Samples, but mostly because it's what I have (and so... so many). I can't justify buying even more soft-pianos samples, or modeled. Now a real piano though...
Samples. They are from the real thing. Pianoteq too artificial, lifeless and thin sounding. IK multimedia has some nice pianos, NI Alicia Keys Yamaha sounds amazing
Pianoteq is amazing. For those who are concerned about the feel, please be sure to update your velocity curve with the wizard. This has a dramatic effect on the sound. Also I prefer to use the slider to increase dynamic range. I use the stage version and find the sound is still very flexible between the eq, effects, and the velocity curve. Stunning for being able to run it from a usb stick.
Yes!!! I love pianoteq and have been using it for a number of years now. Always love to see it getting more coverage because I can only preach to so many people myself, haha.
I wasn't so convinced by the sound back then, but now... Man. They've made huge leaps forward. To the point we're sampled pianos are almost entirely obsolete imo.
I love Pianoteq, I could never get along with sampled pianos. When playing expressively I always found the sample switching to be really distracting, especially when playing in the range between two samples. You're playing at around the same intensity, yet the harmonics in the sound change wildly. With modelled pianos you have as many variations as you have midi values from your keyboard, so they feel much nicer to play.
@danwic interesting! That's great to know. I've used Windows all my life, and have always had a small case of latency. I've managed to make it work, but if I can get any closer to zero, I would love that! It's just funny I've never heard anyone talking about Linux until recent. Thank you for your reply!
What I think sets the pianoteq apart is: the continuous velocity reactivity. When you hit a note with velocity 56, it will "feel" different when you're playing (of you haber good playback audio) then velocity 57. And if you hit the same key twice with the same velocity, it might sound slightly different, just as it would on a real piano.I just don't get the same feel from playing any other piano synth. Sometimes, I think the sound from other synths is "more real," but the experience on pianoteq is more authentic. I feel like I'm playing a real piano...almost (I still can't get the whole tactile experience). it also helps too have a great piano keyboard controller (I like the rd-800).
You nailed it!! The expressivity of Pianoteq was apparent to me, even back to version 1. And once it got up to version 6, the SOUND made some big leaps. Now that 7.5 has improved the sound even more... I think it's fair to say Pianoteq would be a useful thing to have in most anyone's arsenal of piano VSTi's.
I got the all in one version. The entire thing is amazing!!!! There are only like one or two instruments that sound like synths when really listened to. Like one or two harps, and another, but that isn't even an issue! The entire thing is totally worth it.
Your videos are so incredibly well made. Everything from the writing, to the photography, to the editing is great. Keep it up, I'll be following you for more in depth knowledge!
I am not a very professional piano player but I have been a recordist for about 50 years. In this regard I am using the best tools to get hold of nowadays and - I guess - a long time ago I decided for PIANOTEQ alongside with keyboard instruments by Applied Acoustics Systems (AAS) that`s primarily focussed on synthetic sounds but they do also have the exquisite Lounge Lizard that resembles a Rhodes Piano/Electric Piano (which I owned once as original MK-1). They use physical modeling as well, of course, and I guess this is absolutely the future of virtual instruments. I also like to mention the Uright Piano from the Addictive Keys series by XLN-Audio that I also use but this is still a sampled piano, even if its presets sound superb and very flexible to my ears. I own a bunch of piano models by Modartt/Pianoteq and I admit, I DO love them. Mine are still in the 6. range, not the 7. versions, and I am running the standard series. So I know what I am talking about and I can judge what you present us here. So what do I want to say in this statement? - Well, your review is probably the best I have ever seen - and I am not joking or exaggerating. I do not restrict this to the discussion of the PIANOTEQ products but the way how you inform potential users or people interested in physical models is just superb, very interesting and informative. Very well made! :-) Thank you for that kind of upload to CZcams. Venus Theory is subscribed from now on. :-) Best regards from Germany. :-)
I've downloaded the demo version of this plugin some months ago and I could say it's realy fantastic, these girls & guys made an excellent job, félicitations à eux! As soon I'll get the money for it I'll buy it.
I can't believe you made me watch a whole video about a Piano plugin. Chapeau. (I'm a guitar player who does Ambient and Techno for relaxation and do everything via the trackpad)
Perfect video! I have the cheapest Pianoteq 7 stage with 5 pianos and it is perfect. I use the Modartt's technicians presets and I am ok. Only Steinway D (NY & HB) has more than 30 different, excellent presets. Ant. Petrof 275 gives also the Petrof Mistral too with a variety of presets. Prelude, Jazz, Cinema, warm etc.
Thanks for your detailed overview of V7. While I'm still torn between sampled and modeled pianos, I appreciate how flexible and playable Pianoteq is. One thing I noted in your demo is that for certain mics, both cardioid and figure 8 patterns are available. This enables mid-side piano recording, which may be excellent for collapsing to mono and processing the stereo field. One of my issues with sampled instruments has been a slightly blurry stereo image; with Ivory American Concert D I 'mono-ize' below about 190 Hz to ground the instrument in the center. Pianoteq must be excellent in this regard.
Hi there!! I have used PIANOTEQ since version its early version, I think it was back in 2013. To me, it's the best piano recreation in terms of feeling not only sounds. At that time I remeber I was using an M-Audio 88 NON WEIGHTED keyboards and I can remember feeling it was a semi-real piano: I had the feeling for the keys, they're weight and the sound was so related to the keys I was pressing and how I was pressing them. I don't know if these words can make you have an idea of how good Pianoteq is and it is also very LIGHT on the cpu. There are a lot of very good made piano libraries but pianoteq is superb. You have to play it!!!! ;)
I installed it on my raspberry pi last night, I plugged my full size piano midi controller and just played. It sounded amazing. Pianoteq really is a good synth, especially given its wide platform support.
