Topic by SqyD

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Topic: Zimaboard first impressions

After using Raspberry PI as the main sound generator of my piano for a number of years I have now recently obtained a Zimaboard. https://www.zimaboard.com/
I opted for the 4GB Ram / 16GB storage version. While more tuning will happen, first impressions are quite impressive. While the Pi based setup was limited to 22Khz and ran out of polyphony after about 30ish notes, this Celeron based CPU cracks out 60+ notes at 44Khz, with just 128 frames buffer, without any hickups so far.

So first impressions are very positive:
* 4 CPU cores at 1.1-2.2 Ghz, far exceeding a Pi4s capabilities
* Passive cooling, so no fan noise.
* PCIe slot for low latency audio cards. (I have a RME HDSP card, still needs a lot of tuning but works great in a stereo setup.)
* Not limited to 2 channels anymore. (plan to use external ADAT interface for a 3+1 setup.)
* Just another Intel box from an OS point of view, so great software support. I use Ubuntu Studio for now.
* Reasonably priced.

Negative:
* Bundled software is bad (default ssh credentials!) and to be ignored.
* As it has no GPIO I will move some custom midi controls to either an esp32 or a Pi Zero.
* Sorry to leave my trusted HifiBerry DSP setup behind.

Reply by chartsengrafs

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Re: Zimaboard first impressions

SqyD wrote:

After using Raspberry PI as the main sound generator of my piano for a number of years I have now recently obtained a Zimaboard. https://www.zimaboard.com/
I opted for the 4GB Ram / 16GB storage version. While more tuning will happen, first impressions are quite impressive. While the Pi based setup was limited to 22Khz and ran out of polyphony after about 30ish notes, this Celeron based CPU cracks out 60+ notes at 44Khz, with just 128 frames buffer, without any hickups so far.

So first impressions are very positive:
* 4 CPU cores at 1.1-2.2 Ghz, far exceeding a Pi4s capabilities
* Passive cooling, so no fan noise.
* PCIe slot for low latency audio cards. (I have a RME HDSP card, still needs a lot of tuning but works great in a stereo setup.)
* Not limited to 2 channels anymore. (plan to use external ADAT interface for a 3+1 setup.)
* Just another Intel box from an OS point of view, so great software support. I use Ubuntu Studio for now.
* Reasonably priced.

Negative:
* Bundled software is bad (default ssh credentials!) and to be ignored.
* As it has no GPIO I will move some custom midi controls to either an esp32 or a Pi Zero.
* Sorry to leave my trusted HifiBerry DSP setup behind.

Sounds great! Was the old hifiberry based on an rpi 4?

Reply by SqyD

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Re: Zimaboard first impressions

chartsengrafs wrote:

Sounds great! Was the old hifiberry based on an rpi 4?

Previously I used a PI 3+, an Asus Tinckerboard S, a Raspberry Pi 4 2GB and ultimately a PI 4 8GB (has a slightly faster clocked CPU). Also tried a CM4 module and standard board but that never made it, mainly due to slower CPU and PCIe audiocard driver issues.

Reply by dv

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Re: Zimaboard first impressions

SqyD wrote:
chartsengrafs wrote:

Sounds great! Was the old hifiberry based on an rpi 4?

Previously I used a PI 3+, an Asus Tinckerboard S, a Raspberry Pi 4 2GB and ultimately a PI 4 8GB (has a slightly faster clocked CPU). Also tried a CM4 module and standard board but that never made it, mainly due to slower CPU and PCIe audiocard driver issues.

Sounds great, thanks for pointing us to this alternative. The Zimaboard is not too expensive either, I'd say!

Last edited by dv (25-11-2022 15:55)
Where do I find a list of all posts I upvoted? :(

Reply by chartsengrafs

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Re: Zimaboard first impressions

SqyD wrote:
chartsengrafs wrote:

Sounds great! Was the old hifiberry based on an rpi 4?

Previously I used a PI 3+, an Asus Tinckerboard S, a Raspberry Pi 4 2GB and ultimately a PI 4 8GB (has a slightly faster clocked CPU). Also tried a CM4 module and standard board but that never made it, mainly due to slower CPU and PCIe audiocard driver issues.

Are you running Linux on the Zimaboard?
Also, was the rpi4 sufficient for 44 kHz and decent latency?

Reply by SqyD

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Re: Zimaboard first impressions

chartsengrafs wrote:

Are you running Linux on the Zimaboard?

I am currently using Ubuntu Studio which ships with a realtime kernel and has other tools I plan to use like Carla installed. Once I've got a decently stable setup I might do a reinstall on a more minimal setup using the Ubuntu Studio installer on top of a minimal Ubuntu LTS.

chartsengrafs wrote:

Also, was the rpi4 sufficient for 44 kHz and decent latency?

44 khz was too much for the rpi4 in my experiments. With lots more tuning I might have squeezed it to 32 khz but opted for a safe 22 khz.

Over the weekend I did some experiments. Running Pianoteq as an LV2 pluging inside Carla wasn't that great, so I am now running it as a standalone app and pipe 3 channels of 44 khz audio through Jack and pipe the most left channel through Carla for the lowpass filter and then through the 4th channel I use on the subwoofer. It was able to run stable playing some challenging midi files with just sub 2ms buffer.