I always struggled creating a decent and versatile “general” pianosound for the stage to use with a rockband.
With what I have available (Pianoteq9 with YC5 and Bösendorfer addons + NI Kontakt Pianos), I don’t get anywhere close to something that sounds nice and cuts through.
Right now, I’m using Ptq9 with increased hammer hardness with way too much (for my feel) additional processing (little bit decapitator, 1179 style comp in parallel, eq for a highs boost + low cut, little bit valhalla reverb). While sounding “okay”, I am still not near somewhere satisifed with the result.
Tried the Pianoteq curve learning feature once, the result differed from the default curve only slightly. Also did not had the feeling this improves much. Maybe I need to emphasize I was never happy with my pianosounds Maybe I don’t know how a good piano needs to sound
I am using headphones due to lack of a acousticly treated room. I tweak to multitrack recordings with disabled key channel. Often I’m happy with the result, but on the next day with fresh ears it sounds like garbage…
I am using Slate Slate VSX and compare to different Rooms.
When the sound is comparable with all Rooms (also using Aratone simulation) then I am fine.
Since I am using this, the FOH often say to me, that they can leave the EQ flat.
I can 100% copy the initial post as I‘m in the same situation while I own Pianoteq 9 with YC5 and Steinway. I never managed to create a great sounding live Piano patch with it, even with calibration.
And as so many users here seem to use Pianoteq as their goto Piano, I’d love to hear examples as audiofile or as rackspace.
Funny enough I quite like it for this song, but obviously it should have way more body. But if I lower the high boost in Pianoteqs EQ, it sounds too dull and doesn’t cut through a guitar player that rented the entire frequency spectrum
Do you also modify your Piano(teq) patches or do you just select a good one and leave the rest to the FOH guy?
For @Marbles , yes we’re using IEM on stage, the entire band.
Then I add a little compression with Mixbox with an 1176 type. Plus an EQ cutting some bass and giving some more treble. With a “British channel strip”.
But you must consider that I play in a rock band (Joe Jackson and Elvis Costello and Clash songs), so my piano is tailored to play strong and nasty.
Personally I keep it as simple as possible. NI The Grandeur Grand Pop preset going through a Plug-in Alliance SSL console strip. That goes to my global rack space where I put a global buss compressor (Plugin Alliance Townhouse buss compressor (SSL buss comp emulation)) just before sending all keyboard sounds to FOH. That cuts through the mix for pretty much anything we play (pop, country, rock, etc.)
I love Pianoteq. It’s versatility is great especially when I want some beautifully tweaked pianos. But my go to for the last few years has been Skybox Audio’s Hammers + Waves Modern Grand. This library has a ton of crazy cinematic patches, but I just can’t beat the sound of the C7 grand they sampled. For me it even beat out Keyscape which I also own. And unlike many other piano libraries, this one cuts well live, especially the “Nice One” preset.
I do use Pianoteq live for its upright and some really soft hybrid felt sounds. If I were to pick a piano to run live from Pianoteq I would say the Steingraber works pretty great.
