Thank you for trying the x86 GNU/Linux build of Pianoteq.

Most well-known Linux distributions are installed with a default

configuration that is not well suited for low-latency audio. You will
find tons of tutorials about this on the web. Here are a few tips:
- make sure your user account is allowed to request real-time
scheduling. This is mandatory if you want a decent latency without
tons of cracklings.
In order to elevate your account priviledges w.r.t. real time
scheduling, you will need to edit the /etc/security/limits.conf (as
root or with sudo) file and add:
@audio - rtprio 90
@audio - nice -10
@audio - memlock 500000
You may want to tune the numerical values, but the most important is
to grant realtime priviledges to your account. If your user account
is not member of the "audio" group, either join it, or replace the
"@audio" above by "@youruseraccount". After editing
/etc/security/limits.conf, you must log out and log in again in order
to have the changes applied.
- you will probably want to turn off CPU frequency throttling when
pianoteq is running, especially if you CPU is not very powerful. You
can use the "cpufreq-info" command-line program to checks its current
settings. CPU throttling can be disabled by the command:
sudo cpufreq-set -c 0 -g performance (disable on the first cpu core)
sudo cpufreq-set -c 1 -g performance (disable on the second core)
... (repeat for each CPU core)
- if Jack ( http://www.jackaudio.org ) is not installed, it is time
to do it ! Jack is a low latency audio server that will allow you
to route the audio output of Pianoteq into any other Jack-enabled
application. Learn how to use the patchbay of qjackctl (
http://qjackctl.sourceforge.net ) in order to have your connections
between Jack clients recalled automatically.
- with Jack or Alsa, pick-up buffer sizes that are multiple of 64, as
Pianoteq prefers those sizes. With the Alsa driver, the latency is
2 times the buffer size (a buffer of 64 samples at 44100Hz gives a
latency of 2.9 ms).
- multicore rendering is enabled by default in Pianoteq (if you have
a multi-core CPU). If you encounter performance problems, you may
try to disable it.
- as of version 4.5, Pianoteq is now able use any ALSA pcm device,
that includes the Pulseaudio output. You do *not* want to use it
if you want to play piano with a reasonnable latency !
- if pulseaudio is grabbing your soundcard and prevents Pianoteq from
using it, you can temporarily disable it while Pianoteq is running
with this command: pasuspender ./Pianoteq
Pianoteq tries to follow freedesktop XDG guidelines. Its settings are

saved in the file:

~/.config/Modartt/Pianoteq40.prefs
Its various data files (add-ons, presets, ..) are stored in
~/.local/share/Modartt/Pianoteq/
Those locations can be overriden with the XDG_CONFIG_HOME and
XDG_DATA_HOME environment variables.
Pianoteq also accepts a few command line options for loading midi
files and exporting to wav. You can list them with
./Pianoteq --help
--------------- Pianoteq as a VST plugin ----------------Pianoteq also comes as a native linux VST -- this is the "Pianoteq 4.so"
file. You can then load it in linux hosts that handle native VSTs,
such as Renoise, energyXT, or Ardour3.
--------------- Pianoteq as an LV2 plugin ----------------The folder "Pianoteq 4.lv2" may be copied into your ~/.lv2/ folder if
you want to use Pianoteq as an lv2 instrument. Your host should
support the "LV2 State extension" if you want it to be able to save
and restore the pianoteq state in your projects. It should also
support the "X11 UI extension", or "External UI extension" if you want
to show the Pianoteq GUI.