speaker setup heaven

No - straight out of the box - so to speak!

Hello sigasa,

I look for speakers which can simulate the sound of a real piano (I think it's very important)
I read your post
I like your solution but it's a little big for me

I'd like to know : if you should keep only one system in order to simulate the sound of a real piano :  do you keep the Stagepass 330 or ESI nEar 05 ?

Have you an idea about an other good system for Pianoteq ?

Thank you very much for your testimonial

Thank you very much for your answer

So I will buy a pair of monitors
I will go in stores to find the best model for the sound of Pianoteq
If I find the best choice I'd tell you

Cheers

I am resurrecting this thread because I am beginning to look in to alternatives for improving my "through the air" sound.   I find that the sound through my Yamaha RH10MS Headphones is much better than the sound I am getting through my Yamaha HS80M Powered Monitors.

The monitors in the above quote seem to pop up here and there as something special.

Just wondering if there is any reason to believe they would be better than my Yamaha HS80M Powered Monitors.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

Don

I happened to listen to both the Yamaha and the ESI recently; my - very personal - advice: don't change the Yamaha for the (smaller) ESI, you will loose some low-end and some power, that's all. And neither of them are particularly neutral in terms of frequency response. I recently bought a pair of Focal CMS 65 and believe me, THIS is something else, but the price too... I'm afraid that, once again, "you get what you pay for".
Besides, listening on headphones is often more gratifying, because youy simply don't have a listening room in the equation. And a room is never "neutral" in terms of frequency response...

Well, I have done enough speculating, reviewing, and researching ....

I have just made an appointment for the local STEREO SHOPPE to come to my home and tell me what they think.   They will do this for "free".     Of course, if they come up with something it may cost a little more but if it is a great sound, I will feel it is worth it.

As it is, I am spending too much time fooling with my sound instead of practicing.

It is discouraging to try to tweak a Pianoteq sound through a sound system that is flawed to begin with.

I want to get this behind me, if that is ever possible.

Thanks to all for your thoughts on this topic.

Don

Well, one thing is for sure .... I will not pay them anything until I have a sound I like.

They seem willing to continue on that basis.

I will document (on this forum) how it goes.

Don

Not sure what you mean by trying Pianoteq "Live".     It sounds like you mean trying one of the presets (Like C3 Close Mic) with no modifications.    Or, you could mean trying it through speakers instead of headphones.

Also, I know that a real piano can be very LOUD and I have come to realize that I do not really like that sound.   So, my presets end up with a quieter, softer timbre to them.

Well, the Stereo Shoppe "guy" came today and he said that my monitors that I have, the Yamaha HS80M Powered Monitors,  were of a high quality and the position I had them in was absolutely perfect.   He said that if I did not like the sound I was getting I would have to look to the "source".   He said those monitors will give me the sound they receive.   

And it isn't that I do not like the sound I am getting.   It is just that I wasn't sure if I could get a better sound just by getting better monitors.   He seemed to think NOT.
He said You might get a marginally "different" sound with something else but not enough to warrant a switch ... in his opinion.

So, in a way that is comforting.   Now, I know that I just have to start working with Pianoteq here and there .... tweaking .... and the sound I get is the sound I get.

Just to emphasize, I am not unhappy with the sound I have.  In fact, I have come to prefer the sound I am creating in Pianoteq as opposed to the sound I get from a previous software piano product, which is nice also. 

As time passes and I continue to tweak, I feel confident ... now .... that the sound will just keep getting better.

Don

My problem with all of this fancy audio equipment is that I know very little about it and I really am hesitant to start getting too complicated.    I do not even know what a firewire device is.   Maybe I could give the Stereo Shoppe some business and see if they could hook thngs like that up for me.   I may look into that.

Don

I am running a Dell XPS 8300 which has the sound card integrated into the motherboard.   It has no other dedicated sound card.

I am also redirecting my Pianoteq output to a USB external audio device, the Behringer U-Control UCA202 Audio Interface and then to my HS80M Yamaha Powered Monitors.

I am quite pleased with the sound I get now.   Of course,  I am always open to better as long as the complication factor stays low and possible problems are minimized.  I do not wish to get into a situation where I am spending huge blocks of time debugging technical issues.

So, it sounds like you might suggest to simply unplug the Behringer audio interface and plug in a Tascam US2000 in order to move up a level in sound delivery.    Would it be that simple, or is there more to it than that ?

EDIT:  I just received advice on another forum that my Behringer device is a sound card and that changing to the TASCAM US2000 would not give me any appreciable improvement in sound quality.   If that is true, then (as I see it) only reason to make a switch would be to gain additional output channels with which to utilize additional monitors so that I could make use of movement of 4 microphones in Pianoteq.    At this time, that is not a high priority for me.

Don

I second that. It's like watching a movie in stereo or in surround: it's simply not the same experience; and in fact I DON'T recommend the Tascam US2000, because it has no MIDI ! The sound is very good, and it has 4 outputs. but if you have no other MIDi interface, it's a no-way. Actually you'd better get an audio card with more outputs - and MIDI of course !  There are plenty of them, via USB like the new PreSonus AudioBox 1818VSL, the M-Audio FastTrack 8R, the MOTU UltraLite-mk3, the Steinberg UR824 and so on,  and via Firewire, there are even more !

Hi Jake . . you asked:

1. Does USB allow these interfaces--with 4 outs or more--to completely circumvent the limitations of any on-board sound chip or card? In other words, if there is an on-board chip or card that is stereo, do these external units actually create four channels, or do they split the original stereo channel into four channels, so that each pair is just doubled? I want to assume that four actual channels are created.

2.  Do any of the external sound modules allow the user to control cross-over freqs for each channel?

So . . .

The external I/O units do not create any channels.  Pianoteq creates the channels - up to five.  But, those channels represent digital audio.  The I/O device is a D/A  (digital to analog) device.  When the external I/O device is attached via a USB cable to your computer,  the five digital signals from Pianoteq and your computer are converted by the I/O device to analog audio signals . . and those five channels are not mixed.  The I/O device has analog output jacks for your separate audio amplifiers that you may have . . perhaps the stereo system you are using  and add a couple of inexpensive "boom boxes" for the other channels.

Your external amplifiers probably have tone controls but you could insert EQ modules between the I/O and your amplifiers to control what you were referring to as cross-over freqs.

Regards,   Lanny Davis

I find this all very interesting and thought provoking - but also a tad intimidating. Can anybody who has followed this route and has a layout of three or more speakers (not counting a sub-woofer) explain how they have laid them out in space - relative to the keyboard and to the rest of their room. Perhaps a photo or sketch.
Thanks!
Clive.