Topic by idejuan

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  • idejuan
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Topic: Live sound has less quality than replayed sound

Hi,

I have realised that playing live vs playback of recorded notes does have a different quality sound. The recorded one is the good one while the live sound is somewhat metallic, not at all desirable.

I noticed this difference when using Pianoteq with an iPad (2025 model, 11th gen, A16 processor). Then I tried with an old MacBook Pro from 2013 and it did not happen, I could barely notice the difference between live and playback. I have tested this thoroughly playing notes slowly and paying a lot of attention.

Could this be caused by the iPad having less capacity of processing real time complex sounds in Pianoteq?

Is anybody else experiencing this big difference between live and recorded playback?

Any ideas about how to fix it?

Thank you for your help and sharing similar experiences

Reply by Hansz

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Re: Live sound has less quality than replayed sound

I have almost the same config, ipad M1.
I never noticed this.
When we play live there is the latency/buffer setting, there ares cracks in the soud when the ipad can't calculate fast enough.
When you say recorded playback, did you talk about the midi one or the audio convert one?
But, i reapet, i never listen a difference on my ipad.

Reply by idejuan

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Re: Live sound has less quality than replayed sound

Hi Hansz,

Thank you for your response.

I mean the midi recording. I just press the record key, then play a few notes and immediately after i finish playing I stop recording and I play them back. So both audio sequences are comparable since they come from the same device and speakers.

Hansz wrote:

I have almost the same config, ipad M1.
I never noticed this.
When we play live there is the latency/buffer setting, there ares cracks in the soud when the ipad can't calculate fast enough.
When you say recorded playback, did you talk about the midi one or the audio convert one?
But, i reapet, i never listen a difference on my ipad.

Reply by Hansz

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Re: Live sound has less quality than replayed sound

idejuan wrote:

Hi Hansz,

Thank you for your response.

I mean the midi recording. I just press the record key, then play a few notes and immediately after i finish playing I stop recording and I play them back. So both audio sequences are comparable since they come from the same device and speakers.

Mmmm, that's weird. Maybe the internal engine is different when it play a recorded midi?
It's the same when you play your last midi with the "always autorecording" fonction?

You made me doubt myself, so I tested carefully my setup with headphone. And I am formal, I never hear a difference.

By the way, the best 2013 macbookpro was Core i7 (I7-4558U)  and it is way less powefull than your A16 bionic (thanks Mr Moore)
10900 for the A16 in Multithread Rating vs 2976 for the I7 from 2013:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/20...A16-Bionic

Last edited by Hansz (Yesterday 11:47)

Reply by bani223

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  • Registered: 20-02-2022
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Re: Live sound has less quality than replayed sound

idejuan wrote:

Hi,

I have realised that playing live vs playback of recorded notes does have a different quality sound. The recorded one is the good one while the live sound is somewhat metallic, not at all desirable.

I noticed this difference when using Pianoteq with an iPad (2025 model, 11th gen, A16 processor). Then I tried with an old MacBook Pro from 2013 and it did not happen, I could barely notice the difference between live and playback. I have tested this thoroughly playing notes slowly and paying a lot of attention.

Could this be caused by the iPad having less capacity of processing real time complex sounds in Pianoteq?

Is anybody else experiencing this big difference between live and recorded playback?

Any ideas about how to fix it?

Thank you for your help and sharing similar experiences

USB priority management is difficult on Apple products. Consider contacting Apple support. It may be a simple performance issue. Try adding more sample buffer during live play

MOTU M2 using native ASIO driver, Windows 11, weird tweaks needed to make it work, but seems fine now.
I have posted several times about tweaking Pianoteq

Reply by idejuan

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Re: Live sound has less quality than replayed sound

Ok I found the cause. Both Hansz and you gave me good cues!

I had in the iPad, at the same time, two other music apps. One is Garageband and the other Numa Player. I closed them both and the problem disappeared. now he live sound is as good as the playback sound.

So the takeaway is be aware that other music apps being open at the same time as Pianoteq may affect the quality of live monitor audio.


bani223 wrote:
idejuan wrote:

Hi,

I have realised that playing live vs playback of recorded notes does have a different quality sound. The recorded one is the good one while the live sound is somewhat metallic, not at all desirable.

I noticed this difference when using Pianoteq with an iPad (2025 model, 11th gen, A16 processor). Then I tried with an old MacBook Pro from 2013 and it did not happen, I could barely notice the difference between live and playback. I have tested this thoroughly playing notes slowly and paying a lot of attention.

Could this be caused by the iPad having less capacity of processing real time complex sounds in Pianoteq?

Is anybody else experiencing this big difference between live and recorded playback?

Any ideas about how to fix it?

Thank you for your help and sharing similar experiences

USB priority management is difficult on Apple products. Consider contacting Apple support. It may be a simple performance issue. Try adding more sample buffer during live play

Reply by idejuan

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Re: Live sound has less quality than replayed sound

I found the root cause: having Garageband and Numa Player open in the iPad. Not sure which one, I just closed them both and the problem dissapeared. Thank you for your ideas, they did encourage me to go further!

As a side note, thanks to the issue I brought back to live the Macbook Pro i5 2013 I had completely abandoned on the shelf. It does perform nicely overall and with Pianoteq 9, despite being 13 years old!

Hansz wrote:
idejuan wrote:

Hi Hansz,

Thank you for your response.

I mean the midi recording. I just press the record key, then play a few notes and immediately after i finish playing I stop recording and I play them back. So both audio sequences are comparable since they come from the same device and speakers.

Mmmm, that's weird. Maybe the internal engine is different when it play a recorded midi?
It's the same when you play your last midi with the "always autorecording" fonction?

You made me doubt myself, so I tested carefully my setup with headphone. And I am formal, I never hear a difference.

By the way, the best 2013 macbookpro was Core i7 (I7-4558U)  and it is way less powefull than your A16 bionic (thanks Mr Moore)
10900 for the A16 in Multithread Rating vs 2976 for the I7 from 2013:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/20...A16-Bionic

Last edited by idejuan (Yesterday 20:08)