Modartt user forum - Pianoteq + mini-PC on stage

Re: Pianoteq + mini-PC on stage

null@example.com (Beto-Music) — Wed, 10 Jul 2013 22:43:48 +0000

Indeed...

You can thanks Modartt for never give up.

teamsterjim wrote:

Oh, BTW, PTeq 4 is fierce, the Upright is the icing on the cake...

Re: Pianoteq + mini-PC on stage

null@example.com (teamsterjim) — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 23:49:48 +0000

Or you could just build a very powerful 1U and stick it in an ATA 4U ShockRack with an 18" LCD where the slanted mixer would go. But then this might be more power than some folks need.

I have rack mounted Analog Synth (3U) with the 1U PC above the synth, unnoticable, and the LCD is just above.
In the back is the 1U XITE-1 DSP Rack (PCI-e 1X Soundcard) and the SurgeX protection which I need from all of the MAC Lights, and other Dimmer packs that interfere with ITB rigs.

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Oh, BTW, PTeq 4 is fierce, the Upright is the icing on the cake. Sampled Pianos are good if you don't know what the Sostenuto does, or need a Harmonic Pedal, or enjoy your own idea of what a Piano should sound like.
They are too perfectly tuned and sound too white.

Re: Pianoteq + mini-PC on stage

null@example.com (Luc Henrion) — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 13:25:43 +0000

well you could tell the people: this is not a laptop, just a music stand ;-)

Re: Pianoteq + mini-PC on stage

null@example.com (CuriousDan) — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 11:38:15 +0000

Remember Luc, that my own personal goal was that people should not figure out "aha, he's got a laptop there". So my idea was - and still is - to bring a keyboard, a NUC and my Lexicon soundcard. Nuc and Lexicon are on the floor. The preset changes should be done entirely via a numeric keypad.

However, I'll wait a bit with the purchase as I've just read today that Intel will introduce the new fanless Haswell NUCs later this year.

Re: Pianoteq + mini-PC on stage

null@example.com (Luc Henrion) — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 14:51:25 +0000

My own "research" is, together with running Pianoteq of course, to replace my music stand with a rather big (touch) screen, connected to a laptop or mini-PC, just in front of me above the keyboard... But until now, despite the fact that I already did some performances this way, I'm not 100% happy: the definition of a paper sheet is still much greater than any screen, even "full HD" or better. When it's just a chords grid, OK, but when it's a Beethoven 's sonata, that's another story !
BTW, I already found two interesting devices: the USB switcher I wrote about (from the Scythe company), to "turn" the pages, and the freeware "PDF Xchange viewer", from Tracker Software, that enables you to display the pdf files full screen, AND to annotate them in various ways!
http://www.tracker-software.com/product...nge-viewer
MUCH smaller than Adobe products, and very convenient!
If you prefer Adobe Acrobat, maybe you know that an older version of Adobe Acrobat Pro version (7.0, in CS2) is now free to download from their own site. No support and no warranty it will run on your system, but since it's free, you've nothing to loose! On all my PC's (XP/32 & Win7/64), it runs just fine...
http://www.adobe.com/downloads/cs2_downloads/

Re: Pianoteq + mini-PC on stage

null@example.com (custral) — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 14:40:29 +0000

No graphic skills? Coming -

Google Sketchup

- right up. Get it via

Google DLOAD

Seemingly downloading from CNET will saddle you with undesirable accompaniments. You'd hope Google would be different. Also, looking up the Wiki, seems Google has transferred main development to a new company, though they both still run in-team.

Anyway, you could certainly run yourself up models now, suited to whatever DIY skills you have. For myself. setting out to achieve some fitment that'd sit secure upon a VPC1, I'd choose to build it out of sheets of chipboard glued together with PVC woodworking glue. 3D Printing being too miniature in scope at present.

Which pretty much reduces to sawing chipboard, to get to reality.

