MODARTT Pianoteq

OVERVIEW

Pianoteq runs as a VST or AudioUnit plug-in, and as of version 2, in standalone mode. Installation is quick, because there are no large sample files to store. The entire instrument, including models of four vintage pianos that are available as free downloads to registered owners, occupies less than 17MB of hard drive space.

The MODARTT website is a bit vague about system requirements, stating, “For best performance we recommend a recent CPU (less than two years old). A CPU equivalent of an Intel Pentium 4 at 3GHz gives excellent results.” Those happen to be the specs of my main computer — and indeed I found that I could play whole-keyboard glissandi with the sustain pedal held down without causing any CPU spikes. Pianoteq’s own CPU meter popped up above 30%, and that was with no other tracks or plug-ins. With other RAM-hog plug-ins loaded, its sound started breaking up. I’d recommend running Pianoteq on the fastest computer, with the most RAM, that you can afford, or in a sequencer that has a track freeze feature.

Physical modeling gives Pianoteq somewhat different parameters and types of musical response than we’re used to seeing in software pianos. For instance, notes held with the sostenuto pedal will ring sympathetically with other notes that are played. There’s even a slider for adjusting the sympathetic resonance level. By assigning a sweep pedal to transmit damper pedal messages (MIDI CC64), you can do a reasonable impression of half-pedaling. Both of these effects are on the thin side, and not extremely realistic, but the fact that they’re implemented at all is impressive.

Because it’s a piano, Pianoteq doesn’t respond to MIDI pitchbend or mod wheel messages. MIDI Learn mode is implemented for controling the sliders. There’s a slight time lag between moving them and hearing the results, while the model is recalculated, but in version 2 of the software, I didn’t hear any clicks or glitches in response to realtime changes. Because you can interact with the model itself, Pianoteq offers extensive sonic possibilities. Dark or bright, staccato or sustaining, metallic or muffled, you can just dial in way more extreme amounts of these qualities than you can on any sample-based grand.

PARAMETERS

Pianoteq has controls for tuning, voicing (physcial qualities of the strings and hammers), and the design of the piano. It also has its own EQ and reverb. Fifteen different concert tunings are available, from A=414Hz (suitable for some Baroque music) through A=467Hz. A number of historical temperaments, and microtonal scales created by electronic music pioneer Wendy Carlos, are on hand. You can also load Scala tuning files to use any tuning you can dream up.

The multiple strings in some of a real piano’s notes are not tuned exactly the same. If they were, the tone would be somewhat static. Tuners ordinarily introduce very slight detuning, which gives the piano a richer tone. In the electronic world, we know this as chorusing, and Pianoteq’s detuning is adjustable, from almost none to honky-tonk levels.

The octave stretching slider introduces a very slight amount of stretch tuning, which is similar to what a piano tuner does to compensate for inharmonicity in the lower strings. This parameter can work in tandem with the piano size slider in the Design section — Pianoteq can model an instrument up to ten meters long. With bass strings of that length, there’s no appreciable inharmonicity, so you can remove the stretch tuning if you like.

Three hammer hardness sliders (for piano, mezzo, and forte dynamic levels) affect the overtones of the sound based on key velocity. By setting all three to their lowest levels, you can create a piano that sounds as if it’s being played by soft cotton mallets. At the other extreme, you get a brilliant, brittle tack piano effect, though without the actual sound of tacks. The quadratic effect slider works well in tandem with hammer hardness, adding energy to the higher overtones at high velocities.

With the eight sliders in the spectrum profile, you can adjust relative levels of the first eight harmonics individually, changing the piano’s tone in a subtle or extreme way. Like the multi-point EQ curve, the spectrum sliders seem to be automatically gain-compensated. That is, boosting one point will have the effect of lowering the others slightly, so that the overall loudness of the instrument remains the same. This is a sensible and effective system.

The hammer noise slider increases the amount of “thwock” in the tone’s attack, and you can edit amounts of sustain pedal noise and key release noise in the Options menu. The character slider seems to adjust the levels of higher harmonics collectively. At high settings, it also brings out a few specific harmonics for a highly colored, brilliant tone.

The impedance slider in the Design area does much the same thing as the direct sound duration slider in the Tuning area: Both shorten or lengthen the release of the envelope, with high overtones having a somewhat longer release. If you’d rather have lower overtones sustain while upper ones are quickly muted, use the cutoff slider. This and the Q factor slider are as close as Pianoteq comes to having a lowpass filter.

IN USE

I was working on an instrumental that needed grand piano chords in one section, so I loaded Pianoteq into Steinberg Cubase 4 and laid into my master keyboard with both hands. After recording the MIDI data, Pianoteq’s parameters made it easy to adjust the character of the sound so that the chords had the proper dramatic effect and spoke clearly in the mix.

I also improvised a few piano solos using my unweighted M-Audio Axiom 61 controller. Bringing out inner voices was a snap, and producing a singing tone in the melody range was a no-brainer. I really felt that I was playing a piano.

Next, I recorded a sequence and played back the identical data using both Pianoteq and Synthogy Ivory, a high-end sample-based grand (see page 64). On listening to the two tracks side by side, I felt that Ivory had a level of clarity and detail that Pianoteq doesn’t quite match. On its own, Pianoteq sounds like a real piano, but when directly compared to Ivory, it’s slightly “thicker” and less crisp. That said, creating exotic timbres with Pianoteq was a lot of fun. Twitching a few sliders to extreme values gave me sounds that were recognizably piano-like, yet totally unlike any actual piano ever built.

The factory presets are extremely satisfying, but I felt Pianoteq could be improved in a few areas. Half-pedalling lets notes sustain at a reduced level, but doesn’t cause the hammer noise to resonate sympathetically across the rest of the strings, as it does on a real grand. I also found myself wishing for a “damper mass” parameter that I could increase, as the ends of notes when I lifted my fingers felt just a bit soft. On the other hand, the length of the release gave me time to catch just-released notes with the sustain pedal for a sforzando-piano effect.

CONCLUSIONS

Given the extremely high quality of some of today’s sampled grands, Pianoteq has tough competition. But make no mistake: Sampling technology has been pushed about as far as it can go. Pianoteq is the first of an entirely new generation of digital pianos, and its future looks very bright indeed. In many recording situations, it easily rivals the best of the competition, while offering significantly more sonic versatility and a much smaller computer system footprint. The fact that you can download the demo and hear it for yourself (try that with a 16GB sampled grand!) is reason enough alone to make the rest of the industry a bit nervous. For me, the absence of velocity cross-switching artifacts is a big plus as well. I won’t swear that a recording made on Pianoteq would fool Van Cliburn — but I won’t swear it wouldn’t.