Topic: Is it just me, or is there a partial dying too fast in latest release?

After finding out what was causing the problem I wrote about, I almost deleted my original post, now below this note. I decided to leave it in case other people have the same problem with the sound. Regardless, I found out what was causing the problem--the Q setting is fairly high in the preset. I was hearing it cut in on the upper transients and partials. Just lower it some, and the worries go away. Gets rid of both the suddenly dying high frequencies and the angry cat in the piano. Should have checked this earlier.

This was my original post, for what it's worth:

I hate to say this, since I generally like the latest release of PianoTeq (Version 2.2), but on my system, for the Chamber perspective piano, I notice two problems:

1. One range of notes seems to have a partial, or group of transients, that dies a little suddenly--it's in the C-E beneath the interface's Output control. (Sorry-- can't remember if we decided if this was the C3 or C4 range.) If I hit any note hard in that range and leave my finger on the note, one of the partials seems to die a little too fast, as if a low filter has cut in a little too steeply or a little too early. I know that pianos of course do have this sudden cutoff of some sounds, and the higher partials fade fast, but here, since the note is struck hard, it seems to die a little abruptly: the notes go suddenly slightly nasal and thin.  (Or it could be that another partial is retained too long, or that there is a slight tuning problem with one of the "strings.")

Much, much more noticeable on the very hardest strikes--try using the interface's keyboard and clicking and holding on the outer edge of the notes. Much more noticeable on the E. Slightly less on each note beneath it. (I've listened to the C so many times that now I can't tell if there's a problem there or not.)

Or am I hearing things or are my headphones not picking up the sound correctly? Wouldn't be surprised...

2. On this same preset, there is another sound that is also present in the previous version's and this version's Grand C2 Concert preset, but it's more noticeable, now:  there seems to be an odd kind of very brief swirling, almost windy, chorusing effect when I play any hard notes from about middle C up to two C's above it. (Sounds briefly like the sound an angry cat makes as it claws another cat.) Comes in with the attack and dies well before the final decay of the note. It's gentle and almost subliminal. It's doubtless there to reproduce fast-dying harmonics, but it may be too loud, but not so loud that I could hear it immediately when I first noticed an oddness to the sound. But now that I've noticed it, I can't stop noticing it. (Could the problem be that all of the partials that constitute this sound seem to die out at exactly the same rate, so the effect is similar to that of a lp filter?)

And listening again, I think the two sound problems, that I hope I'm not imagining, may be related--I notice the change in pitch in the C-E region the most as this other noise ends.

Last edited by Jake Johnson (12-10-2007 04:27)