I've been testing and seeking for the best plugin pianos for over 20 years now (for live and studio use) and I think the only piano (for now) that meets the warmth and realisme of a real piano is Keyscape LA Grand from Spectrasonics (and that also counts for all the other instruments in this suite.) But ... there are probably more real piano's build in this world as there are plugin piano's. So maybe there is no ultimate piano at all. It is after all your personal taste. What Modartt has done is giving piano lovers the ability to build their own piano taste. And that is what is making this physical modelled piano so special. My only concern with Pianoteq is that I never get a real warm pianos sound . So ... I have been mixing up 24% Pianoteq and 75% Keyscape LA grand and voila ... sound better!! But as earlier mentioned ... it is purely about taste !!! Still it is amazing what Philippe Guillaume and his team have created and PianoTeq is absolutely my number 2. (sorry if my English is not 100% - I'm from The Netherlands) Cheerzzzzzz -Rem
I’ve been using a clean studio with the Steinway D, and using EastWest’s Spaces reverb and it gives a really excellent sound for classical performance.
I quite Netscape when it comes to Rhodes or Wurlitzer emulation , but for grand acoustic , it simply doesn’t do the job for the simple reason that there is no Una corda and no sustenato pedal support . As soon as you want to play advanced classical or jazz it is simply a show stopper . I actually don’t understand the rationale behind sampling a Grand if you don’t sample the Una corda sounds as it is an integral part of the sound of a grand piano . Actually when it comes to pedal , pianoteq has simply no rival .
@venus theory. Your channel is amazing. Had no idea you were not a keyboardist by default. Your skills are amazing, your content is great and I think I speak for everyone, we all wish we had your basso profundo speaking voice.
This is HILARIOUSLY Timed!!! (Thank You Universe for reaffirming my dastardly purchase plans)... I have LITERALLY been planning to purchase this this month (and have for the past few months)... as a part of my base-Virtual Instrument lineup. Pianoteq will be for my pianoteq stuff. And doing physical modelling options from other companies for strings, percussion, guitars, and more. I'll go BACK to searching for "Sample Based" AFTER I get my Virtual Instruments, some Open Back Headphones for mixing (living in apartment)... So, MAYBE around the winter sales time. Sidenote (I STILL have not purchased Native Instruments Kontakt... LMFAO)
wow! This thing is sick. I want it. And I shall have it. Thank you for such an in-depth and detailed synopsis of the differences between each of the versions. That is exceptionally helpful.
I've had it since version 3 or 4 (can't remember) and I love the Steinways, Bluthner, and Ant Petrof. I just wish the Rhodes would sound more like KeyScape.
I've been using piano tech since version 5. I liked it but something was missing. With version 7 they are closer than ever to entirely replacing sample libraries. They are literally maybe one step away, they're doing an incredible job and I'm absolutely captivated by the new pianos with the felt presets, and that new petrof piano sounds nuts.
VERY cool. Still not on par with Keyscape soundwise(especially the Rhodes sound), but something I would pick up on a half off Black Friday sale to play with
I absolutely agree about Pianoteq. I tried it a few years ago and it really wasn’t there. I was not impressed at all by the quality of physical modelling. Well, fast forward multiple years later and I finally try it out. I was blown away by the quality of the sound and the playability/realism of the sound. It is the CLOSEST yet to a real piano and the only difference for me was the actual size of your instrument and the feeling of being behind such a massive piece of furniture. Digital technology is just so remarkable. You have such tremendous power at your fingertips now and Pianoteq, for pianists, is, in my view, THE BEST option if you want the sound, feel and overtone nuance of such instruments.
That's something I was thinking about. I want this for the weird stuff. Microtonal tuning with weird harmonics into some reverb, OD, more reverb... Noisy goodness.
Ok. I just hit like 30-60+ notifications a day on YT and realized I had a problem. Had to dial it all back to reasonable "I have another life" levels. Cameron, you are officially in my "never mute notifications" file. Especially as I do everything on the cheap (hence, the "another life" thing....) You. Are. The. Man.
@@VenusTheory Oh, well. I don't know about "being honored". I think I'm officially an old fogie (who's very new to this whole "electronic music" thing so anything I say must be taken in the context of I'm not entirely sure that I know what I'm talking about but, fwiw (see what I did there?) you've got my vote...for....umm....something really great on CZcams...
@@VenusTheory Oh too funny--I was just writing in my journal that "I would maybe be a Renaissance Man if I was actually good at anything…". But trust me (you can trust some old fogies...), you sir, are really good at this whole content-creation thing (I'm taking notes...) and the music thing too--I'm a fan on Bandcamp, (again, FWIW). Keep it up, bro--I gots some learning' to do.
Bought it for a while but just got inspired here. I had to buy other piano products anyway. It's all about presets. Sometimes I have not enough time to learn something you show us. Thank you very much. I think I have to spend time for it from now on.
This is a thorough and very informative video, thank you! I'd like to see how it compares with Arturia Piano 2, thats also a synthesised rather than sampled piano. Maybe you can do a comparison video sometime??
If you're not aware, Arturia has a rather extensive free demo. In my experience, I sometimes like the attack on the Arturia more, but Pianoteq overall feels a lot more playable -- and way better in the resonances department. It's also far more customizeable (for the standard and pro versions at least).
@@napilopez thank you for your reply. I actually own the Arturia piano 3, I was wondering how it compares with the Pianoteq. I've also got a Kurzweil PIano, several Kontakt pianos from NI, Westwood, and others, the Roland Cloud pianos and all of the piano expansion cards for the XV-5080. Spoilt for choice!! But the Pianoteq has such a good press at the moment, it's intriguing. I guess I can always try downloading the Pianoteq free trial version and seeing what i think. It certainly has lots of good reviews.
