Topic by MannyF

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Topic: Pianoteq 8 as audio effect?

I bought Pianoteq 8 today and I just watched a video where the author claims to be using Pianoteq as an effect. The result was very interesting, per his description, "an acoustic guitar played from the inside of a piano". The video was about him playing Pianoteq rather than explaining how he had patched it up so no details were given. I've just tried dropping Pianoteq on an audio track in Ableton Live but it won't allow me to because it is not an audio effect. Any ideas?

Last edited by MannyF (15-03-2024 23:30)

Reply by miiindbullets

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Re: Pianoteq 8 as audio effect?

Hey Manny, I'm guessing that was my video from one of the previous Pianoteq contests. Sorry I didn't provide better details there!

I think in Ableton you can drop Pianoteq onto a separate instrument track and then click the sidechain button and select your audio track as the source. There might be better ways to do that... not an Ableton expert, but I did test it in Ableton lite and this seems to work:

https://i.imgur.com/UTqp1dE.jpg

Hope that helps!

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Reply by MannyF

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Re: Pianoteq 8 as audio effect?

miiindbullets wrote:

Hey Manny, I'm guessing that was my video from one of the previous Pianoteq contests. Sorry I didn't provide better details there!

I think in Ableton you can drop Pianoteq onto a separate instrument track and then click the sidechain button and select your audio track as the source. There might be better ways to do that... not an Ableton expert, but I did test it in Ableton lite and this seems to work:

https://i.imgur.com/UTqp1dE.jpg

Hope that helps!

Yay! It works! I didn't realise Pianoteq had a sidechain input. I think this is going to be a valuable sound design tool.

Reply by miiindbullets

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Re: Pianoteq 8 as audio effect?

Awesome! Yeah, Pianoteq is such a neat synth/virtual piano.

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Reply by brundlefly

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Re: Pianoteq 8 as audio effect?

MannyF wrote:

Yay! It works! I didn't realise Pianoteq had a sidechain input. I think this is going to be a valuable sound design tool.

For the benefit of posterity who might come upon this thread looking for answers to using Pianoteq as a resonance FX in other DAWs...

I found that Cakewalk by Bandlab (in the process of being reborn as Sonar) is the opposite of Ableton. It does not recognize the sidechain input of Pianoteq when instantiated as an Instrument, but if you drop it in the FX bin of the Audio/Instrument track to be 'effected', the FX bin can use that input. Better yet, insert it on a 'Resonance' bus, and use a Send from the primary Instrument track to manage the level of the resonance being returned and be able to EQ the resonance separately.

The other key to setting this up is that you want to direct the same MIDI that's driving the primary Instrument to Pianoteq so that it can 'know' which strings are undamped, but you need to zero the Velocity curve so that the strings don't get hammered. I also found it necessary to pull the top of the Pedal curve down to about 64 when sending it a keyboard performance with sustain messages in order to keep the undamped 'harp' resonance from getting out of control.

Reply by ThrieDelpton

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Re: Pianoteq 8 as audio effect?

Hello, does anyone know how to achieve this in FL studio? I'd like to route an acoustic guitar from kontakt into the classical guitar patch from Pianoteq to give it more realness from the resonance that pianoteq offers. I saw a video but never was able to figure out how to achieve it in FL. Thanks! (also im using Pianoteq 9, not 8 as per the initial thread, no clue if that changes the process at all)

EDIT: solved.

Guide for FL Studio users:

1. Delete the plugin from your favorites as well as the "installed plugins" folder, get rid of the .fst and nfo too (in other words: make it so FL studio never found this plugin)
2. Do a fast scan. (ADD > other > "Refresh Plugin List (fast scan)" that ensures FL doesn't categorize it as effect or synth, allowing you to use it as either.
3. Load it as an effect and favourite it to your effects
4. If desired you can do the same for it as a generator

once you've done that:

1. Add the initial instrument into a separate mixer track
2. Sidechain the instrument's mixer track to mixer track that has Pianoteq
3. Go into the plugin settings of Pianoteq by clicking on the little cog in the very top left of the plugin
4. Go to the "Processing" tab, set the "Connections" input to 1, and then enable it.

It's quite unintuitive in FL Studio but this is what ended up working for me with the help of those on the FL Studio forums

Last edited by ThrieDelpton (18-03-2026 07:17)