You know, this is finally just irresponsible of VSL. I jumped in as some of you apparently did also, and bought the full VSL Instruments Strings I and II before the price-hike because there was a reference somewhere (Ilio?) that you could run it with PT. And as it turns out you can either run it as a VST instrument with a wrapper--and the performance is inadequate--or you can run it as a stand-alone and you can then use 1 instance of it at a time. This takes me back to the 1970's and the first Synclavier with mono sampling.

Ridiculous. I think there needs to be more than a moderator simply contributing a helpless shrug. Either VSL needs to say clearly in their promotional literature that the VSL Instruments don't work within ProTools and therefore you can only use a single instance of the plug as a stand-alone or they need to fix the problem. I will also grouse, while I'm at it, that for several years now this has been a problem with most of the the German companies--NI notoriously--the Mac versions are add-ons and the implementation is shaky. Years after Reaktor was first introduced it's still performs badly in ProTools. I hope VSL intends to do better than that.

Aren't some people running several instances of standalone by running copies of the standalone version?

You can also pick up Plogue Bidule cheaply (plug-in host program), instantiate as many VST VIs as you like, connect Bidule to PT via rewire, and voilà. Haven't done this extensively, but I've tried it, and it appears to work very well.

PL

If multiple Vienna Instrument instances can be run in stand-alone mode, I would like to know how... I could only open one.

I have managed to run multiple instances in ReWire via Plogue Bidule. But it's a bit complicated, and somewhat buggy. If anyone is interested, I can post the exact procedure. Someone else had previously posted a how-to, but I found that I had to do it a little differently in order to make it work.

drpgleeson, I'm with you. And I too have experienced problems with poor Mac versions of other instruments. An especially egregious example for me: EastWest Symphonic Gold Orch library, bundled with Kompakt. The Mac version is obviously a bastard stepchild, extremely buggy and crashy. And before I bought it, I actually called and specifically asked them if there were any Mac/PT issues and was assured that it was fine. Let me assure you it is not...

Sorry, I digress; this thread is about Vienna...

So how about it, Vienna - You've said you ran into problems making an RTAS vesion. So does that mean you're throwing in the RTAS towel, or are you still trying to make it happen?

welcome drpgleeson,

@Another User said:

Either VSL needs to say clearly in their promotional literature that the VSL Instruments don't work within ProTools

it says clearly on each product page *AU, VST, stand-alone*, RTAS is not mentioned there and if PT does not support AU or VST clearly some kind of other solution is needed - which one depends also on your specific setup.

on the other hand our devopers worked long and hard on a _usable_ RTAS version, which turned up to be more tricky than initially thought. i'd ask you to lurk around in several forums if and how reliable and performant various RTAS implementations run, always please considering the ratio of content/amount needed to be streamed.

as you know RTAS is not an open implementation like VST or AU and - simplified speaking - works in two modes: hardware and software. both are proprietary and since it looks like digidesign likes to push their own sampler, further conclusions should be obvious.

christian

ps: if you like to betatest RTAS versions you're welcome, let us know ...

CM - you should have been a politician! Nicely dodged!! '[[;)]]'

To quote myself,
"You've said you ran into problems making an RTAS vesion. So does that mean you're throwing in the RTAS towel, or are you still trying to make it happen?"

@Another User said:

"if you like to beta test RTAS versions you're welcome, let us know ..."

That would imply that the quest is ongoing after all.

yes/no '[*-)]:'


...Well, OK, I'll bite... I will beta test.

One more question - If I were to buy a slave computer to run VIs, can you please tell me the recommended platform (Mac or PC, and host program) that is best? Most efficient, bug-free, etc?

I'll beta test as well.

Hi charlzj,

the Vienna instruments run stable on both platforms, Mac and PC.
On a Slave Mac you use a host like Plogue Bidule or RAX to host the VIs, you can make use of 2.7 GB of RAM in the host.
On a Slave PC, if your are using a host like Forte (that is Large Memory Aware), you can also use up to 3 GB of RAM.

So it´s really a matter of taste.... [;)]

Best,

Paul

Thanks, Paul - I'm really a Mac guy, so I would probably lean towards that. Anybody out there feel like Forte (PC) is more adventageous than Plogue Bidule or RAX (Mac) as a host?

I will go hunt down info on the guys who use Mac Minis as slaves - I know that's a popular solution, but I don't know all the gory details as to what host they use, and how they route audio into their ProTools gear, and how they deal with digital sync...

BTW, I can't seem to get your forum search engine to work... Is there by any chance a compatibilty issue with Mac Safari?

I don´t get the Search function to work right now either, tried Safari and Firefox.... sorry for that.

But here´s the thread you will want to read for Mac Minis:
http://community.vsl.co.at/viewtopic.php?t=9302

Best,

Paul

Ah, I see in the "Mac Mini's as VSL Farms" thread some great detailed info from user Jerome. That is a serious setup!

