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  4. The Old which host is best question... again...

  • The Old which host is best question... again...

    M
    M

    Hi everyone. It's been a while since I have posted. Howdy.

    Question: (both are Mac OS X related)

    1) VSL system with multiple computers mixing to a main host: which is the best host software to use for sound quality and more than anything reliability...

    2) A single computer only set up, like a Mac Pro, again, what's the most reliable - best to use host for this platform right now.

    I have Cubase & Logic Pro, I find both have their strengths and weaknesses, logic is better for midi editing, Cubase has better sound quality, Logic is more reliable, but cubase unloads the samples from memory when you freeze, which is fantastic why the heck doesn't logic do this is beyond me...

    Neither are 64 bit which is lame...

    I also find Vienna instruments crashes immediately in cubase, but is very reliable in Logic, and the reverse is true, ensemble works better in cubase but crashes in Logic...

    so it's a big nightmare really. Any thoughts?
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    @mpower88 said:

     Logic is more reliable, but cubase unloads the samples from memory when you freeze, which is fantastic why the heck doesn't logic do this is beyond me...

    Well, im a logic man all the way. However, not sure if you're aware, but when you freeze a track - yes you are correct that it does not *immediately* dump out all the samples; however, the next time you re-load the project, it will load in only the freeze files, not the samples in the instrument. I know for a fact this does work in at least EXS24II, but not sure about other sample-based instruments.

    Yeah it's kind of a pain in the neck, but it's a workaround, nonetheless.  😊

    > michael
  • M
    M

    Thanks for replying. No it doesn't work with either Vienna Instruments or Vienna Ensemble that I have found... 

    The Cubase system works great for this. You freeze and unload the instrument, and it's like it's not there. Just the freeze track. But settings are remembered. So you can work on a string section, freeze it, unfreeze your brass section, and so on, and swap between them, never going over memory usage in either Cubase or VSL. It seems so simple to implement technically I don't know why Logic doesn't have this obviously useful feature.

    But yeah, Logic is more stable otherwise. I find cubase very unstable for certain things.
  • G
    G

    Miklos,

    -

    Hey old buddy! I just had to say hello. Nice 2 C U back here!
  • M
    M

    Hi, yes good to "see" you again :) I've been so busy I haven't had time to do anything else but now just looking at my music set up again and seeing what I can do... I had a look at your website a couple of weeks ago - very impressive you have some library of material there! Great stuff.
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    @mpower88 said:

    Thanks for replying. No it doesn't work with either Vienna Instruments or Vienna Ensemble that I have found...

    I don't mean to sound condescending, but are you aware of VI's "Optimize" feature? It pretty much does that (well, kind of..) -- Dumps out every sample that is NOT being triggered in your sequence. Again, if you want to go add new notes you have to reset the samples, but it works well when you have a gigantic Perf Legato Trill instrument of 183 Megs but you are only playing two notes- worth of samples.  Give it a try if you find your VI or VE's RAM getting too full 😊

    > michael
  • M
    M

    You may not have noticed but that is not the problem. I am aware of that feature, and it is an excellent feature that VSL has created. However, in Logic, even if you freeze the instrument, it continues to draw a latent amount of cpu power. After a certain amount of instances, you can't do anything more.
    I will try to use this feature with ensemble in logic and see if I have more luck, as ensemble wasn't working for me on logic previously, but I just upgraded my software so I'll try it out again.
  • J
    J

    Hi Miklos,

    One thing you might try is using the bypass facility in Logic - the one on the plug-in interface.

    Of course it doesn't work if you need notes to sound but it is the only thing I've found in Logic that reduces the Vienna CPU load.

    I'm sure you've found the load is pretty much the same whether or not any samples are being played. However if you automated the bypass switch to switch out when the particular instrument isn't required you can reduce the overall CPU load and potentially increase the maximum number of  instances you can run in a song. 

    What it won't do is increase your maximum number of active (un-bypassed) instruments. So if you have big tutti sections then probably won't help. But where you might have a mega string orchestration followed by a woodwind section you might get increased mileage using this technique.

    Julian
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    It's all about multi hosts. Spreading the load around. 

    On a single computer, a number of people, myself included, are using 2nd hosts just for samples on the same machine. I use Bidule, and RAX along side with DP (as well as VE3 hosting on the same machine) You can then pipe the audio back into your main daw via rewire or hardwire. This has been by far the most stable setup I've found. It takes the load off of your daw app. This setup also gives you better use of the memory, since each app has it's own allocation of memory. I can tap out all of my 14 gigs of ram this way. 

    As for multi computers, I use VE3 on one and then I use Bidule (both PC and Mac) on the others. Once VSL comes out with a VE3 version that allows for 3rd party VI hosting, I will switch everything to that on all machines. 
  • T
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    Well I think your wish has been granted - Vienna Ensemble PRO is soon to be released (according to the press notes from Musikmesse) so it looks like the old - which 3rd party host s/w is the best is a moot point now.  THANKS VSL!

    It will then just come down to your preference for Logic, Cubase, DP, Protools etc for your main DAW.

    Best

    Tim