Virtual piano comparison

CyberGene

Here is yet another, mostly random comparison between two virtual pianos. I didn't aim for anything in particular. I just started them and recorded for two minutes. I didn't play the same thing, it's just some random improvisations that are nevertheless within the same general feel of slow jazzy chord arpeggios and stuff. Both files are 2 minutes each.

Let me know what you think about each one, what do you like, what do you not. Anything you would like to say, you may try to guess which is which if you like too 🙂 Ultimately, there's a poll asking which one you prefer.

piano1.wav

piano2.wav

HZPiano

Hello,

Now CyberGene could of course be fooling us all with the same virtual only with slightly different settings 🤔.

Cheers and happy guessing,

HZPiano

Hello,

Definitely a fun poll 🙂.

Preference for #2, because:

Fuller
Rounder
Even tone
Nicely bodied
Not nasal (as piano 1 is)
Clarity
Realism (resemblance to an acoustic)
Note separation.

Cheers and happy polling,

Del Vento

They sound almost like the same instrument to me! The 2 is slightly more bright, hence for the same reasons mentioned in the S. vs B. thread I prefer the #1

navindra

Del Vento They sound almost like the same instrument to me! The 2 is slightly more bright, hence for the same reasons mentioned in the S. vs B. thread I prefer the #1

As MacMacMac is fond of saying, all the Pianoteq instruments tend to sound the same since they tend to share the same core characteristics. 😉

David B

Piano 1 seems to have a brighter sound with more metallic twang in the overtones. Piano 2 seems to be a bit warmer and more mellow.

I picked piano 2 for my preference, but it's tough to pick because good playing always makes most pianos sound good. Thanks for sharing the nice piece.

God Bless,
David

CyberGene

David B it's tough to pick because good playing always makes most pianos sound good. Thanks for sharing the nice piece.

Thank you! I'm really glad that you liked it since it's an absolute improvisation, not planned or thought in advance. Mostly some intentionally dark and mystic chords and arpeggios 😃 I can play like that for hours with no aim but I doubt there will be many people liking it 🤣

I can share the two MIDI files if someone is interested (including to re-render them with other pianos/settings)

Del Vento

CyberGene doubt there will be many people liking it 🤣

Well, for too many hours might be too much, for for an hour or two, maybe while chatting with friends or reading PC 🤣 I'd love that. So you have at least two audience members, when are you going to release the CD?

David B Piano 1 seems to have a brighter sound with more metallic twang in the overtones. Piano 2 seems to be a bit warmer and more mellow.

That is strange that I hear it the other way around! But the difference is small anyway….

navindra

David B Piano 1 seems to have a brighter sound with more metallic twang in the overtones. Piano 2 seems to be a bit warmer and more mellow.

I would agree with this characterization. I felt the second piano was a bit too dull in the sense that the sound felt a bit "truncated" in the higher frequencies if that makes sense. I feel the same way with the SK-EX engine. Could just be my ears.

I would also say the first piano is more alive... the second one sounds too dull in the midrange and higher to me (the bass seemed fine).

The initial bass section for the first piano felt a bit too harsh to me (second piano felt better) but after that the first piano started to sing to me. I preferred the initial bass section of the second piano but afterwards the other characteristics and lifelessness bothered me more.

David B

CyberGene Thank you! I'm really glad that you liked it since it's an absolute improvisation, not planned or thought in advance… I can play like that for hours with no aim but I doubt there will be many people liking it 🤣

Wow! That's really good. I feel like I can listen to that for hours.

QuasiUnaFantasia

Piano 2 sounds better, to my ears. Particularly during the fast arpeggio's. Piano 1 reminded me of Garritan CFX Lite.

ClothEaredNincompoop

#1 Slightly nasal mid-range of a Steinway, a bit of Pianoteq like artificialness perhaps(?)

