Pianoteq

Physical models? Yes thanks! We are at the turning point, at the beginning of a new era of digital music, we are at the moment when the long phases of laboratory experimentation give way to the finished product. We have talked a lot about the synthesis of physical models, and we have also presented, in the previous issues of this magazine, softwares entirely based on this technology capable of giving results beyond our expectations, among which Arturia Brass, Lounge Lizard 3, String Studio, just to name a few, all virtual instruments capable of simulating real sounds without using samples. But never before has a simulation of the acoustic piano been seen. A team of French researchers is writing a new chapter in this immense book of sound technology.

Piano and technology:

The piano is a very ancient instrument (Fig.1), its origins date back to the early XNUMXth century, but its shape and structure evolved slowly and enormously to become as we all know it today. The sound of a piano, well we all know it, has a thousand facets and infinite variations like many other acoustic instruments, but what characterizes it in a completely unique way is its dynamics. Structurally speaking, it is a strung cordophone, in which each fret corresponds, through a complex mechanism, to a hammer that strikes one, two or three strings simultaneously depending on the pitch of the note. The vibration of a single string can produce an almost infinite variety of harmonics, reducing them in amplitude as it fades, until it almost ends towards a single sine wave. The vibration of several strings in unison, in a soundbox where there are other strings that are not vibrating but subject to "nice" solicitations, enriches the harmonic spectrum even more, sometimes in a completely random way, otherwise regulated and schematic. Just this complexity, until recently, made it impossible to simulate it by means of digital systems. We have seen how a computer can simulate instruments such as the Rhodes piano, the trumpet or the guitar but, let's face it, none of these instruments are as complex as a piano. In truth, there are even more complex instruments, such as cymbals (those of the drums, so to speak!), Or a gong, or even a snare drum, but if today's technology is true that it has taken this path, it will not be surprising if soon or later it will be possible to simulate an entire battery with physical models! Meanwhile, we begin to cheer, history is changing! Advantages of physical models:

Advantage number one:

Pianoteq (Fig.2) is a plug-in that takes up just 9 Mb of physical disk space and, once running, uses no more than twenty Mb of RAM, which is dynamically allocated during its operation. The software load time is less than 5 seconds on a normal 4 GHz Pentium2.4, and the change of presets is almost instant. Well, do we want to start making a comparison with a sampled library of several gigabytes already? No, let's continue with the analysis first. A physical model instrument allows you to intervene on the parts making up the sound as if you were mechanically intervening on the real musical instrument, with the addition of some sci-fi extravagance impossible to achieve on real instruments. For example, in Pianoteq we can not only choose the hardness of the hammers or the intonation of the tailpiece, but we can also lengthen or shorten the harp, or dampen vibrations, or alter the harmonic content until we are light years away from the sound of a piano. and run into sounds previously unheard of. Another advantage: the dynamics. With physical models we don't have to worry about sample layers, multisamples, or loop points. If the MIDI protocol allows 127 levels of dynamics, here we use them all! And we want to talk about all that part of the sound that makes a piano "alive" compared to its digital audiography? Let's give it a name: I'm talking about resonance. Pianoteq simulates the resonance of the entire tailpiece (have you ever tried to speak in front of a mattress base, or in front of a drum tom?) And its behavior as a function of the sustain pedal, it also simulates the "sympathetic" resonance, which vibrating strings of a key already pressed when different notes are played. Example: I press the A of the second octave very lightly trying not to emit any sound, and I keep it down; now I play the stems on other higher notes. When I'm near multiple harmonics of that A at 110Hz, I'll hear resonances. What about the notes of the last octave and a half that don't have dampers? Obviously those also resonate. Well, all this with sampling is not possible. And maybe it never will be. And now let's move on to the analysis of the instrument, but I warn you: to understand Pianoteq well you need not only to know the piano, but also to know a little sound theory.

The interface and structure:

The interface is very contained (Fig.3), clear and well structured, divided into six fundamental sections. The three sections at the top are related to the actual components of the model, while the others complete the possibilities for customizing the sound. The first section is called TUNING, within which it is possible to choose the general pitch and temperament; by default the temperament equals is set, the one to which our ear is most accustomed. The Unison Width command sets the detuning, that is the slight out of tune between a string and the others relative to the same note. Recall that a classic piano has a single string only for the first eight notes, then the two-stringed and three-stringed frets begin. The Octave Stretching command allows you to stretch the pitch towards the extremes of the extension, making sure that, for example, the frequency given by the A of the sixth octave is not perfectly double the A of the fifth octave, but a few hertz more.

