everyday 'musician workflows' in mind to 'try' at least every few months or more IMHO - no harm pointing this out - but also 'defaults' are wonderful and improved so much with each major upgrade that, for many, NONE of this matters I guess).
Also could be worth mentioning that, ver. 8, to me, seems to really have improved notes/chords subtle less-than 'f' overall and I do encourage any pianists to workshop the idea of playing overall with lower velocities now in Pianoteq. Many are doing what they do and are way above where I am in pianistic skill and what I say about this does not matter - but unless we're in Horowitz territory, there's never a reason to not make 'greater use of lower velocity' in electronic instruments a solid part of your workflow esp. when the tool has immensely improved in that regard.
Historically, I've found since early 80s when some hardware makers meant well and put out their slabs and MIDI was becoming more relied upon in recording situations, that there was almost universal 'non classical' tendency for a lot of musicians to play well up above 60 MIDI velocity.. seemingly in pop it was ~80 plus (that focus helped along by DAWs having default '80' or default '60' for painting in MIDI notes, which would impress on new musicians that it is normal to largely ignore velocities below those) .. crazy too that even I used to choose 127 velocity for some piano lines/sounds back then for certain recordings, because it absolutely didn't matter in the context of a given mix as other tools didn't exist to do better (and recording real pianos were not the goal or a time-sink or would incur more expense) BUT also notes below kind of just turned to mud the lower the velocity was set on those early digital tools quite frankly. Not saying anyone plays wrong! - but certainly, one key difference in how Pianoteq sounds, to me, is how I choose to play with fewer f or ff note ranges now. It has taken years for me to lose many ingrained habits from early digital days and even skilled pianists coming from the world of real pianos only might have, even within the recent past, been 'leaning' heavier on velocity in digital pianos because the lower velocity of many piano software products are not as 'nice' as the slightly higher (easier to 'mix') tones of higher velocities.
Turning up a little, playing softer can be one of the nicest changes to discover or focus on, esp. now Pianoteq gives such a well manageable low velocity output. At ver. 7 most things I used to do with real pianos (esp. when pushing signal hard in studio) truly came of age, to me. Now at ver. 8 it's amazingly, to me, like a real piano recorded onto a track (probably stated that before in several places) and I feel it's possible to do anything with it artistically in post without it ending up sounding like software piano.. but there will always be users who will feel an update altered something they set up earlier, myself included in the past - anyway back to trying to discover what might be specific to you..
2 ways to get there, organically 're-tuning' our playing to adjust to play fractionally softer (to elicit the nice body of tonality in those slightly lower ranges - even dropping 'velocity' for all MIDI notes a few percent could quickly indicate possible benefits, worth trying if interested).. and the other way, if it's hard (or unnecessary in ones own personally valid opinion) to back off a touch physically with velocity, editing the Pianoteq velocity curve can limit, or expand in ways which may benefit your style of playing. In the music examples supplied, within the MIDI, there's certainly dynamic range and it would fill a hall etc. but IDK, cannot help thinking a mix of 'velocity curve' and 'damper action' could be the 2 things to tweak to head in the direction I sense you are going with your playing, sweetness and dynamicism etc. - hope that typed out stuff makes sense when you and/or others read through.
If there are some small things not so fortuitous for your customized elements (curve particularly of course) I'd recommend always to give it time - always, with things like velocity curve, this never stops improving in my exp.. I never stop improving it or making variants of 'best' ones and each year or so I surprise myself by breathing a small extra sense of quality from my dpiano by some tiny tweak here or there. Most rewarding with patient consideration over more than just days/weeks/months and years.
I genuinely believe that any electronic musician will benefit by making basic tweaks a part of their music kit routine. The nature of all of our incredibly disparate equipment sets (from dpianos to speakers and DACs) mean that there truly is no 'default' for all.. everyone will experience the best or limited sets of experiences available via the product, esp. based on whether they spend X time on the whole rig down to details - and re-asses constantly for cresting the very best possible results.. that's just my advice to anyone using any electronics based musical equipment. I guess the equivalent for someone using a physical piano is 'getting it setup/regulated/tuned'.. a good technician may impart much.
It could certainly be that the velocity curves I have work 'for me' really well with any of the possible small changes in the latest version which you feel as lesser.
Pianoteq Studio Bundle (Pro plus all instruments) - Kawai MP11 digital piano - Yamaha HS8 monitors
