Note: this PianoTeq Pro Add-On requires PianoTeq.
MODARTT is proud to announce the release of the eagerly awaited PIANOTEQ PRO. Its major novelty is the note per note adjustment for physical parameters which gives you the ultimate tool for sound shaping and instrument creation. PIANOTEQ PRO is the advanced version of Pianoteq.
Powerful Note Edit
For the first time in the history of pianos, complete control of physical parameters of the piano is made available to the user. In the real world, reshaping a soundboard would require several weeks of work in the factory. With Pianoteq Pro, you have a new soundboard only one mouse click away!
PIANOTEQ PRO offers note per note adjustment for no less than 22 physical parameters, such as tuning, unison width, hammer hardness, strike point, string length, spectrum profile, soundboard impedance, damper position... In fact there are thousands since each overtone of each note can be controlled separately with the spectrum profile parameter!
In 1977, Gabriel Weinreich concluded his grounding article "Coupled piano strings" with "In any case, one could expect to build a better piano if the aftersound could be more deliberately controlled through an appropriate understanding of the soundboard". Thirty-two years later, Weinreich's dream is becoming reality with PIANOTEQ PRO.
Share your creations
All instruments created with PIANOTEQ PRO can be loaded in both PIANOTEQ PRO and PIANOTEQ Standard for use by the whole Pianoteq community. Instrument creators can thus "duplicate" and share their creations - an impossible task to achieve with acoustic pianos, thus yet another revolution in the history of piano manufacturing!
PIANOTEQ PRO is the natural choice for composers, audio engineers, keyboardists and others who are interested in having full freedom to create and adapt the Pianoteq sound to their own needs.
The Pianoteq 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.
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. Modartt respects 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 Modartt chose to develop PIANOTEQ, it is 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.
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 (25 MB) and the fast interface means no loading time. Just a few mouse movements to start playing.
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.
The next feature is something that not even a piano tuner can do — changing the soundboard impedance. You will get a total control of overtones. This makes it even possible to change the size of the piano, from A size to D size, even up to a 10 meter (33 feet) grand!
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 ensure 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.
Fourth piano generation
PIANOTEQ is issued from an academic research and results in what Modartt calls 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.
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Requires PianoTeq.
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Requires PianoTeq.
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