PianoFlex vs Pianoteq 9

Pianoteq and PianoFlex are two takes on the same idea: a piano that's modeled, not recorded: both compute each note as you play it. Pianoteq is the older and wider program: it runs on Mac, Linux, iPhone and iPad as well as Windows, and it plays harpsichords, vibraphones, harps and electric pianos as well as pianos. PianoFlex is for Windows and plays pianos only, and it gives you every setting it has, four layers and song videos for $79.

What they have in common

• Small downloads. PianoFlex is 16.6 MB and Pianoteq about 50 MB, with nothing more to download.
• You shape the piano itself, not a choice of recordings: the hammers, the strings, the soundboard, the microphones and the room.
• Every strength of touch. Neither has velocity layers, so a note changes smoothly from the softest touch to the hardest.
• The same everyday tools: a keyboard on the screen you can click, a velocity curve to fit your MIDI keyboard, half-pedaling, sostenuto and soft pedals.
• Files: both play a MIDI file, render it to an audio file, and record what you play.
• A new piano at random: Pianoteq has a Random button; PianoFlex has Vary and Randomize. Both can put two sounds side by side to compare them.
• A program and a plugin, standalone and VST3, and a free demo with eight notes silent.

Where Pianoteq stands out

• Pianos with their makers' blessing. Modartt's grand pianos are endorsed by the companies that build the real instruments.
• Any computer. It runs on Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone and iPad, and as AU, AAX and LV2 plugins as well as VST3. If you're not on Windows, Pianoteq is the modeled piano you can use.
• More than pianos. Its 26 instrument packs include 13 acoustic pianos, and also harpsichords, harps, vibraphones, marimbas, a classical guitar and electric pianos, with historical keyboards free in every edition.
• Morphing. In Standard and PRO it blends two instruments into a new one, such as a harp and a vibraphone, at the level of the model, and layers instruments across the keyboard.
• Note-by-note editing. PRO edits about 30 settings for each key separately, with thousands of editable overtones, and runs inside at up to 192 kHz.
• Microphones for a mix. Standard and PRO place up to eight microphones anywhere around the instrument, on up to eight output channels.
• Tuning, touch and pedals. It takes Scala tuning files for other temperaments and scales, answers polyphonic aftertouch, and calibrates its velocity curve to your keyboard for you. Its four pedals can each be any of twelve kinds, from the harmonic pedal to the historical pianos' buff stop and Mozart rail.
• A MIDI player with playlists, a list of what you recently played, even when you didn't press Record, and export to WAV, FLAC or MP3.

Where PianoFlex stands out

• Everything for one price. $79 gets all 34 presets and every setting: shaping the piano, the microphones and the layers. In Pianoteq, shaping the piano model, the microphone settings and layering come with Standard ($269) and PRO ($399), not with Stage ($139).
• A new character at a click. Generate gives the piano a new character, drawn from nearly a billion, and its Strength runs from a subtly different instrument to one unlike any real piano, suitable for film and cinematic music. Variation makes a close relative of one you like. Vary and Randomize move the sliders a little or a lot.
• Shaping from the bass to the treble. Seven settings, such as Hardness, Damper and Knock, can be drawn along the keyboard, so the top of the piano can answer differently from the bottom.
• Four pianos at once. Four slots each hold a piano. Switch between them, or turn on two or more to play them together as layers, in one room.
• Song videos. Make video turns a MIDI file into a video of notes falling onto a keyboard, tall for phones or wide for YouTube, with the piano's own sound.
• As simple as you like. Piano settings shows as much as you want: Hidden, Mix & touch or All.
• No account and no activation. A license key, typed once, and no limit on your own computers. Pianoteq is activated, on up to three.
• Made to play ComposerFlex's songs, our songwriting program, with no setup.

Which to pick

• On a Mac, Linux, iPhone or iPad: Pianoteq.
• For instruments beyond the piano, or to morph one into another: Pianoteq.
• For note-by-note editing, or a multi-microphone mix: Pianoteq PRO or Standard.
• On Windows, for every setting of the piano, four layers and song videos at the lowest price: PianoFlex.
• If you'd rather have no account and no activation: PianoFlex.

Owning both

Many players keep more than one piano and pick one to suit the song. These two are easy to have side by side, and each has things the other doesn't. Both have free demos, so play them on your own keyboard: Pianoteq's is on modartt.com, and PianoFlex's is here. This page doesn't compare how they sound. That's for your ears.

The facts side by side

Every fact about Pianoteq 9 is from Modartt's own pages, checked on 4 November 2026. Prices are list prices in US dollars; sales come and go.

More: virtual pianos compared, a table of 28 pianos, and all about PianoFlex.

If something here is out of date, write to [email protected] and we'll correct it.

Sources

• https://www.modartt.com/pianoteq_overview
• https://www.modartt.com/pianoteq_features
• https://www.modartt.com/buy
• https://www.modartt.com/try
• https://www.modartt.com/faq
• https://www.modartt.com/user_manual?product=pianoteq&lang=en