Hello, I noticed that there are some presets in Pianoteq Pianos that have "recording" in them, e.g. Steinway D's "NY Steinway D Classical Recording." What does "recording" mean in pianoteq? How does it differ from other presets? I'm relatively new to Pianoteq and MIDI stuff, so please understand if it's a dumb question
Heya Alex, there are no dumb questions
This is one way of thinking about the two different types of presets, (Player and Recording - leaving out other types for this post)..
'Player' presets may be thought of as being like 'sitting at the piano' (how it sounds, to the player, whilst playing).
'Recording' presets are generally more like the kinds of 'recorded' piano sounds in music we listen to. These are good presets to use if your goal is to record your music and send/stream/sell it etc. The recording presets could be said to have more of an 'audience perspective'.
That all relates partially to microphone placements, but also to some various subtle and not so subtle alterations affecting timbre and 'sense of distance' from the listener.
Most listeners (of recorded music) just may be unlikely to come across those ideas, but they're common themes in music software and virtual instruments. Many people who play their digital piano in their room may prefer the sound of various preset types, as a personal preference. Sometimes because they are not 'meaning to' make Pianoteq seem like a real piano in front of them, but rather a 'recorded piano' like in a finished mix. But most trained pianists may certainly prefer 'player' types presets, as it's closest to that welcome kind of sound.
But, also worth saying that, although there are conventional techniques for recording pianos, they are often recorded quite differently by various music labels/producers/artists/directors, per genre and so on too.. so maybe in 'classical music', there will be some pretty common mic arrays (the ways they are arranged, distance from piano etc.) so that listeners are not confronted by too much going on with the sound which may be radically different to the vast back catalogue of classics. In modern music production, there are truly few rules - but many people will have their own techniques for recording and mixing piano (going beyond basics) and there will likely still be much crossover between theoretical takes on the whole idea of fitting a piano in a stereo image, esp. with other instruments.
In a 'player' preset, people will generally want the piano to sound like it does in front of them as mentioned - and that usually means you hear the bass notes mostly on the left and treble notes mostly on the right, like a stereo panarama. But, like a real piano esp. with a lid and in a room, all kinds of reflectivity occurs too - and Pianoteq gives quite a vivid spatial sound to work with, whether for playing like a real piano, or producing/mixing for 'recordings'.
Hope that gives you and anyone passing through a bit of inspiration to continue checking out what's possible in Pianoteq. From my perspective, it never stops delivering on every level for any use cases I encounter.
Heya Alex, there are no dumb questions
This is one way of thinking about the two different types of presets, (Player and Recording - leaving out other types for this post)..
'Player' presets may be thought of as being like 'sitting at the piano' (how it sounds, to the player, whilst playing).
'Recording' presets are generally more like the kinds of 'recorded' piano sounds in music we listen to. These are good presets to use if your goal is to record your music and send/stream/sell it etc. The recording presets could be said to have more of an 'audience perspective'.
That all relates partially to microphone placements, but also to some various subtle and not so subtle alterations affecting timbre and 'sense of distance' from the listener.
Most listeners (of recorded music) just may be unlikely to come across those ideas, but they're common themes in music software and virtual instruments. Many people who play their digital piano in their room may prefer the sound of various preset types, as a personal preference. Sometimes because they are not 'meaning to' make Pianoteq seem like a real piano in front of them, but rather a 'recorded piano' like in a finished mix. But most trained pianists may certainly prefer 'player' types presets, as it's closest to that welcome kind of sound.
But, also worth saying that, although there are conventional techniques for recording pianos, they are often recorded quite differently by various music labels/producers/artists/directors, per genre and so on too.. so maybe in 'classical music', there will be some pretty common mic arrays (the ways they are arranged, distance from piano etc.) so that listeners are not confronted by too much going on with the sound which may be radically different to the vast back catalogue of classics. In modern music production, there are truly few rules - but many people will have their own techniques for recording and mixing piano (going beyond basics) and there will likely still be much crossover between theoretical takes on the whole idea of fitting a piano in a stereo image, esp. with other instruments.
In a 'player' preset, people will generally want the piano to sound like it does in front of them as mentioned - and that usually means you hear the bass notes mostly on the left and treble notes mostly on the right, like a stereo panarama. But, like a real piano esp. with a lid and in a room, all kinds of reflectivity occurs too - and Pianoteq gives quite a vivid spatial sound to work with, whether for playing like a real piano, or producing/mixing for 'recordings'.
Hope that gives you and anyone passing through a bit of inspiration to continue checking out what's possible in Pianoteq. From my perspective, it never stops delivering on every level for any use cases I encounter.
Thanks so much for the response! It helped a lot. Now that I know this, I'll experiment a lot more with Pianoteq!