Reply by MrRoland

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Re: Pianoteq 6 on Raspberry Pi 3

Same here. "you're not allowed to view...etc..."

aandrmusic wrote:

I got it basically working a while ago.
Now I am coming back to it and can't view Edgar's original .pdf file.

Has my privilege been lowered in some way ? for some reason ?
I am logged in, etc.
As I recall it was originally accessible without needing to log in.

Reply by BlueFlower

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Re: Pianoteq 6 on Raspberry Pi 3

Go to the FAQ https://www.pianoteq.com/faq
and simply enter raspberry in the search box, and press enter. Click on the link in the doc and you will access to the pdf.
Dont't even think to ask me why it's like that...

Reply by aandrmusic

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Re: Pianoteq 6 on Raspberry Pi 3

BlueFlower wrote:

Go to the FAQ https://www.pianoteq.com/faq
and simply enter raspberry in the search box, and press enter. Click on the link in the doc and you will access to the pdf.
Dont't even think to ask me why it's like that...

Thank you.

Looking at the link in this thread - - it seems to have too many mentions of "pianoteq" in it.
Not something I can repair...

Reply by jeo

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Re: Pianoteq 6 on Raspberry Pi 3

Thank you to the OP for the nice how-to.
I tried to follow it, but only get a Performance Index of 5 on a Raspberry Pi 3, despite overclocking. Any ideas?

(Most recent versions of Pianoteq STAGE and Raspbian.)

Reply by Edgar

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Re: Pianoteq 6 on Raspberry Pi 3

jeo wrote:

Thank you to the OP for the nice how-to.
I tried to follow it, but only get a Performance Index of 5 on a Raspberry Pi 3, despite overclocking. Any ideas?

(Most recent versions of Pianoteq STAGE and Raspbian.)

Did you set multicore to max? Check page 22 in the tutorial pdf.

Also, the new raspberry pi 4 is out and it looks like it could really improve the performance index in Pianoteq even more. I will be getting one soon to try it out, once they restock.

Reply by jeo

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Re: Pianoteq 6 on Raspberry Pi 3

Yes, I am using multicore max, 1350Mhz.
I also tried the force_turbo setting.

Reply by jeo

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Re: Pianoteq 6 on Raspberry Pi 3

Not sure it is working correctly, though. The Pianoteq performance page does say multicore max. But in "top" I see Pianoteq's cpu load barely reaching 200%, while the sound is already totally clipped (nothing else is using significant resources, either).

Reply by Edgar

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Re: Pianoteq 6 on Raspberry Pi 3

jeo wrote:

Not sure it is working correctly, though. The Pianoteq performance page does say multicore max. But in "top" I see Pianoteq's cpu load barely reaching 200%, while the sound is already totally clipped (nothing else is using significant resources, either).

What about the polyphony and sample rate? Did you play around with those settings?

Reply by MrRoland

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Re: Pianoteq 6 on Raspberry Pi 3

You should not pay too much attention to the performance index, but rather to what you experience when playing. Reason for saying this is that Moddart changed the way the performance index is measured (in v6.3 I think) and this results in very low performance index on arm devices. I get a p.i. of 17 on my odroid xu4 where I used to get a p.i. of 38. Auto polyphony is based on this number, so it's totally rubbish now. Manual polyphony setting is the only option that works now.

Reply by jeo

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Re: Pianoteq 6 on Raspberry Pi 3

Thank you MrRoland, that explains some of it!
Still, I have to go down to a Sample rate of 22050 (internal and host), Polyphony of 24, to have a smooth experience. Was hoping for at least 44100.

Reply by jeo

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Re: Pianoteq 6 on Raspberry Pi 3

(Even so I still experience overload from time to time)

Reply by jeo

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Re: Pianoteq 6 on Raspberry Pi 3

Hmm. I'm seeing the lightning bolt symbol a lot on the desktop, which apparently means undervoltage (with two different power supplies, one rated at 5v,3a, the other even higher). Might that be the reason?

