My Journey with Pianoteq

Hello. I am new to the forum and want to share my journey with Pianoteq since a few years ago.

I live in Indonesia and have been playing the piano since childhood. I received formal training in classical piano in about 4 years. Of course, at that time, I did not care about the quality of the piano and its voice.

As an adult, I want to explore my passion again in playing the piano, so I started to buy a digital piano. After reading many reviews and considering my budget, my first digital piano is Casio PX100. I remember when I played it, it was not as intimate as when I played with an acoustic piano. I suspect it's because PX100’s sound is not very realistic, while its keybed is quite good. So I started to explore the piano-based software to get the sound I wanted. I ended up using “Mainstage” software with an active Hi-fi speaker.

I decided to replace my PX100 when PX150 came out. I think at least it will feel closer to the actual acoustic piano. Then I also bought a Yamaha DGX650 because when I tried it in the store, it feels good to play with. In fact, I enjoy playing with Yamaha more than with Casio, which I can't describe why. In one occasion, I tried to my neighbor’s Yamaha new U3, and suddenly I remember playing on a real acoustic piano in my childhood. The sound was so inspiring, very different from the cold sound of a digital piano. That is when I decided to find a digital piano sound that really can be played and sound much like an acoustic piano. And I believe the technology already exists, at a reasonable price.

Long story short, after reading tons of reviews, forum, and tried a lot of software-based pianos, I fell in love with Pianoteq 4 Stage version, then upgrade to Pianoteq 5 when it came out. It was not the sound, but the relationship between your fingers and the piano sound that really makes it alive. It taught me that it takes a lot of small things to really emulate a real acoustic piano. The next challenge is the intimate feelings. The piano sound was not as organic as the acoustic one, and the piano sound feels separate with the keybed. You can't really feel the acoustic resonance. It was solved partially when I put my speakers on top of the digital piano. I started to feel like playing a real acoustic piano. My speakers were Swan D1010 4 inches by the way. The feeling was not entirely convincing, I know I need to buy better speakers, but small enough to put on the digital piano.

For the latency, I had satisfactory results by using an old Core2Duo laptop with an ASIO soundcard. Although I have to limit the Pianoteq processing Pianoteq to 32 Hz just to get 64 Polyphony. It is enough for me. My unscientific test is, to play Pianoteq mixed with the original sound from the digital piano. With minimal latency, the sound should be coherent without any hints of delay or echo. Otherwise, the illusions of playing a real acoustic piano will disappear.

Years passed, when I read about IK iLoud Micro Monitor, I thought this is the answer. So without hesitant, I bought it. But damned, when I tried to play piano with it, still didn't achieve what I want. The speaker itself was amazing when you play music with it. The sound stage, tonal balance was amazing (audiophile listening is my hobby as well). It must be something else to really convince my ear. And I still heard the upper register notes sounds too loud. I thought how come Pianoteq programmer didn't adjust it. Maybe it was their strategy to sell the Pianoteq standard or pro version, so the users have to adjust it by them self. The sympathetic resonance was also not convincing. I remember when playing with Yamaha U3, I must release the pedal frequently to cut the resonance. This is when I decided to upgrade to Pianoteq Standard.

With the standard version, I can adjust the loudness of each note and the sympathetic resonance, to fit with my memory when playing Yamaha U3. And I can assure you, "sound recording" sound stage in Pianoteq Standard version really make a difference compared to “stereophonic” only in the Stage version. Finally, I am closer to achieving acoustic feeling with my digital piano, but it's still not there yet. There is also one thing that really bothered me, the speaker enclosure vibrates when I play C4 note, and it makes unwanted noise. It taught me something, emulated piano sound will punish your speakers for any defects in the design. The iLoud is not cheap by any standards, at least for me, and when you hear music with it, you will be surprised by the sound quality. I've gone too far to pursue my ambition. It would be a different story of course, if I have unlimited budget or if I have access to try a lot of hardware and configurations.

So I put my last bet to buy small Genelec 8010 speakers. In my experience, I need speakers that can be tilted to my ears while placed on top of the digital piano. This is my last attempt, and I have no desire to chase it again if this also fails. If it is better, I do not think the difference will be very much different from my current setup. With much hesitation, I set the new speakers on the piano and test it with some songs I’m familiar with. It recalls my experience with bigger Genelec some years ago, good sound, but bit clinical to my taste. The iLoud was more surprising when I test it the first time. Then I tried to play Pianoteq with Genelec ... oh my God ...suddenly the memory of playing acoustic piano arise. I couldn’t believe my ears and started to play with a lot of different Pianoteq presets.

Finally, I can happily say that I think I found what I pursued so far, an intimate feeling of playing an acoustic piano, using a digital one. All flaws that I thought were from Pianoteq were gone. Each note has same loudness, and I have to release the pedal frequently as with the acoustic piano. The sympathetic resonance was beautifully rendered. The piano sound is almost as organic as the acoustic one. I also tried Pianoteq U4 presets that I never liked. U4 preset always feels "not real" to me, feels too compressed and there is nothing I can do about it. But this time was different. U4 feels so real. The Player Open preset made me feel that I am playing a real Yamaha U3. I never thought my current setup would be this good. I play hours and hours every night just to feel the beautiful sound and the intimate feeling of playing the piano. I had the D4, Bluthner and Grotrian preset so far. My favorite with my previous speaker was Grotrian Players preset. But now all preset sound wonderful in its own way. I can feel the subtle differences in all preset. I thought I had reached the end of my journey.

My conclusion so far:

- Put the speaker on the piano, pointing to your ear. We can't fully replicate the sound of an acoustic piano which radiates throughout the room. At least you can imitate the sound at the location of the player sitting.

- Use at least Pianoteq standard to get "sound recording" sound stage.

- A piano sound of any “emulated piano software” will test your speakers to the limit, as it just likes playing every single sine wave with high intensity. You'll know what I mean if you play pure sine wave of every frequency on your speakers.

- I still do not know why but I love my Yamaha digital piano better than Casio while playing Pianoteq. I felt the soft touch of Yamaha keybed work together beautifully with the sound of Pianoteq. Yamaha DGX650 may also have a deeper dimension so I can put the speakers a little further away.

- Velocity Curve should be set as correctly as possible. If not, you may feel the need to adjust something in Pianoteq (e.g. eq, hammer hardness, etc.) just trying to get the sound you want. For example, if the sound was too dull you might want to brighten up the sound by eq. But I can assure you with the correct velocity curve, everything else should fall into the correct place.

- I tried many FXP preset from the forum. In many FXP, even in the most endorsed one, I saw a lot of adjustments. FXP makers might try to adjust the piano sound to their liking, or to their sound system, or to their rooms. It may not fit your situation.

- I believe all of Modart presets are as close to perfection as my experience has taught me. You may need to adjust some other things outside Pianoteq to the immersive feeling. Latency, speaker, keybed, rooms, etc., so many things can affect the piano sounds. Maybe if you do not care about digital, the best thing you can do is just to buy an acoustic piano. My current setup, while it was not the most expensive, sum up, it is quite expensive. Especially if you count the trial and error. This is my motivation to write this long. To share my experience of trial and error.

That is all. I hope you all enjoy the story. Some pictures of the setup: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ynry27caq2mv...qgYLa?dl=0

Appreciate if you guys can add up something.

Thanks,
vk