Pianoteq 7

[jens]

Hm... I wonder how realistic most of the libraries actually are - the Hohner Electra certainly sounds not at all like an Electra going by the examples - it seems more like a Rhodes to me or something - is this supposed to be a joke? Or do they give semi-random names to semi-random parameter variations?

Odd, I used the Hohner Electra in one of my tracks partly because I thought it sounded nothing like a Rhodes.

So there you have it then, as it still sounds a lot closer to a Rhodes than to an Electra.

Here's what an Electra sounds like (albeit it's a little noisy and very flangy):

https://youtu.be/Pu94mWlgzMY


Edit: well, as I mentioned I am only going by the examples Modartt have on their website - does it actually sound very different from that?

[ChamomileShark]

I obviously wasn't clear. I used the Electra because I don't particularly like the Rhodes sound and the Electra was to me, a very different sound.

The video above won't play in the UK.

It seems most people play it through so many effects the underlying character is obscured. This seems reasonably clean but as the comment says even that would have gone through a guitar amp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMarNNEoMes

[jens]

I obviously wasn't clear. I used the Electra because I don't particularly like the Rhodes sound and the Electra was to me, a very different sound.

The video above won't play in the UK.

It seems most people play it through so many effects the underlying character is obscured. This seems reasonably clean but as the comment says even that would have gone through a guitar amp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMarNNEoMes

hm... mixed feelings about this example - it's partly there, partly perhaps not so much, I think
- tbh I feel the Electra character - as I believe to be familiar with it - is still more obvious in Led Zep example I posted, fx or not - I am not entirely sure what's going on in the example you posted though.


So again: do the examples on the Modartt site not represent the product very well?

[jens]

I think this may be quite a good example of what an Electra sounds like:

https://youtu.be/zx581oBhNv4

And another one:

https://youtu.be/aEuoG7gUp5Q

Compare these to the Modartt sound-examples for their "Electra"...

which imo seems to make the whole thing highly questionable - unless it's an exeption and the other libaries nail a whole lot better what they seek to emulate.

[jens]

The video above won't play in the UK.

Oh, I overlooked this - did you try to follow the link to Youtube? It won't play back embedded for me either...

[jamcat]

The Pianoteq Electra-piano sounds close enough for me, not that I would ever use it.

I’m not hearing a substantial difference from those YouTube examples.

[jens]

I certainly do - it's a completely different thing to me (a Hohner Electra sounds very warm, wooly and bell-like, especially in the lower octaves - it does sound not funky at all, it has neither much "quack" nor "shimmer") - in fact as a replacement for a real Electra the Pianoteq "Electra" sounds absolutely worthless to me - which is a darn shame!

[jamcat]

Most recordings that you hear of a Electra-piano are from the '70s, and a lot of the warm woolly fat sound is actually coming from the recording medium and technology of the day. You could make the Pianoteq model splatter, too, with some generous tape saturation.

Accounting for superficial differences between the performances, and the real and virtual recording environments and technology, these two sound essentially like the same instrument to me:

https://youtu.be/cMarNNEoMes

https://www.modartt.com/data/audio/pian ... cifica.mp3

[jens]

Apart from both being kind of electric piano-ish, these examples do not have much in common at all - I am surprised you think they do. I think at some point it all becomes terribly irrelevant and one could as well use some old GM Soundfont.

No Quarter aside, tbh I am not aware of ever having heard a commercial recording of an Electra, so when I described the sound that is certainly not what I meant at all. I meant the sound of the instrument itself.
And how did you arrive at the conlusion that the sound I described is a result of the recording process? It certainly isn't.
You absolutely can't slap some tape-saturation after some instrument in order to change its character like that.

[davidka]

I'd like to ask an owner of a real Rhodes, how does the Pianoteq Electric Pianos model compare?

[jens]

Yes, that would be interesting too...

maybe if others are willing to participate, we could make (more or less) 1 to 1 comparisons to the real thing.

Using Melodyne it's possible to generate an adequate MIDI-file from a performance, so...

Actually I know someone with a real Rhodes (not sure which version)

I could ask him if he's willing to help me out - that would probably take a couple of days though...

...and actually I know someone else with a CP as well - perhaps I could even get access to a Wurli too.


So then we would have everything covered.

[DJErmac]

Apart from both being kind of electric piano-ish, these examples do not have much in common at all - I am surprised you think they do.

My first reaction was : is THAT supposed to be the same instrument?!???
Once again, Pianoteq sounds totally synth-sounding to me.

But though, I must admit they’re improving every time.

[BBFG#]

I finally came to the realization that "accuracy" of a sound often has more to do with an emotional nostalgia than anything else here.
And that often has to do with inconsistencies in the original manufacturing, personal amplification and real world ambience at the time.
So to know how accurate the sound is, we would really need the developer themselves to post a video between the actual instrument they were modeling and their software realization of it.
For me, Pianoteq gets better and better at those "emotional nostalgias", but more importantly, feels like a true instrument in how it responds. Rather than snapshots with interpretive interpolations that require me to play around the bad spots. e.g. I know the pianets are better than any of the pianets I played back in the day.
(Which were quite inconsistent in sound and playability.)
Add/Edit: After watching some of those videos, I loaded the Electra up since it's one I've not spent much time with. I love it!
So I know for me, those things relate more to how much I like the entire instrument. If it's not for you, find something that is.

[Mb8199]

Hi, I used to use pianoteq 6. I finally upgraded the piano plugin from arturia, because it only cost me 20 € (i had the previons version). I'll see if I take pianoteq 7 if there are sales.

[jamcat]

Arturia Piano V is not an upgrade from Pianoteq 6 in any sense of the word.

It was actually getting Piano V in the Arturia V Collection that got me on the physical modeling path, and eventually to Pianoteq.