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I'm about to buy cfx lite virtual piano, but i was wondering if anyone has had experience with both, and if so, which takes up more system resources?

I have pianoteq demo and it works great, but at times if i go play lot of notes it starts to pop

CFX lite will be my first VST purchase, i don't intend to buy a DAW, will use it Standalone!!

My laptop specs are as follows: intel i5 5300U , 2.3Ghz, 256ssd, 12gig ram, windows 10(64bit)

I would not buy anything until you get Pianoteq to work without "pops".

One thing you might try is to set your computer POWER SETTINGS to HIGH PERFORMANCE.

FWIW I run Pianoteq on two MacBook Airs with similar, older, much slower CPUs and there are no crackles. (i5 5250U 1.6GHz and i5-4250U 1.3Ghz). I get a performance index of about 72-112.

1. definitely start there.

2. After that - look at the Options/Preferences. Here's how mine are set.
DEVICES
Sample Rate - 48000 Hz
Audio Buffer Size - 4.0ms or less

PERFORMANCE
Internal Sample Rate - 48000 Hz
Maximum Polyphony - Auto (Optimistic)

3. One final "smack the dashboard when engine sounds funny" tip. Lower the internal Pianoteq volume slider by a few notches; sometimes just 2-3 notches is all you need (you can turn up the hardware volume to compensate). Doesn't always happen but lowering the volume slightly seems to solve it when it does. I suspect that the internal model/preset overdrives itself somehow, perhaps something to do with the virtual microphones.

Popping when using a VST instrument CAN be a matter of performance in the way you're probably thinking of here, but more often it's something you may not yet be familiar with: audio buffer size.

First, what are the "traditional" performance problems that can happen? A VST might pop if it is having trouble accessing sample data from the hard disk quickly enough. That is not what is happening with your computer since 1) Pianoteq doesn't use samples and 2) you have an SSD so that's far less likely anyways. Another reason it might pop is if your processor is having trouble handling the workload. I think this is unlikely in your case as your CPU should be more than adequate for Pianoteq or really any single instrument sampled VST like the Garritan CFX. Your RAM shouldn't be a problem, either, unless it's totally full but even then popping is less of what you'd expect to happen so much as the VST simply not being able to load in the first place - and again, this wouldn't apply in the case of Pianoteq.

While it's hard to say without looking at your system firsthand, I think it's EXTREMELY likely that your problem is with the audio buffer size - which is something that you can adjust. When a VST plays sound - whether its by playing sampled like Garritan CFX or generating audio data on the fly like in the case of Pianoteq - your system needs a few fractions of a second to process incoming data and turn it into sound. This means that as the software sends more and more audio data, it will store a kind of "backlog." It's almost like you have some sound playing while the next few milliseconds of audio data is waiting in line for it's turn. That "line" is called the audio buffer.

Depending on the overall speed of your system and sound hardware, a different buffer size might be required. If the buffer is too large for your computer, you will have lag between when you play a note and when you hear it since it is keeping more audio data "waiting in line" before it plays it, so you can't make your buffer too long. On the other hand, if the buffer is too short for your system then the system will essentially run out of audio data to process and so while it waits for more you will hear that as a kind of pop. I think this is almost certainly the problem you are encountering.

Fortunately, you can adjust your audio buffer to find the right balance for you and your system. In Pianoteq, go to Edit>Preferences and you will see an "audio buffer size" pull down. You want to set this as small as possible so that you don't get those pops. Experiment with it. Try it small first, then if you get pops, increase the size and try again. If you make it too large, you will find that playing will become very unpleasant because the lag will be very noticeable. There's no one size fits all setting here: it depends on your system, your audio hardware, etc. For me, I have it set on 256 samples and don't notice any lag and there are no pops at all. This is with a newly upgraded system (i5-9600k). On my previous system, an i5-2400 I had to use a different size to make it work.

