I'm just getting started, and have hit a problem with my sound card. My laptop apparently doesn't have ASIO, but when I try to download asio4all I keep on getting dire warnings from McAfee that it contains all sorts of malware, and not to proceed. Has anybody else encountered this? Are there alternatives to Asio4all which work with Pianoteq - external sound cards for instance?
I use Windows 8, Foxfire browser with AVG Antivirus at the site http://www.asio4all.com/ and get no warnings when downloading.
ASIO4all is safe, but maybe you didn't choose the right website. Just in case, it's here:
http://www.asio4all.com/
This being said, a good external (ASIO of course) soundcard is always a better choice for quality of sound and often for latency.
Any suggestions for a suitable external sound card? I'm a novice in this field, and there seems to be a bewildering variety available. I wouldn't need it for any other purpose.
For the choice of the soundcard: it might be a MIDI interface at the same time, like the Tascam US-122 or 144. Nice ones, USB powered, reliable and very inexpensive. The 144 has an S/PDIF in/out that might also be of interest. It all depends of your setup and goals.
It all depends of your setup and goals.
Thanks for suggestions.
As for goals, they're slightly unusual. I'm a semi-retired classical pianist with a progressive hearing impairment, which is making my Bosendorfer increasingly frustrating to play. My intention in experimenting with Pianoteq is to see if I can use the built-in equalizer to boost only those frequencies where the hearing is going, with the best possible audio quality through headphones.
I've tried to do something similar with the Bosendorfer, creating what is essentially an external hearing aid by miking the piano and passing the output through a high-quality equalizer to open-backed phones, with the eq set so that as much as possible of the sound comes naturally direct from the piano, and only the weak frequencies are boosted by the system. Although this works up to a point, I've found that getting the right balance between the natural and the modified sound is very difficult. I want to see if Pianoteq can produce a more satisfactory result.
This is very unusual indeed, but also very interesting. I think PianoTeq could indeed provide a solution, and you really need a soundcard like the Tascam with a good headphones amp. A pity for your Bösendorfer... what keyboard are you or will you be using to play PianoTeq?
I've had a Yamaha P-70 for some years as a practice keyboard when travelling. I hope to try the system out with this to start with. If it looks as if the idea is worth pursuing, I'll upgrade the keyboard.
I'm just getting started, and have hit a problem with my sound card. My laptop apparently doesn't have ASIO, but when I try to download asio4all I keep on getting dire warnings from McAfee that it contains all sorts of malware, and not to proceed. Has anybody else encountered this? Are there alternatives to Asio4all which work with Pianoteq - external sound cards for instance?
I suspect that your virus detection software is "seeing" code that touches the hardware DIRECTLY.
This may be a general problem with downloading anything having device drivers in it.
Hello Chris,
I found your post very interesting as I do like problem solving! As I understood your comments you would like to hear both Bösendorfer and Pianoteq sounds simultaneously.
Audio interfaces have changed significantly over the last three years. Laptop manufacturers have abandoned fast bus based audio interfaces that use Firewire, Cardbus and Expresscard for a simpler and less costly (for them) USB solution. The manufacturers of audio interfaces for laptops have followed this trend and, for laptops, only offer USB versions of their audio interface.
Much hype is provided by manufacturers about their USB products having 'almost zero latency', i.e. from the time you hit the key until the time you perceive the sound. They have got very close to achieving this but they do not mention the delay caused by the PC's internal processing time of a USB input to audio output. this can be a total of 6.8 milliseconds. If all you are doing is listening then this time period may be acceptable but if you are trying to synchronise that sound with your Bösendorfer live sound then beat frequencies are most likely to be heard.
A faster way to handle sound in a laptop is to use a Firewire (IEEE1394) interface or an Expresscard interface (which I use). Much depends on the model of laptop you currently use. My audio card is an Echo Indigo Expresscard:
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/apr04/a...indigo.htm
This has its own ASIO driver and provides 24bit processing, i.e. higher than CD quality
I'm using it with Pianoteq and very satisfied. Unfortunately my acoustic piano is downstairs so my present digital setup is not around to test the bi-acoustic "aligned" sound performance of both but I'll soon be able to do this and will post my findings.
Ian
I don't think USB vs Firewire would make any difference regarding latency, in fact I'm sure it doesn't, since I happen to have many interfaces (2 x Firewire, 4 x USB and 1 x Express card). The difference is in the power of the CPU itself, and the quality of the drivers, nothing else. And there will always be a delay between the sound of a real piano and a virtual one. The best way to avoid this is to use a dedicated audio oriented DSP, like most synthesisers do. Or a DSP equipped card like the SSL MX4 (latency = 4 samples, not 4 ms !!!) but Pianoteq can't use those DSP's.
Hello Chris,
As I understood your comments you would like to hear both Bösendorfer and Pianoteq sounds simultaneously.
Ian
Sorry, no...that's not what I intend, and I've never even considered such a combination. What I'm now exploring is using Pianoteq on its own as an entirely different solution to the problems I'm having difficulty solving with my 'modified' Bosendorfer. But thanks for the Echo Indigo tip.
(Apologies for delayed response - I've been away)
For the choice of the soundcard: it might be a MIDI interface at the same time, like the Tascam US-122 or 144. Nice ones, USB powered, reliable and very inexpensive. The 144 has an S/PDIF in/out that might also be of interest.
I was about to order one of these, but on looking through the detailed specification, I couldn't find any reference to either of them having an ASIO driver. I'm being careful about this, as I know the Tascam US-100 definitely doesn't have ASIO. I need to be sure whatever I buy works with Pianoteq on an ASIO-less PC.
The other recommended interface, Echo Indigo, seems to have been discontinued - or at least isn't available here in the UK. Also it doesn't seem to have MIDI input?
Here is an option if you are willing to consider it. Download a Linux LiveUSB of some variant (Fedora 20 or Ubuntu) and see if it automatically detects your existing PC sound hardware. Linux does not need special ASIO drivers as the lowest level is always a direct hardware driver. It then layers ALSA/PulseAudio/JACK "server" daemons above it. These sounds services introduce extra latency & cpu usage but luckily, Pianoteq lets you choose the direct hardware device and bypass those options even if they are running.
If this solves your latency issue, you don't need to switch to Linux permanently. Just keep your configs on your LiveUSB (there are option to make a LiveUSB writeable) and boot up whenever you need Pianoteq.
Now if you have other Windows sound/midi software you need to run at the same time as Pianoteq, then this Linux option won't work.
99% of "pro" interfaces have ASIO drivers including all the current Tascam ones.