My pianos *DEBUNKED*

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".

CyberGene Thanks so much! All of that I kind of read about, but I just wanted to know what the facts are , and if there were open accusations.

Indeed I also downloaded one instrument, even searched for a SFX player only for that, etc, and I was very pleased with the sound. Then I noticed, that my Noire plugin was actually giving the sound. When I changed it to the library, I immediately came to the conclusion, that it is unusable for me. The whole story is surely interesting, but I hope no one was hurt in any way with this! Thanks again for the recap.

Best

Gamma

As for the notion that this fraud was an attempt to attract attention from Cyber Gene ...

Note that these piano libraries were uploaded to Piano World, which CG seldom frequents anymore.
And also to a Linux music forum, which CG has never mentioned so I assume he doesn't go there.

If the fraud was some sort of bait, it was poorly cast.
My conclusion: It wasn't bait at all.

The only thing that annoys me is that "Sofia" seems to have an inflated notion of him/herself in that he/she thinks that he/she pulled the wool over everyone's eyes, and that everyone who dislikes Pianoteq liked his/her piano. That's simply not true. Some people didn't comment because they didn't think these libraries were worth the bother. There are countless piano libraries available. I think four or five of them are worth bothering about.

It caught taushi out like a rag doll though, and many others, including triple M. It's pretty much damage control, or save face control. But of course it's too late for that, which is why this incident is considered as major - a major embarrassment that is for some (or many). For myself, I'm ok, as I don't use VST or P-teq yet. I'm thoroughly enjoying the P-515 and P-525.

I'm not on sofia's side though. I don't condone pranking anybody. But that experiment from 'lucy' was obviously unexpected. Probably a bit of a win for pteq. But this also goes back to what I had been saying for a couple of years as well, where I mentioned that in the future, if pteq is able to produce their finest physical/acoustic model (various layers, various conditions), and then hand over pteq generated samples for the sampling and resonance gang/crew to do their magic on/with, then the results could be spectacular. And looks like lucy demonstrated some of that idea. And no - I'm not 'lucy'. I know how to 'code' though. But then again, heaps of people know how to 'code' these days in various languages.

@CyberGene I wonder if you can get some info by tracing the IP from "Sofia"… I tell this because I was banned on some forum (they didn't take well a joke 😆!) and my IP prevented me to access or re-register (so I used a VPN service 😬)

Maybe "she" was also hidden that way…. But if not, I guess you can get some info to trace him.

Jose EB5AGV yes, I see the IP but frankly I don't care 🙂 As I said, the "Sofia" guy(s) have not stepped over any forum rule.

And, as @Johnstaf said, it's hilarious how they are trying to present it as a successful hoax, whereas it's apparently failed because it was uncovered prematurely 🙂

CyberGene yes, I see the IP but frankly I don't care 🙂 As I said, the "Sofia" guy(s) have not stepped over any forum rule.

OK, my aim was to debunk that some people from our select group 🙃 were involved, as some other people says / jokes about. All in all, it was a fun ride IMO. The 😈is in the details! (and in the fake pianos it seems!)

CyberGene And, as @Johnstaf said, it's hilarious how they are trying to present it as a successful hoax, whereas it's apparently failed because it was uncovered prematurely

Please, do allow me to humbly disagree!

As far as forum “hoaxes’ go, this one went on for quite some time, and it was not till someone ‘round here suggested there was something fishy about the whole thing that some suspicion arose, but even then we gave Sofia the benefit of the doubt, and she decided to come clean.

The nerds at PW didn’t have a clue about the “hoax” till someone directed them here!

P.S.

Notice how I use quotation marks for “hoax”, for I consider this more of an experiment.

And I’m no longer using quotations for Sofia, for “he” will forever be Sofia, the hot 22-year-old Italian student who made many fall in love with her, and some admit -by extension- that they do indeed love the king: Pianoteq!