Hello Cyril,

I went through the same considerations ... though we have an almost exclusive Mac household here (5 Macs), the building of the Windows machine proved as a good idea: Windows 7 ist quite friendly, and just for raw sample-playing power it's hard to beat on the price. Once you have set up your template on it, you can quite forget about it. I bought a MacMini in the first place as a slave, but it got retired soon (if you want it ... )

BTW every wise man I listened (read) to told: use an i7-9xx processor - they seem to be right

Snow Leopard Server: as far as I know there is nothing to be gained sample-playing wise.

Michael

Cyril,

I use two Mac Minis (late 2009 model 2.26GHZ with 8GB RAM each) connected vie VEP - cost me about $1100 each. They work great,a re super small and super quiet. Their CPU will max out if I run everything I got loaded (eg VI orchestral strings + Appassionata Strings) with performance legato patches, but that has not caused any problems in real live situations so far.

please excuse the OT - I know the question was about PC slaves.

@Wolfsterik said:

Cyril,

I use two Mac Minis (late 2009 model 2.26GHZ with 8GB RAM each) connected vie VEP - cost me about $1100 each. They work great,a re super small and super quiet. Their CPU will max out if I run everything I got loaded (eg VI orchestral strings + Appassionata Strings) with performance legato patches, but that has not caused any problems in real live situations so far.

please excuse the OT - I know the question was about PC slaves.

Thanks for your answer

It is not OT as a Mac Mini could be a PC !

Can you detail what you load in each Mac Mini

Do you have a Master Mac ?

How do you connect them ?

Best

Cyril

Yes, I use a MacPro 8 core 3GHZ as the Master. The Minis are connected via Vienna Ensemble Pro, which is absolutely totally awesome! So, the only hardware you'd need is an Ethernet switch. I installed 7200RPM HDs in the mInis and run all samples from the internal HD.

      Examples of what I run on them: One currently runs LASS - bank presets of 10 main articulations, all sections; Kontakt set to 30kb DFD preload, which amounts to 4.3GB RAM + about 2GB for the Kontakt banks. At a buffer of 256 the CPU will max out when I use all divisi sections simultaneously in a busy section, but it works fine if I use higher buffers.

    The other Mini currently holds Chamber Strings + Appassionata Strings + Vienna Saxophones - I use custom presets, but they are approximately as big as the Level 2 presets. Also uses about 6GB of RAM; similar situation with the CPUs.

VSL Chamber strings + LASS sections is a wonderful combination btw.

sorry, no video. VEP is the only 3rd party software running, so once the system software has started the Mac OS does not need to access the HD much on a sample slave.

I'm not going to try to make you a believer. Just reporting what works for me. Ultimately you'd have to try this with your own setup, DAW and working style to see if it would work for you. Minis work for me and when I did the math, they were cheaper than buying a used MacPro with similar CPU and RAM with the benefit of being smaller and producing less heat. There are similar PCs out there btw (don't ask me for links, I did not keep them).

Thanks you very much for your answer

Is it possible that you look at the "used memory" before loading VEP in the MAC Mini

did you try not loading the "Finder"

Best

Cyril

The System takes about 700mb of RAM - seems to be the same on all my Macs. I never bothered messing with the Finder - it uses close to 0% CPU and about 30mb RAM on my slaves - not worth the hassle.

Hi Wolfsterik,

Sorry to further hijack this thread, but I have been asking a question on the hardware forum about this setup and not had any responses. I currently just have one mac mini, but plan to get another if the setup works. Do you operate your minis only via ethernet? Can you give me any tips re network settings (custom vs auto IP addresses and whether i need a switch or not). At the moment my main Mac can't find the Mac Mini (a new model) until I plug it's own monitor in (which I don't want to do). Also, is it all stable and able to do offline bouncing etc?

Many thanks,

David

David,

yes, I operate the Mini's via Ethernet only. I use a Netgear GS605 switch - I was told a switch handles network traffic better than a router. They don't cost much - about $40.

network setting: IPv4:I use DHCP with manual address. IP address: 192.168.0.xxx - last three is the number you assign to that Mac. This way I can conect the Minis to the internet if needed. You can also set IPv4 to Manually. I do this for my 2nd ethernet port on my main Mac, which is connected directly (no Ethernet switch) to another Mac Pro. For this I set IP to 192.168.2.xxx - I don't remember why, but it works. So afaik: use a switch and set the IPs manually, than your main Mac will find the slaves and especially when you reopen existing projects with VEP, it will know where to connect to.

I control the slaves with Apple Remote Desktop, but you can also use the built in screen sharing (activate it in Sys prefs-Sharing), which costs you nothing extra and also works great.  I only had to connect a monitor for initial setup. The MIni now shows me a 1680x1050 display via Ethernet, which works beautifully for editing VEP setups.

The setup is currently very stable; offline bouncing works great. etc: it's awesome!

Personally I'd never run minis as slave machines, they are way too expensive for the performance, especially compared to what you can get in an i7 PC.  The only reason to get one is the portability and for that I'd probably consider a rack mount PC.

Thanks Wolfsterik,

That's all good to hear. With those xxx numbers, does it not matter what I chose for those (e.g. 1)? Also, do you recommend having wifi turned off for the mini slave? 

Mike - it may not make much sense in terms of value, but in terms of space saving and - from what i can tell so far - noise and heat, they are great. Plus it makes things simpler to only have to worry about mac os, i think. 

Hello Mike

What PC will you recommend ?

Best

Cyril

@dschweitzer said:

Thanks Wolfsterik,

That's all good to hear. With those xxx numbers, does it not matter what I chose for those (e.g. 1)? Also, do you recommend having wifi turned off for the mini slave? 

 The main thing is that every slave has a unique number (eg: slave 1 = 110; slave 2 = 111...) and that it's between 1 and 254 (if I remember correctly). check this thread - cm's first reply - he's in the know: http://community.vsl.co.at/forums/t/18601.aspx

I have Wifi turned off because I don't use it on the Minis.

p.pan, I understand. Maybe I'll do a setup video in the future - got no time (or muse) for it now. What specifically would you like to know?

the basic principle of my setup is simple: Main Mac and a few slaves that hold the samples in RAM, all connected via Ethernet and running VEPro which in turn loads VSL or Kontakt libraries. Everything I will change frequently (synths, Omnisphere, drums, unusual sounds...) gets loaded on a project basis on my main MAC. Whether the slaves are Mac or PC is a matter of personal preference and how important budget is. I'm sure one can build super quiet and powerful PC slaves that cost less than Macs, but the no-hassle-factor is big for me, so I chose what I'm familiar with.

One caveat I experienced with VEPro: If I have all 4 slaves connected, I can only have 18 VI-Frames connected; the more connected slaves, the fewer VI-Frames (Logic freezes if I try to connect more). I am interested in other users' experiences in this regard.