Topic by njaremko

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Topic: Pianoteq Sound Issue...

Hello everyone, quick question...

When I play fortissimo notes in the lower register (particularly the lowest octave) I get this vibration-ey distortion (similar to the drivers rattling) in my headphones that kind of ruins the experience. This noise is not present when I output high-quality wav files from pianoteq, only when I'm playing in the application.

I've tried changing my sample rate, audio buffer size, audio device type, etc... but nothing works.

Has anyone experienced/resolved this?

Last edited by njaremko (02-12-2014 20:47)

Reply by JerryKnight

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Re: Pianoteq Sound Issue...

Sounds an awful lot like this thread:

http://www.forum-pianoteq.com/viewtopic.php?id=3677

Reply by r0entgen

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Re: Pianoteq Sound Issue...

njaremko wrote:

Hello everyone, quick question...

When I play fortissimo notes in the lower register (particularly the lowest octave) I get this vibration-ey distortion (similar to the drivers rattling) in my headphones that kind of ruins the experience. This noise is not present when I output high-quality wav files from pianoteq, only when I'm playing in the application.

I've tried changing my sample rate, audio buffer size, audio device type, etc... but nothing works.

Has anyone experienced/resolved this?

I have the exact same issue and have been in contact with Pianoteq support, but it has not been resolved still. Please let me know if you find a solution.

Reply by cpcohen

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Re: Pianoteq Sound Issue...

FWIW --

Something that occurs when "playing" Pianoteq in "real time" (either from a keyboard, or from a MIDI file),

. . . but _doesn't_ occur when Pianoteq outputs a ".WAV" file, and that file is played back,

is probably due to some kind of CPU overload, or hesitation from O/S interrupts.

Even an i7 can be slowed down by interrupts.

Just as an experiment, _disable_ your WiFi and/ or Ethernet cards, run the CPU at full speed, reduce the polyphony count, start the CPU-utilization display, watch for "red lines",

. . . and see if the problem disappears.

There's a free latency checker that was recommended to me here, that works very well:

LatMon.exe     by David Terhell  ( "Latency Monitor" )

Run it on your system, and see what it says.

.      Charles

PS -- edit -- It is counter-intuitive, but bass notes put a heavier load on the Pianoteq compute engine than high notes.  There are more harmonics, in the audible frequency range, to deal with.   That's what I believe, anyway.

Last edited by cpcohen (06-12-2014 07:54)

Reply by Beto-Music

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Re: Pianoteq Sound Issue...

Advice for digital piano headphones:

Get a professional quality headphone or get nothing.

Reply by r0entgen

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Re: Pianoteq Sound Issue...

cpcohen wrote:

FWIW --

Something that occurs when "playing" Pianoteq in "real time" (either from a keyboard, or from a MIDI file),

. . . but _doesn't_ occur when Pianoteq outputs a ".WAV" file, and that file is played back,

is probably due to some kind of CPU overload, or hesitation from O/S interrupts.

Even an i7 can be slowed down by interrupts.

Just as an experiment, _disable_ your WiFi and/ or Ethernet cards, run the CPU at full speed, reduce the polyphony count, start the CPU-utilization display, watch for "red lines",

. . . and see if the problem disappears.

There's a free latency checker that was recommended to me here, that works very well:

LatMon.exe     by David Terhell  ( "Latency Monitor" )

Run it on your system, and see what it says.

.      Charles

PS -- edit -- It is counter-intuitive, but bass notes put a heavier load on the Pianoteq compute engine than high notes.  There are more harmonics, in the audible frequency range, to deal with.   That's what I believe, anyway.

Charles, thanks for your response. I've tried disabling WIFI and it doesn't do anything. CPU is at full speed and there are no red lines in the CPU utilization display when it distorts....

Reply by skip

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Re: Pianoteq Sound Issue...

You could run Pianoteq as a plugin inside a DAW, and record Pianoteq live, as you play it, and then upload the recording so we can all listen to it. If that recording sounds clean to others, it would then mean that the problem is almost certainly not with Pianoteq.   If you haven''t done anything like this yet I'm too lazy just at the moment to walk you through it, but maybe Modarrt support or someone else here can.

Greg.

Reply by Lylo

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Re: Pianoteq Sound Issue...

You can record audio directly into Pianoteq.

Reply by skip

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Re: Pianoteq Sound Issue...

Lylo: Are you sure? I thought the record button in Pianoteq only recorded the MIDI. Once the MIDI has been recorded, yes, Pianoteq can then render that to audio, but that's not the same as doing a live audio recording.  If there's a way to record the live audio please advise - thanks.

Greg.

Reply by Pianophile

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Re: Pianoteq Sound Issue...

Why it is not the same? The MIDI recording is exactly what you played and the sound will be completely identical.

Reply by sandalholme

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Re: Pianoteq Sound Issue...

AFAIK, Greg is right.  PT does not automatically create an audio file, but creating one is no hassle and you get to store it in your choice of folder.  I would guess that continuously creating wav files - and you would need to specify your default parameters for this - creates a cpu overhead for what would be for the most part temporary files.  I think the PT trick of creating midi files as you go and your being able to select good (well, acceptable then) performances to audio is a good one.

Reply by skip

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Re: Pianoteq Sound Issue...

Pianophile: It''s not the same because Njaremko's problem only happens when they are playing - NOT when they listen to the rendered result!  We need to capture the sound that Njaremko is hearing when they are actually playing.

Greg.

Reply by Pianophile

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Re: Pianoteq Sound Issue...

If the problem doesn't occur on midi playback, I'm pretty sure the problem does not lie with Pianoteq.

Reply by njaremko

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Re: Pianoteq Sound Issue...

The CPU isn't a problem, as it's the fastest consumer available CPU on the market. Also, I've tried playing it at various volumes, through various DAC's, with/without multithreaded rendering, etc... But the problem persists.