I'm another yamaha calvinova user and I just posted an example with all files called bach pr6 reproducing the setup I use to study at home.
In studio I have an old clavinova and noticed that the keyboard is somewhat soft but dull at the same time.. I mean, the mechanic is soft (too soft IMO) but you need to use a hammer on the keys to reach ff and fff dynamics; the solution could be to move the high end point in PTQ's velocity curve on the left until you reach the desired loudness with a reasonable touch but I don't care because I use it to record everything and usually I just add a value of 10 in Logic velocity playback parameter.
Different thing is my home setup. I have a clavinova modus F-01 and with the last wood keyboard the story is totally different. First of all, because I use it's own amplification system, the first thing I do is to put the clavinova in Local OFF mode. This bypasses the internal weight preset (soft, medium, hard) and it's quite perfect as it is; I think it stays on medium by default. I prefere a more sensitive keyboard so, as you can see in my fxp file, I shortened velocity curve's extremities.
Basically, to achieve a realistic response, you need three basic but essential steps:
- first of all overall volume and dynamics must be very close to the acoustic thing and thus a good amplification system (or headphones) with volume very close to the real one and the same dynamic of the real piano. Here is important to set the PTQ's dynamic slider between 50 and 70 db depending on the piano you want to emulate bypassing the internal limiter (very useful in mix indeed)
-second: play a ppp note on your keyboard and move the left point of PTQ's velocity curve to the right until you match PTQ's ppp
- third: do the same thing moving the right end point to the left while playing a fff on your keyboard until you reach a good response without smashing the keyboard..
This should be a good starting point and if you can compare the results in realtime with an acoustic piano you can easily recreate your best condition of playing (I can't because I left my acoustic in my mother's house.. sob)
Then you can finetune the system by adding midpoints if you need but they are very difficult to set if start and end points aren't in the right position first.
In my opinion all three points are equally important to recreate the same sound pressure and consequent psychoacoustic condition to feel the fake instrument as real and thus giving it the right inputs while playing.
Last edited by etto (09-06-2009 01:02)
