Raspberry 4 Pi B 4GB 64bit OS + HIFIBerry DAC w PI of 32

Update
The Hifiberry dac+ pro xlr has very high internal levels, so I had to set the volume level in Pianoteq to -20dB to avoid distortion. Unfortunately while listening to an extremely loud portion of Beethovens Sonata No. 14 C# minor (Moonlight) , Opus 27/2 (1801) I inadvertently switched presets to compare the difference.
Unfortunately the volume in the new preset was set to 0dB and in the few seconds before I could stop the playback, HIFIBerry hat seems to have been fried. No matter what level I play back now it crackles, so lesson learned.

I should have set a global freeze on the volume level

Next test will have to be with an external DAC.

Thank you so much!

I had the XLR cables connected to my Zoom H5 and I must have bumped up the levels control on the H5 in my panic to lower the volume, causing the distortion. Now after resetting everything seems to work properly again.

Hello again!

You can reduce the output level in 2 ways:
1. use `alsamixer` (a built-in utility) to adjust the output level of your Hifiberry DAC:
    - just type "alsamixer" on the terminal and follow the guide (select your DAC first)
2. modify the `start.sh` under the `Pianoteq 7` installation folder, and adjust the launch arguments to change the normalization level:
    - append "--normalize-db -6"  to `base_args`; "-6" is the new level, you can change it as you want
    - for more available launch arguments, you can find the Pianoteq 7 executable and use "--help" the find out

I used to use a DAC hat similar to Hifiberry DAC+, and had the same problem. What I did is to change the DAC output level via alsamixer.

Reference:
https://www.hifiberry.com/docs/archive/...ry-boards/

Thank you for this guide! As a noob in audio setup, I was wondering if a simple HIFIBERRY DAC+ Standard - Phone jack version (https://www.hifiberry.com/shop/boards/h...lus-phone/) would be sufficient to get good audio with pianoteq on a raspberry pi 4?

I have a raspberry pi 400 with a pisound.

The beauty of it is that it includes midi so no fiddling with usb latency issues.

My keyboard is a Kawai VCP-1 which I´ve built for my daughter to learn piano . She started at 9,5 years old.

For output I'm hooking it up to an ESI Moco and a pair of ESI Unik 05 plus, with some roland black xlr cables - All in all lovely sound.

I also added a mackie hm-4 amp for the headphones on the 2nd moco output.

It´s all a bit of a mess of cables atm, but I have on backlog to design and print a custom case to hold all the hardware in and reposition a bunch of ports, knobs and switches, and screw it on the vpc-1's underside.

RIght now looking at the new Rpi 5 for an upgrade, which will simplify my build for the custom case.

I´ve dreamed up and did a few drawings on a full enclosure that would hold everything, from sound to hardware and toughscreen, but that might take a while to find the time

There is also the https://www.hifiberry.com/docs/data-she...-dac2-pro/ which should be pretty much identical to the Pisound in performance and capabilities (it uses the same chip)

I've just received my RPi 5 4G and installed the std OS and an HDMI LCD screen and used the HDMI audio output.
I didn't do any optimizations.

Performance index is stable at 44 and CPU load is low  (<20% per core)

This is just an initial impression, but it looks like a good option to make my midi controller a stand-alone piano

Oh wow this is great. I just got a Pi4 and a HifiBerry DAC to make myself a little pipiano box.

You run headless with VNC. I assume it's not possible to run fully headless, meaning without the desktop environment installed? I've been trying to figure this out but as a relative linux noob I'm a bit lost. But I think even if I did manage to install the software on my fully headless, no desktop env pi, I realized it'd probably be impossible to activate Pianoteq on said headless install. So I think I've been barking up the wrong tree and should just try headless but with desktop env installed, then do VNC for when I need to see something. I had it working just fine with the normal version of the OS before I tried fully headless.

So when you set up this sort of headless but with VNC, it's not using resources to render the desktop environment when it's not being accessed with the VNC viewer right?

In case of interest, here are the steps I used to get Pianoteq 8 stage running on a RPI-4B with Hifiberry DAC+. It can do full headless mode without need of any GUI even over VNC and was based on Youfou's excellent post at https://forum.modartt.com/viewtopic.php?id=8268.

