Topic: Pianoteq on Linux netbook
Hello forum,
I want to tell you (in weak english), that I have success running 3.0.3-demo on my Asus eee-pc 901 with Debian/squeeze. I play it in realtime with an external keyboard. Some tunings were necessary to make it possible.
First I installed a realtime-kernel. Debian has no RT-kernel, so I used a 3rd-party-package:
http://www.bandshed.net/AVLinux2/linux-...m_i386.deb
To give high priority to the group audio, appended these entries in limits.conf:
@audio - memlock 500000
@audio - rtprio 99
@audio - nice -10
# End of file
The Intel Atom N270 has to be nailed to 1,6 GHz, else speedstepping to 800 Mhz occurs, which ist too slow. For both (virtual) cpu's it is done by:
# cpufreq-set -c 0 -g performance
# cpufreq-set -c 1 -g performance
Jackd is slower than direct output to alsa, so I chose Alsa in pianoteq options and disabled jackd. The internal soundcard is an Intel HDA, which is noiseless to my surprise. My eee-pc has no harddisk, just 4 GB flash ssd, which could be the reason.
For Midi-In I use a MIDI-to-USB adapter (Edirol UM-1SX). All E-Pianos (Rhodes and Wurly) need less performance than the Acoustic Pianos. I can run the E-Pianos down to buffer 64 with 44 khz (latency 1,5 ms) and have no xruns or something! The load monitor on Pianoteq doesn't go over 50%.
The Acoustic Pianos are more demanding. To be on the safe site, it is better to use 128 samples. With full chords, reverb and much sustain work I can drive the load up to 95%. With reverb-off I have more reserve and can't drive the load to the edge.
I like the option to adjust the incoming velocity in PT, something I was always unhappy with on the Nord Electro 2. I used it as masterkeyboard in this test and it is very useful, that transposition can be done inside Pianoteq.
I now have the strong urge to buy this fantastic software for Linux. Because I know, the eeepc is powerful enough for the e-pianos, I would like to see a light version just with these. Else I have to spent 250€ on Pianoteq and 50€ for the e-piano = 300€. Not a small amount of money for me and with the risk, that the performance of the eee-pc is limited to take full advantage of the superb acoustic pianos.
Maybe I can optimize the eee further, that I can use the A-Pianos with 64 samples, reverb and without fear, that the load reaches 100%. Somewhere I read, two cores can be counter-productive for realtime use. Does anyone know, if one sibling of the Intel Atom N270 can be "switched-off"? - I guess not, because "Multicore rendering" in Pianoteq is greyed and the N270 just does multithreading and is not a real multicore-cpu, but who knows ...
Any further ideas, how I can harden the netbook for the A-Pianos further?
Anyway, pianoteq is personally my Linux-software of the year. Just 11 MB (the demo) and superb functions and interface. Great!
- groovy