#2 Not that different, probably a sampled VST

vagfilm

They are both very good, but I go for #1 simply because I prefer the more close sound of #1 vs the more ambient sound of #2. The first loud bass notes sound better on #2, while the resonance after the loud middle section (around 1:05) is gorgeous on #1. I think that it would be possible to tweak #2 to be more close in sound to #1, and then it would probably be my preference.
Can we start making wild guesses? (and wouldn't it be great that one of them is a Pianoteq - since CG is improvising, he can avoid hitting the silent notes of the pianoteq demo 😉 )

CyberGene

I don’t think many other people will be interested in the comparison, so I will reveal the results in a spoiler frame 😉

Piano 1 is Pianoteq Steinway D Classical Recording
Piano 2 is Garritan CFX Full

I liked that PT preset since it has more reverb and approaches the natural reverb in the Garritan CFX. Surprisingly the bass notes are OK in PT which is usually something that is quite lacking but they are still hollower than Garritan. Highs are also kind of OK and better than usual. But it’s the mids that are very clanky and disappointing and just made it meh for me. The quick passages in the middle on PT become very congested and muddy. Garritan is soooo smooth and beautiful!

Del Vento

CyberGene I don’t think many other people will be interested in the comparison, so I will reveal the results in a spoiler frame

Cool, very interesting results. Thanks for posting it! I'm make a comment in a spoiler frame too

Interesting that PTQ fooled a couple of people and almost so a few others, and even you don't dislike it so much anymore. Perhaps this video by the usual Phil Best explains a bit about it and maybe in a few updates it be very close (if not quite usable) for everybody.

Tomorrow (always good to have it settle for a day) I will make a few more listening more critically looking for the typical things that I like and don't about each one of these two instruments/settings 😃

Deleted

CyberGene I personally prefer the Yamaha CFX voice over any Pianoteq EP. But I also prefer the analog Yamaha CP over Ptq as well.

It would have been nice having a real acoustic recording thrown into the mix, while recording the virtual instruments through microphones as well. Would be amusing to see how many people dislike an original and go for the digital fake instead.

HZPiano

Hello,

Fun! 'Spoiler frame' is a new distinction for me.

From my vote for piano #2, and now knowing what it is, I am somewhat surprised for I never fully liked undisclosed but from your two snippets, @CyberGene, #2 it is not bad at all.

Cheers and happy voting,

CyberGene

Seems like people who usually like Pianoteq liked Pianoteq again 😀 What a surprise!

I’d say the difference is small and they sound almost similar, yet at the same time it’s too big of a difference for me. I can hear little details in Garritan that are ever so tiny but make it alive whereas in Pianoteq there’s a certain sameness to the sound and that’s a paradox for me because it’s the samples that are expected to be static.

navindra

CyberGene I can hear little details in Garritan that are ever so tiny but make it alive whereas in Pianoteq there’s a certain sameness to the sound and that’s a paradox for me because it’s the samples that are expected to be static.

In recent versions, Pianoteq introduced humanization options, so quite a few parameters can be configured to vary slightly during a performance. There's also the condition slider which makes the piano not so perfect. I don't think this is enabled by default in any of the presets.

I also can't really tell if humanization makes a difference or not. I enabled all the settings on my recent recording. 😆

vagfilm

Pianoteq Steinway after all... What a trickster, CG... Curiously, I desliked more the bass notes than the middle octaves. I was betting that piano 1 was ModernU with the bass ramped up. But Pianoteq was also a possibility because the bass sounded like pianoteq: deep and thunderous but lacking higher frequency harmonics. Piano 2 I guessed correctly.
If you want to know how that sounds in VSL Steinway, I can render the midi file.

Btw, i was again without access to PC for several hours... Strange...

navindra

vagfilm It seems every time we have these blind tests, someone finds they like Pianoteq when they previously thought that they didn't!

If I recall correctly, that was also a turning point for me. Someone had posted some blind tests on PianoWorld and I found myself liking the Pianoteq renderings quite a bit.

CyberGene

This has been split from another discussion. It seems vagfilm has some issues accessing the forum from time to time. If anyone else has some issues too (meaning it's not an isolated case), please post, so that I research.

vagfilm Btw, i was again without access to PC for several hours... Strange...

What’s the exact error you get? Is it a CloudFlare one?