jdg78 Just out of curiosity, what kinds of issues are you having? Does it have more to do with the VST software, or w/ the VPC1?

I ask because I've been thinking of getting a VPC1 myself sometime down the road

My problems have centered around the following:

continuous, seemingly unstoppable, descent of my Windows computer into a state of complete paralysis and non functionalilty;
my resentment toward Microsoft for taking ownership and control of my computer for me using the Microsoft Windows operating system, my resistance thereto by not allowing my piano computer any access to the internet, and my perception that Microsoft goes out of its way to punish persons who make such choices;
my inability to faithfully recognize when I am ‘hearing’ the real sounds of the VSTs versus when I am just ‘hearing’ what I want to hear.

About 3 years ago my regular piano was a Casio Privia PX-760. I eventually grew weary of the sound and wanted better. I bought what I now recognize as inferior studio monitors. They helped, but not enough to satisfy me.

I then tried Pianoteq 5 and had mixed feeling of satisfaction and wanting better.

I bought Garritan CFX lite, then full. It sounded too bright (which I later realized was partly the fault of the cheap monitors I was using.

Later I decided to upgrade my Pianoteq from the lowest version, Stage, to the middle version, Standard. For this upgrade, I also upgraded my computer to match Pianoteq’s published computer processor requirements.

With Pianoteq Standard, I spent a year tweaking, adjusting, etc., etc., all at the expense of my piano practice time. I have made little progress at piano in the last 18 months as a result. At times, I have been very happy with the sound of my Pianoteq adjustments. At other times, I detest Pianoteq, even with the exact same settings that I loved yesterday. I do not know if my perception changes from day to day, or whether Pianoteq changes from day to day, or both. All I know is that I have lost thousands of hours of practice time fiddling with the software.

Also, over the same period, my piano computer has slowly been adopting a passive resistance attitude toward my piano efforts. Without any apparent explanation to me or to those who have graciously offered their help and expertise, the computer has vacillated between absolute refusal to boot up one day and performing perfectly the next day. I have kept my piano computer completely disconnected from the internet, mainly to keep Microsoft from screwing around with it. Many posters here and at PianoWorld forum have recounted the miseries inflicted by the nearly daily stream of Microsoft “updates”, and the resulting disabling and degradation of their piano VST experience. So, I have kept the computer off-line. But, it seems to me that Microsoft has actually embedded into its OS faciltiies designed to attack and degrade the computers of persons like me who keep their computers out of Microsoft’s reach.

The computer, kept gradually getting worse and worse. It was not a steady decline. Rather it would decline for a while, stabilize or even improve or recover, but then again decline. Each low point was lower than the previous low. Eventually, about a month or two ago, it died and I could not resurrect it. So, I decided to fuck Microsoft completely, I erased the hard drive and installed a linux OS. However, that has left me with Pianoteq as the only available VST.
Shortly before switching to Linux, Pianoteq started really annoying me. I spent considerable time just listening, to see if I could identify with certainty, just what it was that bothered me so about its sound. When it was bad, I did notice that the sound had a wavering, almost tremelo or vibrato aspect to it. This effect might have been in the upper harmonics rather than in the fundamental. I do not trust my ear to say for sure.

I decided to record and save samples of my playing in the hopes of capturing the tremelo effect, and capturing the sound when it sounded good. One day, when it sounded very nice, I recorded and saved a file. Then, I waited for the next episode of deteriorated sound to occur. A week or two later, it happened. So, I recorded that ugly sound as well.

I intended to share these files on PianoClack and on PianoWorld forums to get others’ impressions of the sound deficiencies. When I played the two files before posting, I realized that they sounded the same. The file that I thought had sounded good, sounded horrible with the vibrato effect clearly evident.

I have since gone through extensive ‘remove and replace’ session, replacing cables, DAC, amplifier, equalizer, all with inconsistent results. None of the elements of the sound chain and the digital chain behave the same way twice, so any conclusions I draw from the success of one part swap, gets contradicted shortly thereafter, leaving me unable to learn anything from the experiements. I am driven by logic, I live by logic, and have survived and prospered by logic. But, it this arena, logic appears not to be welcome. Or, Microsoft’s devices to punish non-compliant users is far more sophisticated than I am capable of imagining.

At this point I have little or no hope of ever being able to enjoy a VST. I have seen no evidence that a VST can be enjoyed.

I am old (older than most everyone on this forum) and don’t want to waste my remaining days in a futile struggle against enemies I cannot even see, detect or identify. So I am considering an all-in-one digital piano to I can return to the days of yore when I could sit down at my reliable Casio and at least get some of the piano experience.

In all of this, I detect no deficiency, whatsoever, in the VPC1. I believe it is a great instrument, and highly recommend it to those who have the skills, knowledge, and wherewithall to withstand or deflect the barrage of attacks and assaults from Microsoft and possibly others who will not tolerate their captive slaves trying to escape from their plantation.

If you have the skills needed to navigate these VST minefields, I am happy for you. And, I think you will enjoy the VPC1.