The OS is Ubuntu 20.04 using the Low Latency Kernel and KXStudio with Jack Audio at a buffer of 256.

My Audio is the Bose Tone match Mixer through USB out to the Bose L1 M2 speaker, it's super nice!

Keyboard is Lachnit FL MK23 Studio, best keyboard ever for PianoTeq, the MIDI resolution is 4096 levels of MIDI which PianoTeq can use, it creates an even more rich/colorful sound over the 128 levels of midi.

peterws wrote:

Spudz wrote:

Wow! Thank you all so much for this very detailed and helpful information. Much appreciated! Sorry for the late reply, dealing with family members quarantining here, but we are all good now.

Yes, I agree the latency issues were a problem until I installed ASIO4All and then it worked great. I have been running the Yamaha P-515 through and old Dell PC and using Pianoteq 7.3, and some inexpensive speakers, mixing with the Yamaha onboard speakers. Just the addition of these inexpensive speakers and the New York Steinway sound makes such a huge difference to the realism of the sound. I can imagine that with an even better set up, and better quality speakers and better room arrangement, Pianoteq will be even more incredible. But my husband wants his PC back, hence the question. Sounds like maybe a desktop might be a good option.

Anyone wondering about the Yamaha P-515? I have been quite impressed so far. Had it for a few months, but the action has been really enjoyable. Took a bit of tweaking all of the settings to get the best response, but having a quality action on a digital, has made the playing experience almost comparable to my acoustic. Sound wise, with headphones it is better than my acoustic, but with my inexpensive speakers, not so much. The acoustic still can't be 100% reproduced in touch or overall sound experience. BUT, as everyone is at home, living in a small space, and nobody wanting to hear me practice, the P-515 has been a sanity saver. And the headache of the not quite in tune piano, (because no tuner is coming to our town due to the pandemic), is solved with Pianoteq. As good as the Yamaha CFX sound is, adding the Pianoteq sound overtop is really satisfying. Pianoteq just adds another layer of realism that is really quite remarkable. (Sorry, preaching to the choir I know.)

Thank you all so much, really appreciate you taking the time to share your expertise.  I was a school music teacher, but recently downsized due to the pandemic. So  I now have plenty of time on my hands. Pianoteq and the Yamaha have saved my sanity and my likely that of my family. Now I can practice silently, but have the satisfying sound of the New York Steinway or Bechstein, and that is priceless to me! Happy playing and stay safe everyone!

After the latest 7.3 upgrade and especially the addition of that beautiful Petrof (It's so woody!) the CFX and everything else on the 515 now sounds so false I cannot stand the damn thing.  I'd get rid apart from the keyboard and those little speakers which i find very adequate for my little room.
I can't wait to see what the future holds here.  But it'll be good . . . .

Even if the pace is slow, Pianoteq has made great strides IMHO these last couple versions.   Can't wait to see what the next piano pack shall be.  I'm like a little kid at Christmas time.

Yes, Pianoteq is sounding better all the time. Really wanting to try the Petrof too. Great to hear good reviews of it. Trying to justify another grand piano download purchase. You might have me convinced. Yes, like Christmas alright. As wonderful as the acoustics are, who has the money or space, so this will be the closest I ever get to a grand in my living room. Petrof Christmas in April present to myself?

Interesting comments about the Yamaha CFX sounds. I agree, against the VST's the CFX doesn't sound quite as rich or sonorous, or as realistic, unless you really turn up the volume, even then. With headphones, much better.  But, compared to my old Pianodisc silent system I had installed on my upright, the CFX sound is an incredible improvement. That is one thing I would never do again, install an after market silent system in a piano. An install from 2014 that Pianodisc considers obsolete, and non-repairable, or at least not easily repairable, without installing a whole new system. On an acoustic instrument that could last a lifetime, that doesn't fly with me. Hence the Yamaha P-515 purchase.

Spudz wrote:

Wow! Thank you all so much for this very detailed and helpful information. Much appreciated! Sorry for the late reply, dealing with family members quarantining here, but we are all good now.

Yes, I agree the latency issues were a problem until I installed ASIO4All and then it worked great. I have been running the Yamaha P-515 through and old Dell PC and using Pianoteq 7.3, and some inexpensive speakers, mixing with the Yamaha onboard speakers. Just the addition of these inexpensive speakers and the New York Steinway sound makes such a huge difference to the realism of the sound. I can imagine that with an even better set up, and better quality speakers and better room arrangement, Pianoteq will be even more incredible. But my husband wants his PC back, hence the question. Sounds like maybe a desktop might be a good option.

