Topic by burnhard90

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  • burnhard90
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Topic: How CPU-heavy is P5?

Hey friends,

I still use the Demo-Version because I cannot decide which Piano-VST is the best for me, I have the feeling that P5 is more a VST for classical pianists but I am more the modern kind of player who plays soundtracks of movies or video games. I am a beginner, is it also perfect for my use?

The high notes in Pianoteq sound a little bit metallic, that is the second disadvantage. But I am sure that I can handle with it when I know P5 better.

The third disadvantage or better question is how heavy P5 is for the CPU? I want to use my Macbook Pro for audio producing and don't want too much space for big libraries. It should be a smart, fast and little system. My DAW is Logic and I use just a handful of other VSTs for synths, guitar and drums.

My projects are not very big, 10-25 tracks per song. But I am afraid of the CPU Usage of P5. The Macbook has a i5 2,4Ghz with HT, is this enough for my songs with 2 or 3 instances of P5?
Maybe there is a way to reduce the CPU usage?

Thanks for your help

Reply by EvilDragon

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Re: How CPU-heavy is P5?

You should be fine with that CPU.

And yes, you can reduce Pianoteq's CPU usage by limiting the polyphony and/or reducing the plugin sample rate.

Hard work and guts!

Reply by kalessin

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Re: How CPU-heavy is P5?

Just push the sustain pedal with the mouse (this way it stays down) and play a lot of notes in the demo. This will max out the polyphony and tell you pretty quickly if everything works. On my i5 I reach about 50% load for 128 notes. Hardware requirements of the demo and of the full product are exactly the same, as far as I know. So, e.g. three instances with 64 note polyphony should work.

Last edited by kalessin (08-07-2014 09:08)
Pianoteq 6 Standard (Steinway D&B, Grotrian, Petrof, Steingraeber, Bechstein, Blüthner, K2, YC5, U4, Kremsegg 1&2, Karsten, Electric, Hohner)

Reply by burnhard90

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Re: How CPU-heavy is P5?

Thank you for your answers

Is the number on the left the CPU usage?

With holding down the sustain pedal? I reach 30% with 128 and 25% with 64, seems to be good

Reply by Klemperer

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Re: How CPU-heavy is P5?

I find kalessin's tip highly useful. CPU usage for Pianoteq 5 has gone up a moderate bit compared to p4, but not too much, and I played all instruments with an old dualcore laptop 2.2 Ghz (Windows) without problems.

Additionally - if I ever run into problems - I switch the latency settings of my soundcard when recording or playing back. 25 tracks would have been a bit hard for my oldie dualcore, but with that "old trick" and a bit of rendering tracks with cpu-hogs as effects it was always fine. But this has nothing to do with Pianoteq directly - I think if you pass the "Kalessin-test" you should be fine. I am a fan of not buying new stuff if the old works, and my guess is that 90% of people could well use what they have with a little bit of optimizing.

To your sound question - I love pianoteq, yet I am aware that some prefer other piano sounds. In my case I had started with sampled pianos, and still love the imperfect samples-pianos (which I recently installed again^^after a thread here). But if you play a few days with all the pt instruments, you could well begin to think they fit wonderfully into your kind of music. I found that in mixes with other instruments the pianoteq instruments shine much more like my sampled pianos.
And try all those pianos that might seem to be mostly for classical pianists. I think the Kremsegg instruments (a lovely Bechstein and the older fortepianos) are also wonderful for movies or soundtrack works. Well, try it