2046: I am sympathetic to your thoughts but ........... I have decades of playing acoustic instruments: grands, harpsichords, clavichords, fortepianos, early pianos, organs etc etc and have only come recently to playing a digital instrument. I am well aware - unfortunately in some rooms, think large sound deadening mat under the floor where the grand sits - of how a room changes the instrument's sound. By placing my near-field monitors so that they touch the keyboard stand, and having the good fortune to have a sprung floor with about 2 feet of space below me, I can have some sense of the physical feedback from an acoustic instrument in terms of vibrations. It adds to the illusion quite convincingly. However I agree that adding reverb within the digital process beyond a small degree actually reduces realism as the sound is clearly coming from the nearby speakers and is then, I suspect, clashing with the actual room resonance, which will of course be present. (I never use headphones and generally set the dynamics at 60dB and a fairly realistic volume level i.e. loud) My room is relatively small, so there is no way the actual resonance will be anywhere near, for instance, small hall. I add more reverb to my recordings, listened to in a different room and with relatively good equipment. Here is it is noticeable that the sound improves, sounds more like an acoustic grand in a reasonable amount of space, when I listen in another room in my partially open plan space. (It still sounds good in front of the speakers, but the sound opens up when 20 odd feet away)
Yes, I would love to feel as if I'm playing in room large enough for a 9 foot grand, if appropriate room resonance was fed back as I was playing but I can't quite grasp how it would work other than in mic(s) feeding a separate sound system with speakers remote from the instrument. Delay would need to be accurately calculated, as sound from, say, 15 feet away, would arrive too soon in comparison with, again, small hall. Needless to say, volume would need to be carefully handled: room resonance is not, I believe, really heard as such unless playing in a really huge space where the delay will be very long. It just adds to the overall sound of the instrument. To give examples, a 9 foot grand I owned in a room 32 foot by 20 foot and 2 storey vaulted ceiling clearly had more room resonance than a room half the size. All I heard was a good sound. A 6 foot grand in a much smaller space, with hard surfaces - exposed brickwork, thick adobe walls, low ceiling - sounded far too bright and harsh. I knew it was room resonance coming at me very fast, but it just sounded really harsh. Quite a lot of work was needed to tame it. (It sounded marvellous in the large room at the dealers of course)
So, yes, I am sympathetic to the aim and agree that reverberation built in at source quickly sounds artificial. A 6 foot grand in my present room wouldn't sound good, there's not enough space for it to sing. (My 60dB, loud, settings still don't produce a 6 foot grand sound, nor should they) I'm happy with a more domestic friendly sound with Pianoteq. Carefully calibrated feedback from a separate system could convincingly create a sound as if I were playing in a room compatible with a 9 foot grand, but it looks tricky to do. Costs money too!
In a few weeks I shall be playing a recital for charity in a "small hall". No way can I get much time to check how it sounds before the audience arrives. My intention is to use very little, if any, reverb and have somewhat brighter settings - currently being trialed - for the sound to carry further. Also crank up the volume. In other words, play it as if it were an acoustic and adjust as necessary once I start playing. Just as we have to with the resident acoustic ........ I'm sure the Pianoteq D is good enough to sound convincing in a larger room.