Anyone wondering about the Yamaha P-515? I have been quite impressed so far. Had it for a few months, but the action has been really enjoyable. Took a bit of tweaking all of the settings to get the best response, but having a quality action on a digital, has made the playing experience almost comparable to my acoustic. Sound wise, with headphones it is better than my acoustic, but with my inexpensive speakers, not so much. The acoustic still can't be 100% reproduced in touch or overall sound experience. BUT, as everyone is at home, living in a small space, and nobody wanting to hear me practice, the P-515 has been a sanity saver. And the headache of the not quite in tune piano, (because no tuner is coming to our town due to the pandemic), is solved with Pianoteq. As good as the Yamaha CFX sound is, adding the Pianoteq sound overtop is really satisfying. Pianoteq just adds another layer of realism that is really quite remarkable. (Sorry, preaching to the choir I know.)

Thank you all so much, really appreciate you taking the time to share your expertise.  I was a school music teacher, but recently downsized due to the pandemic. So  I now have plenty of time on my hands. Pianoteq and the Yamaha have saved my sanity and my likely that of my family. Now I can practice silently, but have the satisfying sound of the New York Steinway or Bechstein, and that is priceless to me! Happy playing and stay safe everyone!

After the latest 7.3 upgrade and especially the addition of that beautiful Petrof (It's so woody!) the CFX and everything else on the 515 now sounds so false I cannot stand the damn thing.  I'd get rid apart from the keyboard and those little speakers which i find very adequate for my little room.
I can't wait to see what the future holds here.  But it'll be good . . . .

Even if the pace is slow, Pianoteq has made great strides IMHO these last couple versions.   Can't wait to see what the next piano pack shall be.  I'm like a little kid at Christmas time.

Wow! Thank you all so much for this very detailed and helpful information. Much appreciated! Sorry for the late reply, dealing with family members quarantining here, but we are all good now.

Yes, I agree the latency issues were a problem until I installed ASIO4All and then it worked great. I have been running the Yamaha P-515 through and old Dell PC and using Pianoteq 7.3, and some inexpensive speakers, mixing with the Yamaha onboard speakers. Just the addition of these inexpensive speakers and the New York Steinway sound makes such a huge difference to the realism of the sound. I can imagine that with an even better set up, and better quality speakers and better room arrangement, Pianoteq will be even more incredible. But my husband wants his PC back, hence the question. Sounds like maybe a desktop might be a good option.

Anyone wondering about the Yamaha P-515? I have been quite impressed so far. Had it for a few months, but the action has been really enjoyable. Took a bit of tweaking all of the settings to get the best response, but having a quality action on a digital, has made the playing experience almost comparable to my acoustic. Sound wise, with headphones it is better than my acoustic, but with my inexpensive speakers, not so much. The acoustic still can't be 100% reproduced in touch or overall sound experience. BUT, as everyone is at home, living in a small space, and nobody wanting to hear me practice, the P-515 has been a sanity saver. And the headache of the not quite in tune piano, (because no tuner is coming to our town due to the pandemic), is solved with Pianoteq. As good as the Yamaha CFX sound is, adding the Pianoteq sound overtop is really satisfying. Pianoteq just adds another layer of realism that is really quite remarkable. (Sorry, preaching to the choir I know.)

Thank you all so much, really appreciate you taking the time to share your expertise.  I was a school music teacher, but recently downsized due to the pandemic. So  I now have plenty of time on my hands. Pianoteq and the Yamaha have saved my sanity and my likely that of my family. Now I can practice silently, but have the satisfying sound of the New York Steinway or Bechstein, and that is priceless to me! Happy playing and stay safe everyone!

After the latest 7.3 upgrade and especially the addition of that beautiful Petrof (It's so woody!) the CFX and everything else on the 515 now sounds so false I cannot stand the damn thing.  I'd get rid apart from the keyboard and those little speakers which i find very adequate for my little room.
I can't wait to see what the future holds here.  But it'll be good . . . .

Yes, I agree the latency issues were a problem until I installed ASIO4All and then it worked great. I have been running the Yamaha P-515 through and old Dell PC and using Pianoteq 7.3, and some inexpensive speakers, mixing with the Yamaha onboard speakers. Just the addition of these inexpensive speakers and the New York Steinway sound makes such a huge difference to the realism of the sound. I can imagine that with an even better set up, and better quality speakers and better room arrangement, Pianoteq will be even more incredible. But my husband wants his PC back, hence the question. Sounds like maybe a desktop might be a good option.

