I officially got endorsed by Modartt this week! Modartt makes PianoTeq, a physical modeling piano plugin that sounds amazing and is uber-CPU efficient (in my experience they used less than 8% of my CPU and no hard drive speeds, compared with my other piano plugins that use up to 60%). 

I first used PianoTeq back in December with Lindsay McCaul, and was so impressed by their stuff that I wrote them and asked for a sponsorship in January. 

I’m going to be pursuing more sponsorships with various manufacturers this year, and before you write off my objectivity in this blog, I’d like to explain my sponsorship philosophy. Here’s what I pledge: 

• I will never, ever, for any amount of money, endorse a product I don’t believe is amazing. There’s not enough money in endorsements to motivate me to use/write about stuff that isn’t the best, and it would hurt my music career to use sub-standard gear just because manufacturers gave me it for free. Also, I have too much respect for you, my readers, that rely on my gear reviews. 

• I will still critique publicly products I’d like to see improve, regardless of whether I’m sponsored by their manufacturer. I’ll get this started by saying that PianoTeq has amazing pianos, bells, and toy piano sounds, but I think their Rhodes and Wurlitzers models are only mediocre. Sponsorship to me is permission to have an honest dialogue with a company about their products, and I intend to share the good and the bad. Incidentally, if you have something you want me to say to a company I’m sponsored by, let me know and I’ll pass it along. 

• I will still be covering competitor’s products. For example, if I get endorsed by a midi controller manufacturer, I’ll still cover all the other midi controllers on the market and judge them as impartially as I ever have. 

Now that I’ve got that off my chest, I’m excited to take this next step toward better dialogue with manufacturers, and I’ll be sure to take you all along for the ride.