Modern D vs Pianoteq vs The People

RIP · 2024-10-05T13:59:24+00:00

As a Sunday clacker (note1) here are my impressions: Modern D may be very good, perhaps even "the ultimate" VST, but it's not for me because it does not have a demo and because I'm fed up with both Mac and Windows computers and I would accept only a Linux version or a tablet (don't say they don't have enough storage or CPU, since some of them have more storage or CPU than my desktop). And by the way, I wonder how this compares with @dore_m Experience pianos rather than the others you mentioned. @David Lai you might tell them this feedback (Linux/Tablet and giving demo) if you care. WRT the demo, some people would say "you can't download 18GB for a demo", so let me pre-emtively respond: a) my download speed allows that pretty easily, and I'm on the cheaper/slower tier of my internet provider, and the vendor could put it on a peer-to-peer network if they can't afford the extra load on their servers b) I would be happy to entertain a demo with say only half the keys working for 9GB, even more "crippled" than the pianoteq demo. Some people love, some people hate Pianoteq. A few (or maybe a lot, but they "look like" they are a few simply because they are just not vocal?) like it for what it is or at least can live with it. I am in the latter category. I agree with what most (or are they just the most vocal?) people on this forum say, i.e. that the sound is unsatisfactory. But then everything else that I could try with a demo or soundcloud recordings (excluding Modern D which I did not have time to listen to) has an unsatisfactory sound too. Each one sound is unsatisfactory in a different way, so I picked the one that I could live with, and which I like for other characteristics (I like its user interface a lot, again, not perfect but much better than others that I tried, it runs on Linux, both Intel and ARM) and policies (I love that they have a demo, which I used to make my mind before deciding to buy it). If you can't live (and let live) with the previous bullet, I'm very sorry for you and I'm not going to engage in a live and let die thread Speaking of which, I'm really appalled to see hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of messages on the Modern D and Pianoteq so devoid of useful content (heck, even devoid of useful opinions!). Well, I'm sure there is some useful content in there, but it's so buried in repeated and repeated and repeated attacks to each other's point of view that makes me really wonder if you guys have a life. I mean we somewhat drove off the site KFB and SP because they flooded the forum with lots of repetitive comments and then we do it ourselves? What a shame! I think this is just a self-feeding trolling, from which we have no way out until "the world will explode" as somewhat I said already so I won't repeat myself (note2) (note1): in Italian, a very common derogatory way of addressing people that do something at a very low level only when they have time, the dictionary says it's the same in English, but I've never heard it in 20 years - so note that I am purposefully insulting myself (note2): that conversation was about an off-topic politics discussion and this is on-topic, but I see the same attitude and it sadden me in the same way, and mutatis mutande I feel about these new threads exactly I expressed at the time, e.g. at the link below. #102136

pianow

pipAT
yea they're a piece of history but a lot of people still have them
and you won't believe this, a single stradivari violin costs 17 - 25 million dollars💀

pianow

pipAT I thought e-instruments borrowed these historical instruments from a museum.

i wish they've done a better job with them, the playability of this series is very bad, the legato sounds are super hard edged and annoying and there's a certain digital quality to all of them that disgusts me

i find the emotional violin to be a lot better but still it's not as playable as something like audio modeling swam violin

Pete14

QuasiUnaFantasia

Thank you! That’ll help me sleep better tonight, and what the heck, I’ll go back to calling it “physical modeling” even if it’s not “physical” per se! 😁

Let’s get physical, physical…..I wanna get physical, physical…..(remember that song? Oh, they don’t make ‘em like they used to)……

pipAT

pianow Maybe they were afraid to break these dearly instruments and the museum wouldn't allow players do aggressive movements. The tone is quite nasal.

QuasiUnaFantasia

Pete14 Let’s get physical, physical…..I wanna get physical, physical…..(remember that song?

Best thing since Xanadu. 🙂

pipAT

Pete14 Physical modelling didn't surprised me. They called PTQ 4th generation of piano. It's great in some ways. I didn't buy that honestly, even though I like it.

pipAT

pianow Another thing I remember about Garritan Authorized Steinway is Steinway was very picky about what Garritan was doing when they were collaborating on this project. Some claims the authorization had a limited time, so this vi is no longer available. How long PTQ will hold these brands?

pianow

pipAT
good point but i personally don't think that's the main problem
i feel like they have sampled and scripted those instruments as if they were pianos
long sustains without any kind of emotion, with a deeply flawed synthetic vibrato engine, and the worst part is the playability and how it handles legatos, it's just a nightmare, i deleted them from my collection long ago, the 4 of them were 100GB, 100GB!!! for something that is unusable
i'm from iran and that eastern violin flirty (it's like the player is playing with the pitch all the time) is very important to me which i can't replicate with the cremona quartet series, to be honest, no virtual violin can do that unless it's something specific for that genre, but CQ series is just bad
i love emotional violin a lot better but when it comes to that middle east flavor the only thing that i can rely on is audio modeling swam strings (even though they sound like garbage and i always have to drown them into reverberations so i can somehow hide their synthetic qualities.

pianow

pipAT
it's unbelievable how much they cared for that sampled piano but they just don't give a fawk about how pianoteq sounds, maybe they think it's a new technology and we should be gentler with it
idk

Sofia_MZ

Hello everybody,

I haven't checked the forum in a long time but I just found this thread.

