Played church recital with PT

Speaker quality will make a gigantic difference on listener fatigue, and if they're very cheap, they won't cover the whole spectrum of the piano well at all. Was the 10ms buffer your settings on the sound card, because that's a big enough number with a USB sound card that you'll hear noticeable latency.

Try again on some improved equipment. Good luck!

I'd say 4-5 meters.
Thanks beakybird!

Hi all,

Gig situation like this can be difficult for solutions like PTQ.

First, latency issue: if you have acceptable latency with your system at home (headphones or nearfield monitors) you must know that every extra meter away from your speakers adds 3.3 ms latency, like mooks pointed out. I have had experience like this. PTQ was ok at home but on stage it felt delayed. We all seem to have different tolerance for latency and you can "adapt" yourself to bigger latency but it can be difficult if you most of the time play with minimal latency and then suddenly jump to completely different situation. Having close personal monitors can help if PA system isn't too loud. If PA is loud then you have to put your monitors very loud to beat the PA and too loud monitors make your playing feeling unnatural.

Second, "muddy" sound: people here like PTQ cause it has wide, warm, natural piano sound. In fact I think this is the reason for many people favor PTQ over stage piano sounds. When you sit in front of the real piano it sounds wide, especially those older grand pianos. Stage pianos, like my Nord, have thinner, more punchy piano sound and it emphasizes the clear attack. Still I think there's a reason why many Stage pianos sound like that. They're targeted to sound good on stage and cut through mix (also on average PA-system). Nord is a perfect exampe of this. In fact I moved from Roland to Nord exactly because of this: Roland (RD700GX) allways needed lot of EQ to not sound muddy. And IMO if you need lot of EQ, it's probably bad solution. With my Nord I practically never use EQ and this is also feedback from many sound guys: they like the sound just the way it is. I am not saying that you cannot get good sound from PTQ but I'd say it's a big challenge at least if you are operating with average PA and problematic acoustics (for example people shouting 80dB or even more). PA systems tend to emphasize mid range and/or bass and this can sound unnatural for piano sound. To sum it, beware that sound which is good at home maybe bad on stage. Take time to find 'a stage piano sound' from your PTQ.

Third, Reverb: this is quite obvious. If your gig space has lot of reverb itself you should make your piano as dry as possible. Otherwise it is probably going to sound messy.

I play about 130 gigs per year with different pop or jazz groups and normally we have a very good sound system. Personally I am not changing my Nord setup at the moment. It is so good compromise for sound, playability and reliability. Still I'd like to give a chance to PTQ when right gig comes.

So you are running Pianoteq through the PA system, and listening (via headphones or monitor loudspeaker) to the Casio's sound generator?

That's an interesting idea -- it means you have "direct sound", no latency, to your ears.

.            Charles