Reply by MrRoland

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Re: Pianoteq 6 on Raspberry Pi 3

jeo wrote:

Hmm. I'm seeing the lightning bolt symbol a lot on the desktop, which apparently means undervoltage (with two different power supplies, one rated at 5v,3a, the other even higher). Might that be the reason?

That's strange and can certainly be the cause of your problem.
Do you have a high quality power cord?
Raspberry is very picky regarding power...

Reply by jeo

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Re: Pianoteq 6 on Raspberry Pi 3

OK, it's definitely a power issue.
I tried various supplies and cables, and none of them solve the problem. But if I power both the 7in screen and the raspberry with separate power supplies, the lightning bolt disappears and I suddenly get the performance I was expecting (Sample Rate 48000 works fine; PI of 11).

Reply by jeo

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Re: Pianoteq 6 on Raspberry Pi 3

Now I found a psu/cable combo that works.
Thanks for the help!

Reply by MrRoland

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Re: Pianoteq 6 on Raspberry Pi 3

Glad you solved it!
I have some strange latency issues on my odroid.
Just a single note or chord now and then that's audibly delayed.
Can you please check or this happens with the raspberry too?
In my case it seems to start happening if I'm playing for more than ten minutes. I just can't find the cause of this.

Reply by jeo

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Re: Pianoteq 6 on Raspberry Pi 3

Sure. I'll let you know if I experience anything like this.

Reply by ccazerty

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Re: Pianoteq 6 on Raspberry Pi 3

Hi everyone,
I'm using pianoteq on my computer for some years now, and I wanted to install it on a raspberry pi to make my keyboard more independent.

I was just wondering if I had to buy the raspberry pi 4, now that it has been announced, or is it useless?

Even if I just follow the pdf, the suptronics x400 seems to be out of stock for now, is there an alternative?

Thank you very much!

Reply by marcos daniel

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Re: Pianoteq 6 on Raspberry Pi 3

Any USB card should work (provided it works under linux). RPi 3 performance is very very poor, I wonder if RPi4 is powerful enough, but given that price is the same, just to test, I would go for the last version...

Reply by ccazerty

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Re: Pianoteq 6 on Raspberry Pi 3

Thank you!

Is it useful to take the 4GB ram version?

What do you mean by very very poor? Is it possible to play piano pieces? If not, do you know other devices, better than raspberry pi, to run pianoteq like it was integrated to the keyboard?

Thank you

Reply by rasaru

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Re: Pianoteq 6 on Raspberry Pi 3

Hello,

I use a Raspi 4 with 4GB, a 1024x768 small touchscreen and an external DAC.
Overclocking (https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ra...,6188.html) without a fan.
48Khz, 128 samples, polyphony 48. The CPU load is about 50%. top (terminal)  say 3.2GB free memory!

Rainer

ccazerty wrote:

Thank you!

Is it useful to take the 4GB ram version?

What do you mean by very very poor? Is it possible to play piano pieces? If not, do you know other devices, better than raspberry pi, to run pianoteq like it was integrated to the keyboard?

Thank you

Reply by ccazerty

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Re: Pianoteq 6 on Raspberry Pi 3

Thank you I'll try this!
what is your DAC model please? I'm really lost with DACs. I see prices going from 30 € to 300 €.
Personally I don't want a Hi-fi result, I just want a piano to practice and to Compose (on paper).

Reply by marcos daniel

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Re: Pianoteq 6 on Raspberry Pi 3

ccazerty wrote:

Thank you!

Is it useful to take the 4GB ram version?

What do you mean by very very poor? Is it possible to play piano pieces? If not, do you know other devices, better than raspberry pi, to run pianoteq like it was integrated to the keyboard?

Thank you

Very poor means that any piece with some bass notes and pedal will cause the CPU to overload, by the way I think that setting polyphony to a low number is not an acceptable compromise.

