Hi, everyone.
Can someone tell me if the new François Etienne Blanchet, "Château de Thoiry" harpsichord addon has release samples on every note?
Can the volume of these release samples be adjusted?
Thanks!
David
You mean something else from "Key release noise" that you can see under "Options" down to the right?
Yes. Under the options menu, lower right side of the screen. There is certainly key release noise and it's adjustable for level and duration. My keyboard sends note-off velocity and that, too, seems to be implemented (hooray! thank you team!), though it's subtle.
It sounds absolutely great. I can't wait to dig into the other two.
Hi, Fytrius & Doug.
Thanks for your replies. I've been looking at Pianoteq for a long time, and I'm very impressed with it. The addition of a harpsichord makes it perfect for me.
I will definitely purchase it now!
Thanks.
David
Before start I would like to thank Philippe Guillaume and Modartt team for enrich this software even more with those new add-ons.
Thank you folks!!!!
OK. Everyone who knows what is a haprsichord can undestand that it's not a dynamic instrument, and piano was invented to get the dynamic that harpsichord didn't have. Harpsichord is a plugged instrument, while piano it's a hammered instrument. The first pianos, or similar was quite like a hammered harpsichords (similar body but with hammer sytem added).
But harpsichord, despite be a almost dynamic-less instrument, there were models that had some little dynamic when compared a very soft play with a very strong play. A very weak difference, but it was there.
After the pianoteq harpsichord I felt no kind of "little bit minimal dynamic".
While I know some models of harpsichord had more "little bit minimal dynamic" than others, I also know that some models have no noticiable dynamic.
I remamber when I tried to play some variable sampled models of harpsichord, made by Michael Post, and some models had little dynamics, and others have virtually none we could notice.
Perhaps we could have a adjust to enable little bit dynamic or no dynamics, as our taste prefer.
A example of dynamic harpsichord sampled I can tell about the harpsichord of my Roland F-90, which is full 88 keys and with dynamic for each touch. Sure it don't sound good, since it's just a simple limited sample, and can't be compared to Pianoteq great skills.
This 1773 harpsichord sound great, but I would like to know who would like a option to add some dynamic to the harpsichord model.
Personally, I would like a little bit of it, and perhaps just a bit of aleatory variance. Harpsichords was pluged by feathers, so we can presume the feather it's not a perfect and can get few temporary deformations while playing.
The C Bechstein (1896) have a strong bass, remambering a upright piano sound for bass range.
Those add ons still keep a interesting fine variaion of "sonority". What I mean is that they together represent a very good variety of piano sound, like to say each one have a very distint personality. Those models was very well chosen.
Pianoteq now, with all those Add-Ons together, it's the best software to represent a piano in historic terms, and give perspective of piano evolution.
Those last storic grand pianos recreations sound natural along the entire keyboard. I'm almos conviced that Pianoteq could recreate a modern Steinway Grand Piano precisely. This is trully the begining of a revoltution in digital instruments.
There is one point missing in this harpsichord discussion. The new Blanchet version sounds like an 8th and a 4 foot stop played together. The 4 foot plays (on a real harpsichord) strings pitched an octave above. However, most French harpsichords had two 8ths and 4 which could be played separately or together in any combination, ie.
front 8,
front 8 and back 8,
front 8 plus 4,
back 8 plus four,
front 8, back 8 and 4 all together.
So, we really need to do 5 presets to give the player the options that most harpsichords have, not one.
Otherwise, I cannot express how wonderful the pianoteq software is and how my ordinary Yamaha YDP 223 played through an Audiophile sound card into a Sony stereo amplifier and two old fashioned speakers sounds. The Yamaha native sampled piano sound is not bad, but it pales against any of the normal choices given by Pianoteq 2.1 and complex pieces like early Beethoven sonatas are far easier to play with the pianoteq engaged despite the actions being identical
I agree with Beto-Music and definitely with crowden. If Pianoteq gave us the options for selecting different groups of strings (choirs), this would be great!
Pianoteq - any chance of this?
Thanks!
David
Clavichord emulation?
For all the pianoteq wizards - do you think it would be possible to adjust the settings of pianoteq to emulate the sounds of a fretted or unfretted clavichord?
If so, what parameters would need to be adjusted. If anyone can figure this out and be willing to share the settings, this would be great.
Thanks.
David
thanks to all for the kind words, it makes the whole team just happy
Concerning dynamics, we set it very low because Robin Bigwood, the owner of the real harpsichord, recommended it for a correct simulation, but if you want to have more dynamics, it is very simple: just move the dynamics slider to the right!
Btw you can of course play with the other sliders…
Regarding the original instrument, it has 3 'choirs' - 2 sets of 8ft strings, 1 set of 4ft. The 2 sets of 8ft strings are what you hear in the pianoteq version, and you can also hear the simulated sympathetic resonances of the 4ft choir. Unfortunately we have not the recordings of the 4ft choir and the software would anyway need some changes in order to be able to switch from one choir (or group) to another (using a pedal?), so this is still on a long todo list.
Clavichord would be very interesting to do, we need for that some recordings, and to implement some individual aftertouch (but not many keyboards have this implemented).
From the last message, I realized that the illusion of a 4foot stop was created by the sympathetic resonance slider and can be easily modified by simply reducing this resonance. Since a harpsichord has no sustain pedal, sympathetic resonance is not as important as on a piano. However, the direct sound duration slider can be moved up because a good harpsichord will produce very long sustained tones. Doing these things will produce a sound approximating the joining of two 8 foot stops. I still cannot find by tweaking the sliders how to emulate the sound of the two front eights. The front 8 is very nasal and the back 8 very flutey. They are often played by themselves for both dynamic reasons and to contrast tonal colors.
Does anybody have any suggestions on this?
By the way, few authenic harpsichords had foot pedals to change stops. This was accomplished by hand stops on the sides. I am quite content to set up a few present variants on the computer, reach over and reset them between movements or repeated sections of something like a Bach Suite.
By the way, few authenic harpsichords had foot pedals to change stops. This was accomplished by hand stops on the sides. I am quite content to set up a few present variants on the computer, reach over and reset them between movements or repeated sections of something like a Bach Suite.
If you have two keyboards or can split one (most inauthentic, I'm sure) and if you have some way to run two instances of Pianoteq in your host program, you could do the switch (and have two concurrent sounds) that way. Of course, the two stops wouldn't interact with one another, which weakens it, but what can you do?
BTW, pressing the una-corda pedal changes the timbre of this harpsichord (so do the other three pedals) in what may be a useful way.
Hi Philippe
Just a small curiosity I have:
What was the main change in piano manufacture that allowed a louder sound, beetween 1896 and 1922?
I say that cause the C. Bechstein 1896 have not a loud sound (despite of very beautiful) like the S. Erard 1922.
Would be quite interesting a list of changes along piano evolution .
Regards
What was the main change in piano manufacture that allowed a louder sound, beetween 1896 and 1922?
nothing special I think, but there can be differences in the same year of production between different brands, and even inside the same brand between different instruments, depending on their own materials and also their own life later.