Modartt Pianoteq 8 Review

Pianoteq is the argument that a piano is a system rather than a set of recordings. Every note is computed from a model of strings, hammers, soundboard and the interactions between them, which is why the whole thing fits in less space than a single velocity layer of a sampled grand.

Playability is the reason

This is the part that does not come across in a demo and is obvious within a minute of playing.

A sampled piano has a finite number of recorded velocities and crossfades between them. A modelled one has none, because there is nothing to cross-fade — the hammer strikes with whatever force you gave it and the model responds continuously. Repeated notes do not retrigger the same sample. Sympathetic resonance is calculated from what is actually sounding rather than approximated from a resonance layer.

For anyone who plays rather than programmes, that responsiveness is the product, and it is why the instrument turns up in live rigs where load time and disk space also matter.

The tonal trade

It is audible. The absence of release samples is the specific thing people notice: the way a real note stops carries information about the room and the mechanism, and modelling that tail is the hardest part of the problem. To some ears the result reads as slightly synthetic, particularly on solo, close-miked material where nothing else is competing.

This is a real objection and not a matter of setting. If your reference is a specific recording of a specific instrument in a specific hall, sampling is the technology built to give you that.

Customisation, and the interface

Because the instrument is parametric, almost everything is adjustable — hammer hardness, string length, unison detune, soundboard behaviour, microphone placement. You can build instruments that do not exist.

The cost is a parameter set that takes real time to learn, and an interface that presents a lot of it at once. The presets are good enough that this can be deferred indefinitely, and the depth is there when a part needs something the presets do not cover.

Specs

Type	Physical modelling, acoustic and electric keyboards
Formats	VST, AU, AAX
Size	50 MB
Load time	Effectively instant

Who should buy it

Players. Anyone whose relationship with a piano is through a weighted keyboard rather than a piano roll will notice the difference immediately and will not go back.

Anyone building a mockup that has to sound like a particular record should sample instead. And anyone here for the electric keyboards specifically should read the clavinet roundup first, because Pianoteq covers them as add-ons rather than as its main event.