The problem has always been and is to find a truly good setup, meaning the controller and the speakers. Pianoteq itself sounds just stunning, but playing it through simple stereo speakers makes it lack realism, since there's not that illusion of getting the sound from an "instrument" unlike any digital.. The day Moddart decide to take a step forward and offer their entire solution, that's gonna be the end of DP discussion, say a partnership with some fine manufacturer of piano action like Casio did with Bechstein, or Nord with Kawai compact action.. Imagine a Pianoteq full DP system, including cabinet and speakers, tweaked and ready to get the best out of the software... Ahh I'm ready to pay for that
Sounds beautiful, but 799 € is a bit out of my range. Besides I still have to finance the hole Falcon 2 left. (which was a very good investment, I hardly slept for a week studying the manual and video's , this is soooo good. It made me look at UVI in a whole new way. I can't believe I missed out on this for so many years. Thanks for that Cameron.)
Additive harmonic reconstruction! That's really what no current synth is capable of doing in a way that users can control. The closest synth is IL morphine (harmor too to some extent), where the harmonics can be tuned individually and that tuning can change over time, but without FM and being able to change the tuning/harmonic voulume with key tracking , it doesn't really work (not to mention one would have to tune each partial by hand)
Pianoteq is an instrument that has truly improved with every update. I’m wondering if the people posting the negative comments here have played and heard the newest update Pianoteq 7.5. With this latest update and a bit of tweaking you can truly create a piano that can satisfy most anyone’s taste.
Thank you for the look. The Bluthner was a stunner. The other I'd have chosen in a 2-pack was the Steingraeber & Söhne. I've heard both in concert hall settings and to my ears, they each have that special "something". YMMV, of course.
Its my go to piano for just "playing" and noodling The Grotrian 56 is very nice the elecric pianos suck munkee nutz, Lounge lizard, keyscape and even arturia stage 73 are better electrics but the real pianos are lovely and the defining factor for me is that the standalone product automatically records and saves the midi of every single thing you play every standalone midi instrument should have this awesome feature. I don't ever have to press record while I'm noodling I can just fire it up and noodle and if I like it I can export the midi to ableton. I can go back days later and find the noodle I did every note is there in the archive folder. So even though my favorite thing to just play is lounge lizard I would rather play the grotrian 56 or bluethner because no note is wasted, they are all archived. Very lovely sounds. The only better sample libraries are in the 50-70gig range It works great even on a small i5 tablet I have. If the would get a decent Rhodes mark 4/5 emulation and something like the rhodes bass it would be the best of all. Uvi is nice, Keyscape is very lovely but big and expensive, arturia keys are thin pianoteq is really great and its tiny size is a plus.
I finally got around to watching this after over a year haha! This thing is extraordinary. The MIDI controllability and the mic options are so comprehensive! Perhaps the only thing you didn't cover in this was the microtuning options, and I understand they are also very powerful: many microtonal musicians talk about using Pianoteq a lot.
I've wondered if some hardware manufacturer won't license Pianoteq and build an keyboard instrument with a world class keyboard action, a high quality built-in 2.1 audio system and a CPU running Pianoteq Pro with a decent size display to run the GUI.
I’d love to hear the strings struck from the center: That should sound like a hybrid of a piano with a clarinet! It would excite almost no even-numbered harmonics. Somewhat harp-like as well. I haven’t touched it for eons, but I enjoyed working with my VL-70s.
For acoustic pianos I think only a trained pianist could possibly hear a difference. It's the only thing I use. I have Keyscape too though - for Rhodes, Modartt is not quite there, in my opinion.
Physical Modeling was term my boss at Atom Films told me about in the 1990's ... I hope we are starting to get there with this. I have yet to hear a "Piano library" that sounds like my Steinway B.
excellent video. how does this work with different types of pianos? will it work perfectly with my Yamaha P 125 for example, i really like how this plugin sounds, I'm not keen on samples really, I need to buy a really good piano or......I think I'll be hitting the buy button on this one very soon. thank you for the video
Cam, don't forget that a bunch of piano libraries out there are encoded for Kontakt Player, which means you wouldn't need $400 for Kontakt full, instead could use the free Kontakt Player! So this changes the pricing comparison considerably. But still, gimme some Pianoteq :)
Not bad of course. But there are much better ones for me, like for example, the Embertone Concert D (with Complete micros option). That's just my opinion...
It's getting closer and closer but it's not there yet. That said it's better than many sample-based instruments already. But e.g. the Ravenscroft still beats it by a long stretch. Of course that's just to my ears (after 30+ years of playing real pianos).
I have both Pianoteq and Arturia V-Piano (and Komplete). Pianoteq is my goto, and Piano-V when I fancy a change. I basically never use (and often don't bother installing) the sampled pianos that come with Komplete.
I first got Pianoteq 3 player back in 2011. Back then my laptop, running Windows, would struggle with buffer sizes below 256, but booted into Ubuntu could comfortably manage 64, so I was very grateful for the Linux version. At the time I had an m-audio digital piano whose action was rubbish and whose sounds were equally rubbish. I later upgraded to a Yamaha CP50, but still prefer to get the sound from Pianoteq.
I bought a Roland FP-30X to finally learn the piano at 28 (not trying to produce music etc.). In your opinion, which is the best plugin to take the Roland’s sound to the next level? Just started learning about all the available plugins, but I heard about Garritan CFX, Keyscape’s C7, Ravenscroft 275, Pianoteq (to mention a few), are great. What’s your opinion? Also, trying to load Garritan CFX on a Roland FP-30X connected to a desktop PC but I can feel the latency affecting my playing. I can around 2 ms latency but it still feels “slow”. Don’t know if my brain is making this up. How do you load the plugin (VST, Standalone)? How can someone “eliminate” latency, to replicate the feel of a real piano? What is the most responsive (lowest latency) plugin in your experience? Maybe Pianoteq? Currently using Reaper as my choice of DAW (tried Ableton too), I’ve set the Sample Rate to the maximum of 384 kHz that my Chord Mojo DAC supports, which lowered the latency instantly, and now I’m experimenting with the Buffer size, around 128-256 samples, keeping in mind how my system responds, so as to avoid cracks and pops. I’ve also got a Ryzen 3600 system, which handles all this pretty fine I’d say. Still feels kinda slow.
