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  4. Happy with VE on Mac

  • Happy with VE on Mac

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    Just so that all the reports from Mac users aren't negative on this forum - recently I bought an 8 core Mac Pro, Sys 10.4.11, just upgraded to 16 GB ram, using DP 5.13. VE is working AMAZING - I'm running 4 VE instances, fully loaded with every instrument & articulation in VSL Special Edition Extended. Each VE instance has it's own Altiverb instance. I first tried Soundflower to route audio into DP, which worked sort of, but used too much buffer bandwidth (sound was stuttering and DP was giving me random buffer overrun errors), so now I'm outputting VE audio directly from my 2nd 2408 (VE audio - HW out, PCIe-424 outputs 25-32), going lightpipe in to 8 inputs of my first 2408. Each VE instance outputs audio in stereo, inputting to 2 channels in DP. So, I've got 4 separate stereo stems of VE audio in DP, each with their own Altiverb - 1: WWs, 2: Brass, 3: Keys-Mallets-Perc, 4: Strings. DP has no extra load on it at all, because all the VSL sounds are running in stand-alone VEs and all the Altiverbs are also running in the VEs. I've been sequencing all kinds of stuff for 3 days now, no crashes. I don't know how 64 bit could be better, because it's working great now...

    --Stu Goldberg
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    Sounds great. One question - are the two 2408s running from the same PCIe-424 card?
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     Yes (you can run up to 4 MOTU interfaces from one PCIe-424card). Sync is word clock in from Aardsync II. The VE's are set to "Def" sync.

    Best, 

    --Stu 
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    hehe .. you're doing exactly what I'm doing now. 'Cept that you have an audio interface and I don't :P. I've decided to route my audio out to my old G4 Laptop which has a great Pro Audio PCMCIA Card (Digigram 24/48) and record my VE audio into Logic Express that's running on that. Seems to work .. keeps everything digital-ish. I only have 8 gig of RAM, but I'm also finding working with the VE to be very easy going. I have to work in Cubase cos Logic 7 doesn't seem to want to work properly yet with the VE in OS X.5 .. not sure why. ..... Cubase has a problem running the VI in plugin mode .. but will route midi to the VE's no problems. Logic will use the Plugins no problems but can't use the VE :P
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    I agree -- VE is fantastic. I gave up on Soundflower too and am running my MOTU Traveler ADAT outs looped back to the ADAT inputs on the same unit. I loop the S/PDIF too, for 5 stereo channels total.
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    Strange - I have almost the exact same system spec' as Stu (8 Core Mac Pro, MOTU PCIe 424 with 3 2408 Mk III interfaces, 8GB Ram) and am having all manner of problems with VE - crashes, loss of connection with the VE server, spinning beachballs of death etc.   In fact I've now abandoned it and gone back to using the old VI plugins, which is infinitely more reliable on my system - they literally NEVER crash.

    Perhaps it's all down to Logic vs. DP (I'm using Logic Pro 7.2.3) ...?

    Jules
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    From the sound of things on this forum, it appears that there's an incompatibility between VE & Logic. I'm sure future VE updates will remedy that.

    So far, DP is still working great with VE here...

    --Stu 
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     Just wanted to report some success. Following Gary Lionelli's example I connected an ADAT cable between the outputs of Bank C to the inputs of Bank B on my 2408. I set the VE standalone to outputs 17-18 and the Kompakt player to outputs 19-20. I then set the inputs on one AUX channel to outputs 9-10 and the other tp 11-12. Then played, recorded and playback. The result: everything works. No artifacts as when I tried something similar with SoundFlower. So now I can simultaneously run VI as a plugin, VE as plugin, VE as a standalone, Kompakt as a standalone with Logic 8 without any problems so far (under OS 10.5.1).

    For those experiencing problems with Logic 8, I'm not sure if the problems are peculiar to Intel machines as I don't have them with my G5. However, I will say that when I first installed OS 10.5 (update installation) things were buggy and extremely slow. When I updated to 10.5.1 things were less buggy but still very slow. But then, I rebuilt the startup disk directory with Alsoft's DiskWarrior (starting from the CD and being careful to turn off - - as recommended by Alsoft when working with OS 10.5 - - DiskWarrior's "repair permissions" feature). DiskWarrior found many errors:

    • 316 link files had a creation date that was repaired.

    • 23 files had a directory entry with an incorrect text encoding value that was repaired.
     
    • 3 folders had a directory entry with an incorrect text encoding value that was repaired.
     
    • Incorrect values in the Volume Information were repaired.
     
    • The Root creation date was repaired.
     

    After the directory was rebuilt and these errors correctd all anomalies I'd encountered disappeared and the general speed of operations became very significantly faster than in OS 10.4.11. (Except for the fact that Repairing Permissions with Apple's Disk Utility still takes about 10-15 minutes.) Only problem is that Logic 8 will not validate Kompakt under OS 10.5.1 - - although it successfully validated Kompakt under OS 10.4.11. (But I can still succesfully use Kompakt as a standalone.) So, if you are experiencing problems and haven't rebuilt the startup disk's directory with DiskWarrior, try it and see if things work better.

    Stephen

    Dual 2.5 GHz G5

    7GB RAM

    OS 10.5.1

    MOTU 2408

    Logic 8 (and 7) 
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    Stu -- 

    Glad to hear it's working out.  So I'm thinking of breaking down and getting Altiverb.  I wondered, though - with the setup you describe, what's your buffer size, and how's the latency?

    Peter 
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    Hi Peter,

    Altiverb is the greatest, you can't go wrong there. Speakerphone looks & sounds incredibly cool too, I'll probably get that soon.

    I generally track in DP at 256 ms buffer, because I'm running several very full instances of Mach Five 2 & other virtual instruments as well as inputting the VE audio, and use lots of audio plugins in live tracks. Host buffer multiplier :"2" (because I've got two 2408s hooked up to the PCIe-424). Work priority: "high".

    The VE latency is set to "def", which means it configures itself to match the host sequencer's buffer.

    Latency is what it is at 256, while recording midi it's playable with a slight lag, on playback it's spot on.

    Best,

    --Stu 
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     I'm using VSL on a Mac Pro quadcore slave machine.  I.e., not on the same computer as my sequencer and other virtual instruments (which is ironically only a G5, but it's my master since I have an Pro Tools HD Accel 3 system on that computer).  So I'm hoping to keep the buffer to its current 128 samples, even after Altiverb. But we'll see. Thanks for the info.

    PL