Topic: Petrof Upright vs Pianoteq Upright U4

Hey guys, I made a direct comparison of Petrof Upright piano and Pianoteq U4 upright.
What do you think? Which sounds better? Can you guess which one is real piano and which is Pianoteq?

https://soundcloud.com/portablehole/petrof-vs-u4

Re: Petrof Upright vs Pianoteq Upright U4

Interesting. The Petrof is always the first one since I can hear some of the live microphone ambiance, but still your U4 imitation is very well done...

Re: Petrof Upright vs Pianoteq Upright U4

I concur with Mr. Gilles that the acoustic Petrof is the first of each pair.  Why?  Well, the tuning isn't as stable as the Pianoteq U4.  Also in the third pair (the D7th chord) I could hear the Petrof's F# above Middle C ring slightly longer upon release.  This is because the Petrof's dampers are not regulated as well as Pianoteq's modeled nature.  (If anything, this is exactly why I like to use Pianoteq PRO to randomize some of these extraneous effects, such as damper release time, away from mathematical perfection of release.)

Also, if you notice the digital representations of waveforms, one can see that the attack volumes were fairly normalized between acoustic and virtual pianos, but the Petrof's sound decayed sooner than Pianoteq's.  Of course, this could be made closer to one another by adjusting some of Pianoteq's soundboard characteristics.

* * * * * * *

Personally, I would prefer to restate the question as "How Well Does An Acoustic Petrof Upright compare with Pianoteq U4?"  Of course, this sounds ridiculous at first thought.  Upon further reflection, however, one becomes aware that even mass produced acoustic pianos have a ton of variability between examples of the same brand, model, length, and even manufacture date.  Such is not the case with Pianoteq, unless someone goes in and lightly randomizes some aspects as Unison Width, Damper Release Time, etc.

Cheers,

Joe

Re: Petrof Upright vs Pianoteq Upright U4

jcfelice88keys wrote:

I would prefer to restate the question as "How Well Does An Acoustic Petrof Upright compare with Pianoteq U4?"  Of course, this sounds ridiculous at first thought.  Upon further reflection, however, one becomes aware that even mass produced acoustic pianos have a ton of variability between examples of the same brand, model, length, and even manufacture date.  Such is not the case with Pianoteq, unless someone goes in and lightly randomizes some aspects as Unison Width, Damper Release Time, etc.

You are quite correct, and that's the reason I really don'e enjoy acoustics much any more.  I find playing the Pianoteq in my home, to be a much more satisfying experience than struggling with a heavy action Baldwin grand with overly hard hammers, and neglected tuning that belongs to a friend of mine.  It's impossible to play it with any subtlety.

Pianoteq Pro 7.x - Kubuntu Linux 19.10 - Plasma Desktop - Hamburg Steinway