The Pianoteq story

PIANOTEQ is issued from an academic research and results in what we call the fourth piano generation. This is the very first, and only, piano available that belongs to this generation.

First generation: acoustic piano (1698)
Second generation: electro-acoustic piano (1929)
Third generation: sampled piano (1984)
Fourth generation: modelled piano (2006)

The first generation of pianos began with Cristofori's pianoforte in 1698 which came to maturity at the end of the 19th century with the acoustic grand pianos. It was followed in the 20th century by the second generation electro-acoustic pianos and the third generation sampled pianos where each note is a recording of how it sounded during a specific moment in time, not taking into account the complexity of the instrument.

PIANOTEQ is the first piano belonging to the fourth generation, developed in order to go beyond the limitations of the third generation and to become a versatile and innovating tool. It is in fact the first virtual piano factory — it can produce new brands as well as copies of historical instruments.

The sound

  You can listen to Pianoteq sounds

Vivid

The piano creates the sound in real time while you are playing and takes into account all the complex factors that makes the piano a truly vivid instrument, such as the interaction between strings, the use of pedals, the cabinet resonance and the position of the hammers. It will feel like you had a real piano in front of you... as if you could just lean over and touch the strings!

Versatile

Pianoteq introduces new possibilities to adjust the piano sound just the way you like it! Things that until now were dedicated for piano tuners are now possible directly from the interface. Within seconds you can adjust the sound to a particular type of music or playing style. The many choices can be saved as a customized setting which you can share with other Pianoteq users.

Expressive

All the detailed variations of the timbre are there, from the weakest pianissimo to the strongest fortissimo! What you express on your keyboard will also be what you actually hear. The sound of even the weakest pianissimo is absolutely pure without any audible quantization noise.

Convenient

Thanks to its rather modest system requirements, Pianoteq is suitable to run on a modern laptop, convenient for the travelling musician. The extremely small size (20 MB) and the fast interface means no loading time. Just a few mouse movements to start playing.

Technology

Characteristics of PIANOTEQ

• The piano sound is constructed in real time, responding to how the pianist strikes the keys and interacts with the pedals
• It includes the entire complexity of a real piano (hammers, strings, duplex scale, pedals, cabinet)
• Continuous velocity from pianissimo to fortissimo, with progressive variation of the timbre: that makes exactly 127 velocities! A sample-based software program would in theory require hundreds of gigabytes for all these velocities
• Complex resonances that only a model can reproduce in all its richness:
• "Harp" resonance of all strings, both without and with sustain pedal
• Duplex scale (the undamped string parts which come into resonance)
• Sympathetic resonances between strings
• Damper position effect when key is released (variable overtones damping)
• Other special effects like staccato and sound continuation when pressing down the sustain pedal a short time after key release (re-pedalling)
• Timbre modification of repeated notes, due to the hammer striking strings which are already in motion instead of being still
• Release velocity
• Four pedals:
• Progressive sustain pedal, allowing the so-called “half pedal”, but also quarter or tenth’s pedals if you want!
• Sostenuto pedal, allowing you to hold some notes after release without pressing down the sustain pedal
• Harmonic pedal, allowing you to play staccato while maintaining the sustain pedal resonance
• Una corda pedal, also called soft pedal, modifying the sound quality or timbre by shifting the piano action to the
right (on grand pianos)
• Variable lid position
• Natural instrument noises including:
• Action key release noise
• Damper noise at key release (for bass note dampers)
• Sustain pedal noise: pedal velocity dependant “whoosh” produced by the dampers rising altogether from the strings or falling down
• Choice of microphone position and multichannel mixing (up to 5 mics, 5 channels)
• Microtuning and scala format files import
• Various effects including equalizer, keyboard velocity setting, volume, sound dynamics which controls the loudness levels between pianissimo and fortissimo, reverberation with control of reverberation weight, duration and room size, limiter, tremolo.

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Why a sampled piano is insufficient

The very best sampled pianos of today are the result of many hours of careful recordings associated with complex solutions designed to provide a valuable piano sound. We respect the work of these high class competitors who manage to develop sampled based pianos of this quality. However, it is since long well known that the sampling technology as such has some inherent disadvantages.

To give you an understanding of the reasons why we chose to develop PIANOTEQ we find it necessary to describe the shortcomings of using samples to create a digital piano:

1. The sampled piano contains static recordings of each note, how it sounded during a particular moment in time. It does not take into account the influence of other strings vibrating, cabinet resonance, pedal interaction and hammer position.
2. The sampled piano can not alter the existing piano samples when it comes to parameters such as hammer hardness, unison tuning, cabinet size, overtones spectrum etc.
3. The sampled piano has several technical limitations such as audible quantization noise and uneven variation of the timbre (from ppp to fff).

