PROS
No sample loops. No unwanted tonal
differences between key ranges and
velocities. Highly programmable. Noteby-
note editing. Adjustable mic placement.
Historical tunings. Can produce
both realistic and exotic tones.
CONS
Release velocity sensing could be
improved.
INFO
Standard: $349 list/approx. $300
street; Pro: $559 list/approx. $480
street; Standard to Pro upgrade: $225,
pianoteq.com
Pianists are obsessive about tone, and
with good reason: We can do so little to
control it! Other than bringing in a different
piano (if you’re playing a concert) or having
your technician do some regulation and
voicing (if it’s your piano), you’re pretty
much stuck with whatever piece of furniture
happens to be available. Pianoteq
(reviewed June ’07) aimed to change all
that, using the magic of physical modeling
and additive synthesis to give musicians a
software piano so adjustable as to be a
sort of piano physics construction kit. Now,
the Pro version goes a giant step further:
You can control the 22 voicing parameters
separately for each key on the keyboard.
The only other virtual piano that gives you
this level of control is Roland’s $6,000 V-Piano
(reviewed Sept. ’09). Does all this
tweakability translate into a realistic sound
and playing experience? Let’s find out.
PROGRAMMABILITY
Almost every aspect of the tone is under
your control: string length, hammer hardness,
unison detuning, the amount of time it
takes the dampers to fall back onto the
strings, and much more. In Pianoteq Pro,
you can do it per key. In Standard, only volume
and detuning are programmable per
note, but even Standard has extensive
options for placing virtual mics around the
virtual piano (see Figure 1 on page 63).
A pinpoint EQ gives you more control
still. The velocity curve can be
programmed, of course. Various historical
tuning temperaments are tucked away in a
menu. What’s more, this piano has four
pedals, including one that permits staccato
playing but with the lingering harp resonance
you’d get with the sustain pedal
down. The standalone version sports a
MIDI file recorder/player, and audio recording,
which are very handy.
MAIN SOUNDS
Pianoteq comes with two modeled grand
pianos, C3 and M3. I happen to own a
Yamaha C3 grand, and though they sound
similar, Modartt tells us their “C3” sound is
in fact modeled on a Steinway. I’m not sure
what the M3 is based on, but it has a deeper, richer tone. Optional add-ons
include “Rhody” (tine) and “Wurly” (reed)
electric pianos, and vibraphone. The
basic Pianoteq install includes demos so
you can check these out. Also on offer is
an attempt to model a Yamaha CP-80
electric grand. Unlike the others, this one
didn’t sound as realistic to my ears,
though we do know Modartt worked with
an actual CP-80.
TUNING
The Tuning panel has sliders for unison
width, octave stretching, and direct sound
duration. If you know how pianos are
tuned, the first two will make sense:
Some tuners deliberately set the unisons
so that a given note’s multiple strings beat
slowly against one another for a richer
sound, and a slight amount of octave
stretching can compensate for inharmonic
overtones, making the outer octaves
sound more in tune. Direct sound duration
is not something you can adjust on a real
piano: It’s the amount of time the modeled
strings take to transition from the full-bodied
tone at the beginning of the string’s
vibration to the somewhat thinner tone
that sustains afterward.
VOICING
This is where it gets really deep. In the
Voicing panel, you can adjust hammer
hardness separately for piano, mezzo, and
forte keystrokes. Even in Pianoteq Standard,
sliders for the first eight overtones let
you, say, boost the fundamental for more
body, or boost the 5th harmonic to add
clang. Hammer noise, hammer strike point,
and the amount of effect the una corda
pedal has can all be adjusted here.
Seven sliders in the Design panel
control soundboard impedance (how fast
the soundboard absorbs string
vibrations), cutoff and Q factor (which
work vaguely like a lowpass synth filter),
string length (shorter bass strings produce
more inharmonicity in the
overtones), the loudness of the sympathetic
resonance and duplex scale, and
something called the quadratic effect,
which causes louder hammer strokes to
produce slightly different overtones. I
found that boosting both string length
and low EQ gave me more of the rich
tone of a nine-foot grand.
ACTION SETTINGS
The Action panel, hidden in the Effects
section, has sliders for damper position,
damping duration, the key number of the
last damper (above which the strings will be undamped — another thing you can’t
change on a real piano), key release
noise, and sustain pedal noise.
Key release noise is one of the few
areas where I feel Pianoteq could be
improved. This noise doesn’t have the
mechanical complexity of the key release
on a real piano — it just kind of thumps.
This noise responds to MIDI release
velocity, and with an editable releasevelocity
map. However, this map also
controls the damper duration. When the
release noise is responding realistically to
release velocity by getting louder and
softer, the dampers will fall back onto the
strings much too slowly at all but the
highest release velocities. For more musical
results, automate these two parameters
separately in your sequencer.
Like Pianoteq’s other parameters, key
release noise can be MIDI-controlled or
automated in your host. In order to produce
a glitch-free sound, half a second or
more may pass before you hear a parameter
change reflected in new notes.
NOTE EDIT
Pianoteq Pro’s interface for editing specific
keys is simple and elegant (see Figure
2 above). Note Edit windows are
detachable, so you can have several
open at once. You can edit one note at a
time, or grab a handle to adjust a whole
range at once. Randomization and
smoothing tools are included.
The spectrum (overtone) editing of
individual keys is a bit different: The
vertical bars in the display correspond
not to the keys but to the overtone
series, and you click on any key to
adjust its overtones. This means that in
Pro, you can adjust all overtones, not
just the first eight as in Standard. If you
only edit one key, your change will apply
across the keyboard, but when you edit
two or more keys, Pianoteq interpolates
what the overtones in between should
be, so you get smooth transitions
across the keyboard.
IN USE
I had no trouble installing and running
Pianoteq Pro on my Windows XP
machine. Automation of parameters in
Steinberg Cubase 4.5 worked as
expected, and the CPU hit of all the realtime
number-crunching involved in physical
modeling wasn’t too bad on the
2.0GHz Intel Core Duo processor. I was
so inspired by Pianoteq’s tone that I
couldn’t resist laying down the beginning
of the piano part of a Brahms cello
sonata, after which I overdubbed the
cello. Click here for the audio example.
CONCLUSIONS
Does it really sound like a piano? Yes,
absolutely. Things like the envelope
decay and the delicate interplay of overtones
in the bass strings are extremely
realistic. Could a conservatory-trained
pianist tell the difference between Pianoteq
and a Steinway in a double-blind
listening test? Yes — but in any kind of
ensemble recording, be it a jazz group, a
pop ballad, or even classical chamber
music, Pianoteq will fool most listeners
most of the time. I’m still not 100% convinced
that you could get away with
recording a close-miked Chopin Ballade
with it, but I’m about 95% convinced. It’s
just stupidly good. Key Buy? You’d better
believe it.
NEED TO KNOW
What is it? A software piano that creates
sound exclusively by modeling —
no samples!
Runs on: Mac/Windows/Linux; AU,
RTAS, VST, standalone.
What’s the difference between
Pro and Standard? Standard lets
you tweak 22 separate tone and
behavior settings. Pro lets you tweak
each one of those per key.
Built-in effects: Room/hall reverb,
chorus, and limiter.
Weirdest parameter: You can adjust
the speed of sound. Really.
Is there a downloadable demo?
Yes.