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Conventional wisdom has it that the way to create an authentic acoustic piano in software is to sample the instrument as extensively as possible.

And boy, do developers capture lots of samples: Steinberg's The Grand ships with a 3.5Gb library; NI's Akoustik Piano requires 15Gb of hard disk space; and the soundbank for Synthogy's Ivory is a jaw-dropping 40Gb.

Modartt, however, think differently. Far from being a multi-gigabyte behemoth, at just 8Mb, their new piano plug-in is a mere slip of a thing.

This being the case, it probably won't surprise you to learn that the software isn't sample-based; instead, Pianoteq generates its sound in real time.

What's more, its unique design means that as well as being capable of emulating the classics of the past, Pianoteq can also create new piano models of its own.

Hands on

Pianoteq is a download-only purchase and its small size means that you can buy, install and authorise the software in a matter of minutes.

Opening the plug-in – there's no standalone version, sadly – reveals an interface that's functional but certainly couldn't be described as over-designed.

The first area of interest is the preset menu and you won't be finding any straight emulations of real pianos here.

The two original grands that are included (C1 and M1) are based on mathematical analysis of several real pianos and the presets do a fair job of showing off what they can do.

You also get four miscellaneous instruments (including a marimba) that provide evidence of Pianoteq's ability to generate sounds that are outside of its core remit.

Below the presets menu is the Tuning section – here you can make the kind of adjustments a piano tuner would. If you want to go honky tonk, for example, this is the place to come to.

To the right of this is the Voicing section; you can set the hardness of your hammers at piano, mezzo and forte velocities (soft, medium and hard) and also add or remove hammer noise.

The intriguing spectrum profile window can be found here too – this lets you adjust the intensities of the eight overtones that form a large part of the piano's sound.

To the right of the Voicing section is the Design area. This can be used to change the size of your piano and adjust its soundboard characteristics.

If you want to roll the sonic dice, you can have all the Tuning, Voicing and Design parameters set to random values at the click of a button.

But given how unpredictable the results you get from this can be, you may choose to press the Undo button shortly afterwards.

The lower section of Pianoteq contains what Modartt refer to as its standard controls.

These include an EQ/velocity curve window, four pedals and a reverb unit with a selection of presets. You can also configure Pianoteq's output (stereo, mono or headphones) and optimise it for your computer.