@@darklynch10 I got the fp90 for the great key action, and very decent built in speakers as well as the great sound engine. I needed a piano I could play without the computer hooked up. I also went to the store considering a fp-30 or one of the Yamaha models, but once I'd tried the fp-90 I had to have it even though it was double my original budget :-)
So very very powerful. Unfortunately, budget for me is just enough of a concern, that i cant justify the whole package, as versatile and powerful as it is, unless i find the Rhodes and Wurlitzer sounds really really pleasing even when static, not playing around with parameters. but there aren’t too many examples of them just being played, the emphasis is almost always on the acoustic piano, or more recently the morphing. How do you find the Rhodes and Wurlitzer as compared to lounge lizard, mr ray, and Arturia? Would be so appreciative if you did a focused video. If Pianoteq 7 proved super versatile, and just straight up tasty, plus having this many instruments, I’d just go with the whole expensive package. As it is, I’m deciding…..do I need lounge lizard? Go with Arturias big package? Pick and choose from many different companies?
It is my view that for the acoustic piano, Pianoteq 7 (and possibly Keyscape) is the best VST/piano plugin out there right now. And this is especially so if you don't have expensive monitors or powered speakers. All of the rest sound simply metallic or plasticky. That being said, I think that the percussion instruments in Pianoteq 7 still has miles to go; I prefer playing my onboard Yamaha sounds for these as they sound more realistic.
Maybe this approach is the answer. Get a synthesizer piano module AND a piano sample module and mix the output of the two. Like what the Roland JV-1080 was so famous for trying to do. Again, maybe I'm wrong, but I just can't see any CPU sound-modelling program making music come alive. And putting 5000 adjustments on it won't help it any.
I think he was rocking an AKG C414 for a while. But as @somegeezer mentioned, the bulk of the "pleasant/present" vibe is the compression making things sound even across frequencies.
From ambisonics, it supports only binaural output. On the other hand, it has 5 discrete output, so you can each microphone to another speaker or better run it to a DAW to place each output in the surround space.
My main concern with this kind of plugins is always the digital synthesis that can't really get that body of an organic or even an analog instrument, however they got fairly close i imagine this to be a great layering tool to a sampled piano
What I have found since owning Pianoteq 7 Standard is there are plenty of tunable parameters to get the body sound I desire. By “body” I mean the literal case/frame/structure. First you have the instrument itself, either preset or morphed. Each come with different body intrinsic to them. Second, you can adjust the partials, the soundboard (impedance, etc), string length, sympathetic vibration, etc. These have the biggest effects to create “body”, IMO. Third is mic selection and placement. You could experiment with adding mics under the piano specifically to pick up body sound. Finally there are the after effects (eq, compression, reverb) which can be optimized for the cabinet rather than the room/hall.
So: Pianoteq or Samples? 🤔
Big thanks to Modartt for sending over Pianoteq! 🎹
www.modartt.com/pianoteq
Pianoteq for the win! 😄😄
I get a 404 error when I click the link.
Samples, but mostly because it's what I have (and so... so many). I can't justify buying even more soft-pianos samples, or modeled.
Now a real piano though...
@@JustVisiting Should be fixed now, not sure what happened there!
Samples. They are from the real thing. Pianoteq too artificial, lifeless and thin sounding. IK multimedia has some nice pianos, NI Alicia Keys Yamaha sounds amazing
Pianoteq is amazing. For those who are concerned about the feel, please be sure to update your velocity curve with the wizard. This has a dramatic effect on the sound. Also I prefer to use the slider to increase dynamic range. I use the stage version and find the sound is still very flexible between the eq, effects, and the velocity curve. Stunning for being able to run it from a usb stick.
Used to for years on hundreds of recordings. It's the go to realistic piano for me. You can even coax it into some digital sounding dance pianos too.
Yes!!! I love pianoteq and have been using it for a number of years now. Always love to see it getting more coverage because I can only preach to so many people myself, haha.
I have Noir library as well. Between that one and Pianoteq, I don't think I'll ever need another piano library.
This one is so darn good!
That's actually insane, the morphing feature blows my mind. Also props on your improv skills 😘
That alone is enough reason to buy.
Been using Pianoteq for years (since version 4) and I've not once used a sample based piano since. Absolutely brilliant plug-in.
I wasn't so convinced by the sound back then, but now... Man. They've made huge leaps forward. To the point we're sampled pianos are almost entirely obsolete imo.
I love Pianoteq, I could never get along with sampled pianos. When playing expressively I always found the sample switching to be really distracting, especially when playing in the range between two samples. You're playing at around the same intensity, yet the harmonics in the sound change wildly.
With modelled pianos you have as many variations as you have midi values from your keyboard, so they feel much nicer to play.
Yes! It's the most authentic playing experience, for sure.
Ok, I'm convinced. And they have it for Linux, to boot.
Why Linux?
@@FrontCoverBand I've used Unix and Linux over 40 years. So why wouldn't I use it?
@@thelanavishnuorchestra ok
@Front Cover Band Linux is a lot more customisable for audio, with the option for a "realtime" kernel allowing for extremely low or zero-latency.
@danwic interesting! That's great to know. I've used Windows all my life, and have always had a small case of latency. I've managed to make it work, but if I can get any closer to zero, I would love that! It's just funny I've never heard anyone talking about Linux until recent. Thank you for your reply!
What I think sets the pianoteq apart is: the continuous velocity reactivity. When you hit a note with velocity 56, it will "feel" different when you're playing (of you haber good playback audio) then velocity 57. And if you hit the same key twice with the same velocity, it might sound slightly different, just as it would on a real piano.I just don't get the same feel from playing any other piano synth. Sometimes, I think the sound from other synths is "more real," but the experience on pianoteq is more authentic. I feel like I'm playing a real piano...almost (I still can't get the whole tactile experience). it also helps too have a great piano keyboard controller (I like the rd-800).