Despite many recent attempts to enhance the sampled piano sound by adding convolution reverb and other post processing effects, the technology as such has too many limitations when it comes to achieving a truly vivid and convincing piano sound.

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What makes Pianoteq unique

Pianoteq offers many unique qualities and features that make it superior to other virtual pianos:

• Vivid: The piano creates the sound in real time while you are playing and takes into account all the complex factors that makes the piano a truly vivid instrument, such as the interaction between strings, the use of pedals, the cabinet resonance and the position of the hammers.
  It will feel like you had a real piano in front of you... as if you could just lean over and touch the strings!
• Versatile: Pianoteq introduces new possibilities to adjust the piano sound just the way you like it! Things that until now were dedicated for piano tuners are now possible directly from the interface. Within seconds you can adjust the sound to a particular type of music or playing style. The many choices can be saved as a customized setting which you can share with other Pianoteq users.
• Expressive: All the detailed variations of the timbre are there, from the weakest pianissimo to the strongest fortissimo! What you express on your keyboard will also be what you actually hear. The sound of even the weakest pianissimo is absolutely pure without any audible quantization noise.
• Convenient: Thanks to its rather modest system requirements, Pianoteq is suitable to run on a modern laptop, convenient for the travelling musician. The small size (20 MB) and the fast interface means no loading time. Just a few mouse movements to start playing.

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PIANOTEQ interface

The many adjustable parameters make it possible to not only adapt the existing adapted piano model but also to create new piano sounds. This is one of the advantages of a truly modelled piano — it opens up new possibilities for the creative musician.

PIANOTEQ gives you all the possibilities to do several tuning improvements which are usually done only by piano tuners. Example: diapason (414-467 Hz), different kinds of temperaments (from equal to well tempered), microtuning, unison tuning (for changing the timbre or colour of the sound), octave stretching and direct sound duration.

Another task for a professional piano tuner is to "shape" the piano sound according to the pianist's taste. By adjusting hammer hardness it is possible to adapt the piano sound from mellow to bright in great detail. There is not just one adjustment, mellow to bright, but a very detailed slider for each major velocity: pianissimo, mezzoforte and fortissimo.

Overview of the available parameters:

To provide you with more possibilities in one package there is also a graphical equalizer and a reverb unit. Of course you can bypass any of these if you prefer other effects plug-ins.

You can also in detail adjust the velocity curve for your particular keyboard to insure that you get the expression that suits you the best.

It can be used as a stand-alone player and with any VST or Audio Units host such as Cubase, Logic, Nuendo... It can also be used as an RTAS plugin with Pro Tools version 7.3 and higher. Please refer to the FAQ page for more details.

Enlarged keyboard

The Pianoteq D4 and K1 virtual grand pianos (and legacy C3 and M3) offer an extended keyboard range of 105 keys. This range makes it the largest ever available in a piano.

Grand pianos that offer an expanded keyboard range are rare and extremely expensive. A very well-known example of such a high class instrument is the Bösendorfer Imperial Grand, with its 97 keys expanding the bass range. Stuart & Sons have also built innovative 102 keys pianos, increasing both the bass and the treble range of the piano.

MODARTT takes up the challenge by providing an unprecedented extra-large key range for its exclusive grand piano D4, with no less than 105 keys (17 keys more than the standard keyboard range), ranging from ultra-low rumbling bass to very high bird-like pitches.

The keyboard range expansion was developed to correspond to an increasing demand from Pianoteq users for additional notes. The extended sound palette, obtained thanks to the powerful Pianoteq physical modelling, can be used e.g. in certain prominent piano works by Debussy, Ravel and Bártok where the extended range is utilized. If playing gentle octave chords, the extended bass notes will add a rumbling sound that will strenghten the effect. Below is an example of where the pianist makes use of the extended keyboard range.

In this particular arrangement (suitable for 4 hands), Pianoteq demonstrates its capacity where most other pianos will fail. Based on transcriptions of Paganini's last movement of his second Violin Concerto, Pianoteq's extended keyboard range brings out the complete tonal colour palette. The highest D#, which constitutes Paganini's original 'La Campanella' (The Bell), exists in an octave higher than every other commercial piano library in the world. Many rumbling ultra-low octave notes are also prominently featured.