FYI: Modartt just released Pianoteq-8.2
2 Likes
PianoteQ…
Not much to excite me in the new release. Maybe some fret noise might sound good - I will have a play.
The revoicing of the pianos was very good. For me it was a great update.
2 Likes
The fret noise seems to occur when adjusting the “fret” control. I’m not sure how best to implement this with a controller.
but… the noise of the keys is always the same… once adjusted I don’t think there is any need to change it during a song… But this is just an opinion.
That was not my experience. I heard no fret noise whilst playing, only when adjusting the parameter which makes sense as you don’t necessarily drag a string on every note.
Ah ok, I understand now… I’ll try tomorrow.
@riban If I understand correctly… you have problems with mechanical “noises” with PianoteQ. Here is an audio file with pedal noise and then with key release noise at 90% (I usually stick to +3 Db).
The concept of pedal noise is fairly simple. When you press / release a pedal you expect a corresponding noise that would be created by a mechanical press / release of the pedal. This is triggered by the MIDI CC for pedal, e.g. CC 64 for sustain / hold pedal. What I raised was how this mechanism might be applied for the guitar fret noise.
Guitar fret noise is the buzz you hear as you drag your finger across wire wound strings or the squeek caused by friction between nylon strings and the finger, etc. It may also include mechanical percusive sounds of fingers hitting strings and strings hitting frets or the fingerboard. Due to the variation in which such sounds might be encountered, I am not sure how they may be triggered from a MIDI controller. It appears that the noise is created as the control is adjusted, e.g. assigning CC21 to fret noise would produce noise as CC21 is adjusted. It may be that the intensity of the noise increases with rate of change / amount of change. I am interested in any ideas of how the control / parameter might be triggered.
On Omnisphere acoustic guitars, the noise of your fingers sliding on the strings is activated when you press a key (or make a chord) a moment before releasing the previous key (Like the Glide).The “flapping” sound is related to the speed of pressing… I don’t know if this can be useful.
Like the Glide, SWAM also works, emulating the tied notes that are obtained by progressively closing the sax holes or moving the trumpet pistons halfway.
I’m not sure how Pianoteq is differentiating between strings. I do hear different decay for some notes when some others are played but could not figure out how it decides which notes pertain to which strings. When I play guitar I will finger a fret on a string that either sounds right or is natural to play. That means that the same note may be fingered on different strings. Sometimes you want the note to ring, e.g. in a chord and so pick a different string to play the next note. I should head over to modartt to find out these questions. The topic only arose because of the features changed in 8.2 release. I am not a piano player nor have particularly golden ears or ideal audio setup so the improvements in piano voicing may pass me by.
Unfortunately, thanks to my English, I am not sure of the problem you are experiencing… Personally I find PianoteQ very realistic also in its behavior. For example, I threw away many sampled piano sounds because they didn’t have a good response to the dynamics… I hate pianos that if you hit hard they don’t increase in volume enough and the sound remains the same in timbre even if it increases in volume… A real piano, it increases in volume but also changes the timbre… by beating hard other strings also resonate… the sound opens up. This happens with PianoteQ while with many others it does not. For my taste PianoteQ is well set by default without correcting anything. But it’s a matter of taste.
I am referring to the Steinway model D jazz which has a slightly more open sound and is scary on the bass…
P.S.
I’m not a good pianist, but when I lived in Bologna I had the opportunity to try Steinway, Yamaha (my favorite), Bosendorfer, because Bologna is a very musical city and there are dream shops…
1 Like
This also happens in real instruments… it’s the strings that vibrate out of “sympathy”… so some vibrate more than others… This happens in all stringed instruments.
Yeah, in a piano you can gently press a note to lift the damper from the string without the hammer hitting the string. Then strongly strike a note an octave or two below,staccato so the damper deadends that note, and you’ll hear the open note ring out.
As for the guitar fret sounds (if I understand you correctly)… I wish I were completely wrong, but from some source I got the (disappointing) impression the sounds are just generated completely randomly and you can only adjust how often/strong they occur. Hopefully it was just my musunderstanding.
That wouldn’t suprise me. Fret sounds are a bit random in their nature. You are never sure how much friction there will be between your fingers and the strings. A bit of dampness, e.g. humidity, sweat, etc. makes a lot of difference and as you tire your fingering can become less accurate and you may drag more. There are some very intentional fret noises introduced as part of the music but most are a bit random. Similar to pedal noise, they are generally an undesirable side effect of the mechanics of playing but we strive for authenticity hence they are offered as effects for us to add in the depth we desire. I can’t imagine a controller that would provide a control that would simulate the drag on string but who knows, someone may design this - although we may be getting into the realms of: just buy a guitar man!
In my opinion, the guitar is one of the most difficult instruments to reproduce with a keyboard… Due to the fact that the notes of a chord are in a different order, but above all because they don’t all sound together, but one after the other. A long time ago in a musical instrument shop, I tried a little box that had 4 pieces of string (it was for bass), it had to be tied to the belt and the strings were plucked with a plectrum or fingers. Obviously midi. I remember it working very well… but I never heard of it again…
Revoicing of all 11 modern grand pianos.
Fret buzz sound added to the Classical Guitar instrument.
Two new tunings for the guitar: EADF#BE and DADGAD.
MIDI sequence transposition added in the sequence context menu.
New midimapping for changing the tuning root key.