You nailed it!! The expressivity of Pianoteq was apparent to me, even back to version 1. And once it got up to version 6, the SOUND made some big leaps. Now that 7.5 has improved the sound even more... I think it's fair to say Pianoteq would be a useful thing to have in most anyone's arsenal of piano VSTi's.
Big VST companies should have at least 3 different same velocity sample so they randomly play when you play the piano.
I got the all in one version.
The entire thing is amazing!!!!
There are only like one or two instruments that sound like synths when really listened to. Like one or two harps, and another, but that isn't even an issue!
The entire thing is totally worth it.
Your videos are so incredibly well made. Everything from the writing, to the photography, to the editing is great. Keep it up, I'll be following you for more in depth knowledge!
Glad you've been digging the channel!
I am not a very professional piano player but I have been a recordist for about 50 years. In this regard I am using the best tools to get hold of nowadays and - I guess - a long time ago I decided for PIANOTEQ alongside with keyboard instruments by Applied Acoustics Systems (AAS) that`s primarily focussed on synthetic sounds but they do also have the exquisite Lounge Lizard that resembles a Rhodes Piano/Electric Piano (which I owned once as original MK-1). They use physical modeling as well, of course, and I guess this is absolutely the future of virtual instruments. I also like to mention the Uright Piano from the Addictive Keys series by XLN-Audio that I also use but this is still a sampled piano, even if its presets sound superb and very flexible to my ears.
I own a bunch of piano models by Modartt/Pianoteq and I admit, I DO love them. Mine are still in the 6. range, not the 7. versions, and I am running the standard series. So I know what I am talking about and I can judge what you present us here. So what do I want to say in this statement? - Well, your review is probably the best I have ever seen - and I am not joking or exaggerating. I do not restrict this to the discussion of the PIANOTEQ products but the way how you inform potential users or people interested in physical models is just superb, very interesting and informative. Very well made! :-) Thank you for that kind of upload to CZcams. Venus Theory is subscribed from now on. :-)
Best regards from Germany. :-)
I've downloaded the demo version of this plugin some months ago and I could say it's realy fantastic, these girls & guys made an excellent job, félicitations à eux!
As soon I'll get the money for it I'll buy it.
I can't believe you made me watch a whole video about a Piano plugin. Chapeau. (I'm a guitar player who does Ambient and Techno for relaxation and do everything via the trackpad)
Perfect video! I have the cheapest Pianoteq 7 stage with 5 pianos and it is perfect. I use the Modartt's technicians presets and I am ok. Only Steinway D (NY & HB) has more than 30 different, excellent presets. Ant. Petrof 275 gives also the Petrof Mistral too with a variety of presets. Prelude, Jazz, Cinema, warm etc.
Thanks for your detailed overview of V7. While I'm still torn between sampled and modeled pianos, I appreciate how flexible and playable Pianoteq is. One thing I noted in your demo is that for certain mics, both cardioid and figure 8 patterns are available. This enables mid-side piano recording, which may be excellent for collapsing to mono and processing the stereo field. One of my issues with sampled instruments has been a slightly blurry stereo image; with Ivory American Concert D I 'mono-ize' below about 190 Hz to ground the instrument in the center. Pianoteq must be excellent in this regard.
Hi there!! I have used PIANOTEQ since version its early version, I think it was back in 2013. To me, it's the best piano recreation in terms of feeling not only sounds. At that time I remeber I was using an M-Audio 88 NON WEIGHTED keyboards and I can remember feeling it was a semi-real piano: I had the feeling for the keys, they're weight and the sound was so related to the keys I was pressing and how I was pressing them. I don't know if these words can make you have an idea of how good Pianoteq is and it is also very LIGHT on the cpu. There are a lot of very good made piano libraries but pianoteq is superb. You have to play it!!!! ;)
80K Subs..? This channel has opened my eyes so much in the foggy maze of the music production world. super underrated.
Great review Cameron!! Enjoyed your experimentation. You did some things that many piano players wouldn't think to try. 🙂
I installed it on my raspberry pi last night, I plugged my full size piano midi controller and just played. It sounded amazing. Pianoteq really is a good synth, especially given its wide platform support.
I've been testing and seeking for the best plugin pianos for over 20 years now (for live and studio use) and I think the only piano (for now) that meets the warmth and realisme of a real piano is Keyscape LA Grand from Spectrasonics (and that also counts for all the other instruments in this suite.)
But ... there are probably more real piano's build in this world as there are plugin piano's. So maybe there is no ultimate piano at all. It is after all your personal taste.
What Modartt has done is giving piano lovers the ability to build their own piano taste. And that is what is making this physical modelled piano so special.
My only concern with Pianoteq is that I never get a real warm pianos sound .
So ... I have been mixing up 24% Pianoteq and 75% Keyscape LA grand and voila ... sound better!!
But as earlier mentioned ... it is purely about taste !!!
Still it is amazing what Philippe Guillaume and his team have created and PianoTeq is absolutely my number 2.
(sorry if my English is not 100% - I'm from The Netherlands)
Cheerzzzzzz
-Rem
I’ve been using a clean studio with the Steinway D, and using EastWest’s Spaces reverb and it gives a really excellent sound for classical performance.
I quite Netscape when it comes to Rhodes or Wurlitzer emulation , but for grand acoustic , it simply doesn’t do the job for the simple reason that there is no Una corda and no sustenato pedal support . As soon as you want to play advanced classical or jazz it is simply a show stopper . I actually don’t understand the rationale behind sampling a Grand if you don’t sample the Una corda sounds as it is an integral part of the sound of a grand piano . Actually when it comes to pedal , pianoteq has simply no rival .
