Topic by Sepix

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Topic: get pianoteq to sound soft

hi,

i`ve been using pianoteq 5 stage for a while now and never came around to figure out how to make it sound soft(er).

i`m not a pianist or anything, just a guy who fiddles around in daws, liking pianos and drums. whenever i create a little (midi) melody, i get the feeling it sounds to sharp, mechanical or programmed and not played. i tried reducing the velocity, using the soft pedal, zapping through the various piano presets that come with the stage version but never really figured out what i am doing wrong.

generally speaking: what possibilities do i have getting pianoteq to sound softer? any best practice? what worked for you?

thanks in advance for all suggestions

cheers

Reply by AKM

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  • From: Taganrog, Russia
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Re: get pianoteq to sound soft

My advice is try to pay more attention and play with:

a) Human voice alike velocity gradations, quieter beginning and ending of the phrases, with some sort of more active culminations.

b) The note release timing, try to overlap them.

c) Use lesser velocity obviously but try to increase the Dynamics more wide.

d) If you use chords make the topmost note slightly louder. If there is a melody going on also, make it also more active sounding.

This are some common rules from a piano playing person perspective, you can use them as a MIDI programming tips.

{
e) Don't quantize hard, make the notes that are relatively off the main grid subtly further apart, a kind of almost unnoticeable swing behaviour.
}

Andrei Kuznetsov
https://www.youtube.com/pianopictures

AKM's Website

Reply by paulhuk

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Re: get pianoteq to sound soft

Hi Sepix, I think thats an interesting issue. There is a slight push towards the metallic sound in Pianoteq in my opinion and the softness you speak of may relate to a wish for a darker, mellow and more woody sound. My partial solution, after much experimenting,was to upgrade to the Standard Pianoteq and add the Bluthner. I then searched for FXP mods that suited my taste. I am particular fond of the Fazioli 308 based on the Bluthner which I have modified by reducing the Mix in Effects from -15.8 to -25 in order make the sound less grand and reverberent and more intimate. The Bluthner does impart a fuller and darker sound compared to the D4 and K2 as far as I can tell. If you really want to sculpt the sound to your taste then a full upgrade to Pianotq Pro would be the way to go.

Reply by AKM

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Re: get pianoteq to sound soft

Sure go for Bluethner. I use it with Stage version with zero complains about the lack of softness.

And don't forget that even with Stage version you have the so called Equalizer (the main one) which is not the equalizer in it's common sense, it operates on a primary physical emulation algorithms level, you may try to tweak it.

Andrei Kuznetsov
https://www.youtube.com/pianopictures

AKM's Website

Reply by jcfelice88keys

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Re: get pianoteq to sound soft

Hello Mr. Sepix,

If you create your tunes using a DAW, it's possible you are step-entering the notes.  Sometimes these notes automatically default to velocity = 127, or perhaps velocity = 100, or =80.  Also, if you import some standard midi files from the internet, you will find that they were step-entered with ridiculously high note-on velocities assigned to them.

This has the unnerving effect of making Pianoteq sound metallic and harsh, because the note-on velocities are too high.  If this is the case, you may wish to capture all of the notes in your DAW, and perform a mass edit in terms of reducing the note-on velocity to either 70% of their current values, or take some other measure to reduce their values.

I happen to play live into my ancient Roland A-80 controller.  Even the D4 sounds very subdued when I play softly -- when I dig into the keys, the D4 (as with a real Steinway) can sound very loud and vary harsh.

Food for thought.

Cheers,

Joe

Last edited by jcfelice88keys (03-09-2015 17:40)

Reply by Sepix

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Re: get pianoteq to sound soft

some good suggestions there, thank you guys for your input

cheers!

Reply by Neil

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Re: get pianoteq to sound soft

The 'Hammer Hardness' parameters cover this issue for me.
Softer hammers = softer sound.
I need a full dynamic range for my work and my favourite at the moment is the Bluthner model with the pp hammer setting way down and the ff setting way up.

Reply by jcfelice88keys

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Re: get pianoteq to sound soft

Here is a different suggestion, one that seems at odds with current thinking:

To get a piano to be soft -- very soft, try DEcreasing the dynamic range slider to below 15Db, AND turn down the volume slider.  The sound will be quieter, but still possibly "hard" or metallic sounding.  Why?  That's because one may be using too much velocity while playing from a given keyboard.  If you want soft AND mellow sounding, then you must also modify the key velocity curve to keep the velocities sent to PTQ less than, say, 40 note-on velocity.

Cheers,

Joe