Member Profile - Philippe Guillaume @ Modartt - Pianoteq

Philippe Guillaume is a piano expert whose love for pianos coupled with the limitations he faced as a piano tuner drove him to create a revolutionary product called Pianoteq. We had a few moments to spend with Philippe and to get his feedback about IMSTA and the whole subject of music software piracy.

Philippe, could you please tell us about yourself? 

I love pianos and it was always my dream to work with them when I was a teenager. My dream came true at the age of 20.

I started working as a piano tuner in 1976 when I was 20 years old. Eleven years later, in 1987, I started scientific studies at the University Paul Sabatier and became a researcher in Applied Mathematics at the INSA-Toulouse Engineering School in 1994. Ten years later, I started working on a piano model with my colleague Julien Pommier at the IMT (Institute of Mathematics of Toulouse) Research Laboratory. Ultimately, we created the company MODARTT in 2006 with the goal of promoting our new technology and bringing it inside digital pianos.   <<Philippe Guillaume

How did you get involved with Music? Do you play an instrument?

My father loved music and there was always some kind of a record playing at our home - all kinds of music - from Classical to Blues, to Folk and Tango. I started learning the piano at school when I was eleven years old. I remember how fascinated I was the first time I heard somebody playing the Etudes of Chopin - and of course I wanted to play them too. After years of practice, there are some that I could play, but not the one I always wanted to play: Etude number 23 in A minor! But anyway, I loved the piano so much that I wanted to work with pianos, and that's why I became a piano tuner. As a piano tuner, I worked for numerous piano shops in Toulouse and then I had my own repair workshop where I restored many old pianos. I have also worked for numerous concerts and music festivals in Toulouse and the surrounding region, preparing concert grands for great artists and interprets. I was always a bit frustrated not having full control of the sound to satisfy their requests. For example, when voicing a real acoustic grand, you have some control on the timbre, but cannot decide to simply increase the 6th overtone by 6 dB. How could I accomplish this I asked myself? I started dreaming of a device that could allow such manipulations of the sound... But it was too early to develop such a device as there were no computers available with the required processing power and speed. Twenty years later, Pianoteq was created with the aim of providing full control over the piano sound.

With your busy schedule, do you still find time to play the piano?

Yes, but mainly for testing Pianoteq! When a new preset is created, I take some time playing and improvising, "forgetting time and the realities of life", but then suddenly, I hear something wrong and need to go back to work and back to real life.

How does Modartt approach the software piracy problem?

We try to have a good protection, and we keep on updating new versions. We hope to improve our product fast enough that when a cracked version comes out, it will be out of date... but the problem is that the more you improve; the more difficult it is to improve again!

Why did you feel that it was important for Modartt to join IMSTA?

I believe in IMSTA’s approach of educating the music software users, and if there is enough support for this organization, then piracy will reduce in time and all music software companies will benefit. The more companies that become IMSTA members, the stronger IMSTA will be, and the more it could accomplish.

How can a company such as Modartt benefit from its membership in IMSTA?

We think that it is important to claim that piracy is not a good way of doing things, because developers need to be paid for their work. We need an association like IMSTA to educate the people using music software, and convince them that saying "the music software companies make a lot of money and they don't need more” is not a good argument. They have to know that this is someone’s livelihood and if people don’t pay for the software, then the company will go out of business. How can the developers continue with their work if they are not paid for it? If piracy reduces and there is more security in this industry, then we will be able to continue developing new products. 

Anything you want to say to the pirates out there reading this?

Well, I would like to say to the pirates that we are always very worried about getting cracked because it could lead to the death of our small company. It would be a shame if we had to stop developing our exciting and promising new technology, just because some people want to use our products without paying for them. Without adequate payment we are unable to keep up with the expenses of developing these products and you know the rest…

Modartt Team - Ramonville Saint Agne, France

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