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Is the Roland piano samples for their lx and hp series based on a steinway concert grand? Or, with their modeling, is it their own created sound? Also, if steinway was used, was it a new york or hamburg steinway?

Also, does anyone know if the hp pianos are assembled in oregon or in asia? Thx

There are elements of modelling in producing the Roland SN piano sounds, but it is based on Steinway samples which are then processed - don't know from which city the sampled piano came from, I'm afraid. Maybe Jay knows.

Roland products are made in Japan or outsourced to locations on SE Asia. The HP range of pianos is made in Indonesia I think.

As for the V-Piano (which I own and play) the modeling is supposedly based upon "Steinway D" for Vintage I presets and "Bosendorfer" for Vintage II presets:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ewq6NgYpxA

Vintage II = "Bosendorfer" (?)

Even though this has been claimed by Scott Tibbs above there is no way that the Vintage II presets sound anywhere close to a Bosendorfer Imperial grand.

And, Vintage I is modeled after Steinway D?

Modeling has a long way to go!

I agree that Roland traditionally sampled Steinway. I've very recently been told that Roland representatives in the UK state that Roland uses a composite of four different pianos in their sampled pianos. That has certainly been mentioned by others over more recent years so I think there could well be reason to believe it's true.

Do you have any idea what the 4 pianos are?

No, sorry. If the four piano theory is true then I have no doubt Steinway would be one of them. I do think the four piano theory might have some credibility because the more recent Roland sounds have got a somewhat generic vibe to them. I could persuade myself this was because they are a sonic amalgam of more than one source piano.

When they launched Supernatural I was (and am) convinced that the initial Supernatural sounds were based on what Roland previously called 'Superior Grand' from the RD-700SX. That was a four layer sample without the later modelled trickery. Additional sonic flavours were definitely added when SN came on stream but (in my opinion) it was definitely based around the underlying Superior Grand sound.

Jay doesn't know....and if he did, he couldn't tell you anyways.

Sorry folks.

Jay

Then...when a piano sounds is product of modelling, that sound is based on a real piano?? I mean, v-piano modelling is based in a steinway?? Its the same case with pianoteq bluthner??

There's a "white paper" on the Pianoteq website, that describes how their modelling works. It's worth reading.

To try to answer the question:

You have to be very careful to define what "based on a Bluthner" means.

You can "tweak" the parameters of the Pianoteq sound engine (which is not "based on" any particular piano) to give you a sound which is designed to match the sound of a Bluthner -- variation of tonal balance with loudness, variation of loudness across the range of pitch, decay time, string and damper resonance, etc.

In order to do that, you'd take measurements of how a real Bluthner sounds, so you knew what you were aiming for.

That "matching" takes place within the limits of the Pianoteq sound engine. It won't _exactly_ match a Bluthner, on any note.

You could say that collection of parameters was "based on" a Bluthner (and that's what Pianoteq means when it calls one of its modelled pianos "Bluthner"). But it's a very different "based on" than:

. . . The sound of "Vintage D" samples is based on recordings that we
. . . made of Steinway Model XXX, serial number YYYYY.

It's something like the difference between a photograph, and a painted portrait.

Thats interesting, never knew that. So sampling from a real piano v modelling from scratch?

And I was just gonna say my lowly Roland sounds like Pianoteq D4 (New York "grand") and Piano 2 according to Roland data, is from a Hamburg grand. . .hmmmm, dunno about thart.

Sounds like something we could all do to make a basic digital sound awesome. . .maybe some of us already have, with new sound systems, etc

the secret sauce stays secret.

Is it really relevant?
I'd say the best judge is to play it and see if you like how it sounds and responds.

If you want specific sounds you can always get software sampled instruments (for a price, of course), but unlike some others that say "we have the sound of this or that instrument", Roland just says we have the Roland Supernatural sound.
Saying that you have the sound of this or that instrument might make users feel good at the idea that they're getting close to a very expensive piano with a nice name (good publicity), but the reality is that standalone digital pianos fail to feel or sound like their acoustic counterparts at this time. And personally, I came to the conclusion that I prefer the partially or fully modeled sounds. They feel better to play and react better in my opinion. It's the closest feeling to playing an acoustic (depending on the acoustic maybe even better).

That's why my suggestion is disregard the name of the source instrument, heck, even disregard the name of the DP manufacturer (if you can be that objective) and just play them and see which you like the most in a variety of scenarios (various repertoire and settings, and preferably on the same pair of good quality headphones, to eliminate speakers and room acoustics).

There was a recent thread in Piano Forum where a poster put on the same excerpt of a Chopin piece, played by the same pianist (Cyprien Katsaris) on four different pianos.

https://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubb...ure_Piano_Tones_by_Make.html#Post2534815

Nobody got the four pianos right....(and people in that forum are experts in acoustic piano sound).

The moral of the story is - if you like the sound and you like the way the piano responds to your playing, it's the right piano for you, regardless of the brand or model.

Thanks for pointing out that thread, bennevis. I would have certainly missed it, I don't frequent other sections of the forum at this point.
Read through it, played the guessing game, guessed wrong. It was lots of fun though. The only conclusion I could draw is that all pianos sounded beautiful, and it was even hard to say which one I like best.



You put it best.