Do a google for Rax, it works well.

@magates said:

steff could you be a bit more specific? The aulab that comes with mac? I have never heard of such a thing. Do you know of some specific pieces of software I could google? What I am looking for is a host outside of a sequencer compatable with OS 10.4.3 for the VI. Why do I need a host oustide of a sequencer you may ask? because I use finale to sequence and it is very dodgy when comunicating midi to logic. (Man I hope it works as flawlessly with this as it does with giga studio).

AUlab is on the developer DVD that comes with OS X. Rax is also a good AU host. But if you are having trouble with midi communication to Logic, I doubt other hosts will be any better. What is Finale doing that is so troublesome?

Ok,

could we please come back to my question?

V-Stack is no option in my opinion because it is constantly crashing after a longer time (this is a known bug) and it only allows 16 Instruments which is compared to Gigastudio nothing. Also i am guessing that it does not allow to load in more then 2gb´s. Also its not multithreded.

Herb and company,

This 'set-up' question is a good and valid one. Recommendations?


I have SX on a HOST - with four slaves (formely running giga). I have MOL that has sent the giga slaves midi in - the audio comes back to the SX host via ADAT to SX.

How will my set-up have to change given the need for 'multiple instances' of instruments per slave PC.

Only have 16 instances per PC should not be a problem as each instrument (given universal type mode) will be huge and likely push the limts of 2 gb of ram well before 16 instances are used.

Thanks for your advice.

Rob

Well, is the Logic-Finale problem a Logic problem (midi assignment in Environment) or a finale problem or an OSX problem?

As dbudde pointed out AULab is coming with the Developer Kit - you have to install the developer kit to get it installed.

But perhaps Rax (which is quite inexpansive) is a great option - as it is an offical product with support if there are issues - do not know about AULab for those things. But you could give it a try.

best

I am not sure of the problem with logic - finale but I get dropped and held notes when I try to use EXS extensively. I have 4 gigs of RAM and dual 1.8 G5. I think its something to do with midi sync.

You don’t mention your Logic setup, but I’m assuming you have Channel Splitters connected to the appropriate ports on the Physical Input and that these Channel Splitters are wired sequentially to Logic Audio Instruments. Also that you have created a “No Output” track in the Arrange Window and selected it as the playback track.

You also don't mention which version of Finale you are using. This is important, because, in my experience and that of some colleagues the Mac version of Finale 2006, has very serious MIDI playback problems with

1. Frequent stuck and missing notes - - which can, under certain conditions, make Gigastudio unresponsive to MIDI input.

2. Uncertain response to pushing the stop button in Finale 2006's playback controls when playing back scores with a large number of staves – requiring repeated pushing of the stop button, which eventually works but leaves behind a trail of stuck notes.

3. Sending extraneous sync messages to other applications even when “Send MIDI Sync” is turned off in Finale 2006’s MIDI Setup dialog box. (When using Finale 2006 with Logic 7, it is essential to turn off “auto-enable external sync” in Logic’s song settings.


There have been three maintenance updates of Finale 2006, but none have addressed this issue. If you are working with Finale 2006 and encountering these problems I encourage you - - and any other forum readers who have encountered these problems - - to write to MakeMusic - - as they have been unresponsive regarding this issue, apparently preferring to allocate resources to endeavors assessed as more “glamorous” than mere bug fixes that would only affect that part of the user base not completely dazzled by Finale GPO.

On the other hand Finale 2005 does NOT have playback problems to anything like the same degree. Finale 2005 does, however, exhibit stuck or missing notes when playing back Logic through either the IAC drivers or Finale’s own virtual Outputs, but there is an easy fix for these problems.

Go to:

http://pete.yandell.com/software/

Download: MIDI Patchbay (Version 1.0.1)

Using MIDI Patchbay create a document directing the IAC ports (or Finale’s own virtual ports) to Logic’s Ports. Save this document and open it when you wish to address Logic from Finale. (If using Finale’s own virtual ports it is important to open Finale first - - to make these ports exist, MIDI Patchbay second, and Logic last. If using the IAC ports - - which are established by the OS - - the order in which you open the applications does not appear to matter.)

