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Hi, I was enchanted by the Mozart piano music performed using the original instruments - forte piano of the Mozart era. I am wondering whether there is a digital piano that has a good sample for this instrument. Thanks~

There are several period/antique piano libraries for the Korg Kronos.

Nord Piano has fortepiano samples. And if you're OK with software, Pianoteq has some very good fortepiano models too.

Nord Piano - Mozart Fortepiano
Nord Piano - Broadwood Fortepiano (Beethoven)

Kronos looks really nice! But it is too much for a person who is looking for a simple digital piano. Kronos looks like a professional musician's workstation. Thanks for the recommendation.




In fact, I am considering Yamaha clp 685, or Kawai CA 97 (or its new version?). Can I connect my pc (in fact, it's a Macbook) that runs pianoteq set up with fortepiano samples, to, say, Yamaha clp, and does the sound come out from it (Yamaha clp)? And I don't want to do any composition or synthesizer stuff. The only thing I want is the forte piano samples. For this purpose, would the Pianoteq/Stage (the cheapest one - €99) be enough ?
I think that a better way would be that Yamaha can store such samples which I purchase somewhere. But I am not sure whether Yamaha clp or Kwai CA 97 can do that. Thanks.

Very few Yamaha keyboards allow you to load samples - maybe only the high-end workstation keyboards and synths (on the same level as the Korg Kronos). And you can only load a manufacturer's samples on that manufacturer's piano. (So you'd need a Nord to use the Nord samples.)

Not all of the Yamahas have an audio pass through for external sound, so you'll need to check for your particular piano. I've found the Pianoteq historical pianos to be quite fun to play. And not just for period music - some of them sound really great for blues and jazz. So far, I've only purchased the Stage version. I don't do a lot of tweaking, except for velocity, so it works fine for me.

Those pianos should work for this. Basically you just need two things: Your piano needs to have either a MIDI or USB jack for connecting to the computer, and an AUX or LINE in connection to receive the sound back from the computer and play it through the piano's own speakers. The only thing I'm not completely certain about that you'd need to check is that there would also have to be a way to stop the piano's own piano sound from playing at the same time. For this, you need either a Local Off feature, or a volume knob/slider that affects only the volume of the internal piano sound and not the volume of the sound coming in over the AUX or LINE connection. As far as I've seen, all pianos have one or both of these things, but I'd double-check before purchase.


FYI, that feature is available on the MOXF (with flash card), about half the price of the Kronos. But yeah, still not the kind of board the OP is looking for.

At least some Roland's HP models have "historical pianos":

https://youtu.be/XU3KpCwPeqE?t=1m52s

(Maybe it's from the HP504 upwards? I could imagine the completely modelled ones also having some.)

Dexibells can be upgraded with a few more extra sounds from the manufacturer and can also play back SF2 soundfonts. Looks like there are no fortepianos either out-of-the-box or in the manufacturer's extra sounds.

The Roland LX-7 lets you change the Temperament (Tuning Method). This is from the manual (p.18):

"You can play classical styles such as Baroque using historic temperaments (tuning methods).
Most modern songs are composed for and played in equal temperament, the most common tuning in use today. But at one time, there were a wide variety of other tuning systems in existence.
By playing in the temperament that was in use when a composition was created you can experience the sonorities of chords originally intended for that song."

The LX-7 has 10 different temperaments to choose from.

There are also several built-in forte pianos.
Here is a Tone List. Look under Other - Classical:
http://www.sinclairdesign.com/files/2314/5416/8555/roland_full_tone_list.pdf

Models LX-17, HP-605, & HP-603 might also have these features but you would need to check to make sure. I only know about the LX-7.

My Casio AP-650 has 16 different tempearments:



Yet another thing that I've never actually tried playing around with.

I'm not entirely sure that temperament is what the OP is looking for, though.

I think, if you want to play around with old instruments, Pianoteq will be the least-expensive, and most rewarding, way to do it.

There's an extensive free library, and a more-extensive "pay" library, of "old instrument" models. They sound genuinely different from the modern pianos ("K", "D", "Bluthner", etc).

+1.

And yes, Pianoteq "Stage" will work. The higher-priced versions give you more freedom to adjust the sound, but "Stage" will play all the models. I'd suggest getting the "Kremsegg" collection with it, if you're really hot to trot with historical instruments.

Even if you have to buy a set of powered loudspeakers (and if you have "LINE IN" jacks, you won't), it's cheaper than a Kronos or MOXF.

Yes, it would, and in fact I've done exactly what you suggest (using a CA67, but that's identical to the CA97 except for the speakers/soundboard), so it's definitely possible. You run Pianoteq Stage on the PC, you can connect with a USB cable using the built-in USB-to-midi facility, you run another cable from your sound card line out to the line in on the CA67/97, and set Local Off in the Midi settings on the piano. Then you can use whatever sound you want on Pianoteq (that you have a licence for, obviously; some fortepiano sounds are free and others belong to an additional paid collection), including the fortepiano sounds.

In terms of the sounds themselves, they aren't perfect by any means and suffer from the same limitations as other modelled piano sounds, but they're a lot of fun and sufficiently varied amongst the models to be usable.