Imperial - sustain notes cut off

[delavagus]

Hello all!

I'm brand-new to the VSL world. I just bought the Vienna Imperial. I'm very pleased with it, except for a couple things. I already sent an e-mail to them about it, but I'm so impatient to make it work that I thought I'd also post the question up here. I can't seem to find anyone else who has this problem, so I assume I'm doing something wrong. Any help would be appreciated. Here's the explanation of the problem I gave in my e-mail:

I have been unable to eliminate a serious problem with the sustain cutting off. I use the sustain pedal a lot, and this problem makes the program unplayable for me -- which is a shame, because it sounds INCREDIBLE. To explain the problem, let me describe a playing situation in which the problem *always* occurs.

I strike two low C's with my left hand, depress the sustain pedal, then do a long run down a C-minor scale, starting from the top of the piano, with my right hand, keeping the sustain pedal on the whole time. Inevitably, at some point during the run, the sustain on the two low C's cuts off with an audible "click."

If I strike the same two low C's and depress the sustain pedal, *without* playing any other notes, the sustain fades away naturally, without the abrupt "click."

I have not encountered this problem on any other software piano I've used, included Synthogy Ivory and Acoustik Piano. As I said, it makes the Vienna Imperial unplayable for me.

I'm not that savvy about audio software, so I'm hoping there's an easy fix. I've attempted to following, without any luck:

-- Increasing the polyphony
-- Changing the buffer size
-- Altering the various settings within the Vienna Imperial itself (increasing "Midi sensitivity" seems to help the problem, but it doesn't elimiante it entirely -- plus, I don't like what it does to the sound, so even if it eliminated the problem, I'd still want another solution)

(BTW, the external hard drive on which the VI libraries are installed is connected to my computer via an eSata cable. There doesn't seem to be any problem with slow disk speeds. Running the VI in Logic, I monitored System Performance while replicating the problem, and it appears that I can run the VI without any strain on my system.)

Thanks!

[Unicorn]

Hi there,

I have been experienced this problem since day 1, so you are not the only one!

Did you manage to resolve it yet?

Cheers

[Paul]

Hello,

Please include your system specs in your mails to support - and I believe it will also be helpful here in the forum, for orientation (a G5 2.0 GHz will have a hard time to cope with a lot of polyphony).

If you include a MIDI file and a short mp3 as a comparison in your mail to our support team, it would be a luxury!

Best,

Paul

[santamorphic]

Hi -

I too have a similar problem. When I hold the sustain pedal down for a long time and let all notes ring, the output starts clicking without any particular, repeatable pattern. 

Problem is the same in all of these scenarios:

1. standalone on iMac 2.8GHz intel core 2 duo, 4GB, samples on external drive 7200RPM FireWire connect, OS10.5.8. 

2. AU in DP 7.2.2 on iMac 2.8GHz intel core 2 duo, 4GB, samples on external drive 7200RPM FireWire connect, OS10.5.8. 

3. AU VEPro client in DP 7.2.2 on iMac 2.8GHz intel core 2 duo, 4GB, OS10.5.8; Imperial in VEPro 64bit server on Windows 7 Pro, i7 350, 24GB, samples on internal 7200RPM sata 6gb connect; computers attached to same gigabit switch by short cat 6 cables

Problem does not occur when doing a non-realtime bounce.

I have latest versions of imperial, ve pro server and client, elicenser, etc.  

I could capture the audio output if this helps.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
G

[andyjh]

 What buffer size have you got set in Vienna Imperial (or VE Pro if networked)?  Vienna Imperial seems to want at least 128 samples buffer, a buffer of 64 causes problems with the convolution reverb and maybe other things. 128 samples is still only 2.9mS latency (at 44.1KHz)

[santamorphic]

Thanks Andy - I'm at 512 in standalone and still get the occasional clicks. In the DP host I have a 512 sample buffer, too.

I have changed the VEPro AU plugin client to 2 buffers and it now appears to be ok. Previously I've had terrible clicks and dropouts between VE and DP when I've chosen anything other than no buffer. That seems to have been fixed now, and choosing two buffers has fixed this current problem.

