Modartt Pianoteq

Pianoteq – the first truly modeled piano

Pianoteq was created by the French company Modartt and based upon extensive academic research resulting in what they refer to as a fourth piano generation. Their claim is that Pianoteq is the first and only piano available belonging to this new generation. What, you say? Piano generations? OK it’s a different concept, I agree, but one that does in fact ring rather true. Modartt’s promotional materials state that the First generation was the acoustic piano dating back to 1698, the Second generation being the electro acoustic piano in 1929, the Third generation the more recent sampled piano going back to about 1984, and finally the Fourth generation being their own modeled piano first presented to the world in 2006. For a more extensive and informative look at all of this piano history and more please see their website here.

What’s It All About?

The fact you are reading this review means you have most likely played a modern-day synth or sampler loaded with some kind of acoustic piano sounds. Some are amazing, some are pretty generic and some, well, let’s just say some sound better than others. Up until now the really great ones took up a lot of hard drive space and I do mean a lot, say 40 plus gigabytes of real estate, but then again they do sound very acoustic and lifelike using sometimes hundreds and hundreds of samples to recreate the timbre and tonality of some of the great pianos in the world - cool stuff indeed. So then how in the world does this little company from France come up with a plug-in (& stand-alone app) that essentially does almost the same job yet only use just over 15 megabytes of hard drive space, smaller than many hi-rez photos, I mean it just can’t be! Or can it? Well yes, I am here to tell you it certainly can and then some.

Clearly the creators of Pianoteq are going for something quite different than the usual modern day Steinway, Bosendorfer, Yamaha and other notable piano names that are found within most every sampled piano collection. Yet it does offer quite a variety of unique piano presets and free add-ons including a Grand C1 (Fazioli F212 used as a basis); Grand C2 (Steinway D used as a basis) (chamber, concert, uneven and several others); Grand M1 (jazz, rock and honkytonk); four pianoforte from the 1800’s including a Donat Schöffstoss (1812), a Johann Evangelist Schmidt (1790), a Conrad Graf (1826) and a Johann Schantz (1790); a Se´bastien Erard, half grand piano (1922); a Carl Bechstein, half grand piano (1896); a François Etienne Blanchet, a lovely "Château de Thoiry" harpsichord (1733); miscellaneous electro-acoustic, marimba, metalophone, piano-organ and cyber piano variations, plus as many user variations on any of these presets as you can imagine.

Check this link out for a great overview of the various pianos used in these models:

As I have not had the pleasure of playing any of these vintage pianos I can only gauge the sound by what my ears tell me and in that regard this is an extremely playable instrument full of nuances that I’ve yet to hear in any sampled piano collection, nor would I ever expect to. Why is that you ask? Well let me give you a couple of very simple examples that should immediately explain my last comment.

Example 1:
With Pianoteq, when you depress your sustain pedal you’ll hear a model of the strings being released from the dampers (just as you would on a real piano!), plus you can adjust the level of this sustain pedal noise to your liking along with other useful acoustic aspects like the damper noise when a key is released, the key release duration and more.

Example 2:
Try holding an octave or a chord in the bass register without actually sounding the notes and then playing several figures or chords in the upper register (without holding down the sustain pedal) and you will hear the actual harmonics associated with the keys you are holding resonating in the background. This little feature alone continues to blow my mind every time I try it and allows for some very creative playing techniques that one just hasn’t had before with a software-based piano.

If I have caught your interest then read on as there is much more to tell.

Features, Functions and Fun!

Installing Pianoteq took all of about seven minutes including downloading the latest 2.2 version and authorization. As with other reviews the bulk of my tests were done on my now vintage Dual 2 gHz G5 running OS X 10.4.10 with Pro Tools HD 7.3.1cs5 and 3.5 gigs of SDRAM running in 44.1/24* bit mode (* I also tested at 96K finding no issue to mention), plus I also tested it on my 17” MacBook Pro running OS X 10.4.10 with 2 gigs of memory. You are allowed to install Pianoteq on up to three computers using a challenge/response which I find very generous considering that some companies only allow one or two installations for their products, nice one guys.

For composing or mixing I work primarily in Pro Tools HD, though on occasion I’ll also use Logic Pro 8 or Ableton Live. As Pianoteq supports `AU, RTAS and VST plug-ins pretty much any of the Mac or PC based hosts should work fine as long as they meet the basic plug-in and computer requirements, which unfortunately are a bit sketchy in the Modartt system specs. To that end I’d suggest downloading the demo and trying it out on your own system as it is a CPU intensive piece of software. Having said that I did not find any problems or issues with my G5 and I am happy to say that Pianoteq worked just fine on my MacBook Pro with Logic 8 as the host.

