Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Quick question re: Ivory II

Is there a difference between the Steinway in the "Grand Pianos" package and the "American Concert D"? Their website is confusing to me.

The Steinway from the Grand Pianos bundle is a German Steinway, the other is an American one. The German is a little more mellow.

I see... Totally different piano, then. Hmmm. Thanks!

The American Concert D - the one which has received the most acclaim - is sold separately from the bundle which happens to include a different Steinway.

Thanks, dire tonic.

I am setting myself a crazy goal of trying to alter Pianoteq until it has the tone of a real American Steinway. I really think it can be done so there is the best of both worlds -- the tone of a great sample library with the responsiveness of a modeled software piano.

I think I can do it if I pick the best modeled Steinway and load it with Pianoteq so I can switch from one to the other as I make my modifications. Pianoteq is SO flexible that I'm sure by putting enough time into it, it can be made to mimic any sound you want.

I much prefer practicing using Pianoteq. The sampled libraries don't behave correctly for me. Especially when pedaling is involved, I find Pianoteq 5 is really good at mimicking the behavior of a grand piano, and when I'm practicing, I'm less concerned with the absolutely quality of the sound but much more alert to the behavior of the instrument in order to make small adjustments. If I'm listening to a recording, then I much prefer the reverse. The sample libraries sound much better than Pianoteq.

This may be more difficult than it seems as the optimal velocity curves for each product will be different. You adjust to the response of each instrument differently as you play, so the MIDI info for Pianoteq will not be correct for Ivory and vice versa. If I load the MIDI for something I recorded using Pianoteq for True Keys American, the result sounds really strange. In fact, I would even say, the MIDI played from my Pianoteq 5 will sound wrong on your Pianoteq 5, since we are using very different response curves.

A worthy quest which will bring down an avalanche of requests for the patch if you can pull it off.

I thought your recital presentation of the Intermezzo was wonderful, certainly as a performance, and I'd have to admit I was impressed too by the sound which I realised only after listening was Pianoteq. I don't know if you'd agree but when a composition is as dense as this one with a wash of arpeggios bubbling under throughout, the sound being so full is less likelty to betray weakness in the timbre. I'd think a more convincing test for a synthetic piano, modelled or sampled, would be something more leisurely and romantic like e.g. Traumerie?

(edit: gobbledygook)

Hi 8 Octaves!

I know it won't be exactly the same. Thing is, I like the response of Pianoteq, but in general terms, the tone is "harsh". In comparison to the sample libraries and my own piano, there are some overtones in the default presets that just need to be gotten rid of. That's really all I want to do. Just get Pianoteq at, say, a velocity of 100 to sound just like one of the good NY Steinway sample libraries at 100 by editing the spectrum profile. Then, maybe try to set the hammer hardness values to sound as similar as possible for velocities 20, 60, and 100.

I know it won't be an exact copy, but I've been playing with it A LOT, and I can imagine getting Pianoteq to be VERY close to the tone I'm looking for.

Hey Rachel!

I misunderstood what you were saying. You're trying to out do Modartt by tweaking. My lazy strategy is more along the lines of waiting for Pianoteq 6....

One thing to try in addition the bazillion things you're tweaking with, the Piano condition settings is worth playing with. I have mine now set to 0.10, but I noticed the random seed used changes the overtones a lot, and some random seed yield some unpleasant overtones compared to other random seed.

I haven't really had luck with that condition slider. No matter where I set it, the sustain sounds weird to me. Almost like a digital piano's looped decay. I like it in some ways, but that weird sustain just always bugs the heck out of me!