I just won't use in standalone - which is fine. That was just to test if the problem was only in the host.

So thanks Andy for suggesting I re-check those settings.

[Billyjoel]

Just to show my solidarity: I have the same problem. I have a MacBook Pro 17 and a fireface 400 (RME) I hope the creators find a solution quickly to cope with this since for every piano player it makes the wonderful vienna imperial piano unplayable and thus unacceptable. I will have to give it back if no solution is offered... Thanx! H.

[andyjh]

 Vienna Imperial works 100% perfect for me, never glitches, never stops. So the the software is all OK, any problems therefore are with the computer running it. For large polyphony and long notes, the hard drive must be fast, not fragmented and not a system drive, and there will need to be a lot a RAM.

I run it on  Win 7 64-bit, i7 processor and 24Gb of RAM, running Latency buffer of 128. I always use WD Cavier Black drives.

You could post a midifile of a musical phrase that causes you problems, maybe some solution may come from this.

[Billyjoel]

Thank you. I guess Paul Steinbauer already found the solution - at least in my case - and you refer to the same solution here. I only use the Vienna Imperial Bösendörfer Piano. My problem was that I did not rely on an external harddrive which should be a fast one: 7200 instead of 5400. I used my internal MacBookPro harddrive and that caused the problem: The Vienna Imperial works fine if used on an external harddrive irrespective whether one uses a USB or firewire. So that was it for me. No cut-offs any more. The support was absolutely great and Paul was very patient with me as I was unhappy and of the opinion it was a software mistake. At the end of the day it was a sort of software mistake in my own head! ;-) THANX AGAIN! You really can rely on these guys ! All the best!!!! H.

[Perdurabo]

I've just installed the VI and I'm having the same problem. I'm running the software on an laptop assembled by Scan 3XS specfically for audio. I7, 2.4ghz quadcore 8GB Ram/Windows 64 bit Reaper 64 bit Fireface 400 My laptop should be capable of running VI without these sustain dropouts which simply aren't acceptable from a playing or recording perspective. I'm in contact with VSL and have sent them an audio sample, but they are suggesting copying the samples onto my system drive when I've been led to believe elsewhere that they should be run from a seperate drive. They're currently on a USB3 Western Digital Passport Essential 320gb external drive which may be the problem - I'm guessing it might be a 5400RPM drive rather than 7200RPM but Western Digital's technical support won't answer the phone to take my question. The computer shop I bought the external drive from say you should put all the samples on the system drive but I don't think they're really audio experts. I guess I could get an eSATA drive and install them onto there, but I note someone else on this thread had the same problem streaming from an eSATA drive which is a bit worrying. I'm also a bit concerned that someone upthread was running VI with 24GB of RAM and experiencing the same problem! I really love the sound of VI and the chap at VSL is being very helpful, but if anyone else can shed some light on solving this problem I would be very grateful. Chris

[UNDERDOC]

Hello to everyone,

I also tried to reproduce the problem mentioned above but I have NOT encountered any of these problems - even with Polyphony of 80! Perhaps an midi example file would be very helpful!

My system configuration can be found below.

[Perdurabo]

Please excuse my ignorance, but how would an example MIDI file help? Would it not be more helpful to post an audio file to demonstrate the sustain dropouts?

[UNDERDOC]

@Perdurabo said:

Please excuse my ignorance, but how would an example MIDI file help? Would it not be more helpful to post an audio file to demonstrate the sustain dropouts?

If delavagus says he encountered sustain dropouts then I do belief him. Well I also own Vienna Imperial. With such a midi file I could check out if that happens the same way on my computer.

[Perdurabo]

I'm still not sure what posting a MIDI file will prove - if VI runs perfectly on your system I'm pleased for you, but sadly I'm still experiencing sustain dropouts on my own setup, which disappoints me as my system should be more than up to the task. If anyone has any suggestions on how to deal with this issue, please post them here.