Anyone wondering about the Yamaha P-515? I have been quite impressed so far. Had it for a few months, but the action has been really enjoyable. Took a bit of tweaking all of the settings to get the best response, but having a quality action on a digital, has made the playing experience almost comparable to my acoustic. Sound wise, with headphones it is better than my acoustic, but with my inexpensive speakers, not so much. The acoustic still can't be 100% reproduced in touch or overall sound experience. BUT, as everyone is at home, living in a small space, and nobody wanting to hear me practice, the P-515 has been a sanity saver. And the headache of the not quite in tune piano, (because no tuner is coming to our town due to the pandemic), is solved with Pianoteq. As good as the Yamaha CFX sound is, adding the Pianoteq sound overtop is really satisfying. Pianoteq just adds another layer of realism that is really quite remarkable. (Sorry, preaching to the choir I know.)

Thank you all so much, really appreciate you taking the time to share your expertise.  I was a school music teacher, but recently downsized due to the pandemic. So  I now have plenty of time on my hands. Pianoteq and the Yamaha have saved my sanity and my likely that of my family. Now I can practice silently, but have the satisfying sound of the New York Steinway or Bechstein, and that is priceless to me! Happy playing and stay safe everyone!

Under US$200, you're looking at the Raspberry Pi 4 or the Odroid N2+ (with a touchscreen). These are DIY/maker/developer boards, so a bit bleeding edge and ARM OS restrictive, but nothing the average person can't work through.

Under US$300 you can get a mini PC running a Celeron J4125. These are user-friendly and have better performance than the Pi 4 / N2+. If you just want to get up and running fast, the J4125 runs most flavors of x86 Linux and there are lots of devices on the market.

Under US$400 you can get a mini PC running an Intel Core i5-8265u. A significant performance boost over the previous computers, it’s an older but fast low-cost processor - a Pianoteq "bang-for-your-buck". It also can run most flavors of x86 Linux.

Notes: More CPU cores makes the Pianoteq Performance Index more stable (less wild fluctuations). All the computers I mentioned above have 4-core CPUs (or better).

sigasa wrote:

Hi guys,

Interesting thread.

I have an i7 HP laptop with windows 10 OS. Even though I followed several performance tweaking manuals inc. Gig Perfomers' and Cantabile's, I still get hiccups with glitches etc. I am thinking of moving to Linux Ubuntu Studio as I only use the laptop for Pianoteq. I think the performance improvements will make the learning curve worth it. I would however appreciate any input on this. I have used Linux briefly before now but am nowhere fluent in it.

Warmest regards,

Chris

the process for installing a modern linux distribution is fairly painless.  if that goes smoothly, it should be no problem to get Pianoteq running.  other factors to consider:

(1) some very recent hardware might not yet be supported by the kernel.  the usual place such problems arise are with video cards and sound cards.  but if your hardware is a few years old you probably won't have a problem.  i also haven't had any problem with my external device (Komplete Audio 6) but i could imagine that there could be problems with certain interfaces.

(2) there can be further problems with laptops because of proprietary data the manufacturers don't want to release.  i've never had trouble myself getting linux working on a laptop, but there are certainly cases where there are problems.  googling about your exact model is a good idea.

(3) as long as you only want to run pianoteq and other software like reaper, audacity, etc you'll be fine.  those have native linux builds.  but if you have external plugins, say reverb or other effects, that you want to use with Pianoteq or with your DAW, then they may not have linux versions.

just some other things to consider.  not trying to dissuade you!  i haven't used WIndows in over 20 yrs and am not going back!

Thank you Budo, plenty of food for thought,

Warmest regards,

Chris

Hi guys,

Interesting thread.

I have an i7 HP laptop with windows 10 OS. Even though I followed several performance tweaking manuals inc. Gig Perfomers' and Cantabile's, I still get hiccups with glitches etc. I am thinking of moving to Linux Ubuntu Studio as I only use the laptop for Pianoteq. I think the performance improvements will make the learning curve worth it. I would however appreciate any input on this. I have used Linux briefly before now but am nowhere fluent in it.

