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  • Bunch of beginner VE Pro/Vienna Key questions

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    M
    Hi - I'm in the middle (I hope) of setting up a master/slave system using VE Pro 5. I have some questions and things I can't get to work correctly - I've contacted VSL support with no results, maybe they're busy with AES, they've been great in the past.

    Here's the system I'm trying to set up:
    Master: Mac Mini Server i7 2Ghz, 16Gb RAM, OS 10.8.5, 128 Gb OS SSD, 2nd 7200rpm internal HD (audio recording drive)
    Slave: Dell Optiplex i7 2.8Ghz, 8GB RAM (to be 16Gb), Windows 7 Pro, 160Gb internal HD, 250Gb Samsung 840 EVO external eSATA sample drive

    I run Pro Tools 10 at the moment. I've been using the MMS with Chamber Strings for a while with good results, but it feels like it could work better, in terms of load time and load on the MMS - so, that's why the master/slave setup.

    I'm using a Windows machine because I thought Trillian was Windows only. Found out afterward that they now have a Mac version. I also read somewhere that VSL stuff runs better on Windows, and there are some VSTi's that are Windows only. The networking issues on the Windows side are an absolute nightmare, I'm still working on those.

    This system is probably overkill for the arrangements I do (strings on folky pop stuff), but I want to move to PT 11 and the idea of still being able to use all my old 32 bit VST's and VSTi's was appealing.

    I have 2 elicensers, one of which is new. The old one has all my licenses on it at the moment. I have VSL Chamber Strings I and II, and, of course, Epic Strings.

    Here are my questions and problems:

    1. Can the master and slave machines run through a router, or do I need a separate gigabit switch between the router and the master and slave?

    2. From reading the manual a bunch of times, it looks as though I need a Vienna Key/elicenser on both the master and slave machines. Is this correct?

    3. My original Vienna Key currently has all my licenses on it. VE Pro 5 comes with three licenses, but I don't see a way to take one of them and put it on the second key to use on my master (or my slave, I can't figure out which). Am I trying to do something that can't be done?

    4. If anyone has any tips on Mac/Windows networking, I'd really appreciate hearing them. I've gotten things to work a few times, but each time I shut the machines down, it all falls apart and what worked before doesn't work the next time.

    If any or all of these questions sound like I'm misunderstanding something at a very basic level, I'm open to that possibility. It would actually be a relief.

    Thanks!

    Myles
  • M
    M
    How in the hell do you get paragraph breaks here?

    EDIT: Aha! HTML! Is there some setting to remove the need for this?
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    last edited
    last edited

    @mylescdavis said:

    Hi - I'm in the middle (I hope) of setting up a master/slave system using VE Pro 5. I have some questions and things I can't get to work correctly - I've contacted VSL support with no results, maybe they're busy with AES, they've been great in the past.

    Here's the system I'm trying to set up:
    Master: Mac Mini Server i7 2Ghz, 16Gb RAM, OS 10.8.5, 128 Gb OS SSD, 2nd 7200rpm internal HD (audio recording drive)
    Slave: Dell Optiplex i7 2.8Ghz, 8GB RAM (to be 16Gb), Windows 7 Pro, 160Gb internal HD, 250Gb Samsung 840 EVO external eSATA sample drive

    I run Pro Tools 10 at the moment. I've been using the MMS with Chamber Strings for a while with good results, but it feels like it could work better, in terms of load time and load on the MMS - so, that's why the master/slave setup.

    I'm using a Windows machine because I thought Trillian was Windows only. Found out afterward that they now have a Mac version. I also read somewhere that VSL stuff runs better on Windows, and there are some VSTi's that are Windows only. The networking issues on the Windows side are an absolute nightmare, I'm still working on those.

    This system is probably overkill for the arrangements I do (strings on folky pop stuff), but I want to move to PT 11 and the idea of still being able to use all my old 32 bit VST's and VSTi's was appealing.

    I have 2 elicensers, one of which is new. The old one has all my licenses on it at the moment. I have VSL Chamber Strings I and II, and, of course, Epic Strings.

    Here are my questions and problems:

    1. Can the master and slave machines run through a router, or do I need a separate gigabit switch between the router and the master and slave?

    2. From reading the manual a bunch of times, it looks as though I need a Vienna Key/elicenser on both the master and slave machines. Is this correct?

    3. My original Vienna Key currently has all my licenses on it. VE Pro 5 comes with three licenses, but I don't see a way to take one of them and put it on the second key to use on my master (or my slave, I can't figure out which). Am I trying to do something that can't be done?

    4. If anyone has any tips on Mac/Windows networking, I'd really appreciate hearing them. I've gotten things to work a few times, but each time I shut the machines down, it all falls apart and what worked before doesn't work the next time.

    If any or all of these questions sound like I'm misunderstanding something at a very basic level, I'm open to that possibility. It would actually be a relief.

    Thanks!

    Myles


    OK I can now answer my questions, in case some other person is looking for answers in the future.

    1. Yes, they can run on a router.

    2. YOu don't have to have two keys, but it saves a lot of trouble. You need the key to open VE Pro Server on both machines, and you need the VI licenses on the machine that actually contains the samples. Once everything is open, you don't need the key - but if you add something, change something, whatever, you'll need to grab the key from one machine and put it in the other. Much easier to have two keys.

    3. I missed the email with the activation keys. One instance of VE Pro was already activated, so I thought that contained all three. Not so bright...

    4. It's mostly obvious stuff. Make sure you have file sharing turned on, on all machines, and that you have WINS/SMB set up on your Mac (in System Preferences/Network/Advanced. The thing that caused me the most trouble was that, on a Mac, if you install an SSD for the OS drive, it boots too fast for the SMB process, causing the OS to reset the workgroup name in SMB preferences. This made my Mac Mini Server inaccessible every time I restarted. There's a fix out: https://discussions.apple.com/message/21622790#21622790 It's also apparently fixed in Mavericks, but Lion and ML have the problem.

    Beyond this, it just takes patience, keeping track of what you're doing, googling like crazy, and not giving up. The good news is that, once it's done, it seems to stay done, as long as you take care of the Workgroup problem (if you have an OS SSD).