Topic by MarinoDiMare

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Topic: EuroPi?

I’m looking for a great sounding piano option to add to my current set-up, which is largely EuroRack-based, with an Arturia MIDI-controller. There are one or two off-the-shelve solutions but they are expensive and seem not actually that great sounding (plus there have been some concerns re: build quality for one of them).

So, naturally, the mind drifts to running PianoTeq on a Raspberry Pi.

Before going further, it’s probably a good idea to say what I am not looking for: anything that involves a big screen. So no laptops, or tablets. A subtle OLED like on my Modal Argon is totally fine, and I’m happy to forego some functionality in a trade-off for seamlessness of integrated in the current set-up, both physically and in terms of ethos.

I’m comfortable with soldering something together myself, but there’s also a Eurorack module that may actually have all I need: Allen Synthesis’ EuroPi.

So here’s my question: has anyone successfully run PianoTeq on this thing? I’m surely not the first to ponder the option. Does it seem feasible at all? Thanks for any input!


Here’s the link to EuroPi:
https://allensynthesis.co.uk/modules/europi.html

Reply by jari_42

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Re: EuroPi?

MarinoDiMare wrote:

I’m looking for a great sounding piano option to add to my current set-up, which is largely EuroRack-based, with an Arturia MIDI-controller. There are one or two off-the-shelve solutions but they are expensive and seem not actually that great sounding (plus there have been some concerns re: build quality for one of them).

So, naturally, the mind drifts to running PianoTeq on a Raspberry Pi.

Before going further, it’s probably a good idea to say what I am not looking for: anything that involves a big screen. So no laptops, or tablets. A subtle OLED like on my Modal Argon is totally fine, and I’m happy to forego some functionality in a trade-off for seamlessness of integrated in the current set-up, both physically and in terms of ethos.

I’m comfortable with soldering something together myself, but there’s also a Eurorack module that may actually have all I need: Allen Synthesis’ EuroPi.

So here’s my question: has anyone successfully run PianoTeq on this thing? I’m surely not the first to ponder the option. Does it seem feasible at all? Thanks for any input!


Here’s the link to EuroPi:
https://allensynthesis.co.uk/modules/europi.html

Looking at the EuroPi it’s based on a Raspberry Pi Pico which is far too underpowered to run PianoTeq (it runs at 125Mhz which is the kind of speed computers ran 25 years ago, it’s designed primarily to be a microcontroller rather than a computer).

Reply by Key Fumbler

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Re: EuroPi?

While Pianoteq is extremely efficient, and some got Raspberry Pi 4 technically working with heavily reduced voice count and reduced sample rates, bigger buffering and accepting more latency.  Probably even a Raspberry Pi 5 is still going to involve some compromises for a single instance of Pianoteq, though it's a lot more powerful than the fourth version.

I'm guessing the Pi5 is going to allow for a higher sample rate and larger number of simultaneous voices. Current Pianoteq allows 3 instrument packs to be used simultaneously - it might be interesting to see if the pie can cope with that with an acceptable reduced voice count now in its 5th incarnation.

Pico is totally unsuitable. You'd have about as much fun trying to pull a large caravan up a steep hill on an regular E scooter!

Reply by MarinoDiMare

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Re: EuroPi?

Key Fumbler wrote:

While Pianoteq is extremely efficient, and some got Raspberry Pi 4 technically working with heavily reduced voice count and reduced sample rates, bigger buffering and accepting more latency.  Probably even a Raspberry Pi 5 is still going to involve some compromises for a single instance of Pianoteq, though it's a lot more powerful than the fourth version.

I'm guessing the Pi5 is going to allow for a higher sample rate and larger number of simultaneous voices. Current Pianoteq allows 3 instrument packs to be used simultaneously - it might be interesting to see if the pie can cope with that with an acceptable reduced voice count now in its 5th incarnation.

Pico is totally unsuitable. You'd have about as much fun trying to pull a large caravan up a steep hill on an regular E scooter!

Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, I had a dark premonition that it would be too good to be true. Are there any successful projects running PianoTeq in a kind of "black box" desktop synth hardware set-up with only physical controls? Again, totally acceptable for me to live without deep functionality, or at least direct access to deep functionality. Meaning, setting up presets beforehand on a computer is fine, but while playing really all I need is physical controls for changing instruments, output volume, and maybe one or two additional parameters.

Reply by Key Fumbler

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Re: EuroPi?

MarinoDiMare wrote:
Key Fumbler wrote:

While Pianoteq is extremely efficient, and some got Raspberry Pi 4 technically working with heavily reduced voice count and reduced sample rates, bigger buffering and accepting more latency.  Probably even a Raspberry Pi 5 is still going to involve some compromises for a single instance of Pianoteq, though it's a lot more powerful than the fourth version.

I'm guessing the Pi5 is going to allow for a higher sample rate and larger number of simultaneous voices. Current Pianoteq allows 3 instrument packs to be used simultaneously - it might be interesting to see if the pie can cope with that with an acceptable reduced voice count now in its 5th incarnation.

Pico is totally unsuitable. You'd have about as much fun trying to pull a large caravan up a steep hill on an regular E scooter!

Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, I had a dark premonition that it would be too good to be true. Are there any successful projects running PianoTeq in a kind of "black box" desktop synth hardware set-up with only physical controls? Again, totally acceptable for me to live without deep functionality, or at least direct access to deep functionality. Meaning, setting up presets beforehand on a computer is fine, but while playing really all I need is physical controls for changing instruments, output volume, and maybe one or two additional parameters.

Not really anything satisfactory no. Not IMHO.

I think the closest you might get to hardware control is something like a NUC or Mac mini hidden away combined with the brand new poly Native Instruments poly AT keyboards with their little screens built in - again screens but with integrated controls for plugins.
But in the way you describe your specific requirements no.

Linux & pi 5 and a small control screen might cope - experimental though, and not what you asked for.


Even the Native Instruments nks stuff isn't going to be without issues:
https://forum.modartt.com/viewtopic.php?id=10856

I remember there was a blind guy that wanted a simple solution - he was using some kind of screen reader:
https://forum.modartt.com/viewtopic.php?id=8268

Last edited by Key Fumbler (14-01-2024 14:34)

Reply by vaikohansson

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Re: EuroPi?

Hey.

I'm using Zynthian (raspberry pi based music computer) for live Pianoteq usage. That's plenty powerful for it and allows for some really nice controlling of Pianoteq also. I'm very happy with that.

https://zynthian.org/

Regards,
Vaiko