It is more a perceptive and taste factor: slightly moving a frequency away from its nominal (or theoretical) value makes listening more pleasant. The last command, called Direct Sound Duration, is used to compensate for any variations in the decay of the notes that could occur following a different setting of the Unison Width or the hardness of the hammers. In practice, referring back to what was said earlier about the complexity of the harmonic content of this instrument, the highest concentration occurs in the moments following the attack of the sound (Fig.4). If the model is altered, a longer duration of these high-pitched harmonics could greatly falsify the final result. This command intervenes allowing us to correct this fundamental aspect of the piano sound to our liking. Proceeding to the right we find the VOICING section. This section has more to do with the purely tonal aspect of the simulation. The first three controls called Piano, Mezzo and Forte regulate the hardness of the hammers during the three fundamental divisions of the total dynamics. In reality, it is not the hammer that varies its hardness, but it is the string that reacts differently depending on the force with which the hammer strikes it. In the Spectrum Profile box we find eight vertical sliders or corresponding to the first eight harmonics of which it is possible to adjust the amplitude over a range of +/- 15 dB. Unlike an equalizer (present at the bottom left), this section acts precisely on the frequencies of each single note.

An example:

If I increase the second harmonic by 6 dB, it will happen that playing an A at 440 Hz will have an emphasis of the frequency of 880 Hz, as well as playing an F at 630 Hz the frequency involved will be 1260 Hz. If with a parametric equalizer I increase by 6 dB the 880 Hz, I will hear this variation only around that specific frequency, that is, I will not notice the effect if I play, for example, an A at 3520 Hz. It must also be said that these first eight harmonics are those which most influence the overall timbre of the sound of a piano, in particular the seventh harmonic which tends to define that “metallic” character. The Hammer Noise control, as the name suggests, regulates the presence of the noises of hammers and other mechanical parts. The next command, called Character in a rather generic way, intervenes on the irregularity with which the harmonics following the first eight are amplified. An extreme adjustment of this parameter totally upsets the timbre making it metallic and unpleasant. Finally, Soft Pedal adjusts the intensity with which the sound is softened when the “one string” pedal is pressed.

DESIGN Section:

These commands are related to the mechanics and geometry of the piano. The Soundboard subsection contains three commands that affect the properties of the metal structure on which the tailpiece is mounted. The alteration of one of these commands can decisively influence the decay of the notes, and not only the total time of the duration of a note, but also and above all the order in which the harmonics dissolve until leaving room only for the fundamental. . The Piano Size control has some bizarre: it can shorten or lengthen the piano strings, starting from 1,30 meters up to 10 meters! The auditory effect is immediate, especially as regards the low notes. This command, together with Unison Width, is great for switching from simulating a large tail to that of a small studio vertical. The next two commands regulate the presence of the two types of resonance, global and sympathetic. Think that a nice piano with the lid completely open returns a fairly present global resonance. The last command, Quadratic Effect, affects only the high dynamics. The explanation of its functioning is rather complex, but in short, just think that a string struck with a certain violence tends to be out of tune for the first few moments, and this command regulates its effect. If we take it to the maximum, we will clearly hear how the three strings of each single fret tend to go into dissonance with each other until they return normally. At the bottom left we find a very useful equalizer that allows you to freely draw the intervention curve without a maximum number of dividing points. By clicking on the VEL button, another graph appears that allows us to redraw, in the same way, the response curve to the MIDI velocity. The RESET key resets the active curve and the presence of a symbol (#) makes us understand that there has been a change. On the right we find the REVERBERATION section. It is a reverb, but it is not just any reverb. Let's consider the following: everything we hear in nature, every sound, every noise, is the result of what generates that sound emission combined with environmental reflections. This means that if we are in a room listening to a piano, what we will hear will be the sound of the instrument amplified and / or altered by the reverberation that generates the environment in which it is located. At this point, after having discovered the fundamental structure of Pianoteq, I think it is appropriate to start making the necessary comparisons with any sample-library, in fact a sampled sound is the exact photograph of that sound at that particular moment, just like the instrument it generates it and the microphones take it, together with the environment. Since Pianoteq is a software that generates sound instantly, to make it more natural it also needs to generate an artificial environment in which the instrument is amplified. Furthermore, of course we would expect to hear a piano in stereo, but in reality Pianoteq generates it in mono, and makes it stereo through an MS simulation algorithm, or Mid-Side, a microphone system. To better understand what I'm talking about, you could review how to record a piano with a microphone (Fig.5). In the center of the interface, at the bottom, the symbol of the two speakers indicates that the sound is emitted in stereo. By clicking on it, you switch to the icon of a headphone that optimizes listening with headphones by slightly increasing the environment and restricting the stereo. One more click and you pass to the monophonic signal, excellent for being managed separately with external spatialization effects. Other useful controls are the Dynamics slider, which sets the maximum dynamic range in decibels, and the pop-up menus including Options, where you can, among other things, adjust the volume of other mechanical noises such as the sustain pedal and the release of the keys. ; polyphony (which includes not only the actual audible notes, but also all the other sounds including mechanical noises and resonances) can be set to a fixed value, up to 256 voices, or automatically according to two parameters, optimistic and pessimistic. I am not pessimistic, but as my computer starts to show signs of obsolescence, this is the setting I had to choose, although it manages to reach 150 notes without hearing audio drop-out, at ASIO latency of 5ms. Speaking of which, I haven't told you yet that Pianoteq, contrary to what one would expect, is very generous with the CPU. On a 3.4 GHz Pentium D at most it records a 15% - 18% usage. Sound and musicality: The gentlemen of Modartt, in particular Prof. Philippe Guillaume (Fig.6) and Dr. Julien Pommier, say Pianoteq does not attempt to simulate a specific piano brand, although I have a suspicion about Yamaha. The sound reminds me a lot of that of the Yamaha C3 libraries and actually, listened carefully and in a good system, it sounds very similar to a C3. However, the commands made available to the user leave much room for customization. Not all pianos sound the same, quite the opposite! Each of us has an ideal sound in mind, there are those who prefer it dark and sweet, those who prefer it bright and aggressive, well, here there is something for everyone. I even tried to simulate the sound of a CP70 (the electroacoustic that Yamaha produced in the 80s) with some success, if only the CP70 has a few less strings. The vertical I studied on for a few weeks as a kid had a strange, dark but metallic sound, a little out of tune and with a very long decay. With Pianoteq I tried to reproduce that tone and I was not at all disappointed. But no more chatter, now open the CD attached to the magazine and enter the DEMO AUDIO folder -> Pianoteq, there you will find two audio files for which I invited my pianist friend Stefano Bottiglieri (Ivan Cattaneo, Senegal Ritmo, etc.) to improvise something in order to highlight the qualities of this amazing virtual instrument. The first is a short arrangement in C minor over a shuffle time, while the second is a short solo I would say ... very romantic. In no case was Pianoteq's sound altered with external effects. So let your ears be the judge. And if you can try it out, by installing the demo version supplied with the magazine, try to do it with a keyboard with 88 weighted keys. I have used a CME UF8 and I must admit that it is the first time that I can finally use it with such an expressive instrument. If the master supported it, a sustain pedal with variable excursion would be easily recognized by Pianoteq to obtain the effect of the half-pedal, but also a quarter, three quarters, eighteen twenty-fourths, twelve hundred and twenty-sevenths ...

Conclusions:

Pianoteq is not just a software, it is not just one of the many plugins. It is an innovation, an invention that must be taken with due respect. Behind it is a study of years by engineers and mathematicians. Modartt defines it as "the fourth generation piano", after the real piano invented by Cristofori in 1698, after the various substitutes for the piano including the Rhodes, the Wurlitzer, the CP80, and after the sampled pianos. As far as I know, there have so far only been attempts to imitate pianos through hybrid systems, such as the Real Piano series GEMs, which use sampling for the basic sound and synthesis to recreate the resonances, but the result has never been truly excellent. . On the software side, Steinberg's The Grand used a similar technique but with several gigabytes of samples. Well, in conclusion there is a lot to think about Pianoteq, and it is not unlikely to be skeptical at first glance. The license includes a maximum of three simultaneous installations and uses on as many different machines, and the VST version for PC Wintel and Audio Units with single track for Intel Macs is provided, and registered users are offered free additional presets to model other types of pianos, mostly antiques. Technical support is immediate and updates are provided free of charge. Were you about to consider buying a piano plug-in? Well, I leave you with a historical advertising catchphrase: “people meditate, meditate…”.