This is insane just now found out about this. Great video bro!
@venus theory. Your channel is amazing. Had no idea you were not a keyboardist by default. Your skills are amazing, your content is great and I think I speak for everyone, we all wish we had your basso profundo speaking voice.
This is HILARIOUSLY Timed!!! (Thank You Universe for reaffirming my dastardly purchase plans)... I have LITERALLY been planning to purchase this this month (and have for the past few months)... as a part of my base-Virtual Instrument lineup.
Pianoteq will be for my pianoteq stuff.
And doing physical modelling options from other companies for strings, percussion, guitars, and more.
I'll go BACK to searching for "Sample Based" AFTER I get my Virtual Instruments, some Open Back Headphones for mixing (living in apartment)... So, MAYBE around the winter sales time.
Sidenote (I STILL have not purchased Native Instruments Kontakt... LMFAO)
Great video. I bought the basic version a few months ago - it’s an outstanding piano vst.
wow! This thing is sick. I want it. And I shall have it. Thank you for such an in-depth and detailed synopsis of the differences between each of the versions. That is exceptionally helpful.
I believe his microphone is in that coffee cup!
Could you please do a short video where you do Pianoteq things In the DAW such as breaking out Mics, Automations, Etc?
I've had it since version 3 or 4 (can't remember) and I love the Steinways, Bluthner, and Ant Petrof. I just wish the Rhodes would sound more like KeyScape.
Great video Cameron. Love the E flat Lydian.
More physical modeling vids man, I'm really into it
That's sounds really nice dude, you went all Camhoven at 11:40 spirit of a dead pianist flowing through deez veins
I've been using piano tech since version 5.
I liked it but something was missing. With version 7 they are closer than ever to entirely replacing sample libraries. They are literally maybe one step away, they're doing an incredible job and I'm absolutely captivated by the new pianos with the felt presets, and that new petrof piano sounds nuts.
VERY cool. Still not on par with Keyscape soundwise(especially the Rhodes sound), but something I would pick up on a half off Black Friday sale to play with
Absolutely amazing! It sounds just like a piano to me! Would never be able to tell the difference.
I absolutely agree about Pianoteq. I tried it a few years ago and it really wasn’t there. I was not impressed at all by the quality of physical modelling.
Well, fast forward multiple years later and I finally try it out.
I was blown away by the quality of the sound and the playability/realism of the sound. It is the CLOSEST yet to a real piano and the only difference for me was the actual size of your instrument and the feeling of being behind such a massive piece of furniture.
Digital technology is just so remarkable. You have such tremendous power at your fingertips now and Pianoteq, for pianists, is, in my view, THE BEST option if you want the sound, feel and overtone nuance of such instruments.
Sweet sweet microtonal support...
🥺👉♥️👈 🔬🔎🎹
That's something I was thinking about. I want this for the weird stuff. Microtonal tuning with weird harmonics into some reverb, OD, more reverb...
Noisy goodness.
Ok. I just hit like 30-60+ notifications a day on YT and realized I had a problem. Had to dial it all back to reasonable "I have another life" levels.
Cameron, you are officially in my "never mute notifications" file.
Especially as I do everything on the cheap (hence, the "another life" thing....)
You. Are. The. Man.
Haha well hey, I'm honored. Glad the work that goes into the channel doesn't go unappreciated. Cheers! 🥃
@@VenusTheory Oh, well. I don't know about "being honored". I think I'm officially an old fogie (who's very new to this whole "electronic music" thing so anything I say must be taken in the context of I'm not entirely sure that I know what I'm talking about but, fwiw (see what I did there?) you've got my vote...for....umm....something really great on CZcams...
@@trnngthngs Haha I'll be sure to design my own award. "Pretty good at stuff sometimes" or something
@@VenusTheory Oh too funny--I was just writing in my journal that "I would maybe be a Renaissance Man if I was actually good at anything…".
But trust me (you can trust some old fogies...), you sir, are really good at this whole content-creation thing (I'm taking notes...) and the music thing too--I'm a fan on Bandcamp, (again, FWIW). Keep it up, bro--I gots some learning' to do.
Looking forward for that physical modelling vid.
Really nice piano improvisation, and Pianoteq sounds amazing
wow. This is so damn cool!
Once I've gone deep enough the rabbithole, Pianoteq will be my first purchased plugin for sure.
Lol. I feel ya. Imagine this with uvi shade and a funny convo reverb like a gun shot
Bought it for a while but just got inspired here. I had to buy other piano products anyway. It's all about presets. Sometimes I have not enough time to learn something you show us. Thank you very much. I think I have to spend time for it from now on.
Enjoyed listening to you jam on the piano very much!
My god! This is incredible!
This is a thorough and very informative video, thank you!
I'd like to see how it compares with Arturia Piano 2, thats also a synthesised rather than sampled piano. Maybe you can do a comparison video sometime??
If you're not aware, Arturia has a rather extensive free demo.
In my experience, I sometimes like the attack on the Arturia more, but Pianoteq overall feels a lot more playable -- and way better in the resonances department. It's also far more customizeable (for the standard and pro versions at least).
@@napilopez thank you for your reply. I actually own the Arturia piano 3, I was wondering how it compares with the Pianoteq.
I've also got a Kurzweil PIano, several Kontakt pianos from NI, Westwood, and others, the Roland Cloud pianos and all of the piano expansion cards for the XV-5080. Spoilt for choice!! But the Pianoteq has such a good press at the moment, it's intriguing.
I guess I can always try downloading the Pianoteq free trial version and seeing what i think. It certainly has lots of good reviews.
absolutely best sounding piano plugin..!!!
The impro is priceless loved it!
This is the future of synthesis to be sure.
