How to make a sampled piano sound good in mono?

[bburtin]

I've been playing around with the Sampletekk Black Grand and the Truepianos demo. Both of them sound pretty darn incredible in stereo, but I was amazed to hear how much the sound quality degrades when I switch to mono. Is it my imagination, or does the sound quality really degrade? I want to play more acoustic piano at gigs, where stereo is usually not an option.

I've only tested this with headphones so far, so that may be accentuating the effect. I'll see how different stereo and mono sound with speakers tomorrow.

Boris

[P.T.]

I have not heard those in mono.

I have heard some pianos that have trouble in mono due to poor mic positioning when they were recorded.

I have also heard trouble with some notes in the middle octaves on stereo pianos in stereo where phase errors, again due to mic placement, caused frequency cancellations.

I doubt that there is anything that you can do about it.

You might try just partially collapsing the stereo. Maybe you can reach a compromise where you get a smaller stereo stage and still maintain a good sound.

[advaya]

I've been playing around with the Sampletekk Black Grand and the Truepianos demo. Both of them sound pretty darn incredible in stereo, but I was amazed to hear how much the sound quality degrades when I switch to mono. Is it my imagination, or does the sound quality really degrade? I want to play more acoustic piano at gigs, where stereo is usually not an option.

I've only tested this with headphones so far, so that may be accentuating the effect. I'll see how different stereo and mono sound with speakers tomorrow.

Boris

Yes, that's my biggest complaint with TruePianos. It sounds fantastic in stereo, but the mono-compatibility is sorely disapointing. It becomes really evident within a full arrangement (if you ever plan on using it that way). I've used it in a few mixes, and when I do a mono test, the piano track pretty much disappears completely (not kidding).

The only semi-workaround I've found is to reduce the stereo width of TP by around 50% and up it's volume in the mix to the point where it sounds a bit too heavy (against the other instruments) on a stereo/headphone setup.

[olepro]

Try the Pianoteq demo.
There is option for stereo, mono and headphone listening and it's virtual so there is hold on the sound allso in mono mode and it is very good for gigging because it loads very fast because of no samples.
maybe this is your solution.... but it cost's i know.
http://www.pianoteq.com/

[mfb]

Sometimes stereo pianos sound better in mono when you use only either the left or right channel, rather than summing left & right, which is usually the default for mono-conversion. This likely happens because of phasing effects.