Hi ,

My G5 slave specs :

G5 Dual 2,3 / 16 GB Ram / OS 10.5.8 / VEPro v.4.0.6150 (32bit) / 2 int. HD's / ext. FW 800 HD's / VSL Chamber Strings & Appassionata Strings / Kontakt 3.5 Libraries /

My Master MacPro specs :
MacPro 8-core 2,8 (2008) / OS 10.6.4 / VEPro v.4.0.6150 (64bit with K4.1  &  32bit with PLAY2.0.18) / Logic 9.1.1(32bit)

This setup works great .

Note:

your Master PC and your Slave PC have to have the same VEPro version installed to work properly . So , in case that PPC support will be dropped by VSL in the future ( ... well , that's very likely of course ... ) , there might occur issues  when you update your Master PC with a newer version of VEPro while your G5 keeps running on the last PPC-compatible VEPro version .

Best wishes ,

Gerd

Thanks for the help, are you running audio down the lan??

not sure wether or not to use a sound card on the slave macs?

thanks

again

dave

Hi Dave ,

yes , both computers are connected through a single ethernet cable . That's it .

With this setup you can even do offline bouncing / offline rendering in your Host Sequencer .

Best

Gerd

What is the latency like using audio over lan??

I heard some people getting drop outs.

I plan to connect two slaves Macpro and a Mac G5 to my master which is a Macpro

thanks again for the help

dave

I'm currently working with a setup that streams between 36 and 48  StereoTracks from my G5 ( depending on the used samples and

the particular density of the arrangement ),

which hosts a mixture of VSL Chamber Strings , VSL Appassionata and Kontakt3.5 with EWQLSO Pro XP .

The Latency is set to 256 , however , when I record a VEPRo Midi track in Logic I switch on the "Low Latency Mode" in Logic

which is set to 1ms , so I can play even very demanding rythmical figures with no problems at all .

If you use a MacPro as slave you will be able to stream much more Audiotracks to your host and set a much

lower latency .

The faster your Master and your slave are , the more you can push the system concerning latency settings and the

number of Audiostreams .

Drop outs may occur for what reason ever on different systems . I never had this problem with my setup .

Best

Gerd

Hey Gerd,

I see that you are running all your Play 2's in a 32 bit instance of VE Pro on the master.  I'm going to try that because I know that the above message I keep getting is an internal Logic 9.1.1 (64 bit mode) message, and right now I am running ALL (8 of them) my Play 2's inside of Logic.  So perhaps if I move them out of Logic, and into another VE Pro, that will help Logic not have to run the 32 bit server internally.

Could you tell me what, if any, virtual instrument plugins you are running in Logic itself? 

Thanks again!

Hello Paul ,

first of all I hope you can get rid of your issues soon .

Actually I've been using Logic only as a MIDI sequencer, Live Instrument Recorder and Mixer since Logic 7.2.3 / 8.0.2 ,

because I was simply tired of getting crashes with - at that time - especially Kontakt inside Logic.

Before VEPro I used PlogueBidule and Standalone Kontakt / PLAY instances with Hardware-routing .

Meanwhile I've also get rid of my EXS library which I converted into Kontakt Instruments .

So there are no VI's left in Logic anymore . Only AUDIOFILES and SFX PlugIns .

Move PLAY into its own VEPro instance . This will definetely help . But make sure that you build and launch your setup

as I've described in the other thread . That's important , because - on Mac - Kontakt's memory server and PLAY's Memory Server

currently seem to be still rivals in the process of getting access to system RAM . Kontakt seems to act more aggressively here and

this causes quite often crashes with PLAY , ... when PLAY is launched in second place .

So it is best to create a fixed PLAY setup in VEPro 32bit , save this as a metaframe , and launch this particular metaframe first ,

before launching Kontakt or VSL VI's .

And maybe switch to Logic 32bit , because as I've said in the other thread the 32bit-bridge in Logic 64bit (9.1.1) is still not that

reliable as it should be .

Paul , I hope this helps .

Best wishes

Gerd

Hey Gerd,

Thanks again!

paul

@Paul Mills said:

Hey Gerd,

Yes , please do that ... .

We both have quite similar setups & libraries , so actually I can also learn from your experience with this or other

approaches concerning setups that work or fail to work .

But for now I really hope this will solve your issues and you can finally go on with writing music.

Best

Gerd

@gerdkaeding_31947 said:

 in case that PPC support will be dropped by VSL in the future ( ... well , that's very likely of course ... )

Not if they want to sell lots of VE Pro. Many, MANY VE Pro buyers are at a brick wall in their host CPU power, so they add a VE Pro slave.

Your host/slave config is an exact opposite of the typical ProTools user, since ProToolsHD uses DSP cards. So putting the slave on the MOST POWERFUL cpu with the most ram, allows VIs to perform best, and the host on PPC w/ HD cards does its job best.

I personally would not dream of trying to run a suite of modern VIs that need lots of CPU and RAM on my PPC mac G5 2.7, even with 8gigs of ram. But that's just me.

@jeremyroberts said:

Your host/slave config is an exact opposite of the typical ProTools user, since ProToolsHD uses DSP cards. So putting the slave on the MOST POWERFUL cpu with the most ram, allows VIs to perform best, and the host on PPC w/ HD cards does its job best.

I personally would not dream of trying to run a suite of modern VIs that need lots of CPU and RAM on my PPC mac G5 2.7, even with 8gigs of ram. But that's just me.

Actually I consider myself a typical Pro Tools user, a power user in fact.  😉  

Whatever works of course, but  one thing: you could not run the latest version of Pro Tools HD 8.03, or 8.04 on a PPC Mac, you have to have an Intel.  The only reason I use a G5 as slave is that it's the only thing I have to use as a slave.  As soon as I can afford a new Mac Pro, my current Mac Pro will become my slave.

But it may surprise you to learn that my G5 runs the entire VE Special Edition and Special Edition plus (or extended) without a hitch and that includes all the harp and piano, percussion etc in addition to all the strings, every articulation etc with no hiccups.  It is simply amazing how efficient the VE Pro is in a setup like this.

I use Pro Tools for all my main album music production, mixing, recording etc, because I just like the way it handles audio and audio production better than Logic.  And in the typical album audio production work, a slave computer is not usually needed.  BUT I use Logic anytime I'm scoring for film, or doing orchestral arranging because I like the way Logic handles midi & music printing and that whole world.  For that I do need a slave, and wish I had about 8 of them!!  When a cue is finished and approved I will send stems to Pro Tools for final mastering.

  But for now this is working well, but I think Gerd has just solved my last remaining problem in finding a smooth system.  It's amazing how many different configurations are out there.  It is so customize-able for each user.  I enjoy seeing how others are doing it.

@Paul Mills said:

it may surprise you to learn that my G5 runs the entire VE Special Edition and Special Edition plus (or extended) without a hitch and that includes all the harp and piano, percussion etc in addition to all the strings, every articulation etc with no hiccups.  It is simply amazing how efficient the VE Pro is in a setup like this.

+1.  I still use my 5-year-old G5 as one of my slave computers, and it runs like a champ.  I use it to host all the string & wind articulations from East West Platinum, as well as Storm Drum 1 & VSL Epic Horns.  That's over 72 Kontakt instruments!   I think what helps is that each library is on its own dedicated 10kRPM SATA drive - I never get any dropouts or other performance issues.

I'm actually just now incorporating VE Pro; I tried it back in December just before starting a feature film score, and at the time it wasn't quite up to par.  Now, however, it seems much better.  I'm up to 14 instances on my 8-core Mac in Logic, and I have 2 other slave machines to add to the mix.  Can't wait!  So far so good...