Playing Pianoteq live with your digital piano

Hi ADWyatt, (and others still thinking about sound setups for using Pianoteq) hoping this helps.

I'd recommend 8inch monitors rather than 5inch - you may pay more but IMHO it's well worth it for a more realistic bass response (if the goal is primarily to sound as much like a real piano "in your room" or "in your face" with near-field monitors - on a budget).

Coincidentally I also have a Kawai CA65, had if for years, a good solid work horse. I decided a while ago to upgrade and nearly purchased all sorts of outrageous solutions which I'm now glad that I didn't.

In the end I kept the CA65 so I can still simply turn on and play with no fuss but also bought a Kawai MP11 and a set of Yamaha HS8 near-field speakers for use with Pianoteq 5.

I very highly recommend those Yamaha HS8 speakers.

Likewise recommend the Kawai MP11 - it's extraordinary of course. To me it has a surprisingly more realistic grand piano type of action than the CA65/sensitivity - also handles midi/key info utilised by Pianoteq - couldn't be happier really. Feels quite similar to large grands and the Shigeru Kawai keys - although have been told it's too weighty for some, tastes being different and all but it must be said, I love that action - it is what I love about the feeling of playing a real grand piano.

The other high end Kawai VPC1 would also be brilliant as it has a flat top (no buttons in the way) which might suit better. I prefer the MP11 because it can be taken on the road and I can be satisfied with its own inbuilt sounds which are improved over the CA65. The VPC1 is like the MP11 but without it's own internal sounds, buttons or display.

Everyone's mileage may vary but I'm frequently seeing people ask about setups for using Pianoteq and I do believe the extra expense of acquiring a quality keyboard and monitors is one of those life-changing things which turns out to be well worth it, if the piano is somewhat more than a basic feature in your world of course.

Quick practice or teasing out a tune, the CA65 is just fine although I really don't find I use it often as a "go to" like I expected to. It faces opposite the MP11 so in all the space is still a compact area.

If I want to record a session (which Pianoteq does brilliantly without fuss as midi files) or something more with a DAW, then it's really only a few minutes to get the PC rig running and if I'm in that mode then I'm going to be using a digital audio workstation anyway for many hours at a time.

There are more expensive speakers out there but I find the Yamahas give a very flat response and sound superb (credible bass) if used as near-field monitors so high volume is not required for me. I wouldn't want any other monitors for less than thousands of USD. Also ruled out other similarly priced speakers because sound colouration which I'd always have to tweak against (built in "extra" bass or weird frequency curves). The Yamahas really are good at doing flat response IMO (backed up by their stats/charts) which doesn't mean they sound flat (EQ any way you like - but having flat response to work with, you know where you're at). You also could have more and/or larger/louder speakers placed strategically further away etc but that's not what I wanted - preferred monitors for all purposes in DAWs.

Near realism in my case is just a delight with the setup I'm using that I honestly wouldn't feel much benefit from spending more and I now simply cannot recommend less.