Pianoteq pic 1

The GUI is laid out quite sensibly (see Pianoteq pic 1) with related parameters grouped together such as Tuning, Voicing, Design, EQ & Velocity, and the various configuration aspects all easy to get to. You simply click on any of the main picture icons to open the various edit windows (see Pianoteq pic 2).

Pianoteq pic 2

There are way too many editable parameters to cover in this review but a few of the highlights include: a wide array of voicing parameters for editing the hammer hardness and noise; unison tuning, octave stretching and microtonal tunings; some wonderful non-real-life tweaking like changing the size and soundboard characteristics like impedance (more = a longer sound), cut-off frequency & Q-factor (overtones), piano size and the sympathetic resonance (the weight of the strings’ resonance between individual notes). I’d also be amiss not to mention the integrated EQ, Velocity and certainly the Pedal section which adds the kind of character and special effects that will no doubt have the Pianoteq’s competitors scratching their heads and wondering “how the heck are we going to do that?” For example I’ve not yet seen a sampled piano where an individual note will change its timbre based upon the same current sounding note when its struck a second time, or a soft pedal that works just like a real piano by moving the action to the right so the hammers strike the strings differently to change the timbre. And because no velocity-dependent samples are used, Pianoteq has a very smooth sound whether you are playing at a minimal velocity of 1 all the way up to a full 127 on your keyboard controller. Sound wise the quality of the upper register above C5 is quite remarkable and very lifelike, however, perhaps I just need to play a bit more with the voicing possibilities, but I cannot say the same for the lower registers which don’t quite sound beefy enough to my ears as many of the sampled pianos I have played.

Currently no less than thirty historical and microtonal scales are included in the tuning section, plus nineteen assorted concert tunings are available for performing period music such as baroque, and thankfully you can load industry standard Scala tuning files for pretty much any tuning you might imagine.

And before I forget let me mention the built in reverb processor including 12 presets from three different perspectives: player, orchestra, and listener, plus you can even choose whether the piano lid is open, semi-open or closed, and if that’s not enough just choose a preset and adjust it to fit your own needs then save it with any of your other edits in a special FXP user file. Pitch Bend is supported in increments of 100 cents up to 6 intervals. MIDI controllers can be assigned to change almost any parameter for real-time control. Pianoteq can also react to program changes and quite fast I might add, but unfortunately it does not yet work for recalling the user presets. The stereo width can be set for working with either monitor speakers or headphones, plus you can choose the polyphony and sampling rate that best suits your needs (and cpu power). In the stand-alone version a basic recorder/MIDI file player (save/load) is included along with a metronome, yet another thoughtful touch. The manual is well laid out with a short tutorial though it does not dig into certain functions as deeply as some may want. Have no fear as there is a very active online user forum where your questions can be addressed by both the designers of Pianoteq, as well as a legion of seasoned users all ready to offer useful advice including a plethora of creative user presets free for the download. Perhaps this is a good place to mention that though it may be called Pianoteq, this virtual instrument can create much lot more than just piano voicings. There are convincing Rhodes style e-pianos, organ, clavinet and a simply gorgeous Harpsichord model, but perhaps what I like the most are the unreal instrument possibilities for unique creative sound design instruments that just don’t exist in our physical world (or at least not yet).

OK I imagine at this point you are wondering how Pianoteq will sound in your own rig, so as mentioned earlier why not download a FREE 45 day demo version and find out for yourself. Unfortunately there are a few restrictions besides the 45 days as 8 notes will be silent: F#1, G#1, A#1, C#5, D#5, F#5, G#5 and A#5, but you can still check out all of the rest of the functionality and at no cost so why not go for it!

And In The End

Pianoteq is clearly on the cutting edge of a new generation of virtual instruments. Many industry stalwarts feel that sampled instruments may have reached their limits with regards to nuance and playability, I’m not so sure, but I am 100% certain that Pianoteq has an amazing amount of potential to lead us into a bold and exciting new world. The instrument is not without its faults, but nothing insurmountable, plus the designers actively listen and participate with their customer’s questions and comments, which is always a good sign. The competition has got to be noticing and getting a tad bit nervous what with the flexibility and extremely small footprint that Pianoteq offers, and all I might add at a really great price point. Yes the future for Pianoteq looks very bright and I for one can’t wait to see what its creators come up with next.

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Learn more about Mikail Graham here.