The problem has always been and is to find a truly good setup, meaning the controller and the speakers. Pianoteq itself sounds just stunning, but playing it through simple stereo speakers makes it lack realism, since there's not that illusion of getting the sound from an "instrument" unlike any digital.. The day Moddart decide to take a step forward and offer their entire solution, that's gonna be the end of DP discussion, say a partnership with some fine manufacturer of piano action like Casio did with Bechstein, or Nord with Kawai compact action.. Imagine a Pianoteq full DP system, including cabinet and speakers, tweaked and ready to get the best out of the software... Ahh I'm ready to pay for that
Pianoteq is available for ARM architecture and has been known to run on Raspberry Pi systems.
@@ralphrestubog5519 I don't see how this relates to my comment but thanks for the info anyway
Sounds beautiful, but 799 € is a bit out of my range. Besides I still have to finance the hole Falcon 2 left. (which was a very good investment, I hardly slept for a week studying the manual and video's , this is soooo good. It made me look at UVI in a whole new way. I can't believe I missed out on this for so many years. Thanks for that Cameron.)
I love this vst man been using pianoteq for a while
IMHO the K2 sound is one of the best
Additive harmonic reconstruction! That's really what no current synth is capable of doing in a way that users can control. The closest synth is IL morphine (harmor too to some extent), where the harmonics can be tuned individually and that tuning can change over time, but without FM and being able to change the tuning/harmonic voulume with key tracking , it doesn't really work (not to mention one would have to tune each partial by hand)
Just ordered Pianoteq 7 Pro after watching the video. Got lucky with the 20% off promo.
Aw man, its wicked cool stuff. Im torn between Keyscape, Keysuite and this!! Wow....i really must consider carefully. Great stuff as always!!
Pianoteq is an instrument that has truly improved with every update. I’m wondering if the people posting the negative comments here have played and heard the newest update Pianoteq 7.5. With this latest update and a bit of tweaking you can truly create a piano that can satisfy most anyone’s taste.
This is by far the best software piano for live performance imho
Thank you for the look. The Bluthner was a stunner. The other I'd have chosen in a 2-pack was the Steingraeber & Söhne. I've heard both in concert hall settings and to my ears, they each have that special "something". YMMV, of course.
I’m no expert but the Bluthner took my breath away. Never heard it before.
Its my go to piano
for just "playing" and noodling
The Grotrian 56 is very nice
the elecric pianos suck munkee nutz, Lounge lizard, keyscape and even arturia stage 73 are better electrics
but the real pianos are lovely
and
the defining factor for me
is that the standalone product automatically records and saves the midi of every single thing you play
every standalone midi instrument should have this awesome feature.
I don't ever have to press record while I'm noodling
I can just fire it up and noodle and if I like it I can export the midi to ableton.
I can go back days later and find the noodle I did
every note is there in the archive folder.
So even though my favorite thing to just play is lounge lizard
I would rather play the grotrian 56 or bluethner because no note is wasted, they are all archived.
Very lovely sounds.
The only better sample libraries are in the 50-70gig range
It works great even on a small i5 tablet I have.
If the would get a decent Rhodes mark 4/5 emulation and something like the rhodes bass
it would be the best of all.
Uvi is nice, Keyscape is very lovely but big and expensive, arturia keys are thin
pianoteq is really great and its tiny size is a plus.
I own a Steinway B... I will test it head to head... if you like
I finally got around to watching this after over a year haha! This thing is extraordinary. The MIDI controllability and the mic options are so comprehensive! Perhaps the only thing you didn't cover in this was the microtuning options, and I understand they are also very powerful: many microtonal musicians talk about using Pianoteq a lot.
Would be cool to have a speaking voice physical modelling Plugin for film making
I've wondered if some hardware manufacturer won't license Pianoteq and build an keyboard instrument with a world class keyboard action, a high quality built-in 2.1 audio system and a CPU running Pianoteq Pro with a decent size display to run the GUI.
I’d love to hear the strings struck from the center: That should sound like a hybrid of a piano with a clarinet! It would excite almost no even-numbered harmonics. Somewhat harp-like as well.
I haven’t touched it for eons, but I enjoyed working with my VL-70s.
For that price u can get, for example;
reason 12 wich already has keys almost as good as these and can also be loaded as a vst if u like.
I like pianoteq really very much, very fascinating to play. I also baught organteq, the sound is just amazing 😃
For acoustic pianos I think only a trained pianist could possibly hear a difference. It's the only thing I use. I have Keyscape too though - for Rhodes, Modartt is not quite there, in my opinion.
Physical Modeling was term my boss at Atom Films told me about in the 1990's ... I hope we are starting to get there with this.
I have yet to hear a "Piano library" that sounds like my Steinway B.
omg this is incredible!!
excellent video. how does this work with different types of pianos? will it work perfectly with my Yamaha P 125 for example, i really like how this plugin sounds, I'm not keen on samples really, I need to buy a really good piano or......I think I'll be hitting the buy button on this one very soon. thank you for the video
..And it was at 16:44 that I heard the bell from Trolley of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood!
Cam, don't forget that a bunch of piano libraries out there are encoded for Kontakt Player, which means you wouldn't need $400 for Kontakt full, instead could use the free Kontakt Player! So this changes the pricing comparison considerably.
But still, gimme some Pianoteq :)
Don't have to watch the video. The answer is an unequivocal "yes". Pianoteq is one of my favorite VSTs.
not bad at all... definitely going to try this with my keyboards
This is fucking wild! 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Not bad of course.
But there are much better ones for me, like for example, the Embertone Concert D (with Complete micros option).
That's just my opinion...
It's getting closer and closer but it's not there yet. That said it's better than many sample-based instruments already. But e.g. the Ravenscroft still beats it by a long stretch. Of course that's just to my ears (after 30+ years of playing real pianos).
I have both Pianoteq and Arturia V-Piano (and Komplete). Pianoteq is my goto, and Piano-V when I fancy a change. I basically never use (and often don't bother installing) the sampled pianos that come with Komplete.
