For "system memory" listed in the activity monitor, I have the following:     ( I'm having trouble getting the screen shot of this in the post)

Free:  3.31 GB

Wired: 2.21 GB

Active: 1.66GB

Inactive: 1.76 GB 

Used:     5.64 GB

It shows VE using 2.35 GB. My machine is currently holding 9 GB of RAM

Are there any suggestions on a solution to this? I am really stuck at this point. 

Much appreciated 

 Rob:

You can run multiple VE2 standalones addressed through the IAC ports. To do this, duplicate and rename the new VE 2 app. or apps. I don't know whether Sibelius allows you to run plugins and standalones simultaneously, but, if it does, you can run 2+GB of plugins within Sibelius + one or more VE 2 standalones

The only problem with standalones is that you then need to have some way of looping their output back into your computer. If you have an RME or an Apogee Symphony card based interface this can be accomplished with the software that comes with these interfaces. If you have an interface that does not have this capability then you can use a DAW such as Logic as an intermediary application.

For example, my notation program is Finale 2008 and I have  a MOTU 2408. I set Finale to address Logic through IAC port 1 (channels 1-16) giving me 16 channels in Logic itself. IAC ports 2 & 3 are assigned to Channels 17-32 and 33-48.  I then run a short ADAT cable from the output of the 2408's  Bank C to the Input of Bank B. Then I assign the MIDI inputs of each standalone to the appropriate IAC port (e.g. Port 2, Port 3, etc.) and the stereo outputs of each standalone to the appropriate audio channels in Bank C (e.g. channels 17-18 for the first standalone, channels 19-20 for the 2nd standalone etc.) Then I create  AUX channels in Logic whose inputs are channels 9-10, 11-12, etc and whose outputs are channels 1-2. Logic has a "Helper" I/O plugin that greatly reduces the resultant latency when inserted into the AUX channels.

I know this sounds complicated, but it does work. Of course, once there is a 64bit OSX version of VE, this workaround should not be necessary. Hopefully, this will be reasonably soon.

Stephen's solution certainly works. The only thing you have to be careful about is how you are using the soundsets in Sibelius. This can get quite complicated with the multiple standalone route, and in any case, I think that to use the VSL soundsets as they are designed, you can't do that with standalones (maybe Andi can elaborate on that?).

Actually, the best current solution is to run in Bootcamp XP64 or Vista64, where Sibelius will run faster, and you can use VE2 as it was designed; in 64bit, using as much RAM as you like. Maybe that's too drastic for you. [;)]

In order to use sound sets with a standalone instance of Vienna Ensemble, the sound set has to be modified. Open it with the sound set editor or a text editor and change the entry PatchLoadMechanism from "Fixed" to "MIDI". Save the sound set with a different name. Now you can communicate from Sibelius over a MIDI Loopback device with the Stand-alone Vienna Ensemble and the modified sound set takes care of the articulation changes.

Thanks to everyone for giving me very valued input. Upon doing some more research, I managed to get the VE standalones working via apple's IAC midi driver. However, getting the sibelius sounds sets to be used in the stand alone is another issue. I read Andi's previous post and can't quite figure out how to open the sound set to make the changes specified. Not sure where the "sound set editer" is. I tried openning a sound set with "text edit" but I just see lots of vague code. Could you please give me a step by step direction to do this Andi?

Most grateful,

Rob 

Hello Rob!

You can find the Sibelius Sound Set Editor at the following location:
http://www.sibelius.com/helpcenter/resources/soundsets.html

Just open your sound set(s) there and change Type from "Fixed" to "MIDI". Then save it with a new name.

Alternatively you can do it with text edit. Look for the string "PatchLoadMechanism". It is in the beginning of the code. Also here change this entry from "Fixed" to "MIDI" and save the file with a new name.

I hope it is clearer now.

Best,
Andi

Thanks for the link for the Sound set editor. That did the trick!

Most Grateful,

Rob