I thought I'd make this post to show people how to re-enable the disabled keys in the Pianoteq trial
using Patcher in FL Studio. I hope this is not the wrong section for this.

As you know the trial disables these 8 black keys: F#1, G#1, A#1, C#5, D#5, F#5, G#5, A#5

Which in FL Studio correspond to F#3, G#3, A#3, C#7, D#7, F#7, G#7, A#7.

To make a fully playable Pianoteq, open Patcher and add 2 Pianoteq instances,
in one instance, set the tuning from "440 Hz" to "467 Hz",
this modified instance will play the disabled notes.



Add a "VFX Keyboard Splitter" before the modified instance, so that it only receives the disabled notes, here's how I setup the curves to only leave F#3, G#3, A#3, C#7, D#7, F#7, G#7, A#7 on:



And here's the finished thing:



Of course when you want to change a preset in Pianoteq , you have to change the preset in both instances,
and not forget to set the tuning to "467 Hz in the instance connected to "VFX Keyboard Splitter".

To save time you can save a Patcher preset matching with the Pianoteq preset,
this is also helpful when the 20 trial timer runs out, you can just quickly reload the Patcher preset and the timer is reset in 2 seconds:

 

Last edited: Oct 16, 2025 at 3:41 PM

I thought about it for a while, whether or not to put out this "secret" into the public domain...
If they decide to patch it then I guess it's just one more incentive for the likes of R2R to have a go at it.

 

well actually that secret was known from 2015
look at Pianoteq 5 Extended Trial releases on sister site

 

Yes, that's why I put the "secret" in quotes, lol,
it was stowed away in an obscure little corner, I decided to let it out into the light!

I remember someone uploading a channel rack template / FL project,
I also remember a post in the Russian tracker, but FL Patcher makes life so much easier.

 

Last edited: Oct 16, 2025 at 5:47 PM

Finally got it working. I have to Transpose down one semitone! Thanks! You are a genius!

I don't have any problem with the 20 minute limit, thanks to your idea of saving the Patcher preset. Now I am just going through all the Pianoteq presets I like, setting them up, and saving them as Patcher presets, brilliant!

 

Last edited: Oct 16, 2025 at 9:20 PM