Re: Pianoteq + mini-PC on stage

null@example.com (Jake Johnson) — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 13:23:59 +0000

I remember looking over the Open Lab things on their site. They were trying to provide an entire workstation along with their own operating system. They still offer a 37 key version, called the Miko LXD, and it looks good, but it's almost $5K US at Guitar Center. My thought is to just change the shape of a decent Fatar controller. If I had EvilDragon's graphic skills, I would create a drawing. The keyboard would just have a lowered middle section for the laptop, which the user would provide, and second lowered section, or a bay, for the sound card, which the user would also provide.

I know. Not an astonishing notion. Surely something has to give--stage pianos, by design I suppose, offer very limited control over the parameters, synths with a sampling ability or a decent piano have stayed at a high price, and the various vsti boxes are as expensive as a decent laptop.

Re: Pianoteq + mini-PC on stage

null@example.com (Luc Henrion) — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 06:28:07 +0000

Open Labs did something like that a few years ago. But it didn't seem very reliable, albeit rather expensive... They seem out of production now. So it IS hard to do it right, maybe ;-)

Re: Pianoteq + mini-PC on stage

null@example.com (Jake Johnson) — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 16:58:46 +0000

What I've sometimes thought would be ideal: An almost normal controller with a large sunken rectangular area in the middle where one could insert a laptop. A touchscreen laptop would work best. When the laptop's lid was closed, it would lie roughly flat with the upper surface of the keyboard. The keyboard would have a soundcard built in, or a cavity for holding the player's choice of an external soundcard-in-a-box. The keyboard would also have at least 20 cc knobs or sliders for controlling the software.

Doesn't seem all that hard to create--really just a standard controller with a different shape.

Re: Pianoteq + mini-PC on stage

null@example.com (Luc Henrion) — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 06:25:35 +0000

Back to square one ! :-)
I wrote that because I just recently performed a few performances with Pianoteq running on my Asus laptop (13" screen) and it really wasn't very obtrusive on the stage while being comfortable to play with. I was using no less than 6 different presets during the performance, hence the necessity of a screen...
FYI, for another performance, where I only needed one sound, I used another, bigger laptop (17") that was also my score display (pdf files), and I was just using an USB (triple) switch to "turn the pages" !
I love laptops...!

Oh yes: the Asus was connected to a MOTU 896 audio interface that also performed all the mixing: 2 guitars, 2 voices and Pianoteq, including the monitor sends; no other mixing console needed !!!

Re: Pianoteq + mini-PC on stage

null@example.com (Jake Johnson) — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 13:20:17 +0000

Luc Henrion wrote:

sorry but if you still need a "small monitor", why don't you use a ("small") laptop instead?

Well, yes. I think the smallness of it appeals to me. It would be almost like having any vsti available in a module like the the old Roland JV1010. But without the controls, which means a screen would be needed, and so you're right. I guess we're left where we started, with basically a laptop.

I guess one side of me wants something similar to this, but with 10 knobs and an old, three-line led screen. But then I would complain that the screen was too small!

Re: Pianoteq + mini-PC on stage

null@example.com (Luc Henrion) — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 08:14:22 +0000

sorry but if you still need a "small monitor", why don't you use a ("small") laptop instead?

Re: Pianoteq + mini-PC on stage

null@example.com (doug) — Sat, 08 Jun 2013 03:02:40 +0000

I'd consider building it into a the back of a damper/soft pedal unit to sit on the floor. USB in and audio out. Is it possible to control it from an iPhone?

Re: Pianoteq + mini-PC on stage

null@example.com (Jake Johnson) — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 18:11:13 +0000

I could see coupling this with one of the little Korg NanoKontrol things or something similar. And suddenly I can see the value of a small monitor, or using a pad connected with USB as a control surface. (Did we establish that that was possible?)

Re: Pianoteq + mini-PC on stage

null@example.com (Beto-Music) — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 16:41:55 +0000

It's really very compact... now I see better.

Maybe some controller could have a compartment to fit it.