Warmest regards,

Chris

the process for installing a modern linux distribution is fairly painless.  if that goes smoothly, it should be no problem to get Pianoteq running.  other factors to consider:

(1) some very recent hardware might not yet be supported by the kernel.  the usual place such problems arise are with video cards and sound cards.  but if your hardware is a few years old you probably won't have a problem.  i also haven't had any problem with my external device (Komplete Audio 6) but i could imagine that there could be problems with certain interfaces.

(2) there can be further problems with laptops because of proprietary data the manufacturers don't want to release.  i've never had trouble myself getting linux working on a laptop, but there are certainly cases where there are problems.  googling about your exact model is a good idea.

(3) as long as you only want to run pianoteq and other software like reaper, audacity, etc you'll be fine.  those have native linux builds.  but if you have external plugins, say reverb or other effects, that you want to use with Pianoteq or with your DAW, then they may not have linux versions.

just some other things to consider.  not trying to dissuade you!  i haven't used WIndows in over 20 yrs and am not going back!

dazric wrote:

That's interesting, I'm considering setting up a dual boot with Linux on an old Windows laptop to see how Pianoteq runs. Ubuntu Studio is reported to be particularly good for musical applications (because of its low-latency kernel) - is that the one you are using?

yes i am using Ubuntu Studio.  i'm using an older long-term support release, i think built on 16.04.  the most recent one is built on 20.04LTS, i should probably upgrade at some point.  the real time kernel works great, jack is set up and supported, and lots of audio software is included.  the performance has been excellent.

Hi guys,

Interesting thread.

I have an i7 HP laptop with windows 10 OS. Even though I followed several performance tweaking manuals inc. Gig Perfomers' and Cantabile's, I still get hiccups with glitches etc. I am thinking of moving to Linux Ubuntu Studio as I only use the laptop for Pianoteq. I think the performance improvements will make the learning curve worth it. I would however appreciate any input on this. I have used Linux briefly before now but am nowhere fluent in it.

Warmest regards,

Chris

That's interesting, I'm considering setting up a dual boot with Linux on an old Windows laptop to see how Pianoteq runs. Ubuntu Studio is reported to be particularly good for musical applications (because of its low-latency kernel) - is that the one you are using?

yes i am using Ubuntu Studio.  i'm using an older long-term support release, i think built on 16.04.  the most recent one is built on 20.04LTS, i should probably upgrade at some point.  the real time kernel works great, jack is set up and supported, and lots of audio software is included.  the performance has been excellent.

i'm using a rather crappy Dell Latitude and really the performance is excellent.  i'm running linux, but the main factor is making sure that the kernel is realtime and that the processors aren't throttled by being in power-saving mode.  i use a Komplete Audio 6 for an interface.  instead of spending a lot on speakers, i put my money into an excellent set of headphones (Beyerdynamic open-can headphones, can't remember the exact model at the moment, but have seen them recommended many times on this forum).

That's interesting, I'm considering setting up a dual boot with Linux on an old Windows laptop to see how Pianoteq runs. Ubuntu Studio is reported to be particularly good for musical applications (because of its low-latency kernel) - is that the one you are using?

About setting up a room, like hardware, will depend on budget or if you really need much effort in that department.

If for your own enjoyment, esp. with near-field monitors 'fairly close' by, the room might not need too much of anything done to it in most cases really.

It gets more critical I think as your needs do. If you find you want to record and make multi-track music, you might want to do some things to make the room more neutral - but on a budget, playing piano for your own enjoyment on near-field monitors, I'd not worry too much about buying baffles or wall covering acoustic materials.

Here's one nice thing which makes a difference when using a laptop (or noisy PC)..

..move the laptop/PC into a closet, behind a baffle or into the next room so you never have to hear the fan. (if moving into a small space, be sure it doesn't overheat.. I prefer moving it to another room instead.. but it can be possible to find alternatives, like behind a couch or other furniture etc.).

Using long-ish cables (not bluetooth which will add probably too much latency in most cases). Bluetooth separate mouse and keyboard make this possible.

I have a large monitor in front of my piano, speakers to the sides, the laptop is away from me, the monitor uses a HDMI cable, I have an external audio unit connected to laptop via USB - and this means I don't have to hear the laptop fans (some are louder than others - mine unfortunately are louder than I'd like). Just adding this because, it's possible to get a fairly sound-free laptop setup for zero budget - just I've noticed in my time, not many will think "I could put this noisy thing in the next room"

There are no rules - but with a little planning and fussing, you can get an enjoyable environment the way you like it within any budget I find, if I feel good in my space, that's just about as important.

Good luck Spudz, let us know how you are getting along.