I first got Pianoteq 3 player back in 2011. Back then my laptop, running Windows, would struggle with buffer sizes below 256, but booted into Ubuntu could comfortably manage 64, so I was very grateful for the Linux version. At the time I had an m-audio digital piano whose action was rubbish and whose sounds were equally rubbish. I later upgraded to a Yamaha CP50, but still prefer to get the sound from Pianoteq.
Should I buy EzKeys if I can’t play piano? Or just go with Pianoteq and practice piano to make city Pop song?
TOTALLY AWESOME! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I bought a Roland FP-30X to finally learn the piano at 28 (not trying to produce music etc.). In your opinion, which is the best plugin to take the Roland’s sound to the next level? Just started learning about all the available plugins, but I heard about Garritan CFX, Keyscape’s C7, Ravenscroft 275, Pianoteq (to mention a few), are great. What’s your opinion?
Also, trying to load Garritan CFX on a Roland FP-30X connected to a desktop PC but I can feel the latency affecting my playing. I can around 2 ms latency but it still feels “slow”. Don’t know if my brain is making this up. How do you load the plugin (VST, Standalone)? How can someone “eliminate” latency, to replicate the feel of a real piano?
What is the most responsive (lowest latency) plugin in your experience? Maybe Pianoteq?
Currently using Reaper as my choice of DAW (tried Ableton too), I’ve set the Sample Rate to the maximum of 384 kHz that my Chord Mojo DAC supports, which lowered the latency instantly, and now I’m experimenting with the Buffer size, around 128-256 samples, keeping in mind how my system responds, so as to avoid cracks and pops. I’ve also got a Ryzen 3600 system, which handles all this pretty fine I’d say. Still feels kinda slow.
I'm buying the Mrs. Mills piano from Spitfire today! I may have to buy this one next payday! I think this may turn into a Piano Payday tradition.
A must go for all piano players :-)
just wow!
Beautiful stuff
I've just been waiting for a sale. My Digital piano (Roland FP-90) is using Modelling, so I'm aware of how great it can sound.
Been thinking of getting the fp90x too as an upgrade but this defintely has me second guessing and getting pianoteq instead lol
@@darklynch10 I got the fp90 for the great key action, and very decent built in speakers as well as the great sound engine. I needed a piano I could play without the computer hooked up. I also went to the store considering a fp-30 or one of the Yamaha models, but once I'd tried the fp-90 I had to have it even though it was double my original budget :-)
It sounds pretty bad compared to Kawai DPs or Pianoteq.
So very very powerful. Unfortunately, budget for me is just enough of a concern, that i cant justify the whole package, as versatile and powerful as it is, unless i find the Rhodes and Wurlitzer sounds really really pleasing even when static, not playing around with parameters. but there aren’t too many examples of them just being played, the emphasis is almost always on the acoustic piano, or more recently the morphing. How do you find the Rhodes and Wurlitzer as compared to lounge lizard, mr ray, and Arturia? Would be so appreciative if you did a focused video. If Pianoteq 7 proved super versatile, and just straight up tasty, plus having this many instruments, I’d just go with the whole expensive package. As it is, I’m deciding…..do I need lounge lizard? Go with Arturias big package? Pick and choose from many different companies?
It is my view that for the acoustic piano, Pianoteq 7 (and possibly Keyscape) is the best VST/piano plugin out there right now. And this is especially so if you don't have expensive monitors or powered speakers. All of the rest sound simply metallic or plasticky. That being said, I think that the percussion instruments in Pianoteq 7 still has miles to go; I prefer playing my onboard Yamaha sounds for these as they sound more realistic.
Maybe this approach is the answer. Get a synthesizer piano module AND a piano sample module and mix the output of the two. Like what the Roland JV-1080 was so famous for trying to do. Again, maybe I'm wrong, but I just can't see any CPU sound-modelling program making music come alive. And putting 5000 adjustments on it won't help it any.
What mic is he using to get his voice to sound so pleasant and present?
for me its not pleasant sorry it triggers me hard
Doesn't matter as much as the processing on it. EQ and compression are doing the hard work.
It’s the coffee
I think he was rocking an AKG C414 for a while. But as @somegeezer mentioned, the bulk of the "pleasant/present" vibe is the compression making things sound even across frequencies.
Love it. So if you have a 5.1/7.1 surround sound set up, does it support emulation and output for that?
From ambisonics, it supports only binaural output. On the other hand, it has 5 discrete output, so you can each microphone to another speaker or better run it to a DAW to place each output in the surround space.
Hey you need to try Hammer + Waves by Skyboxaudio with the new way of using robots to records all the velocity perfectly 😃
Which 4 instruments would you go for with Pro? I’m thinking Steinway D, Steingraeber and… not sure which other two
this plugin is sick.
What's the difference between using the recording button and the automatic record function that Pianoteq has?
My main concern with this kind of plugins is always the digital synthesis that can't really get that body of an organic or even an analog instrument, however they got fairly close i imagine this to be a great layering tool to a sampled piano
What I have found since owning Pianoteq 7 Standard is there are plenty of tunable parameters to get the body sound I desire. By “body” I mean the literal case/frame/structure. First you have the instrument itself, either preset or morphed. Each come with different body intrinsic to them. Second, you can adjust the partials, the soundboard (impedance, etc), string length, sympathetic vibration, etc. These have the biggest effects to create “body”, IMO. Third is mic selection and placement. You could experiment with adding mics under the piano specifically to pick up body sound. Finally there are the after effects (eq, compression, reverb) which can be optimized for the cabinet rather than the room/hall.
What video is that from @02:53? showcasing the physical modeling approach for sound?
do you think the K2 is a Kawai?
Some of the morphed instruments sound like more elaborated versions of some Yamaha DX keyboard sounds
Yeah you can get some really wild sounds this way - lots of fun to experiment with!
How do i get the velocity above 75 :(