Also, if you use Finale 2006 and encounter the playback problems I mentioned at the beginning, you can use MIDI Patchbay to buffer output to external MIDI devices by selecting Finale’s own virtual outputs as the output device in Finale 2006’s MIDI Setup dialog box and directing these ports to the intended external output device in MIDI Patchbay. This makes the problems less frequent and severe, but does not, unfortunately, eliminate them, at least in my experience. Using MIDI Patchbay one also can, simultaneously, address Logic as well external devices by assigning the IAC ports to Logic and Finale 2006’s virtual outputs to the external devices. Again this is an imperfect workaround, but it does offer some improvement for those who must use Finale 2006.

I hope this is helpful.

I was working on this just last night. I don't know if I really fixed it or not but I was getting pretty decent results. Here are the settings I changed.

In logic global preferences for midi say midi machine uses old fostex format(I think this may have helped the most). song settings no external sync (I have done this before and still had issues). finale does send sync box checked (why this helps I don't know). seding midi through the IAC bus directly to finale. In logic's midi input filter for good measure eliminate everything you don't use. There also some options under chase that can be unchecked. I was only testing with 4 EXS instruments but I got 3-4 minutes of material with no stuck or dropped notes. When I had finale's send midi sync box unchecked I had one droped note. Also I removed my physical midi devices (went midi over lan recently).

This isn't a complete fix I don't think but it's on its way there. What finale really needs is an update on the format of the midi time code it sends out. Really it is in the dark ages as far as midi goes.

Hello all,

I´d like to get back to the initial question about VSTi hosts. We are using VSTack in some of our setups and are getting good results, but of course there are other inexpensive VSTi hosts like Chainer, Plogue Bidule or Forte that you can easily check out with a free demo version. They all worked fine with our Vienna Instruments, but we didn´t get to test them extensively.

Any comments or experiences from other users are of course more than welcome...

I really want to emphasize that working with the Vienna Instruments is much easier, as it behaves like any other virtual instrument....

Best, Paul

Matt:

Thanks for the useful data. However, I can tell you that, using MIDI Patchbay - - as I described earlier - - with Finale 2005, I am able to play, simultaneously, 46 channels of Logic's Audio instruments and 16 channels of Gigastudio instruments with NO stuck or dropped notes, even in highly complex scores. Are you using Finale 2006 or Finale 2005? If you don't absolutely need Finale 2006, I'd suggest staying with Finale 2005 as it has far fewer MIDI playback problems. Essentially, regardless of whatever workarounds users come up with, the problem with Finale 2006 is Finale 2006 - - not the user's ancillary hardware and software. MakeMusic needs to address and correct Finale 2006's MIDI playback problems. Again I urge you and any others who may have encountered these problems to communicate with MakeMusic. One might also suggest that the fact that Finale 2006's ability to play plugins is restricted to products made by Native Instruments is highly restrictive. One cannot, for example, run the Vienna Instruments within Finale. (Of course, this might be a blessing in disguise as no version of Finale makes use of the Mac's dual processors.)

Back to basics...so if I just need something on the PC to host VI, what is the safest thing to get for my P4? I'm doing all sequencing on the Mac and recording on the Mac...the PC is just for VSL....

Thanks
Tom

Hi Tom,

"safe", hm... We are mostly using VSTack and if you need more instruments, get any other chainer like Chainer, Plogue Bidule, Forte, and that works fine. There are demos of all these products available on the respective websites.
Then it´s up to your personal preferences, which program you choose.

FX Teleport doesn´t work on a Mac, as I understand it...

Hope that helps.

Best, Paul

Paul, I thought VSTack was the way to go, but I read something up here in one of the threads that said they weren't supporting or making it anymore, anyone know if this is the case?

Thanks
Tom