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  • Minimum system requirements to run Special Edition

    M
    M
    I am new to this forum and what appreciate anyone's feedback as to the minimum system requirements I should expect to have in order to run the VSL Special Edition. I am leaning towards a Mac Pro system, but I have also read that a Mac Mini farm is the preferred way to load groups of samples and have access to them all, because the article said that a 32-bit application can only use up to 2.5GB of RAM. I want to start out with as much as I can afford and gradually work up to a larger studio. How much RAM should I have, hard drive space, etc. Also, somewhere on one of the forums I recall a thread that said Cubase was the only sequencer that VSL could record directly out to. I think that was in response to someone who had ProTools, which is what I presenty have (M-Box). Thank you in advance for your help.
  • S
    S
    I got VSL SE over a week ago, and it definately is a great library, but I don't think that I need to tell you that...

    Throughout my humble desire to make music, I have always struggled with the specs on my computer, they've never been sufficient until recently. Well, that changed when I bought VSL SE. Of course my system is probably 4 years old with a few new "bells and whistles"...

    AMD 2.2 GHz
    1.5 g of ram
    120 g HD space
    Creative Audigy 2 soundcard
    ATI X1650 PRO graphics

    Yeah, go ahead and laugh. I have found though (to my surprise) that VSL SE BARELY tips the rim of my computer's capabilities, so it won't be too hard to get what you need to run it. I am able to load up and use (simultaniously) about one gig of ram's worth of instruments. This covers quite a few genres of orchestration, but it definately isn't enough to unleash the whole of an orchestra.

    So, I'd recommend 2.5 gigs of ram, and definatley go for a better processor. CPU useage becomes more of an issue before ammount of ram does. I don't know alot about Mac's hardware, but if it supports multi-core cpus, definately go dual, if not quad-core.

    Okay, yeah, I'm just a teenager with a rubbish opinion, but I figured that my help would come in a different flavor than everyone else's on the forum, because I am on such a low budget and I've had to struggle with VSL SE. Now, the only other advice you need is from someone who actually makes some money and has a system that runs SE well.

    I hope I helped.
  • M
    M
    Thank you! I really appreciate your reply. It's nice to know that you can get that much out of the library with the system you're using. They must have designed the software to be very resourceful.
  • S
    S
    Yes, I'm very happy about it so far. I hope you enjoy it as much as I am!
  • D
    D
    There is more than one question that needs to be answered from your post. Firstly, there are many sequencers that can run VI adequately. ProTools is probably the only one that can't...! Cubase is a good sequencer, and has features that none of the others have, but Sonar (PC), Logic and Digital Performer (MAC) are equally good. The big advantage to Cubase is that it is cross-platform, so that you're not putting all your eggs in one basket. Have a look at the feature sets on the various websites before you make a decision. If you don't need a huge number of MIDI features then look at Reaper, which beats all of the above when it comes to audio, apart (maybe) from ProTools, but even there it has features that leave Digi's best efforts gasping for breath.

    Then it comes to the question of computer. I gather from your suggestions that you are thinking of getting a Mac. At the moment there is absolutely no point in more than a quad core (if they exist, not having checked the Apple site), as none of the Mac sequencers scale properly to 8 cores. Sure you'll get a bit more horsepower, but nothing like what you should be getting. No doubt this will be fixed sometime, somewhere, somehow in some sort of update, but don't spend your hard earned money until something actually exists. Many people are running standalone versions of VI outside of the DAW to use up the available memory, and in this case you could use most of 8GB RAM, if you can afford this. I think that this would be cheaper than a farm of Mac Minis although they are good value for money.

    DG
  • M
    M
    DG,

    I appreciate your comments. I was wondering what sort of configuration you would go with if I decided to go the PC route? I am comfortable on a PC as well as a Mac. Also, I do a lot of music notation in Finale and can access Garritan Orchestra directly from within Finale. Is it possible to access VI from within Finale, or is that a question for Coda? Which of the sequencers you mentioned are the strongest with notation?

    Thanks!
  • D
    D
    last edited
    last edited

    @musicdsign said:

    DG,

    I appreciate your comments. I was wondering what sort of configuration you would go with if I decided to go the PC route? I am comfortable on a PC as well as a Mac. Also, I do a lot of music notation in Finale and can access Garritan Orchestra directly from within Finale. Is it possible to access VI from within Finale, or is that a question for Coda? Which of the sequencers you mentioned are the strongest with notation?

    Thanks!

    I'm a bit short of time ATM, but there are many other posts on this and other forums about PC hardware, so do a search and I'm sure you'll find some useful information.

    Finale is not able to host anything other than NI instruments (unlike Sibelius) and all the sequencers have cr*p notation I'm afraid.

    DG
  • M
    M
    Thanks for your reply and advice. I'll check out some of the other resources and take another look at Sibelius. I use it occasionally, but I'm not as familiar with it as Finale.
  • S
    S
    On a Mac you can use Finale in conjunction with another application such as DP or Logic acting as a host for virtual instruments. You access the virtual instrument host app using OS X's built-in IAC (Interapplication) drivers (found in Audio-MIDI Setup). I have been doing this succesfully for several years using Logic to host virtual instruments. With this setup, one's access to samples and effects is limited only by available RAM and CPU power. In other words, I regularly use Vienna Instruments samples, EXS 24 samples of various manufacturers, "powered by NI" samples, Altiverb 6, Izotope Ozone 3, etc. - - all running in Logic 7, but being played by Finale running on the same G5 with Logic.