I upgraded Pianoteq with the Bosendorfer (49 euros)… I have to say that this company continually outdoes itself. This piano is WONDERFUL, the Steinway is already crazy, but the Bosendorfer for my tastes, is even better… more mellow, while maintaining the brilliance. I’m talking about the Bosendorfer Jazz. Compliments to Modartt.
The dynamics remain fantastic.
I am downloading Pianoteq 8.3.2 right now to listen to the latest addition. (New version has a couple of bug fixes but also includes Bosendorfer preset which we can test as a demo instrument.) I look forward to playing with it later and hearing how it compares with others. I have Steinway D which I chose by doing blind tests which ruled out some and left about three that I then had a very hard choice to make. You really start to appreciate the nuances of different pianos when forced to chose just one from a range. (I also got the electric piano collection which sounds amazing. Again, a choice between two was challenging.) I listened to all the free (included in licence purchase) pianos which helped to knock some of the paid options out. I could hear that one of the free pianos filled a requirement that one of the paid pianos might fill.
Pianoteq is fantastic and worth saving your pennies for. Stage is sufficient for most users, particularly gigging musicians and hobbiests. The more expensive options better suit (professional) recording producers who want to really fine tune their instrument.
Totally agree with @riban. I have the Stage with electric pianos and a Steinway of which I use the D jazz model for its more crystalline timbre. These pianos have beautiful dynamics and if played with a good keyboard they are even more appreciable. I wanted to add the Bosendorfer 280VC because it has an even more “round” and mellow sound while still remaining crystalline… The bass is awesome and the highs seem to be played on a Bohemian crystal goblet. For me who can’t afford a real grand piano, it’s the best I’ve found and at a fair price. I use Pianoteq with a Yamaha Arius YDP-144 and in the recording room with a Studiologic Acuna 88 master keyboard (that a very dear friend gave me…and I love this man for what he did… Thanks Emanuel (great artist and fantastic musical instrument repairer, as well as a Great Man)).
Yes, the Bosendorfer 280Cv is fantastic. I play it with an Ipad and my Yamaha P115 digital piano, and it feels great. In Zynthian with Raspberry Pi5 i have latency.
Yes, with the Zynthian I have latency too if I “squeeze” it… But the sound is so beautiful that it already makes you dream even with a low baud rate… Then when I have recorded the parts I pass the entire MIDI part to the iMac which does its job even with baud rate at maximum. However with headphones it is beautiful even from the Zynthian with low baud rate… This is said by someone who had stopped playing the piano because the best “transportable” piano at the time was the Yamaha CP70b… which (personal opinion) I don’t really like the way it sounds.
If you adjust the jackd settings with a buffer size as 128 samples you’ll not notice the latency anymore (headphones also to reduce further latency)
@jofemodo did some measurements here…
I hope the link works
Latency is perceived by different people in different scenarios in different ways. A virtuoso musician playing a fast piece is likely to be more sensitive to higher latency than a casual player of slow music. Latency above 40ms is pretty difficult to play with. Many musicians would be fine with a latency of about 22ms whilst we are seeing here that some find 11ms impacts their playing. Halving that to 5.6ms will probably meet most players requirements whilst some may still find it impacts their playing - but I think we are drifting into the waters of diminishing returns.
Some zynthianeers want as much processing as possible to play lots of instruments whilst others want just a single instrument (like a beautiful piano). These choices also influence your settings.
Basically, try it and see. Your ears, playing style and groove is different to the next players so it is your choice.
I’m not a virtuoso, but I noticed that when I record a midi part, when I go to insert it into the DAW, the notes are all anticipated by a sixty-fourth… all more or less the same… I think it means that my hands and my brain are trying to anticipate the latency…
This does not mean that the Zynthian works badly… For an object that works with a Raspberry it works very well… I also feel a minimum of latency with the iMac that has a Focusrite and a Motu connected… We are not complaining…