Modartt user forum - Intel NUC with Pianoteq - mini review

Re: Intel NUC with Pianoteq - mini review

null@example.com (meper) — Sun, 22 Apr 2018 22:27:29 +0000

klaberte wrote:

Sorry to ping an old topic, but wondering if others can share their experiences setting up Pianoteq on a NUC or other small PCs. If you have tried, and the results were good or bad, please share.
Thanks!

Hi!

I installed Pianoteq on a NUC7i5BRK running Win10 this weekend.
Performance wise it's great. I have it running Cantabile which I have loaded up with two instances of Pianoteq, three EQ plugins and Valhalla room reverb. No hiccups at all running everything at 48kHz, 64 sample buffer.

Pianoteq performance index is measured at 122.

The not so great is the fan and electronic noise from the NUC, but there are some things that can reduce them. The fan noise can be reduced to okayish levels by adjusting the fan profile in BIOS. The default settings were terrible (at least if you are planning on sitting close to it).

The electronic noise seems to originate from several components inside the NUC. One source is the LED driver and decreasing the LED brightness in BIOS under power settings improves it greatly. The remaining whining/whizzing noise seems to be reduced if you replace the PSU. I tested with an Innergie universal power adapter and the noise was reduced by perhaps half (I didn't measure exactly), enough that I think I won't be bothered by it at least.

It's not a cheap solution though, but it does deliver performance wise :-)

Re: Intel NUC with Pianoteq - mini review

null@example.com (klaberte) — Mon, 16 Apr 2018 17:40:24 +0000

Sorry to ping an old topic, but wondering if others can share their experiences setting up Pianoteq on a NUC or other small PCs. If you have tried, and the results were good or bad, please share.

Thanks!

Re: Intel NUC with Pianoteq - mini review

null@example.com (Gerhard) — Sun, 02 Mar 2014 21:25:54 +0000

It’s great you are learning to play the piano! Just an advice from “someone” (me) who learned on an acoustic (upright) piano: Keyboards / digital pianos are great, Pianoteq is amazing, but there is still a big difference to an acoustic instrument, especially a grand piano (I suppose the problem is rather with the keyboard feeling on one side and the speakers on the other side, and not really with the sound generation, at least not with Pianoteq). So if you ever have the opportunity of playing on an acoustic piano or even owning one for yourself, I’d highly recommend you to jump at it

Multiple microphones wouldn’t be needed in my scenario either, probably I’d even need to switch down to mono (which would be a real pity, but the circumstances don’t allow for stereo). It would as well just use Pianoteq, and maybe display some sheets on the screen, which is not CPU demanding at all …

Re: Intel NUC with Pianoteq - mini review

null@example.com (jarosujo) — Sun, 02 Mar 2014 17:10:40 +0000

Yes, that's the correct midi, thanks.
I am just learning how to play piano, started 2 years ago. Just going through Sight-reading books with my teacher. I am quite sure that power of this NUC will be enough for me for many many years to come, as currently I use about 30-50 polyphony maximum. Please keep in mind, that I have only STAGE version of PT, so I don't play with more microphones, which is for sure more demanding. Also I didn't install any software except PT and sound card drivers (no antivir...) and I disabled wifi card. I just want CPU to focus on PT only :-)
140€ is for barebone system, with RAM and SSD it's about 200€.

Re: Intel NUC with Pianoteq - mini review

null@example.com (Gerhard) — Sun, 02 Mar 2014 13:47:33 +0000

Thank you very much! This gives me a bit of a clue of what to expect from that machine. It’s still amazing (also the polyphony reaching over 220!!) for 140 “bucks” (can you say that to euros as well? ).
By the way, the link did not work, as they seem to include some session id or whatever, but I search for it and here you go (for anybody else who wants to compare): http://freemidi.org/download-12652-328

Re: Intel NUC with Pianoteq - mini review

null@example.com (jarosujo) — Sun, 02 Mar 2014 12:02:39 +0000

Regarding noise - this NUC is basically noiseless, I can not hear anything at all. Only if I put my ear like 1 cm from the unit, then I can hear fan is spinning inside.
Performance index I measured when playing He is a pirate midi was 25. Here is the link:
http://freemidi.org/includes/tng/pub/tN...20bbf8b33d
There was no problem during playback, even when polyphony reached over 220.

Re: Intel NUC with Pianoteq - mini review

null@example.com (Gerhard) — Sat, 01 Mar 2014 12:04:45 +0000

Hello,
thank you very much, jarosujo, for sharing your experiences! This indeed sounds very interesting and promising!
Would you mind posting the Pianoteq Performance index when playing by yourself and with various midi files? Is this model enough for some years (including new Pianoteq versions still to come) or would it be a good idea to invest an extra ~120€ for the new D34010WYKH model with Haswell processor?
And what about the fan noise when playing? Is it noticeable or even annoying?
Thanks in advance!
-Gerhard

Re: Intel NUC with Pianoteq - mini review

null@example.com (jarosujo) — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 10:42:28 +0000

Model I have is very cheap, only 140€. For some strange reason, basically the same model but with GLAN connector and 2x HDMI (I have 1x HDMI and 1x Thunderbolt) costs 240€. i5 version, which I would recommend for DAW, is even more. At that price point you are getting close to laptop prices.

Re: Intel NUC with Pianoteq - mini review

null@example.com (CuriousDan) — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 09:48:23 +0000

Thanks for the review! My next PC will for sure be a NUC, also for some DAW work.

Re: Intel NUC with Pianoteq - mini review

null@example.com (Mossy) — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 05:05:42 +0000

You can always RDP/VNC into a headless machine -- especially with a smartphone or tablet if you are at the piano instead of a computer.

Re: Intel NUC with Pianoteq - mini review

null@example.com (jarosujo) — Tue, 25 Feb 2014 16:40:36 +0000

Never ever :-)

Re: Intel NUC with Pianoteq - mini review

null@example.com (Lylo) — Tue, 25 Feb 2014 11:17:57 +0000

And no problem without screen ? Never, never ?

Re: Intel NUC with Pianoteq - mini review

null@example.com (jarosujo) — Tue, 25 Feb 2014 10:58:51 +0000

Jake Johnson wrote:

That's a great looking setup. Reading the specs for this mini pc, I see that it has two usb connections. One goes to the midi keyboard, so to add both a monitor and a typing keyboard with a trackpad, I guess a hub would be needed.
Do you have it set up to load Pianoteq automatically on boot-up?

Yes, Pianoteq is in Win 8.1 startup folder, so it starts automatically. NUC has 3 USB ports - one used by piano, one by external sound card and one is empty. When I was setting it up, I used hub to connect mouse and keyboard. Monitor is connected by hdmi or thunderbolt.

Re: Intel NUC with Pianoteq - mini review

null@example.com (jarosujo) — Tue, 25 Feb 2014 10:51:57 +0000

etalmor wrote:

Great setup and review!
Thanks for that, I was hoping to hear someone actually try it out.
Probably now you'd want to hook up some Korg Nano (or such) USB controller to get some control back ...
If you have any updates to your setup I'd be interested in seeing to them.
Thanks
Eran.

I don't plan to use any usb controllers at the moment, no need for it.

Re: Intel NUC with Pianoteq - mini review

null@example.com (Jake Johnson) — Tue, 25 Feb 2014 05:16:27 +0000

That's a great looking setup. Reading the specs for this mini pc, I see that it has two usb connections. One goes to the midi keyboard, so to add both a monitor and a typing keyboard with a trackpad, I guess a hub would be needed.

Do you have it set up to load Pianoteq automatically on boot-up?