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  4. Considering purchasing VEP, is this setup possible?

  • Considering purchasing VEP, is this setup possible?

    B
    B

    I have an iMac late 2013 with 32gb of RAM that I use for music production. If I were to get Ensemble Pro, is it possible to use a Windows machine (i5, 16gb of RAM) as the slave? I read about some issues with that, but I don't know if it's doable now. My main problem with my iMac is that it doesn't have an SSD internally, so reading samples is very slow, but I can easily upgrade my Windows machine with an SSD.
  • marnixM
    VSL Team
    marnixM

    Hi BrianBurke,

    Yes, you can combine Macs and Windows machines without problems in a VE Pro network!

    Best, Marnix
  • R
    R

    Hi Brian,

     

    That will work fine as long as you have an ethernet port that you can connect in between the two machines. And 2 eLicensor Usb Keys (one for each machine). Takes a little bit of setup but it's a great way to work, and there's no problems at all between a Mac DAW and a PC as a sample machine.

     

    Wait a second. Brian Burke as in the worldwide famous producer? If so, I'll get your email from Ben and send you more details. :P
  • B
    B
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    @marnix said:

    Hi BrianBurke,

    Yes, you can combine Macs and Windows machines without problems in a VE Pro network!

    Best, Marnix

     

    So there's no plugin incompatibility? VST versus AU doesn't really matter? 

     

    --Also, I am not any of the famous Brian Burkes, unfortunately. 😛
  • R
    R

    Correct, VE PRO knows how to talk across various platforms and plugin formats. 

    In my setup, I'm running a VePro PC with all VST based plugins and connecting to a MAC running Digital Performer. In Performer, I can run either AU, VST, or DP's native plugin format, MAS. I use MAS, but have used Audio Units in the past and both work great. 
  • B
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    @RootNDoo said:

    Correct, VE PRO knows how to talk across various platforms and plugin formats. 

    In my setup, I'm running a VePro PC with all VST based plugins and connecting to a MAC running Digital Performer. In Performer, I can run either AU, VST, or DP's native plugin format, MAS. I use MAS, but have used Audio Units in the past and both work great. 

     

    Fantastic, thanks!

    A follow-up question I have:

    I have that aforementioned iMac, 3TB mechanical hard disk, i7, 32GB ram, and the i5, 16gb PC with 480GB SSD. However, I also have a 2012 Macbook pro unibody (i7, 8gb of RAM) upgraded with a 525gb SSD, and I have a spare 960 GB SSD floating around that I planned to use for samples. 

    What would be the most efficient use of these drives/computers to utilize VEP fully? Should I put the 960GB SSD in the Windows PC instead of the 480GB and run everything off of that? Should I use the laptop instead? Assuming I can swap drives in everything except the iMac, what should I do to set this up?
  • R
    R

    The short answer is that all of this takes testing to confirm. A longer answer:

     

    In general, it's good to separate hard drives that store samples and audio separate from the HDDs that run the system. So for the PC, I would run the system drive off of the 480, and add the 960gb to run samples. 

     

    Also, I would upgrade and max out your ram on your PC side if you can afford it. The more, the better. See if you can at least get to 32gb. This is an upgrade you can make after you get started though.  

     

    On your DAW side, you might want to create a sequence that you play back on both to see which one has better performance. You might actually be better off with the Macbook, but this should be tested.