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  • Local Hosting of VE Pro in Logic 9.0.1 with Eight Instances

    This thread is limited to the running of VE PRO as a local host, that is, running on the same computer as Logic 9.0.1. 

    It's an emerging truth that VE PRO will allow the connecting of only eight local host instances to Logic. This has not been confirmed by VSL, but it is a shared observation among posters. I will assume it is true until I hear from the company.  

    In a master and slave computer network an eight instance limit is not limiting. The VE software configures up to 32 virtual MIDI ports. Times 16 channels per port, that is 512 discrete instruments. Times 8 instances, 4096 discrete instruments are available. 

    (And I have not confirmed that this 8 instance limit applies to slaves, so the number may be higher.)

    But this is a thread about local hosting within Logic. Here the question becomes: can we access virtual MIDI ports in Logic channel strips (software instruments) that connect to VE PRO? 

    As of this writing, I don't know if or how it can be done. I welcome instruction, but I do NOT need work-arounds. I know my way around Plogue and Jack and Soundflower and all of those other programs I'm so eager to drop. Indeed, if my suspicions are correct, I'll just dis-unite the matrices in VE PRO and scatter them back to separate VI instances.

    But VE PRO offers many benefits that I'd rather preserve, if possible.    

    Now, IF we cannot access virtual MIDI ports from Logic's channel strips to locally hosted VE PRO's, and IF we are limited to eight instances of VE PRO on a local host, then some issues come to the fore. Each VE PRO instance could only receive one port, hence sixteen MIDI channels.  That means a not insignficant fall from 4096 possibilities to 128. 

    This is a compounding problem because with only eight instances, we'd likely group orchestral instruments, say, by choirs. So the winds fall in together, and then we're dividing four standard instruments into 16 channels. Four a piece in round numbers.

    As long-time MIDI orchestrators, we see the trajectory here. 

    And a second issue emerges, though I am less certain of this. Can one locally hosted instance of VE PRO be assigned to more than one channel strip? Perhaps the same channel strip can be copied and pasted, then fed a different MIDI channel with VE in Omni mode. 

    If we can actually access virtual MIDI ports to locally hosted VE PRO's from our channel strips, I'd welcome a walk-through. 

    Be kind. I'm walking a few learning curves here. 


  • Hey there Plowman.  I am going to fire up my xp64 slave right now and see how many I can connect from Logic 9.

    Maestro2be


  • I was able to open a total of 24 windows between the 3.

    1.  8 of VE Pro 64-bit

    2.  8 of VE Pro 32-bit

    3.  8 of VE3

    If I try to connect more then 8, it simply does nothing.  No error etc.  Just attempts to connect, eventually doesn't and releases.

    Maestro2be


  • Very helpful, M2B. That's exactly what the local hosts do when you try to connect the ninth instance. You can create more instances, but you can't connect them. 

    Why didn't the VE PRO folks tell us?  None of this is prohibitive to music-making, but it absolutely affects the way we plan our templates. I thought I would migrate and collect various VI's into VE PRO's. I'll have to do that more selectively now, leaving a good number as VI instances. 

    I'm also puzzled as to why in a local host instance, the plug-in MIDI ports are available and can be set, but there's no way to set the channel strip to find them. I'd think for locally connected VE PRO's, the port menus would at least be grayed out.


  • I'm beginning to think that what is marked as MIDI In: x Plugin MIDI In x (x = 1 to 8 on my computer) is actually just the hardware MIDI in's. When I set a locally connected VE PRO to 32 virtual MIDI ports, there is no change (even in subsequently created instances) on choices 1 to 8.

    I had thought that "Plug-in MIDI in" meant the same thing as a virtual MIDI port. If it's just a hardware MIDI in, we really need to drop the "plug-in" part of the label. 

    Remember, this thread is about locally hosted VE PRO instances only, specifically in Logic but possibly applying to other DAW's used in a one computer set-up. 


  • last edited
    last edited

    @plowman said:

    I'm beginning to think that what is marked as MIDI In: x Plugin MIDI In x (x = 1 to 8 on my computer) is actually just the hardware MIDI in's. When I set a locally connected VE PRO to 32 virtual MIDI ports, there is no change (even in subsequently created instances) on choices 1 to 8.

    I had thought that "Plug-in MIDI in" meant the same thing as a virtual MIDI port. If it's just a hardware MIDI in, we really need to drop the "plug-in" part of the label. 

    Remember, this thread is about locally hosted VE PRO instances only, specifically in Logic but possibly applying to other DAW's used in a one computer set-up. 

     

     Unfortunately you can't have more than 1 MIDI port per instance in Logic.

    DG