Possible to play Standalone Steinway on Netbook?

[Studio V]

Hi,

Hope this is not too silly a question, but I'm trying to see if I can play the Garritan Steinway for a dear friend of mine who will be turning 70 in a few weeks' time, and this seems like it would be the perfect solution. She would like to sing a few songs for her guests at her own party and have me accompany her. Total time would be probably 15 - 20 minutes. The site for the party has an old beat up console piano, which, when I went to check it out yesterday, is actually missing a few necessary bass strings. Consequently, the dampers for those notes, once played, have no place to rest and the notes continue to ring – which makes it impossible for us to use that instrument.

I have had the Steinway Pro installed on my studio desktop ever since it first came out, but I'd rather not disturb that whole setup. Not long ago, I purchased one of the new netbooks, a Samsung NC10, which I like very much. It runs XP Pro, has 2 Gigs (upgraded from 1 Gig) of Ram, with a 160 Gig HD (@ 5400 rpm). I thought I would at least give it a try, see if it could reliably function on this minimal setup. So this morning, I networked my desktop's DVD drive (the netbook itself doesn't have one, but I've installed all my other regular software on it using this method without any problem) and was able to install the Steinway's installation files from the first DVD disc successfully. However, when the Sample Manager asks which perspective(s) I would like to install (I only want to install the UnderLid), it requests that I insert the proper disc (which I do) – but then, nothing seems to happen. I have waited for more than half an hour for some indication that the transfer of files was taking place, but there is absolutely nothing. I have checked the directory which was to be the target for the sample files. Nothing is there. So I've canceled it out for the time being and thought maybe someone (David from Plogue? or Gary?) could clue me in on whether what I'm trying to do is at all possible. I recall seeing a photo of Gary at NAMM running GPO on a netbook, so I would imagine running one perspective of the Standalone Garritan Steinway shouldn't be much different.

I welcome any helpful suggestions.

Bob V
Studio V

[Jeff Hurchalla]

Hi Bob,
I've got a feeling that most likely the networked DVD drive is causing the problem. Can you try using a local dvd drive on the netbook? If that's not an option at all, you could try copying the dvd contents over to a folder on the netbook and see if that works - it's not as safe a bet as a local dvd though.
I'm not sure how well the Steinway will run on a netbook since I've never tried to do so. It might work ok with a higher powered model, perhaps if you turn off sustain resonance or reverb to conserve cpu.

[Studio V]

Jeff,

Thanks for your reply. Since I don't have access to an externally connected DVD drive on the NC10, I'll just try copying the contents of the UnderLid disc to the netbook's HD, and see whether that works. Of course, all that copying (even of just the one DVD disc) will take a long while to do over a wireless connection. Sure wish I could get an answer from Gary or David V at Plogue (I emailed him separately) to let me know in advance whether what I'm trying to do is at all possible. If it's not – and I would think they would be the ones to know whether it is or not – then they sure could save me a lot of wasted time and effort. I'm really just trying to do a favor for an old friend.

Will let you know if it works out.

Bob V
Studio V

[Jeff Hurchalla]

Hi Bob
Actually I would be the one to know as much as they would :) (I do the development work on the Steinway). In general I don't think a netbook will have have any particular problem installing or starting up the Steinway - presuming the netbook is running WindowsXP or Vista, and not linux or some other OS.
However most netbooks have much less computing power than the minimum stated Steinway requirements. So while most likely with some effort you could get the netbook to run the Steinway, it's impossible to say in advance how *well* it will run it. At NAMM Gary did run it on his netbook to show it was possible, but our demo machine was a normal laptop. If you view it as a fun side-project, then certainly go for it, but if you need to be sure in advance or if you have limited time, I'd advise trying something else.
All the best-

[Studio V]

Jeff,
I guess I inadvertently slighted you in my previous post, and i apologize for that. I honestly do appreciate your trying to help me get this done.

I am running WinXP Pro (SP3) with 2 gigs of ram. I have completed the copying of the entire contents of the UnderLid disc to the netbook's HD. There are the 6 data folders (---, --r, -s-, u--, u-r, and us-) along with two additional separate files (steinway.ico and autorun.inf). As I've stated previously, the entire Setup wizard portion of the installation went smoothly, and that part is already installed on the HD of the netbook. Is there a way that I can just manually install the data folders? Probably not. I inspected the installation on my studio desktop, and it looks like the .data files become .audio files under 'Steinway Files/Under Lid/'. But there seem to be only 4 of the 6 subfolders (---, --r, u--, and u-r). Seems pretty complicated. (Probably deliberately so.) I'm not trying to get away with anything. Just wish I could get this installed so that I could help out my friend. If only one could direct the Sample Manager to look for something other than just a local DVD drive – say to a folder that contains all the exact same files (as I've just copied on to the netbook's HD) – then it would be very simple. Oh well ... No chance of that, is there?

Any suggestions? I'm pretty tired right now.

Bob V

[Jeff Hurchalla]

Sorry Bob for suggesting to copy over the dvds. I didn't mean to waste your time, but I'm afraid I ended up doing that. I was thinking of the Basic edition (copying works fine for it) but copying is going to be no help for pro or standard. You'd need to have a dvd drive attached unfortunately. I was focusing in on the netbook in my last post saying it should be be able to run it and that the cpu may be problematic. But the real issue is the lack of a dvd drive which would be critical for a successful installation. I'd loan you a laptop dvd drive if I could :(

[Edit - Pascal's suggestion after this post should work, if you still want to spend time with this]

[pascalM]

Hi Bob,

This should work:
copy the folder "Steinway Files" from your desktop PC to your netbook then use the "Locate Existing" function from the Sample Manager.

Pascal

[Studio V]

Pascal (and Jeff),

Yes, thanks for your suggestion. I came to that same conclusion myself last night. Figured it was worth a try. Just want to transfer the desktop's Steinway Files/Underlid folder's contents, since that's the only perspective I'll need. Still, it's a total of 11.1 Gigs for just that one folder and will probably take all day today to transfer (pity they're the larger 24-bit files; had wanted to install the smaller 16-bit files on the netbook). When all is finished, I hope the netbook's up to it. Will certainly report back here to let you know. For now, I appreciate your help.

Bob V