Topic by cole0414

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  • cole0414
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  • Registered: 02-03-2019
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Topic: Pi 5 / HiFiBerry seems like a good combo

Just writing a trip report getting a piano set up for my living room.  I wanted something simple that had one knob for volume and that's it.  Ordered a Raspberry Pi 5, a super basic DAC from HiFi Berry (just has RCA connections).  One knob for volume amp and speakers from parts express.

I tried for a moment to use the python script by YouFou, but I couldn't quite figure out how to modify for pi5 and pianoteq 8.  So I just installed by downloading the arm64 version from Modartt, installing, and authorizing.  RIght out of the gate, I had basically zero issues.  Sound is good.  I tried setting the sample rate to 192k, saw that pianoteq was calculating latency at like 2.7 ms.  Piano felt responsive, so I decided to call it a day.

Last thing to sort out will be to make sure that pianoteq loads on boot.  I intend to never plug a keyboard, mouse, or monitor into the pi.  Didn't bother to sort that out yet, as I'm building a custom cabinet to house everything in (tritrix speakers from parts express, sl990-xp controller, etc.), and that's not done yet.

Also, the pi5 case from HiFi Berry is great.  Everything fit well, and it seems built like a tank.

Reply by dv

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  • Registered: 01-11-2021
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Re: Pi 5 / HiFiBerry seems like a good combo

Awesome, thanks for the report. I was indeed tempted to explore this option, to possibly replace my 2007-era iMac (on which I run Linux!)

cole0414 wrote:

I intend to never plug a keyboard, mouse, or monitor into the pi.

For the occasional need (e.g. to upgrade version) mouse/keyboard may be needed. You probably have already figured out, but for others reading the thread: you have two options.

1) use ssh from another machine

2) use a phone/tablet with an app which make the thing behave like a Bluetooth mouse/keyboard -- extremely convenient! You will need either a monitor or a VNC connection. I use the monitor since I use the same monitor (integrated into the iMac) for reading PDFs of music scores.

On a different topic, what performance index do you get on the Pi5? If you ever used a Pi4 or even a Pi3, how that compares to them? Or to whatever else you used?

Thanks again for posting!

Where do I find a list of all posts I upvoted? :(

Reply by cole0414

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Re: Pi 5 / HiFiBerry seems like a good combo

Oh yeah, I'll definitely keep a cheapo keyboard, mouse, monitor around to troubleshoot, but I want the unit to feel like a living room piano where you just walk up to it and play.

I didn't pay attention to performance very much because it seemed like it was just working and I wanted to move onto something else that day.  I think I remember it being rock steady in the 40s.  Eventually I'll work on tinkering the pi5 settings / pianoteq settings, maybe I'll come back here and update once I get to that.