Topic: Mixing Pianoteq with Ivory
Hallo, i´m a new Member - Greetings to all other members here! Coming from Germany, so my English is not very perfect -but i hope, all can understand...)
I´m 43 years old, started to play Piano since 4 years....and it is very hard to learn, but i like it. Everytime - also als child - i loved the sound of a real Piano, but we doesn´t have one , and i not started to learn to play, also not at school.
With the envelopment of Keyboards, Soundfonts and PC-Technic i startet to play Keyboard with connectet PC , from the Internet i searching Soundfiles.
From Trachtman and Bovbjergs Soundfonts (who is knowing this older soundfonts? ) which sounding not bad, and for the time they also very big (4-5 years ago was a soundfont with 20-40Megabyte big...) i come to the Hamburg STeinway form the Company MilanDigitalAudio with 6 GB. THIS was my first Soundfont, i loved....and with this sound i started with new Motivation to learn and play the Piano, because it sounds so much better as all the "KeyboardSounds" before...... For me this Soundfont was much more better than the steinberg.
One of my last Soundfonts was the Virtual Grand from ArtVista - sounding great - but hard to play for a beginner, especially the lower notes are tooo powlerless - but the Rest of this Sound is very very good , so good, that also a Beginner like me, gets fun and Inspiration by playing.
With less inspiration and "sole" - but nevertheless much more better is my last soundfont : Ivory from Synthogy.
And after this??? i heard only one time on a Demo-website the new Pianotech.....
Only 2 weeks later i buy it. Famous the idea, famous the technical solution...) and my most expensive 8Megabyte i buyed before..)))
Now i love both....the strenght´s and Presence of the Ivory, and the fine sound of the
Pianoteq, the soundboard and swinging Resonances of playing the pianoteq, all the favourite Items of it......but it sounds sometimes - for me! - a little bit artificially and a little bit too soft. It not has the PUNCH of a real piano in the normal loudness (sorry for this description..i hope you understand..)) . Clear - in more louder parts it has the punch - but playing a little bit softer, it looses to fast the punch.....
In Future i thing this will become better - it is the start of a new Generation - thats true......and i like and love the first two versions - i certainly will support Pianoteq in the future .
For me - i try something new - i tried to load in my Vst-host both: The Ivory Steinway, Loudness to 9,5 - Tuning to "Stretch", 440Hz , Finetuning -1cts --------------and the Pianoteq Version2.0, (also the first Version 1.5 is good in this combination), 440HZ - Temperament "Equal" - "Unison Width" to 0,5 - "Loudness" to -1,0.
I´m falling from my seat...) as i heard this combination........For me very very well, all the features of the Pianoteq , and the Pianoteq fills now the "holes" from the Velocity Layers of the Ivory, especially in the softly played parts of music there is now much more "Feeling" and Inspiration, on the same time much more PUNCH by the Ivory in the louder parts - for me it sound much more like a real Piano then before, better than the Ivory solo, and better than the Pianoteq solo.
Who tried this also?? What do you think about this idea??
The Problems: The major problem i have is the harmony in the lower notes, because both Pianos seems to have different swinging-waves. And in the higher notes , you can here Disharmonics. The stretching of the octaves from the lower to the highest note is difficult, to bring both pianos together without Disharmonics.
I change the Finepitch from the IVORY to 440HZ -1cts - this helps.
Also the Pianotech is not so loud as the Ivory, Ivory 9.5, Pianotech Loudness -1,0, this reduced also the Effect of hearing 2 pianos.
And the Unison Width have to be down - more than 0,5 the Disharmonic in the higher parts becomes more and more like a Honkeytonk....
Ok - i hope, i started a interesting new Posting and a interesting Discussion.
Perhaps other Fans of Computer-supportet Pianosound have new or better solutions for this idea to combine both worlds.
I know - the basical idea of mixing two pianos is with a technical View Nonsense....but, try first, if you have both - Ivory AND Pianoteq - you will be suprised about the win of Richment of this sound. It worth the effort, to try to find a solution, to reduce or eliminate the Disharmonics, and find a solution of the problem, that different waves, length of waves of different Pianos normally can not be mixed together, without loosing Quality and Cleanlyness of the single Piano.....but - try it, and hearing first the result of such a Trial....than i think, you can better understand , why i´m thinking about this.
At least - Thank you very much to Pianoteq!!!