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Version 6.1 introduces a new spatialisation technique which brings more air and presence to the instruments. Interesting.

https://www.pianoteq.com/listen_comparison?compare=v60-v61

I notice a difference. Less mush when playing notes with sustain. There are some instruments with presets where I don't hear that artificial resonance, and I find myself enjoying Pianoteq this morning.

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It sounds better. You can try it for free. It's worth your time if you're in the "meh" camp, but not if you're in the "nyet!" camp.

I wish there was a way to toggle 6.0 and 6.1 on and off to do a comparison. I can't say it sounds any better or worse ;0

Hmm, can't you keep two versions at the same time? Well at least you could with 5 and 6 trials.

I am in the meh to maybe positive camp now, I was previously in the no way due to the artificial tone. I either notice that less, or the improvements are noticeable. Mostly I think it's due to my having the FP-90, suddenly the expressiveness sample modelled rather than sampled pianos have is something more palpable. My previous bargain MIDI keyboard didn't quite give you the feel to appreciate that.

Still prefer Arturia's sound at this point.

The Arturia German grand sounds very authentic.

With the P6.1, the Grotian and the K2 sound more real. On all the pianos, I definitely notice the less mushy sound when playing chords with pedal. This would bother me as it created a sense of distortion.

I wish they didn't say which was 6.0 and which was 6.1. The difference to my ears is REALLY subtle, and I'm probably talking myself into which I believe sounds better....

I only played with bluethner since the update.

IMO, in terms of realism, the difference between 6.0 and 6.1 is much bigger than the difference between 5 and 6.

IMO, when the they went from 5 to 6 there was a big change in the timbre of the sound, but not much in realism.
Now with 6.1, the big change is with realsim, although the timbre didn't change so much.

By the way, I almost gave up on Pianoteq two weeks ago, here is a post I opened about it:
http://forum.pianoworld.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/2711953/an-apology-to-the-forum.html#Post2711953
But eventually I found a new velocity curve, that solved my problems, and I'm into Pianoteq again

I agree over the difference between 5 and 6. I keep trying 6 with different parameters
but haven't liked it yet. It's usually down to the velocity curve.
Looks like I'll have to get stuck in again . . . .6.1 does sound promising. Thx for informing us!

Just listened to the demos. It will be a couple of days till I try it and I'm quite curious to see live impressions.
For the demos, the difference is subtle indeed, but it's there. I have the feeling the sound is a little more natural, airy.

From the demos it just sounds like a shift in the stereo soundstage to me. The timbre of the pianos is the same (and that is the thing I find lacking).

Anyway, a dumb question no doubt but how do I actually update my PianoTeq (stage) to 6.1?

In the pianoteq site : Support / User area.

You need your login/password

Thank you!

Even incremental improvements are welcome; since these are free. Usually, by update .5 we notice drastic changes/improvements.

Well, I just incremented up to 6.1, fired up the new version and got quite a shock. The sound across the keyboard seems harsh and nasal, with what appeared to be some right channel/high note residual distortion way down in the mix. Some high notes were distinctly different in character from their neighbors. I tried switching from headphones to speaker, fiddling cables, etc, without any benefit.

Well, it turned out that I had neglected to shift my desktop power setting from 'an always on but with CPU throttling possible' mode I use for backups to a full power, un-throttled mode. Instantly these nasty sonic characteristics went away. Once I recover I'll give 6.1. a good listen.

I only report this tale because I never thought a power setting would affect the actual character of the sound a VST produces--only whether one got pops, dropouts and the like. But it does!

p.s. This is on a fairly powerful desktop: 6 core i7, SSDs, 24 GB RAM, etc.

Wow, that is really interesting - you should report this to Pianoteq forum.. Sounds like a bug to me.

Osho

You can have both installed at the same time no issue. I kept v5 installed along 6 because I prefer the bluthner v5 over v6.

IMHO, bluthner sounds more generic in v6 now, a brighter sound. In v5 it had a more gentle attack and darker warmer timbre that actually genuinely reminded of some older bluethners I heard in recordings, which is rare with pteq for me, because the timbre with other pteq models never remind me of a real acoustic piano generally speaking, but with the bluthner I felt there was some resemblance compared with recordings of the real thing at times.

v6, in my subjective opinion, the bluthner went backwards in terms of a sound signature for my liking. Perhaps Modartt tried to mimic the modern variants of the instrument in v6 a bit more ? who knows. I also use a customised fxp someone made in pro few years back, to this day this is still one of my favourites pteq sound presets using v5 where it works best, because it was made in that (Pro) version.

Doesn't really help considering I use none of those presets. And I'd rather not listen to what they provide. It's too bad we can't hear the changes in real time by toggling back and forth versions, and using whatever controller we have. After upgrading, it still sounds the same to me ;0