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Why are the presets so haphazardly named. One piano has a prelude mode, another has a classical mode, another had a player mode, yet another has two player modes, one has 2 chamber music modes, another has none...... You'd think there would at least be core group of 10 presets (maybe more) which would be common to all the pianos. If I happen to like the classical preset for a particular piano, why can't I even find a similar named preset for another piano?

Any ideas on how to approach discovering favorite sounds, trying to replicate presets, etc?

Nope. I have no idea why it is the way it is. Maybe ask on Pianoteq forum as you pose a good question.

Peace

Well, my approach has evolved into pick one and play.

I do not try to make a science out of finding the "Perfect" piano sound.

I find that in Pianoteq 7 it is difficult to find something that is "bad" so I just play the "piano" without regard for "Is it better or worse than ..." some other one.

I do not wish to spend my time analyzing presets and tweaking for "better".

I want to learn to play the piano .... not build one.

I'm not sure if you know this but if you press 'l' (the letter) in Pianoteq (or Window -> Preset manager), they at least provide a description for each preset.

I was at a loss at first, until I found that.

Ha Ha 3M has a different opinion on that

I have to agree with dmd. I really don't fuss with it too much and just play. Of course I just upgraded to the Pro version so that might change as time permits LOL!

You might .... just for fun.

There are some things I found useful.

I quite often would reduce the volume on the bass side of the keyboard.

I never like a big booming base going there.

In Pianoteq 7 I haven't noticed that so much.

Like I said .... I really have found that Pianoteq 7 is pretty good right out of the box.

As mentioned, above the Preset Manager is the best way right now, the descriptions are decent enough to figure out what the preset is doing. You can also create a folder for your favorite presets. It is still super-clunky but at least it works.

But I really wish Pianoteq gave us a proper perfomer's interface. Something quick and easy to navigate. I made the request over on the Modartt website, but I feel like it just fell on deaf ears.

I agree about the haphazard, chaotic preset lists. They should standardize those across all the instrument models. I tried to build a preset picker in Touch OSC where the instruments were listed by Brand and Preset Category - but the presets are so disorganized I gave up.

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Other than that, I also find Pianoteq just fine out of the box. I only change the Velocity Curve and the Output, which is why I've stuck with the Stage version. I was tempted to upgrade to Standard this time around so I could tweak the microphone placement (one of my minor annoyances in Pianoteq) - and also try out the super-cool morphing feature to build my own custom piano models.

But in the end, I knew I'd get lost in the rabbit hole of tweak-city, and I much prefer keeping my head focused on playing and performing.


Notes:
I always find it funny that the best Velocity Curve preset for the Roland FP-30 is the "Slow Keyboard". Not only is it true that the PHA-4 Standard action is a slow action, but selecting "Slow Keyboard" velocity curve makes the action feel faster.

+1

Priorities !

I agree 100%! That's precisely why I wish they had made what they considered to be roughly equivalent presets..... if I like the feel of something they call a warm sound, I would like to simply pick a warm sound of another piano to experience similar tuning of a different brand, rather than tweaking other presets...... which I probably won't find the time energy or desire to do..... I like the ability to tweak and control but I'm not actually that inclined to do much more than dabble a bit.....

in fact, if they had simply made the type of presets uniform (for example, ALL pianos get a pop preset, chamber, classical, etc), they could easily have allowed the user to switch pianos without so much scrolling, by for example locking the preset on classical recording and just selecting another brand.