By the way: the kind of audio driver you use can also make a huge difference here. There are basically 3 different options: Windows Audio, Directsound, and ASIO. You can make this choice from the same screen in Pianoteq and all VSTs have somewhere to choose. Windows audio is, as far as I know, the worst. You will typically have to set a very high buffer size with windows audio to avoid pops and you'll have way too much lag. Directsound should be available as well on just about any Windows system and it is better. Depending on the exact hardware you have, it may be usable or it may not be. The best is typically ASIO. ASIO is a kind of sound driver which allows programs direct and exclusive access to your audio hardware so it cuts through a lot of latency. You will typically be able to get the smoothest performance at the lowest setting your system can handle using ASIO.

Now ASIO drivers are in theory written by your audio hardware manufacturer specifically for that hardware and are typically used for audio production purposes rather than gaming/watching media, so unless you have a dedicated audio interface intended for audio production chances are your card won't have ASIO drivers. However, for years and years now something called ASIO4ALL has been available and it's the de facto standard for anyone whose hardware doesn't have dedicated manufacturer ASIO drivers. You can get it here: http://www.asio4all.org/ It will probably make a huge difference for your VST performance if you don't already have an ASIO driver running.

For a more detailed discussion of audio buffers, here is a good piece: https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/optimising-latency-pc-audio-interface

I run Pianoteq without problem on an old iMac 2007. No cpu overload.

I found Garritan CFX to be a bit of a resource hog. It took a lot of work to get working on my laptops (including a 6300HQ and 7700HQ).

The HQ chips are poorly binned but the U chips are generally even worse. The K chip Lazerlike42 runs is much higher performing.

If you can get PianoTeq running seamlessly then see if you can get good LatencyMon performance. If that is the case, maybe Garritan might perform OK on your laptop. If the tricks above don't work I have a few others we might explore but there are not a ton of tweaks for Windows 10.

Uh, another Pianoteq thread. Do hope there's going to be no militant unpleasantness...

OP's CPU benchmark appears to be almost exactly the same as mine...runs at less than 20% CPU capacity, PTQ performance greater than 80. First step, as mentioned, set to High Performance.

I get 172 on a high-end system. intel i7 8700K @5GHz

What would anyone play to use such a performance index? Mine's around 31 when I play loads and loads of notes to try to stall it . . . . .

It fails at black MIDI

How do you determine the performance index?

Also, I plan to get the CFX lite version, and i have presounus audiobox vsl 22 audio interface.

I think the popping is not as a result of cpu usage, it appears in piano teq trial, i usually stay under 55 perceent, majority of time i'm around below 30 percent. Also, by buffer is 128 (2.9 sec) and increasing buffer didn't really make it a difference, in the popping, I do have it under high performance, but i do notice that it is less prevelant when the laptop is plugged in.

Performance index is shown on one of the Options pages. If your CPU gets anywhere near 50% it's working too hard, somehow. Pops just waiting for a transient...

You have certainly learned a lot about Pianoteq since we introduced you to it!

Sorry, TS--not sure whether that's sarcasm or not.

Not at all! Just observing you've come a ways from the FP30 bongo days not so long ago, which is great - I would not have associated pops with transients myself. Although coincidentally, one thread here just digressed this morning on sarcasm and how you Brits are world-experts

Man, this whole vst business is kind of a pain in the ***..
I just want to experiment with VST, but i must say , i couldn't do a keyboard without sounds as my primary digital instrument!

Really surprised some people struggle so with VSTs. It took me 20 mins of my life to set up Pianoteq and get it fully working.

It did take me about another 4 hrs though to set up a dedicated piano computer that could be always on.

I believe that my current Pianoteq set up with an FP30 is faster than 90% of the digital users out there. The only thing I need to turn on are my speakers, which I do only 5% of the time. The other 95% of the time, I have to put on my headphones which takes 3 seconds. I turn on nothing else. Just sit down and play.

I think some are looking at this wrong. Setting up a VST is not that hard - at least for Pianoteq. I've never tried any other VSTs myself.

What "Audio device type" is it set at?

Amen to all that. Why switch anything off or on wnen you don't really need to? My old lappie's 11 years old, and you can only just hear the fan. The only problem i have with PTQ is that it displays some of the stuff I don't like about acoustics, and I wonder in my heart of hearts if I'd rather play a more balanced, refined sounding digital. I reckon too much choice isn't always a good thing!