Hi Chuck,

I was in the beta phase of the new SSL MadiXtreme 128 and it works perfectly with VE! I use it now everyday.

You can loopback the first Madi I/O and you have 64 channels for as many VE standalones as you want. e.g. 2 VE´s with full 16 stereo out each, or 4 VE´s with 8 stereo, etc.

For the second Madi I/O you have to get a madi to analog converter to monitor all your signals, or output them to a mixing console.

The SSL card has 256 I/O in total. So it is really VERY flexible.

best

christian

Thank's Christian.  I went to their website and checked it out.  I may definitely consider this option.  Thanks again..

@chriskard said:

Hi Chuck,

I was in the beta phase of the new SSL MadiXtreme 128 and it works perfectly with VE! I use it now everyday.

You can loopback the first Madi I/O and you have 64 channels for as many VE standalones as you want. e.g. 2 VE´s with full 16 stereo out each, or 4 VE´s with 8 stereo, etc.

For the second Madi I/O you have to get a madi to analog converter to monitor all your signals, or output them to a mixing console.

The SSL card has 256 I/O in total. So it is really VERY flexible.

best

christian

Good catch DG...  How responsive are they in providing updated drivers?  -- When Snow Leopard arrives.

@Chuck Green said:

Good catch DG...  How responsive are they in providing updated drivers?  -- When Snow Leopard arrives.

Understand DG,

As far as Snow Leopard goes, I've made my mind up (learning from past mistakes) to not jump on the band wagon right away.  Being on the bleeding edge is not what it's all cracked up to be.  This time, I plan to wait a couple of months until the bugs get worked out and third party drivers, samplers, instruments, etc. are compatible before I switch operating system.  Need to keep a stable system working....

I am doing the same thing as the original poster - running standalone instances via IAC.

The routing back of audio I accomplish by using JackAudio.

It does seem to be the best way to go at the moment. I had been struggling too with Plugin-Instances which only chokes Logic's virtual memory and ultimately crashes it.

@Crescendo said:

I am doing the same thing as the original poster - running standalone instances via IAC.

The routing back of audio I accomplish by using JackAudio.

It does seem to be the best way to go at the moment. I had been struggling too with Plugin-Instances which only chokes Logic's virtual memory and ultimately crashes it.

Hi Crescendo.

I managed to get Soundflower up and running but gave up on it due to persistent digital crackling. I tried Jack but cannot get the Connections Manager to play ball. If you find the time, is there any chance of a step-by-step? Would be much appreciated. Will be a while before I can stretch to a slave system. Cheers..

Colin

@ct1961 said:

tried Jack but cannot get the Connections Manager to play ball. If you find the time, is there any chance of a step-by-step? Would be much appreciated. Will be a while before I can stretch to a slave system. Cheers..

Colin

OK

1-Before Opening Logic and VE3, start Jack Pilot and go to the preference.

2-Choose the proper audio interface,

3-choose how many connections you need between your host and logic in Virtual input and output channels;

4-disable auto-connect with physical ports (you don't want VE3 to communicate directly with the soundcard, just Logic will be connected to It);

5-Star the jack server on Jackpilot;

6-open Logic...Open one or multiple instance of VE3 (you can copy and rename the applications) (wait until each software is loaded before opening another one or you will get errors);

7-Press the routing button on jackpilot and connect logic to the system output by double-click on the receive port section while logic is selected on the send port section;

8-Connect each VE3 Send Ports to Logic's Receive Port;

9-In logic create Aux tracks or Audio Tracks (in monitoring) With the proper input that match the output on VE3 (I have 60 differents channel because I monitor each instruments on different audio tracks. But you can try a simpler set up by grouping instrument to the same output.

There's a way to get both midi and audio on the same instrument track by using the External Midi instrument but It's gonna be to long to explain for the moment.

That's it for the audio part. I assume that the midi part already working with the IAC. If not, try creating a monitor object in the click and port environment and connect every IAC out port to it or it will do a midi loop...

Excuse my english, I'm french speaking.

