Topic by moshuajusic

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Topic: Update! New computer + old issues resolving

I finally caved in and got Macbook Pro 13" with solid state drive (sorry, dhalfen LOL) So I can finally play Pianoteq for real.

One problem I kept having was that the action response seemed uneven, where the upper registers required an unrealistically light tough to play p, and almost impossible to play pp or ppp. I just tried different "instruments" on my digital piano and discovered that "electric piano" outputs more realistic MIDI velocities. So now playing pp in the upper registers is doable; still not 100% where I'd like it be, but it does feel more realistic.

However, the middle register is a tad weak, as I felt it was even with the "piano" setting on my digital. So I still urge the developers to implement the ability to adjust Pianoteq's response to MIDI velocity on a per-note basis, or at least on a graph approximating individual notes.

Also, the YC5 does allow much greater dynamic range. There's always room for MOAR , but I could live with it. And as echoed by others, I'd MUCH MUCH MUCH appreciate upgraded C, M, and Erard pianos to achieve that same dynamic/tonal range.

In the meantime, I'mma record a Nocturne and get back to y'all...

Reply by dhalfen

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Re: Update! New computer + old issues resolving

joshuasethcomposer wrote:

I finally caved in and got Macbook Pro 13" with solid state drive (sorry, dhalfen ;) LOL) So I can finally play Pianoteq for real.

No, you did good, especially the SSD (though you'll want an external, non-SSD drive to write to -- you have to kinda keep the SSD "lean and mean," i.e., for "read only" to get best results (and avoid a lot of maintenance to keep it at its "snappiest").  The read speeds for these suckers are excellent, but rely on yours for system and application files only (or other files that you're not going to change like crazy).  If you fill the drive with data and/or do a lot of file-writing, then its speeds are going to decrease and performance will degrade.

(The best thing about Pianoteq:  no samples!  No reading from a hard drive -- it does everything real-time in the computer's brain.  Having owned all of the sample-based pianos you can imagine, I'm glad that I'm no longer beating up hard drives with super-sized samples, which were never that satisfactory to me in the first place...)

:-)

"Our developers, who art in Toulouse, hallowed be thy physical-models.
Thy version 4 come, thy new instruments be done, in the computer as it is in the wood!"

Reply by moshuajusic

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Re: Update! New computer + old issues resolving

dhalfen wrote:

though you'll want an external, non-SSD drive to write to

I neglected to mention the Glyph HD I got, too. I was already using a Lacie, but every now and then it'd scare the - outta me by making weird noises and refusing to be recognized by my computer.

Maybe I'll quit being lazy and back stuff up from now on.

Reply by dhalfen

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Re: Update! New computer + old issues resolving

Good pick with the Glyph!  I've avoided LaCie myself in general -- despite the looks, they have too many complaints of the "I'd better think seriously about going elsewhere" variety.  (Add your own findings to the list of "reasons to avoid"...)

And seriously, _don't_ forget to back up -- you never know when data corruption could occur, especially with the SSDs!  They're better about this than they were even 6 months ago (and will continue to improve, of course), but...

I became lazy with my iMac and didn't back up its internal SATA HD (Western Digital, should have known better...), so when it died on July 4th (without fireworks, though), I was fortunate enough that it _didn't_ die all the way, and I was able to scavenge it.  Putting things "back together," though, really blew.  Now, I'm running off of a RAID0 external which I'd already purchased, so YAY!  (And I have a RAID1 external as a "double-backup," too!)

"Our developers, who art in Toulouse, hallowed be thy physical-models.
Thy version 4 come, thy new instruments be done, in the computer as it is in the wood!"

Reply by NeilCraig

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Re: Update! New computer + old issues resolving

dhalfen wrote:

And seriously, _don't_ forget to back up -- you never know when data corruption could occur... Now, I'm running off of a RAID0 external which I'd already purchased, so YAY!  (And I have a RAID1 external as a "double-backup," too!)

Just do yourself a big favour and don't treat that RAID0 as backup; High-availability storage yes.  Backup, no.  Never mind one of the drives failing, which is bad enough, if the controller fails on even a RAID-5 array you're potentially stuffed.  This actually happened to me 3 years ago on a RAID-5 array and weeks later on a 0+1 array and in both cases, NOTHING was recoverable.  Fortunately I had a real backup - good old AIT-4 magnetic tapes, OFFLINE in a secure location.

I'll second your sentiments about not hammering a disk with samples though - It's a year since I met both Pianoteq and East/West's QL Pianos since the start I've viewed one as a semi-pleasant toy and the other as a true instrument.

Best//Neil

Reply by dhalfen

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Re: Update! New computer + old issues resolving

Oh, Neil, I meant that the RAID1 _is_ the backup, just "double" because of the cloning (the enclosure warns me when a disk is going kaput;  unless _both_ crap out at the same time, in which case...)  Trust me, that RAID0 is for performance _only_!  (I'm not trusting _anything_ to RAID0 for backup, that would be madness -- hahahahHAHAHA!!!)  In a sense, you could think of it as "triplicate." 

(RAID0 original + RAID1 copy, in effect "two-in-one" clones of the RAID0 volume)

I also have a 2TB HD as my "desperation" backup.

You know, I'd forgotten about tape as a backup -- I'll have to do some research and see how cheap (or not?) they be nowadays!

:-)

Last edited by dhalfen (14-10-2009 17:45)
"Our developers, who art in Toulouse, hallowed be thy physical-models.
Thy version 4 come, thy new instruments be done, in the computer as it is in the wood!"

Reply by NeilCraig

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Re: Update! New computer + old issues resolving

dhalfen wrote:

You know, I'd forgotten about tape as a backup -- I'll have to do some research and see how cheap (or not?) they be nowadays!

:-)

Well I just bought a load of 200GB AIT-4 tapes and they cost me £40 each.  My full weekly backup (kept for 2 months)is 500GB+ so I'm running sets of 3 tapes, so the exercise is pretty expensive.  Even on this rotating schedule, I replace tapes yearly and I've just had a 2-year old tape used for sparse ad-hoc backups fail with hard write errors.  This has been written to/erased 10 times, max.  Fortunately, the system writes to a RAID-1 array and then duplicates the job to tape, and for day-to-day "Sir, I've deleted x coursework I did last thursday," cases, I can normally restore from the disk backup in seconds as opposed to making a 10-mile round-trip to recover tapes.

Oh, and I test every backup I make.  I'm hyper-paranoid about this sort of thing.  At home my music projects are archived in quintuplicate, if that's even a word )

Best//Neil

Reply by dhalfen

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Re: Update! New computer + old issues resolving

NeilCraig wrote:

At home my music projects are archived in quintuplicate, if that's even a word :o)

It is now!!!  ;^)

"Our developers, who art in Toulouse, hallowed be thy physical-models.
Thy version 4 come, thy new instruments be done, in the computer as it is in the wood!"