Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Kawai VPC1 - What do I need to start?

Hi everyone! I'm a Classical Pianist and I'm looking to buy an instrument for late night practice (My D Steinway is killing my neighbors) , the Kawai VPC1 fits my needs in a 200% (Believe me, good sound is not important for me, what I need is Key action) but I really don't know anything about how to use this instrument, I would really appreciate your help for this total noob.

I would download the demo version of Pianoteq and install on your computer.Then, hook your digital piano (vpc1 ?) to your computer via a midi/usb cable and then see if you can get a sound coming from your computer when playing the vpc1.

Then come back for more instruction.

If you can do that, you may be able to get by with just a legal version (i.e. non-demo) of Pianoteq and headphones.

Until you can do that, there is no point in going much deeper.

I'm still waiting (It arrives in two days, but I have a Casio Px150, Is the same process?

yes

I've already done it, Yes I get sound, but I really don`t know what to do next...

You get sound when playing, so play then. Probably need to adjust keyboard velocity, but maybe not much point at this stage till you get the VPC1. Explore the menu options, especially sound settings. What speakers do you have?

Well, next you have to decide if the sound you are getting from the computer is "good enough". If so, you are done.

If it is not, then you have to figure out how to improve on the sound you are hearing.

The simplest thing I can suggest would be for you to purchase a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 audio interface and hook it up to the computer via a USB cable and then attach a pair of headphones to that and you are good to go.

I suggest the Focusrite 2i2 only because I have had one and I know it will work very well for you .... but there are other options.

This is it ... http://us.focusrite.com/usb-audio-interfaces/scarlett-2i2

You may wish to purchase it somewhere other than there as it may be cheaper, elsewhere.

You may even get by with just headphones attached to the computer. You could try that first.

Ok, Thanks a lot, do you believe that a Focusrite Scarlett Solo could be enough? and other question, how do you conect the Controller to the Interface? (I'm a total noob on this) and my last question is, Which Monitors should I buy? (I just want to practice, I don't need a Profesional setup), Thanks for your answers...

For Monitors I'm using a pair of KRK Rokit 6 Generation 3 and they sound pretty awesome to me..

The Sony V6 is a decent budget pair of headphones but I strongly recommend shelling out extra for the Audio Technica M50 or M50x. To me they sound much better.

Wrt to the audio interface , it should be a USB audio interface that is connected to your computer. So install the drivers and you are set.. the keyboard also hooks directly up to your computer and the software is what generates the sound...

The USB Audio interface should come with what is called ASIO drivers which will allow your setup to work well without any delay or latency.

Set the ASIO buffer size to 128 and u should be fine with that.(after you install the drivers)



My personal Setup is as follows:

A Presonus Audiobox USB as a sound interface

A Yamaha p105 digital piano as a controller

custom Built Desktop PC

Pair of KRK rokit 6




All in all:

- USB sound interface hooks to computer via USB cord

- Controller(Keyboard) hooks to computer via another USB cord(Appropriate drivers installed etc)

- Studio Monitors hooks to USB sound interface via Balanced TRS cables

http://www.amazon.com/Hosa-Cable-CP...?ie=UTF8&refRID=16SECTTD10GA9G4SY3SF


Have fun.
I'm sorry if I confused you further

A Steinway D? Geesh.... neighbors on the next block are being killed.

Nobody has mentioned the Software Piano? You need one.

You didn't say what your computer is?

I run a mac mini.
I only think of upping the sound with something like a Babyface. Beware, it ain't cheap.
Monitors... I love my Event's. Look at the Opal's. They ain't cheap.
Headphones.... you can do just fine with a good ole pair of K240's. They're accurate. Don't get the MkII version. The bass is overdone.

It sounds like the Focusrite Scarlett Solo should be fine.

It comes with a USB cord which you just plug into a USB port on your computer. It also has a CD with software to install. All the directions will come with it.

I would suggest using headphones and forget monitors. That will keep your cost down and you get the best sound through headphones anyway. Once you get into monitors ... then a whole world of decisions and disappointments opens up.

