Abel,
Something you said really caught my eye. I need to be careful in how I say things so I don't come accross slamming anything or anyone. That being said, I've had a real delema. I own an 8-core Mac Pro loaded to the max. I purchased it over 4 PCs thinking it was the wiser choice, more horsepower, etc not realizing that the operating system did not support 64 bit and therefore not fully utilizing all the hardware (memory) installed.
For the past year, I have been attempting various configurations in an attempt to find one that is stable. I have been using both Cubase 4 and Logic 8 running dual comparison using the same sequence (comparing apples to apples). Using the Vienna Instrument and Logic, appears to be the most stable. If I try to use two instances of Ensemble 2 or 3, I will find myself rebooting several times in a day usually after I try to drag a patch into a matrix. The system hangs with the spinning color wheel. VSL Tech support advised me this that I have used too much memory. I haven't come close to the 2.5GB that we are suppose to be able to load. It just had it happen yesterday with only 1 instrument patch loaded. Absolutely sure now, it's not a memory problem caused by loading too many patches.
And yes, for those of us who have to reboot throught the day, the long load times are very frustrating...... Limiting the number of instruments you have setup in the Directory Manager is suppose to help the load problem. I just haven't brought myself to decide which libaries I don't want access to in a given sequence.
Cubase I find is the most unstable whether I use VI or VE and very low instrument count. I've spoken to tech support at Steinburg with no resolution. I've spoken to apple tech with no resolution. They had me even re-platform my machine (was that fun) with no positive result. I continue to work knowing that I will have to reboot a few times each day..... NOT GOOD.
Today, I used just EWQL Instruments (Play) in Cubase. Never rebooted once. Very stable. Can't use Logic due to the fact that the play instruments are so memory intensive, I need cubase in order to freeze and dump instrument memory. One advantage that VI has. Logic freezes but doesn't dump the memory.
I'm curious, when you said you have to reboot several times a day, I thought I was the only one doing that. What action are you doing when your machine locks up. Do you see a pattern? Is it when you are dragging a patch to the matix window? Do you continue to have crash problems when using other instruments in Cubase without having VSL loaded?
Your answer may help me trouble-shoot further. A pattern is starting to develop at least in my current configuration.
I not slamming anyone here -- just trying to get answers so that in the end, I can end up with a stable system that enjoyable to use.