Fred

Thanks very much for that Fred- shall give it a go later today. Your English is of a high standard so there's no need to excuse yourself.

Mersea Bowcoo[;)]

Colin

Hello again Fred.

Just to let you know that I managed to get Jack up and running. Thanks a million![:D]

I had originally been thrown by the PDF stating something along the lines that, with intel macs, you had to create an aggregate device. No problem there, just selected my soundcard across the board in AMS, then Jack Router in both VE and Logic and it worked a treat.

I actually set up external multis in the Environment for each IAC bus and have no problem creating as many Auxes as I will need. Will finally be able to utilise my 11GB RAM.  Having said that, I am yet to sequence some music to test it properly, so here's hoping the sound holds together. Encore une fois, merci.

Colin

Hi Chuck, Cyril, DMJ and...

Thanks for sharing!

To answer DMJ´s question:

...Doesn't the Fireface 800 software TotalMix let you route a bunch of tracks internally? Such as routing the VE channels out to another channels in (which would be in Logic). I'm interested if this works actually, I was thinking of picking up a FF800...

Yes! I finally figured it out. In the Fireface Mixer there is a certain Loopback function that allows You to stay in the software domain (control click the relevant out-channels, they turn red, and there You go). I'm working on it, expecting to setup five VE (2 or 3) instances as standalones and route all five stereo pairs back into Logic.

By the way FF800 is very good bang for the buck in my opinion - and so versatile, that at least I need a "FF for dummies"

Best

Sten

 I read that too Colin.  I believe that only applies if you use the default internal audio - not if your using an external audio interface.

Thanks Fred for the outline steps.  Until you mentioned JACK on this thread, I was not aware that it existed.  I did some preliminary trials and so far, I like what I see.  I plan to modify my template to incorporate JACK.

One thing,

You mentioned having MIDI and Audio on the same track.  What is your approach to that?

@Chuck Green said:

 I read that too Colin.  I believe that only applies if you use the default internal audio - not if your using an external audio interface.

Hi Chuck.

Yes, just got a bit confused!  Also, I read somewhere you had to double-click to make the VE outs red as well as the Logic ins whereas you only need the VE outs highlighted with the blue strip.

I haven't had the chance to do a full setup as yet, but will get back to you.

Colin

@Chuck Green said:

You mentioned having MIDI and Audio on the same track.  What is your approach to that?

First create a new midi instrument or Mutli-Instrument in the environment and set the proper midi port and channel (IAC...) and name it the instrument you want. Then in the arrange, create a new software instrument track and assign an external instrument to it. Choose your new midi instrument in the midi destination  section. Choose the input that is assigned to the VE output of the instrument you want to monitor.

The big advantage is to apply any Logic's and AU plugins plus control the automation and fader directly in Logic. But you need to set independant audio channel for your instruments or group of instrument. And you can use the channel strip for the eq and other inserts (But It will not save the sound source wich is in VE3 itself of course).

It's the more efficiant setup i've had. I wish it'll work for you.

Fred

I haven't been using Leopard, but I thought it was 64 bit. I knew it had bugs, but I didn't realize that it actually wasn't 64 bit. What did I miss?

Hi Colin,

I can't give you the details -- probably someone from VSL were to chime in and explain.  I just know that I thought once we had Leopard (I purchased the MacPro 8-core) approx 2 months before Leopard's release) that I could not run and fully utilize 64 bit apps.  Apparently we have to wait until Snow Leopard.  Cubase is 32 bit not 64 bit for Mac, VSL is 32 bit - not 64 bit for MAC, VE is 32 bit not 64 bit for MAC, other competitor instrument that are 64 Bit can't utilize all the memory available until Snow Leopard arrives which is sounding like late summer early fall.  Not sure on timing though.

I would like to understand it as well....... 

sorry for a late reply... and now i guess i post this only for completion - i wrote a tutorial on the EW forum that describes the steps of how to set up the IAC and JackAudio. I works perfectly well with Ensemble and other software.
http://www.soundsonline-forums.com/showthread.php?t=18201