how to set up 2 machines for vsl - please help.

[superstringcheese]

*i posted something similar to this recently, but have rethought the question - hopefully asking it a little more intelligently. please forgive the double posting*

i've decided to buy vsl, but i'm still trying to work out how i'm going to set it up. i've read through some other posts concerning multiple-pc setups, but can't figure out ultimately what is the best system for me... sorry for my lack of expertise - i'm pretty computer literate, but not familiar with giga & its associated applications.

PLEASE CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG! but from what i've read, this seems to be a workable setup:

1st machine (host)
p4 2.53ghz
1gb ddr ram
echo layla24
cdrw, dvd drives
LAN card/hub

hard drive 1 - 60gb
win2kpro
sonic2 or logic5

hard drive 2 - 30gb
data, misc


2nd machine
p3 450mhz
1gb sdram
soundblaster audigy2
lan card

hard drive 1 - 6gb
win2k
gigastudio 160

hard drive2 - 100gb
1st & 2nd violins

hard drive 3 - 100gb
cellos & basses/woodwinds

hard drive 4 - 100gb
brass/percussion


does this make any sense, or am i totally confused? any thoughts on a better setup are greatly appreciated!

once again, my apologies for dragging out this topic... i would hate to do all this work only to find out there was a better way.

david

[cm]

hi david,
there is something, that confuses me: you have the sound-device for output (and i'm sure you want to use the laya24) on your sequencer, which is the fast machine (processor and memory) and GS on the low-level-computer.
this should be the reverse, shouldn't it? of course the big hard-drives have to go with GS.
i cannot comment, if a p450 ist strong enough for your needs using sonic or logic, but a test-installation of GS here with a P3-450 ist - hmm - _very_ busy
christian

[BC]

I won't comment too much on the choices of soundcard since I have a different budget and preferences...I like Echo's cards, including the Layla, but I love RME's. I assume you are going to use the PIII 450 Ghz because it's what you already have? If you're buying new, take a couple of steps up in CPU speed.

As to the hardrives, I just went through this last night, and may be able to save you a little grief. Hardrives are available in 180 and 200 GB. The Western Digital WD1800JB and WD2000JB are what I recommend - a WD2000JB just when in to my PIV 2.4 GHz.

This would mean that you could place both the current Edition and the Pro Edition (the complete library) on one HD, reducing your power consumption considerably, not to mention reducing your use of the file selection box.

regards

bc

[superstringcheese]

cm - thanks for the response!

if there's something confusing about my setup it is because i have no idea what i'm doing! [:O]ops:

i figured that gs would need more processing power than the sequencer, but was under the impression that gs & the seq needed to be on different machines. since i would be directly dealing with the seq, & sending data from my controller keyboard to it, i thought it would have to be on the host system.

is it ok - or not - to run gs & say, sonar on the host system? would it then make any sense to run the vsl samples on another, low-end system or just put them on various external hard drives?

i have not done this before, but what i envision is:

sonar on the host, in record mode
playing notes on the keyboard into sonar
sonar asking gs (on the slave system) for the samples
gs playing the samples through the host's layla24

is that all backwards?

i have to start buying gear for this setup tomorrow - any more help or advice before then is VERY welcome!


bc - thanks for the advice on the drives... if those are working well for you, then that's what i'll buy. good thinking about the pro edition, too.

[cm]

to make it short:
keyboard plugs into sequencer-machine (its midi in of course)
sequencer sends signals to GS-machine (with VSL and audio-device)
GS-output ist your audio-device (laya24)
you need to get midi routed from your sequencer to the GS-machine (can be done using physical midi-cable or e.g. midi-over-lan)

using sequencer _and_ GS on one machine needs an application providing virtual midiports (otherwise there is nothing to connect the performance-tool before routing into GS)

hth, christian

[superstringcheese]

i think that makes it a bit clearer for me, cm - thanks.

btw, which machine should the layla physically go on? would i run midi in (cable) to the layla on the host/seq machine, then midi out (cable) from the layla to the gs machine?

[cm]

if i look to the specs, the laya should be on the GS-machine (seems to give you better quality) but depending on your other needs it might not be the best for your use ... can't say anything to the audigy
christian

[Chompy]

hey there,

Audigy - not good.
It's a cool consumer card, but having just tried to set one up on an XP machine running Gigastudio, I can tell you it did not work. At all.

When GS started up it told me that I didn't have a GSIF (the GS proprietary driver) compatible audio card. The Audigy MAY work with GS under Win 95/98/ME, but it certainly doesn't under XP, which leads me to think that it wouldn't under Win 2K, as XP and 2K are very similar 'under the hood'.

So yeah, Audigy fine for general soundcard duties under XP, but not as a GS card. Sorry. [:(]

What I've ended up using is an M-audio Delta 44, which works fine.

Good luck!

[edit: one thing I will say is that I'm having trouble even with a high-spec machine dedicated to GS, running all the instruments that I want in real time. Even with 1.5Gb of RAM, I can't get GS to load as much as I really want, so having your GS / VSL on a single machine will probably mean you'll have to mix down individual sections more often than would be preferable]

[Chris]

I'm in the same position as David, having an existing computer (P4 1.3GHz) I would like to use as a Giga Slave to a new Master Computer.

Just one comment/question on the card issue. Since the final mix is done in the Master computer (using Logic, Cubase or whatever you have), my understanding is that the best audio card should be in the Master Computer, since you transfer all audiofiles from the Giga Slave to the Master Computer in a digital format. The audio from Giga Slave will never be in analog format.

Or am I missing anything here?

Cheers,

Chris

[herb]

I post a copy of this last question in our new gigastudio forum.

Herb

[Kevin Phelan]

Some general, but very important, considerations for running multiple Gigastudio computers:

Use only GSIF driver supported sound cards. These tend to be professional 24-bit/96kHz with some sort of multi-channel digital interface and a digital clock mechanism.

For multi-channel audio on several computers, here is a typical scenario:

Digital audio S/PDIF connections on 3 Giga computers.


Master computer S/PDIF out to Slave computer #1 S/PDIF in. Slave #1 S/PDIF out to Slave #2 S/PDIF in. Slave #2 S/PDIF out to S/PDIF input on device used for monitoing the combined audio of the 3 computers. You will want to follow the strict rule of having one and only one master clock in your setup. Use the master computer's sound card clock set to "internal". The slave sound card clocks should be set to S/PDIF in so that they sync to the master Giga system.

There are of course, more complex scenarios involving multi-channel lightpipe connections, word clock, digital mixers, and digital multi-track rigs.

Kevin

[Iwan Roth]

Hi Kevin,

@Another User said:

There are of course, more complex scenarios involving multi-channel lightpipe connections, word clock, digital mixers, and digital multi-track rigs.

I am running a 3 Gigastudio PC + Mac G4 sequencing system with the kind of configuration above / lightpipe connections, word clock, digital mixers. And actually I thought this was the only way to do it. So, since I am not a tech guy or a sound engineer in any way, I am very interested about the first simpler configuration. The complication of my system keeps me from concentrating on the music. I am considering now just making dry tracks of every instrument and bringing them to a professional mixing studio for making a final mix.

So the routing per S/PDIF is clear, but how can I then obtain the 24 separate stereo tracks, which I do record now with my 2 MOTU 2408 running lightpipe?
Sorry if this a dumb question, but as I did mention I would like to simplify without loosing quality, and I am a techIdiot.....!

Thanks

Iwan