I've now got Keyscape set up to augment my stage rig, and it's frickin' awesome.
 
This was really just going to be an experiment, since I've never been enthusiastic about using a laptop on stage. I've never had any audio application on this laptop. I had no intention of buying an audio interface, just bringing in MIDI via USB and getting audio from the onboard RealTek out the headphone jack. 
 
I didn't have high expectations. I didn't know if the latency would be low enough, if the 8GB of RAM was going to be sufficient (it's what Spectrasonics says is the absolute minimum for Keyscape), if the headphone out was going to be loud enough, or if the RealTek was going to clip horribly. But it was just an experiment, so what the heck.
 
So I hooked a USB cable from my Kronos and a stereo cable from the headphone jack to my keyboard amplifier. And it worked! Sort of.
 
First thing I had to do was install ASIO4All. MME just wasn't going to cut it, latency-wise. Interestingly, when I first tested the setup with VB3 and then OBxD, MME worked just fine. But not for Keyscape. It went into convulsions until I switched to ASIO4All.
 
Although Spectrasonics says it's coming soon, Keyscape doesn't yet have a standalone executable so I used SAVIHost to host the DLL. It worked great, as always. Because I'm running nothing else on the laptop, it has no problem handling the minimum 80-sample buffer size. Close enough to real-time for rock 'n roll.
 
The acid test will come this Saturday when I set it up onstage, but I'm stoked to try it out. 
 
 

What do you think of your E model Rhodes, ol pal? Hope you're lovin it as much as I am. Killer diller.

Looking forward to hearing how this works out for you.
 
Next Step: Omni 2 Live mode...  

You might want to check this FB group out: https://www.facebook.com/groups/KeyscapeWorshipSounds/
 
A lot of these guys use it for live worship and have some good setup ideas that might help you out though I know most of them are using Mainstage/Mac, there are some PC people there as well.

Thanks, TerraSin, but I don't have a Facebook account to access FB groups.
 
Yup, that Rhodes "E" is mighty fine, ol' pal. But my favorites so far - for live use - are the Hohner Pianet, one of the Wurlys, and the Wing Tack Bright. These are the ones I think will best cut through a 5-piece rock band. The "E", however, will be a mainstay for my quieter other band.
 
Rick: thanks again for those screenshots. That Omnisphere upgrade will have to be a future XMas gift to myself. Hopefully, THIS Christmas. I just have to convince my grandkids they'd rather have Omnisphere 2 than new bicycles.

Can't they share a bike?  :)
 
Bit, I've been thinking about gigging with a laptop for piano stuff. I have a Roland RD-700GX which has great keyboard feel, and online pianos of course, but they don't sound great. I was looking into a laptop to push some Kontakt piano (the Pearl, probably) into the world.
 
Q - does that laptop have a regular 5400 rpm hard drive? 7200? And does the Realtek make the piano sound like ass? Do you get any fun RF interference from a jakey 1/8" cable?
 
good luck with it - I hope to go the "cheap laptop" route myself!
 
-Tom
 
 

This is a generic Acer laptop with 8GB RAM, 1TB 5400RPM drive and an i5 CPU.
 
I bought it in a hurry because my old laptop had bit the dust and I needed something for a business trip. (That was actually good luck, because I had just transferred all my day-job stuff to it right before my main computer got stolen.)
 
So no, it's not a high-spec machine. It's certainly not the computer I'd have chosen for audio applications. I think it was about $600 or $700, bought direct from Acer. Could have been cheaper but I had to have a 17" display. 
 
So it was a surprise that it's working as well as it is. The pianos sound fantastic through my Roland keyboard amps, better than the piano libraries on my gigging synth, a Korg Kronos 2. And pianos are what the Kronos does best. That little RealTek does a fine job, no distortion. Latency is mostly undetectable, although now and again I experience some brief hesitation. That might be some background process that needs to be shut down. I think I may have the wireless NIC enabled. Before I trust this for live performance I'll do some optimization.
 
There does not seem to be any noise from the headphone output or cable. It's actually a 1/8" to RCA with RCA-to-quarter-inch adapters, a real kludge. I've just ordered a proper cable for the job, because I'll need 20' on some larger stages. I've got the input gain on the amp channel at 12 o'clock, same as for the Kronos, and there's no significant noise.

Bit, thanks for the details! Awesome report . . . do you have the ubiquitous Roland KC-150's?
 
Sounds like you are playing in a live band, and unless it's jazz, your audience may not really appreciate any supercalifragilistic, high-end piano sonics. They DO want you to kick the stool over. :)
 
I would be playing solo, but I'm still hoping you can pull this off, good luck and anything you can share about your journey would be very welcome . . .
 
 
cheers,
-Tom

I do indeed have a pair of KC-150s [correction: KC-350s], linked for stereo. If I was buying amps today, though, I'd look further. The Rolands have all the features I need but the tone is a bit scooped. For about the same price I could have gotten a powered PA. I've used JBL powered PAs for keyboards in the past and they sounded pretty good. But the Rolands have a 4-channel mixer built in, so that's one less piece of gear to haul around.
 
I play in two bands. One is a 5-piece classic rock and blues band. Not much call for a Dolceola when doing Doors covers, but Keyscape's upright pianos are going to fit right in for the Janis Joplin material we do. (We do a lot of Joplin, as it's our singer's specialty). And the Pianet is exactly the edgy EP sound I've been struggling to get out of my Kronos.
 
My other band is a 2-piece duo, where my partner plays acoustic 12-string. The material is eclectic, improvisational and wide-ranging, from Frank Sinatra to Pink Floyd, as well as many originals. We don't play loud, so there's plenty of room for nuanced sound.

That second band sounds interesting, bit. Any links?