There are a few things I'd like to clarify.

I'm not a Pianoteq advocate (or detractor), do not work nor have any connection with Modartt., and have no interest whatsoever in the sterile argument modeling versus sampling.

I wasn't trying to prove any point or change anyone's mind since that'd be a fool's errand.

I sampled Pianoteq and created my libraries for personal use in my piano practice. I was just curious how well they rated compared to commercial VSTs.

Publishing them on the Internet had two simple purposes: 1) Have the largest possible number of people trying my libraries and provide unbiased opinions. 2) Elicit critical feedback so that I could improve them.

Period.

Within its scope, my experiment was a glowing success. Lots of people downloaded my pianos and provided overwhelmingly positive responses across several forums.

Matter of fact, I still receive a dozen emails every week from people wishing to try my pianos.

Thanks to the users' comments and suggestions, I was able to expand and improve the libraries in ways I hadn't anticipated.

That's the long and the short of it.

Whatever constructions, illations, justifications, or theories people came up with in hindsight are their own, and shed more light on them or their agenda than mine.

Also, it has been insinuated that 'Sofia' received emails of a sexual or untoward nature. Nothing would be farther from the truth. All the people who contacted 'her' were helpful and respectful.

I'm not an immature person, and would merely find it improper to divulge the name of any individual who reached out to 'Sofia' in good faith or the content of their communications.

Whether the legend behind the pianos played a part in the people's response is anyone's guess. And the girl in the pictures is not AI-generated LOL.

Now, back to piano practice.

Cheers.

dore_m

Some regulars here on the forum know that Sofia's actions caused me real business planning distress, I wish we could just give the entire thing a rest. I thought I could let this blow over - and I thought it did, but is it really back? Seriously. I don't care about the motivations, the person behind. I can be over this if we can just let it be over with. Please.

Pete14

Sofia_MZ I sampled Pianoteq and created my libraries for personal use in my piano practice. I was just curious how well they rated compared to commercial VSTs.

Publishing them on the Internet had two simple purposes: 1) Have the largest possible number of people trying my libraries and provide unbiased opinions. 2) Elicit critical feedback so that I could improve them.

Really?

Then why weren’t you transparent from the beginning, and instead pretended to be a young Italian girl; which, that alone, would elicit less-critical feedback, because, you know, nobody wants to break the heart of a young gal going ‘round Italy sampling pianos, and tell her that her pianos suck straight up (well, maybe except for Pete, who never took you seriously from the very beginning, but then Pete’s just a rude troll who tends to scare-off newcomers)…

Sofia_MZ I'm not an immature person, and would merely find it improper to divulge the name of any individual who reached out to 'Sofia' in good faith or the content of their communications.

I thought that when you came clean you said you were a teenage boy, so no, you’re not mature, unless that was made up too, and you’re a grown man?

I also don’t buy that you were just passing by and happened to notice this thread, because you never came back after the whole “Sofia” thing came undone, so I wonder what your true agenda is….

P.S.

That being said, I did have fun with your prank, and some thought that maybe I had a little too much fun. 🤣

anna

pipAT Please, please try www.audiomodify.com. It also has voice packs.

pipAT

anna Thanks for introduction. It looks interesting.

FREIRE

I've just tried Modern D with a trial of the Synchron Stage Reverb. I found it very nice. Changes the character of the sound quite a bit.

gen1

I agree with most comments here about Pianoteq. It has great dynamics, very playable, but the sound is so artificial. Some notes are worse than others, but that metallic sound on harder playing and higher notes is bad. Then you have the opposite on some modelled pianos they include, which can sound all wooly and soft to try and cover the artificial sound. I have found on the demo's anyway, by adjusting all the different settings you just end up moving further away from a real piano sound. You can in fact make it sound like the guitar sound pack, so don't even bother buying that because you can probably already tweak one of the piano sounds for that. All in all, the sound is disappointing and is not worth the money they are charging for this product. If it were cheaper it would be more acceptable given its limitations on the sound quality. I keep downloading the demo's, since version 6 I have tried the demo's and the sounds don't change. There are no improvements. They just add new pianos like Kawai or the guitar, but they are not improving the sounds of the standard pianos. This is what they need to work on imo.

HZPiano

gen1

Short answer:

Yup.

Long answer:

Yup! Same here.

Cheers,

😉

OlivierW

try :

https://grand-artist.com/

it use yout pianoteq engine, but sound better.... it's an app with presets and incredible sound

David Lai

OlivierW It's basically PianoTeq, maybe with some settings tuned differently, knobs pushed, ETC. But at the end, I don't know what pianos they're trying to model, I just know, and can hear, that it's Pianoteq.

srodrigo

I can't tell whether it sounds better or worse than Pianoteq to me. It definitely sounds peculiar and resembles Pianoteq.

I can tell that no VST out there sounds close to 100% realistic to me though, including the better regarded ones.
VSL sounds weird with sample layer changes, which I can spot on every demo recording.
Modern D has a nice tone but it doesn't sound anything like a Steinway D to me, it's like a shadow of the actual instrument. Maybe it's missing richer resonances, which wouldn't surprise me as it says they sampled them. I was listening to a few Modern D recordings this morning and I'm nowhere near considering purchasing.

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