- to the OP; you can save money (~£100) by using the built-in sound-chip on your computer and getting the free (and very reliable) ASIO4all driver. I was doing this quite happily for several years. Your needs seem very basic so I would recommend it as a starting point.

And how do you get the ASIO4ALL driver ?

Just do a search for ASIO4ALL and download the driver and install it.

Then, go into Pianoteq and select ASIO as audio device type and then select ASIO4ALL as the device.

I would agree with this too to not just go and buy based on recommendation until you feel you really need it. try with what you have and see.

I am using an USB audio interface now for some other reasons besides the piano as well and have no regrets, it works well, but in all honesty, when I was using my onboard soundcard with asio4all and the piano over midi USB, just for the headphones, the result were good too, no interference issues, good latency, so it is worth trying if have a decent PC already.

If your PC is one of those I5, i7 multicore and up, say around 3 -4 years they come with decent realtek onboard audio chips or something similar with up to 192 kHz, 24 bit audio support as standard these days.
Even my older Core 2 Duo I use as my second PC am still working fine has fairly decent onboard audio.

Even the focusrite 2i2 I considered buying goes up to 96 KHz only IIRC, and not the 192 KHz of my PC soundcard ( or for that matter the tascam US-366 USB audio interface I bought in the end which does do 192 KHz.

Not that important in terms of sound quality if you go that high in frequency to be able to hear the difference, but the higher frequency can lower latency even more, I run painoteq trial @192 KHz, it halves sound processing latency more or less over the 96 KHz setting.

but in the end I can say in terms of latency my I7 4770K could match what my Audio interface could do pretty much, and it was just as stable too. In the end Latency will be as much determined by you PC power/CPU speed, not just the audio interface or whether you use a build in soundcard.

http://www.asio4all.com/ simply a one click install. Once you have asked painoteq to use asio4all, you can access the Asio4all control panel from within painoteq and you can have a play around with the settings to get the latency down as low as your system can afford without it beginning to bark at you, so to speak :), namely buffer size setting and frequency setting, the smaller buffer and higher frequency will lower latency, but you will reach a point where the sound will start stuttering or halting for a second here or there, when that happens that's point you know when you've gone over the limit of your PC/soundcard processing speed and gone too far, so adjust till happy.

I've found painoteq to not be resource hungry at all on my I7, it barely pushes the CPU, I do have one of those overclocked PC towers that runs 4.5 GHz, that helps, but even when underclocked and I run with speedstep enabled at a measly 1.6 GHZ CPU speed, it is more than capable to handle pianoteq then also, this to me suggest that most older systems like the core 2 duo or such would handle it just fine too.

I have a i5 3470 and 8gb ddr3, do you believe is enough? and besides PIano Teq what Piano Software do you recommend?

Yes, I'm sure you'll be fine with that processor and ram. In any case you lose nothing by putting your system to the test without buying additional hardware. If you're not satisfied with the latency then you could consider a dedicated audio interface but I doubt you'll need one.

Besides pianoteq? Are you asking about a different piano sound - for example a sample library - or about additional software to make your system work? The only additional software you'll *need* will be the free Asio4all driver.

I would not be concerned about additional software until you get Pianoteq up and running and able to decide if what you hear is sufficient. You said you were not concerned with the sound but only the key action. Well, with VPC1 and Pianoteq you have exactly what you need.

Once you begin trying for a "better" sound then you are going down an endless path in search of the next "better" sound.
Pianoteq is pretty good and it sounds perfect for what you need it for. It gives you a nice simple solution for your needs.

On my laptop (Intel i5 (2.7 GHz)), I'm OK as long as "power saving" is turned off -- I need the "High Performance" setting.

With ASIO4all running the built-in sound card, I can leave the WiFi adapter turned on, rather than "disabled". That adapter slows down the machine, but not enough for me to notice.

There's a lot of hints, about performance tuning, on the Pianoteq user forum. Most of it is understandable by non-computer-nerds. I think.

. Charles

I seldom do anything other than turn it on, bring up a piano and go. I have a few "pet" pianos I use and they work fine for me.