CM and Paul,

Re RTAS beta-testing, any interest in my beta-testing RTAS specifically as it applies to Digital Performer running in DAE mode? (I'm a very experienced DP and PT user - my orchestral stuff is done almost entirely in DP using a PT Accel 3 system).

Don't know if that's of interest (it certainly is to me!{(:=)}), but I'd be happy to do it.

Peter

Clarification -- right now I'm using VI in on a slave Mac Pro. Believe it or not, right now I'm using my G5 dual 2.5 GHz as my master machine (so I can keep using my PT Accel 3 system), and I'm hosting VI on my Mac Pro. But I'd love to be able to host VI directly in DP under DAE.

@Another User said:

I don´t get the Search function to work right now either, tried Safari and Firefox

just as a sidenote: this has nothing to do with any browser - the search function is simply ... crap ... printing out the code gives you a listing about 10 m long, it regulary struggles down the server running horrible queries and finally runs into a timeout.
we are working on an alternative solution already
christian

Any thoughts on NI's KORE? Please post if this is worth getting to access Appassionata Strings as an RTAS. Trying to avoid the apparent complex setup of slaving another Mac. I do have an extra G4 Dual 1.42 or can even get a mini but am a bit skeptical in hooking the whole thing up to make the host/slave happen just to access VSL's VIs. Thanks in advance.

"the Vienna instruments run stable on both platforms, Mac and PC.
On a Slave Mac you use...."


I understand what you're saying, and I am aware that other plugs have problems with ProTools and RTAS (Ivory, for instance), so the blame can't be laid entirely on VSL, but I'm still irked. I've been running various Giga libraries on a 3.7 Ghertz PCthen other plugs through V-stack on the same PC. What I'd hoped to do was get everything back on one Mac. But from the input from others in this thread it's clear that this is only marginally possible and that's too bad. How well will V-Stack work with Vienna Instruments, do you know?

I'm using Ivory with Protools and RTAS and never had a single problem with it fyi. [[;)]]

same here - ProTools TDM/Ivory RTAS, no problem

@charlzj said:

Thanks, Paul - I'm really a Mac guy, so I would probably lean towards that. Anybody out there feel like Forte (PC) is more adventageous than Plogue Bidule or RAX (Mac) as a host?

I will go hunt down info on the guys who use Mac Minis as slaves - I know that's a popular solution, but I don't know all the gory details as to what host they use, and how they route audio into their ProTools gear, and how they deal with digital sync...

BTW, I can't seem to get your forum search engine to work... Is there by any chance a compatibilty issue with Mac Safari?

I've been trying out all of them. Ploque seems to have bigger CPU hit (both mac and PC) than the others. It won't load as much as the others using ASIO. I've been trying to find a solution, although I haven't had much time to put into it. Also, I find that it's not the quickest navigation wise.

Forte seems to work ok on my PC's. I only have the demo version and it's seems a little unstable. It also cost more than the others. Between those two issues I haven't decided yet to plunk down to buy it.

I've been using RAX on my macbookpro, and it works fine. One thing I don't like about RAX is that you have click through two windows to open a VI. Also, I can't tell which VI is on which channel because unlike the others, there is no label on the VI window to tell you which one it is.

I've been using V-stack a lot lately, mostly because I seem to be able to navigate fastest on it over the others. But the downside is that it's older with no more updates for it. Too bad, because I like the layout. You can click open a VI in one click. If you have a bunch of VI open all over the place, I can quickly tell which one is on which channel.

One thing that I don't like is having to constantly shuffle windows around looking for various VI as I work. I use to keep a fixed set up, but I do so many different things everyday that I'm constantly having to change around VI from one day to another. If you don't change your loadup, it's probably not an issue.

@drpgleeson said:

"the Vienna instruments run stable on both platforms, Mac and PC.
On a Slave Mac you use...."


I understand what you're saying, and I am aware that other plugs have problems with ProTools and RTAS (Ivory, for instance), so the blame can't be laid entirely on VSL, but I'm still irked. I've been running various Giga libraries on a 3.7 Ghertz PCthen other plugs through V-stack on the same PC. What I'd hoped to do was get everything back on one Mac. But from the input from others in this thread it's clear that this is only marginally possible and that's too bad. How well will V-Stack work with Vienna Instruments, do you know?

I been using V-stack across 4 PC's every day as of late. I load them up with VSI (and some GVI on two machines). It works fine. Great as matter of fact. The only issue is that you can only seem to load 6 GVI (sometimes only 4) before it gives you a plugin error. And I'm not talking about sample load here, just instancing 6 GVI. So if you have a gigastudio set up with say 6 banks, it's hard to get the same result in V-stack using GVI.

As for VSI, I have had up to 13 VSI going with maxed ram at 2.6gig with no problem at all. I do it all the time.

One thing I haven't tried is running Gigastudio and V-stack with VSI at the same time.