1. Flash SD card
    Use RPI-Imager from Windows to flash Rasbian OS 64 bit with desktop to SD card. Configure:
    - username: user
    - hostname: pianoteq
    - wi-fi:          wifi_details
    - SSH (UN+PW)

2. System config
    - From windows command shell, connect to the RPI over ssh.
   

ssh user@pianoteq

    - Log in, and configure system options using
   

sudo raspi-config

     - System Options: (S5) Boot/Auto Login - Select B4 autologin GUI
     - Interface Options (I2): Enable VNC remote desktop
     - Localization Options (L2)
     - Reboot

3. Set audio card

sudo nano /boot/config.txt
   - Remove line   : dtparam=audio=on
   - Add ",noaudio": dtoverlay=vc4-kms-v3d,noaudio
   - Add line:       dtoverlay=hifiberry-dacplus

4. Prevent ethernet driver crashing under load

sudo nano/boot/cmdline.txt
   - Add to end of line: smsc95xx.turbo_mode=N

5. Upgrade real-time user rights

sudo nano /etc/security/limits.conf
    - Add three lines at end:
      @user    -    rtprio    90
      @user    -    nice      -10
      @user    -    memlock   500000

6. Set the correct system time to enable downloads

sudo date -s '1 Jan 2024 09:00'

7. Install Pianoteq prerequisites

sudo apt-get install p7zip-full
sudo apt-get install cpufrequtils

8. Open the GUI and download Pianoteq stage
   -  Access GUI via Windows Real VNC Viewer
   - On RPI desktop browser, open: https://www.modartt.com/user_area
   - Download pianoteq_stage_linux_v813.7z to /home/user/Downloads
   - In the GUI, unzip (double click file) to /home/user/Pianoteq 8 STAGE

9. Create shell script to run Pianoteq in the arm-64bit subdirectory
This shell script will start pianoteq with the CPUs set to their maximum speed (note not overclocked) and return them to normal on exit. Command line arguments to the shell script are passed on to Pianoteq ($@).

sudo nano /home/user/'Pianoteq 8 STAGE'/arm-64bit/start.sh

Type the following:

#!/bin/bash
sudo cpufreq-set -r -g performance
/home/user/'Pianoteq 8 STAGE'/arm-64bit/'Pianoteq 8 STAGE' --multicore max --do-not-block-screensaver $@
sudo cpufreq-set -r -g ondemand

 
10. Create desktop shell script
Elsewhere people have used desktop shortcuts (.desktop) which allows you to set an icon, but this is a bit simpler. This desktop shell script stops the background service (for headless operation) and calls the previous shell.

sudo nano /home/user/Desktop/Pianoteq.sh

Type the following:

#!/bin/bash
sudo systemctl stop pianoteq
/home/user/'Pianoteq 8 STAGE'/arm-64bit/start.sh
sudo systemctl start pianoteq

11. Make shell scripts executable

chmod +x /home/user/'Pianoteq 8 STAGE'/arm-64bit/start.sh
chmod +x /home/user/Desktop/Pianoteq.sh

12. Create a service

sudo nano /lib/systemd/system/pianoteq.service

Type the following:

[Unit]
Description=Start Pianoteq 8 STAGE
After=sound.target

[Service]
User=user
Environment=DISPLAY=:0
ExecStart=/home/user/'Pianoteq 8 STAGE'/arm-64bit/start.sh --headless
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=2s
KillMode=control-group
TimeoutSec=infinity
LimitRTPRIO=infinity
LimitMEMLOCK=infinity
LimitRTTIME=infinity

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

13. Start service

systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable pianoteq
sudo reboot

14. Configure pianoteq in the GUI
    - Audio output:             snd_rpi_hifiberry_dacplus... direct hardware device without conversions
    - Sample rate:              44100 Hz
    - Audio buffer:              96 samples (2.2ms)
    - Internal sample rate: 29400 Hz
    - Maximum poly:         48

Pianoteq should now run on boot with the last preset selected. You can disable the GUI through sudo raspi-config and selecting boot to terminal.