EDIT: performance is improved if you run Pianoteq without the X-windows graphical user interface, I would not use the RPi for other task, so 1Gb version should be more than enough

Last edited by marcos daniel (09-09-2019 15:49)

Reply by fewarren

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Re: Pianoteq 6 on Raspberry Pi 3

I also wish to thank Edgar and everyone on the post for guiding me to having Pianoteq 6 running on a Raspberry Pi 4.  There was one step that I found difficult - that of providing the needed USB MIDI interface.  After much searching of the Net, I finally found this site:

https://www.isticktoit.net/?p=1383

which outlines in great detail how to install the Linux USB gadget.  There are many way to provide for a MIDI interface but this approach proved fairly easy and very useful.  Other USB devices can be attached via the USB gadget other than MIDI but I have not explored them.  If you find a need for USB MIDI, I strongly suggest you give this approach a try.

Reply by mahen

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Re: Pianoteq 6 on Raspberry Pi 3

Hi ! I'm also interested to know how I can use PTQ on a screen-less RPi (4) and still be able to switch instruments, activate the metronome, and turn the device off !

Thanks everyone !

Reply by jimmi

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Re: Pianoteq 6 on Raspberry Pi 3

Reading the fine howto di Edgar I configured a nice headless device by using the RPi 4 and the new X400 v3.0 case that is now running like a charm. As interface I use my mobile on which I may have the RPi GUI via VNC. By using the Android app Raspberry SSH I may also perform other nice operation s.a. start and stop VNC, run Pianoteq headless and shutdown the RPi.

The reason to write here is to ask Edgar or someone else to explain the reason of the settings described in para 6.1, 6.2 and 6.3 of the guide and perhaps if they may suggest the same for RPi 4.

Thanks everyone for your great job, Pianoteq obtained another fan.

Last edited by jimmi (02-01-2020 03:51)

Reply by navindra

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Re: Pianoteq 6 on Raspberry Pi 3

I have had tremendous success with Pianoteq 7 on the Raspberry Pi 400 -- details in this thread.

jimmi wrote:

The reason to write here is to ask Edgar or someone else to explain the reason of the settings described in para 6.1, 6.2 and 6.3 of the guide and perhaps if they may suggest the same for RPi 4.

Yes, these are a must. This is all covered in README_LINUX.txt -- here is an excerpt (copyrighted by correct owners, of course) -- see the full file for more:

 * make sure your user account is allowed to request real-time scheduling. This is mandatory if you
   want a decent latency without tons of cracklings.
   
   In order to elevate your account priviledges w.r.t. real time scheduling, you will need to edit
   the /etc/security/limits.conf (as root or with sudo) file and add:

     @audio - rtprio 90
     @audio - nice -10
     @audio - memlock 500000

 You may want to tune the numerical values, but the most important is to grant realtime priviledges
 to your account. If your user account is not member of the "audio" group, either join it, or
 replace the "@audio" above by "@youruseraccount". After editing /etc/security/limits.conf, you must
 log out and log in again in order to have the changes applied.

 * you will probably want to turn off CPU frequency throttling when pianoteq is running, especially
   if you CPU is not very powerful. You can use the "cpufreq-info" command-line program to checks
   its current settings. CPU throttling can be disabled by the command:

     sudo cpufreq-set -c 0 -g performance (disable on the first cpu core)
     sudo cpufreq-set -c 1 -g performance (disable on the second core)
     ... (repeat for each CPU core)

 ## Pianoteq on ARM boards such as the Raspberry Pi 3

With version 6, Pianoteq is now able to run (with some performance limitations) on ARM boards, such
as for example the Raspberry Pi 3. Due to the limited cpu power available, a lot of care has to be
taken in order to achieve low latency without pops and cracks:

  * the user account used to run Pianoteq *must* have real-time rights (see the tip above about
    /etc/security/limits.conf ).

  * the cpu frequency should be locked at its maximum frequency. On a raspberry pi 3, which max out
    at 1.2GHz, it is:

      sudo cpufreq-set -f 1200MHz

  * the ethernet driver (at least as it is configured by default on Raspbian) will cause pops and
    cracks when there is network activity so you really have to add the following option to
    /boot/cmdline.txt:

      smsc95xx.turbo_mode=N
Last edited by navindra (16-11-2020 21:28)
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