Good Afternoon,
Need some direction and advice.Performed some shows over the weekend and had a couple minor glitches. First , my rig. Keyboards: NI Komplete Kontrol S88 MKiii & an Arturia keylab 61 MKiii. Computer is a Mac Pro book M! pro w/ ext. 4TB SSD HD. Connected to a RME Babyface pro 24. Into a hum Eliminator: then into a Souncraft Ui 24 R mixer. I run my rack spaces thru a Behringer Xtouch w/ motorized fades for song set up changes. Majority of time, everything works like a charm. On occasion, when a song moves quickly to the next song, I change the rack and hit the piano, it crackles and glitches out. After a couple seconds, it resolves on itās own. Itās usually on the same piano patch (pianoteq 9 ) I glance at the cpu real quick,but numbers are low. One song had piano on fader 1; Strings on expression pedal; and horns on fader 3. As the song progressed, Piano, strings and the horns were faded in for the big climax. As I got more aggressive, the horns and strings sounded the same, but I could hear the piano glitching out. Could it be the polyphony? Or one of the devices? ( If it was polyphony, the piano shouldnāt do it on itās own, right? ) What is everyone putting the polyphony on pianoteq 9? I know you can change it, but heard it used more cpu. Any ideas I can explore? Could it be the keyboard? Everyone has always been a great help. Thanks in adveance. Lanny
What is your buffer size and sample rate?
Is this for every random song to another random song or specific switch from song A to song B? For the songs that are glitching, do they all have Pianoteq inside? Can you track the pattern, the conditions that are likely to cause the glitch?
Also, can you experiment with different levels? Master Trim is your friend.
If only the piano sounds distorted, the issue may come from improper gain staging between the RME Babyface and the Soundcraft mixer. If the distortion becomes more noticeable when playing loud chords, this is likely the cause. If there are audio glitches caused by an issue at the output of the audio interface, all other instruments would be affected as well. I donāt use Pianoteq because Iām not a big fan of it, but Iāve never heard of issues where it would cause audio glitches while other plugins run normallyāit doesnāt seem very likely. To rule this out, could you try listening to your audio output through headphones directly from your RME Babyface?
Buffer is at 256. My CPU % maxes at around 30-40%. The only VST I have issues with (sometimes) is the Yamaha Montage M soft synth. When doing a patch, I always lower the value on the āmidi learn pageā to around 75. Where is the Master trim you are speaking of? Where are you running your VST volumes? I always thought 0 db was unity? Should there be some more leeway? Like -3 or -5 ? Thanks
Check the General options for Master Trim.
Also there is a knob on the main toolbar.
I suspect like @David-san that there may be issue with gain staging.
Are you using the AU version of Pianoteq? What format are you using?
If you are using the AU version, you might want to consider trying the VST3 version. Maybe try in a test Gig file. If the problem does not recur, you might want to switch all of them (not good to use different versions in the same gig file).
But, let others commentā¦ā¦.
(Iām a bit confused (does not take much!) because I thought your problem seemed to be related to Pianoteq, but now you are mentioning issues with Yamaha Montage M soft synth.)
No just mentioned montage because by nature itās very power hungry. All of my plugs are VST3.Just wonderingā¦So when Iām using Pianoteq (Bechstein, for example), I always āmidi learnā the volume on the VST. Would it be better to set that volume at 0 unity and add either a Gain/ Bal widget or audio mixer (depending on the rack) and control it from there?
I think its better to control the volume using a GP mixer plugin, which you can control via a widget.
So, you connect a widget to the pluginās volume parameter? Maybe something is doing something to that (you can look in the MIDI monitor). I donāt think that usually considered best practiceā¦.
I agree totally about the gain staging. When I set up, I watch the RME and the LEDāS are always in the green. Ithere another way to adjust and check input on the RME?
Iāve always been lazy and never added gain led widgets on my racks.So probably waht I should be doing is adding led meters for gain on every instrument and adjust accordingly. Then the RME. The inputs on the souncraft are staged at -18 or a little above for peaks.. Thanks for the input
Yes, it would.
There is nothing to adjust on this side. The outputs from GP correspond to the playback section in TotalMix FX which is fully digital and has no preamp gain to adjust.
The gain staging issue I suspect is between your RME Babyface and the Soundcraft mixer.
In TotalMix FX, you can set the output reference level. The ā+4 dBuā setting is likely the correct one; you should avoid using the āHi Gainā mode.
On the Soundcraft mixer input, there is a gain control to adjust, but this is not the audio level itselfāit is the input preamp gain that you are supposed to adjust.
Thanks for the input from one and all. As soon as I get my rig back in the studio, Iāll start tracing the gain staging. Thanks again
By the way, here is yet another shout out for Joeyās AWAKEN widget panel (it is a rackspace too, but I only use the widget panel).
I use this on pretty much every song. It gives me all the meters, buttons and faders I need to map to GP mixer.
You mentioned you have a hum eliminator in between the Babyface Pro FS and the Soundcraft mixer. First, what hum eliminator are you using? Iām also not sure why you are using one there as the outputs of the Babyface Pro and inputs of the Soundcraft are balanced. Were you getting hum before using one? I would think you would want the hum eliminator between the Soundcraft and the FOH/PA, but every situation is different. Some hum eliminators effect impedance levels which could also effect gain staging.
I also ran into an issue with my Babyface Pro, which is the center of my portable rig, going into the first device of the signal chain going to the FOH/PA. David-san already mentioned this, but there is a switch on the bottom the Babyface Pro that changes the line level output from +4 to -10 (I believe it comes default to +4). The first device in the signal chain after the Babyface Pro was expecting a -10 line level signal which was clearly labeled on the inputs. The +4 was too hot and the FOH mix was better when the Babyface Pro was set to -10.
Just some things to consider as you troubleshoot this. Best of luck!
Hi Benjamin, thanks for getting back with his input. I am using the hum eliminator to get rid of the noise coming off of the laptop. The sound craft that I am running into is overkill for sure. I run from the outputs into EV P 12 powered monitor that is pointed back to me and then the house gets their signal off the mix out of that monitor. I never thought about running it between the sound craft and the monitor. Iāll try it. I still think I need to pay close attention to the chain even though the baby face shows very clean green LED signals. I need to check total necks and make sure those channels are also clean. I havenāt got my rig set back up yet. Been lazy. But I will get it back up and start rewiring and checking things. Thanks for all of the input appreciate as Always.
Sorry. Check total mix. Sometimes this auto stuff can be very annoying lol
Well, thatās part of the fun 
Iāve been getting a distorted output from my setup after itās been running for a while requiring a re-start of GP - admittedly on an 8-year old laptop which I am about to replace. I had never taken account of the Master Trim control but since I reduced it to -6DB Iām sure it has reduced the incidence of this issue. Pianoteq 9 is my staple piano but I didnāt get this effect last year running Pianoteq 8. But I am using SampleTank 4 sounds more this year. Either way, Iāll certainly be considering Master Trim in my thinking, thanks for the nudge, @npudar!
There was a recent thread here discussing issues with Pianoteq 9 and the difference in CPU usage vs Pianoteq 8.
How long is a āwhileā ? Are you on Mac or Windows? What sample rate and buffer size?