Collection: Steingraeber & Söhne Silent System

Silent System with Steingraeber Sound: The “adsilent” Steingraeber Edition

Steingraeber now offers the new “adsilent” silent system in the Steingraeber Edition. This is how pianists get their money’s worth in headphone mode as well, and experience real Steingraeber concert grand piano sound.

Steingraeber Presents World First: The adsilent Without Sampling

The 40th anniversary of digital sampling is just around the corner and the small but traditionally innovative piano manufacturer Steingraeber & Söhne is about to spell out its end. At least as far as piano sampling is concerned, a process which has never been able to replicate faithfully the actual professional sound quality of an acoustic piano. Such was digital sampling’s limited memory capacity that it was necessary to make extensive use of so-called ‘derivative sounds’. As a result not only was the true dynamic breadth of the piano inadequately realised but jumps and gaps in the reproduction of chromatics and overall dynamics furthermore defined the sampled piano experience, especially over headphones. These inadequacies are now a thing of the past. 

Stunningly Authentic Digital Piano Sound

Steingraeber has come astoundingly close to an authentic sound yet using an electronic piano, thanks to a cross-border cooperation with France via Germany, down to Austria, and across to Japan.

‘Physical modelling‘ is the name of the concept behind this new digital and much more authentic approach, and is based on complex software developed by French engineer, mathematician and piano builder Philippe Guillaume. Using this software, the company adsilent has successfully com-puted the Steingraeber Concert Grand Sound using a highly sophisticated modelling process, without the need for a supercomputer on the one hand, while dispensing with the all too well-known deficiencies of signal-based sampling on the other.

What pianists will now hear when they mute an acoustic piano or grand piano is a Steingraeber & Söhne E-272 Concert Grand with its clear and distinctive sound architecture, one which no longer raises the spectres of electronic ‘smoothing’ or harsh treble regions found in sampled pianos. And although the Bayreuth piano manufacturers still prefer the natural sound of the piano, they have nonetheless made a enormous leap towards their goal of satisfying their truly discerning customers.

The new piano sound is distributed via adsilent which makes it available to a wide range of musi-cians and enthusiasts. All Steingraeber instruments with a silent function now come with the Steingraeber Concert Grand Piano Sound. 

Even Then The First

The silent function in acoustic pianos has been on offer since the 1980s. Even then Steingraeber & Söhne was the first piano company in the industry to offer a ‘midi function’ in cooperation with an electronics enthusiast from Öhringen, and they even equipped Rainhard Fendrich’s touring grand piano (although according to the contract it wasn’t a Steingraeber but a Yamaha).