An opinion from a session musician

Hi people. I found Pianoteq on the web while experimenting with modelled piano programs, and gave it a try. I have been a session musician for the past 40 years, performing with artists such as Crystal Gayle and the Statler Brothers. I  have recently  completed my own Christmas album to be released this year, and I am working on a classical album of Debussy's piano works. I have a Yamaha grand I use in my studio, plus various electronic keyboards.

My initial reaction to Pianoteq was that this program has a lot of potential. It is very well laid out, and easy to understand. The inclusion of so many adjustable parameters is great. It's light on resources, and since latency is very low, playing in real time is a breeze.

Now, as for the sound. It is fantastic, but not where it needs to be yet. The middle registers are very convincing, indeed, but the upper registers start to get more and more electric sounding, the higher up the board you play. I spent considerable time trying to tweak this "electric piano" sound out, but could not do it, Now, I am not surprised by this, because even many top notch sampled libraries have less than perfect higher octaves. This is a very difficult range to emulate electronically, even when sampled,  and is why I use a grand when those upper registers are crucial to the recording, and not covered in a mix. At the same time, I feel that if anybody can get close to emulating the higher registers eventually, it will be the team behind Pianoteq. What they have done so far, is nothing short of amazing.

The last comment I would like to leave, is about the added effects in Pianoteq, such as pedal noise, resonance, etc. While some of this can be useful and add realism,  it can also quickly degrade the music. Unless it is your intention, you do not want an effect drawing attention to itself, and away from your music. We work hard in the studio to keep these distracting effects out of the recordings. So my suggestion is to go easy with them. A good rule of thumb is that if you can hear these effects, then you overdid it. They should blend in with the music, not stand on their own.

Well, that's about it. Hope nobody minds me leaving an opinion or two on the program. I feel it has great potential. I do wish however, that it was a little less expensive for those out there, that could benefit from it, but cannot afford it. Maybe a smaller version, minus effects or with less variations, would be possible. Keep up the good work.

BigMike