Modartt user forum - VPC1 Review

Re: VPC1 Review

2013-08-19T13:24:31Z

Cute James wrote:

Now the question is, which touch curve does feline1 prefer?
The built-in Pianoteq curve, or sigasa's custom curve?
Answers on a postcard...
James
x

Amendments on the latter to come!!!

Re: VPC1 Review

2013-08-19T12:23:41Z

feline1 wrote:

I haven't fiddled with the curves at all yet, they seemed OK out of the box!

The default 'Normal' touch curve should play very well, yes.
However, if you're a Pianoteq user, it's recommended to select the Pianoteq touch curve (assigned to preset #3).

Cheers,
James
x

Re: VPC1 Review

2013-08-19T12:17:37Z

I haven't fiddled with the curves at all yet, they seemed OK out of the box!

Re: VPC1 Review

2013-08-19T04:04:28Z

Now the question is, which touch curve does feline1 prefer?

The built-in Pianoteq curve, or sigasa's custom curve?

Answers on a postcard...

James
x

Re: VPC1 Review

2013-08-18T21:22:42Z

imyself wrote:

feline1 wrote:
Well, I have my VPC1 set up and plugged in!
...

Re: VPC1 Review

2013-08-18T00:48:17Z

congrats feline1!

I hope it was worth waiting for!

Cheers,
James
x

Re: VPC1 Review

2013-08-17T17:56:08Z

feline1 wrote:

Well, I have my VPC1 set up and plugged in!
...

Re: VPC1 Review

2013-08-17T09:54:44Z

Well, I have my VPC1 set up and plugged in!
All I needed to do was run the installer for the 64bit windows USB driver, then plug in my USB cable and it worked fine - when I launched Pianoteq, the VPC was showing as a MIDI input.

I played away and it felt just as nice as it did a Musikmesse! It's a lovely controller (not the cheapest in the world, but I think it was worth saving up for!)

The way I prefer to use it is with good quality open-backed headphones connected to my computer (I have some by Sennheiser) and Pianoteq set to binaural output. That way, I get so much closer to the illusion that I'm sitting at a real piano. (Otherwise, as my speakers are on the other side of the room, I get the audio coming from behind my back as I play the keyboard, which is kinda wierd on anything but the electric rhody/wurly/clav instruments)

Basically I get a great playing experience and it's more realistic than ever. My only slight gripe is that I do still find that Pianoteq has a potential to produce digital clipping/distortion on its own output if the volume is too high. You can eliminate this by fiddling with its output levels, but I do think more attention should be paid my Modartt to stopping this happening. There is a limiter function but it doesn't seem to entirely prevent it.

Re: VPC1 Review

2013-08-14T21:06:16Z

Nor was the TV recorder, whose transfers failed. Nor was the hub I've used as a buffer against direct USB 3 connection, and whose ports have burned out with the USB 3 devices attached. Both USB 2, um, too, in a world that's overtaken them. Well hubs and so on are cheap, but VPC1's and laptops are capital equipment, and I'll be looking to protect them.

Re: VPC1 Review

2013-08-14T18:28:48Z

The Kawai VPC3 is not a USB 3 device, though....

Re: VPC1 Review

2013-08-14T15:00:19Z

Perhaps to have written "And 2 of the 7 ports on the hub have since burned out [when used]." would better have expressed the likely cause of the burnouts, namely the greater currents called for by USB 3 devices. Admittedly I have cable.... but before disconnecting it (or hiring sevice) I'd rather go a less disrupting way (US Open tennis nearing). Similarly I could just let the power supply for the TV fail, then go in and refurbish it; only I'd rather not.

Anyway, unwrap slow, deliberately! With care. (ADDED: I have a most unamusing story to show just how much WITH can go into that 'With care', but I'll save it, hurts a bit.)

Re: VPC1 Review

2013-08-14T13:40:25Z

custral wrote:

I have a settop box to record TV by, and it exports its onboard recordings OUT via an old style USB A plug. That is, though excellent gear, it's aging, wouldn't know about USB 3. And it so happens that these days the USB drives you can buy are all standard USB 3.
.... And 2 of the 7 ports on the hub have since burned out. 3, 4..7 can be anticipated. I see my most recent HP laptop has 2 of its 4 USB ports as USB 3. Hewlett Packard knows there's a problem here.

This seems very odd to me! I wonder if perhaps there's some kind of crazy ground current flowing through your system, coming in from an external rooftop aerial or cable feed? I had a cable TV system here once where I got insane ground loops when I connected it to my audio gear (I measured a current of 1.5A flowing through the chassis at one point) before I finally got an engineer from the cable company who knew what I was talking about and fitted an isolator on the cable feed..

Anyways, I got my VPC1, finally!
I only had time last night to unwrap it, not plug it all in.
Stay tuned

Re: VPC1 Review

2013-08-14T03:23:48Z

I have a settop box to record TV by, and it exports its onboard recordings OUT via an old style USB A plug. That is, though excellent gear, it's aging, wouldn't know about USB 3. And it so happens that these days the USB drives you can buy are all standard USB 3.

First sign of trouble was the occasional failed export. This quickly worsened to 5 out of 5; simply the power supply in the recorder was being stressed past usability, and in fact was likely headed for complete failure.

Cure? Buy a mains-powered USB 2 Hub, and plug the USB hard drive in downstream of that. Reliability of transfers was totally restored.

And 2 of the 7 ports on the hub have since burned out. 3, 4..7 can be anticipated. I see my most recent HP laptop has 2 of its 4 USB ports as USB 3. Hewlett Packard knows there's a problem here.

And so do I. I'm now aiming to power my VPC1 via the mains adapter, and as soon as I can I'll abandon Kawai's USB 2 cable for MIDI, chained to a USB 2 MIDI-to-USB converter, to finally chain to laptop.

Sure it'll jack up the latency in the chain, but I'm sure I can live with 0.005 sec of delay - good as never even know about it.

Re: VPC1 Review

2013-08-12T12:40:26Z

I would presume that Kawai have engineered the MIDI outs on their VPC1 so that there's no difference in latency at that end...

...there may be differences at the receiving end, depending what you are plugging in to.
E.g. some very old (1980s) MIDI inputs may have UARTs that are a bit sloppy by today's standards...
...and conversely, some USB inputs on some computers may not have the best chipsets and drivers and latency ever (particularly if you also have other USB devices plugged in at the same time).

My suggestion would be: play armfuls of notes with your elbows, and listen to the difference in performance with either cable.
If one sounds better than the other to your ears, then use the better one.
If you can't tell any difference, then relax

Re: VPC1 Review

2013-08-12T00:40:44Z

samol wrote:

Hello everyone,
I'll soon update my korg sp250 (+ Focusrite Scarlett 2i4) for a VPC-1.
Should I use the Usb output or the Midi output ? Is there a difference in latency ?
Thanks

Either will be fine. I don't believe there is a difference in latency between USB and MIDI, however please feel free to try both and report back with your experiences.

Kind regards,
James
x