My pianos *DEBUNKED*

I also think there is some personal touch here with the Italian thing, since I’ve posted on multiple occasions about how much I love Italy and the Italian culture and products 🙂

….and the plot thickens….🧐

I think it was CyberGene all along! 🤣

I feel so…. violated!

I could have tainted myself with Pianoteq!

Its beginning to look a lot like CG has been a Pianoteq agent all along, his dislike for Pianoteq always being a ploy in preparation for the attack on sampling. 😁

Or maybe I’m a double agent who had been hired by Pianoteq to act the hater that would later experience a “revelation”, but was then hired by Garritan to keep on hating and got carried away 😉

CyberGene Or maybe I’m a double agent who had been hired by Pianoteq to act the hater that would later experience a “revelation”, but was then hired by Garritan to keep on hating and got carried away 😉

CyberGene the PTQ hater, lover, hater………

CyberGene hired by Garritan

See this is where I know you can't be an agent because Garritan does not have the $$$ to pay you 😆

Jokes aside, I’m wondering if those who came up with that hoax really wanted me to bite the hook? Whether they somehow personally targeted me in a way. I would have loved to but the truth is I’ve been rather busy lately. We’re going through some uncertainty in the office due to being acquired by another company that is laying off people (and doesn’t allow working from home, so I have to be at the office 8 hours Mon-Fri), then I try to spend more time with my family, I also switched more towards synths, DAW and modern pop/rock music for a side/friend/jam project and so I’ve neglected a bit my acoustic and classical interests. I’m not sure if I have even one full hour at the N1X a week and definitely have no time for virtual pianos, I just use the onboard CFX for whatever little time I have there. And I spend my geeky spare time to improve this forum rather than argue about Pianoteq. And frankly, I’ve even forgotten about Pianoteq lately 😀 So, it’s the wrong timing for Sofia’s creators if they wanted to target me personally… Sorry 😏

I told my take on PTQ before that I think it is a good product and I use it. But I don't think it is the best VSTi piano to record solo work. I still am holding out hope that Modarrt make a leap forward and I shall keep supporting them with the upgrades as I like the company and the upgrade pricing model is very fair IMHO.

ORGANTEQ has got my love at the moment when I have some time to play with my musical toys.

Peace CyberGene and hope everything works out well for you at work.

CyberGene I’m wondering if those who came up with that hoax really wanted me to bite the hook?

I doubt that it was personal. As I recall, it was released on PW first, and then onto PC second, where the community here took up the conversation with more spirit.

dore_m Yes, I had the dubious honour of inviting "Sofia" over here, after "her" initial launch at PW.

CyberGene Whether they somehow personally targeted me in a way

That seems highly unlikely.

RIP I did not miss the fact that our own CG lives in a city called Sofia

oh...

It was released on Linuxmusicians, October 20th, 5 days prior to PW, October 25th:
LinuxMusicians My Sampled Pianos

PW My Free Piano Libraries

Holy crap the lies.... about the robot: "The critical part was the ball bearing in the pivot with Torlon plastic balls which made the operation smooth and quiet."

As a mechanical engineer myself, it was all plausible. I perceive that the most difficult part of a sampling robot is the calibration at low velocity for each setup, requiring extreme fixture stability as well as force repeatability. Bearings are the problem????

Hi, can someone show some love and please give a quick recap about all of this, the thread has 200 posts.

Fraudulent entity cloned Pianoteq, serving the clones up as sampled sfz instruments, with a mesmerizing, and entirely fake, backstory about home-built, very advanced robotic measurement-equipment, used on very expensive piano's in homes of very wealthy Italians. All available for free.

Lots of people believed the story (yours truly included).

Gamma1734 can someone show some love and please give a quick recap about all of this

A user called Sofia_MZ registered on PW, here (and some other piano-related forums) and said she was a 22 year old psychology student from Italy who started sampling various acoustic pianos from people's homes across the entire country with the intent to make a present for her father. She claimed she was an amateur in audio recording, also how a friend of hers made a robotic arm that would facilitate the sampling process. All of these sampled pianos were free to download and in the SFZ (Sforzando) format, no re-pedaling, half-pedaling, etc. Apparently some people were astonished at the quality of the samples (no noise, etc.) and the fact that a 22 year old girl with no prior experience in sampling pianos could produce so many different sampled instruments. There were new registrations on this forum that said they registered to express how much they like the pianos. Not many of the old members here tested the pianos. I, for one, wouldn't try a sampled piano with no re-pedaling and no half-pedaling even at gunpoint 😀 Our dear @David B tested the Fazioli and expressed rather high dissatisfaction. Etc., etc.

Then, someone on this forum suggested it was all a hoax and it was just Pianoteq being sampled. And the so called "Sofia" admitted it.

The interpretations are varying, from how she managed to prove people can't distinguish Pianoteq from real pianos, to how that was a failed experiment, since it prematurely ended by being debunked and how she intentionally presented the fake story about the 22 year old girl to earn easy wins for being an amateur, rather than for the actual quality of the sound.

CyberGene she intentionally presented the fake story about the 22 year old girl to earn easy wins for being an amateur, rather than with the actual quality of the sound.

I also propose that being “Sofia,” a 22-year-old Italian girl, and not just being an amateur, had a lot to do with the approval rate, but of course, I’m just being sexist!

I wonder, had it been Roberto, a hairy 40-year-old from Florida, would “he” have gotten so much ‘love’, but then again, I’m being sexist!

Keep in mind that some over at PW all-but-proposed to Sofia, “would you marry me?”, and that’s what was said publicly, for Sofia hinted at more spicy language behind closed doors; however, being the shy girl she is, she would keep these Implied conversations in confidence.🤫

Pete14 Keep in mind that some over at PW all-but-proposed to Sofia, “would you marry me?”, and that’s what was said publicly, for Sofia hinted at more spicy language behind closed doors; however, being the shy girl she is, she would keep these Implied conversations in confidence.🤫

@Pete: I guess I'm the TL;DR type. I didn't know that things had become so "juicy".