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  4. Mac Minis & Wormhole (A Reprise)

  • Mac Minis & Wormhole (A Reprise)

    T
    T
    All

    I've not finished my experiments yet but posted the below on NS so thought it may be of interest to those of you using Mac Mini's as slaves.

    Interestingly for those who prefer RAX to Bidule and can get it to work without interrupts (see below) I managed to get 8 returns back to the main DAW by using Wormhole in the 8 Send Slots and then adjusting the RAX send levels to each wormhole.

    Sorry if it's confusing I'll try and put up a decent tutorial or something once the 3rd mini arrives. Then again if it doesn't work with 3 minis....

    ----------------------------------------------------------------

    Hi Bloggs

    Once I get the 3rd Mini up and working I'll post up a tutorial or something more detailed. In the interim, the setup is like this:

    Intel MacPro (Main DAW) running MoL (MidiOverLan) through gigabit switch to mac mini's.

    Each Mini and the DAW then runs Wormhole to stream the audio back. I have used both the internal soundcard (muted) and an Edirol UA1EX as the sound device and get similar results with both. The 3rd Mini will not use a UA1EX as I am confident that the internal audio device on the mini's is sufficientty low in terms of latency I don't need to waste the money on buying a seperate audio interface.

    Each Mini has been modified and holds a 7200 RPM Hitachi 100GB HD and the VI samples are kept on Lacie Mini FW400 drives (250GB).

    Each Mini runs at 256 samples and uses Plogue Bidule as the host. I then use the VST version of the Vienna Instruments (rather than the AU version) as it seems a little more responsive. I did use RAX originally but found it had some bizzare streaming problems (notes cutting out during the sustained portions). I have attributed this to the AU version of the VI but haven't done sufficient tests to prove this.

    The DAW also runs at 256 samples (about 6ms) with the RME Fireface 800 and Wormhole is set to a latency of 600 samples on all devices and is synced.

    Each Mini runs 6 VI VSTs (at least) and I have currently been happy enough to have 3 instances of Wormhole per mini (so 6 on the Host, 9 when the 3rd Mini arrives). This gives me three paris of stereo return channels back to the main DAW. Which I then can then pan independently and set various levels of reverb.

    So far I have not had any noticeable latency and can happily play live if I need to.

    I am using Cubase 4 on the main DAW and when AudioEase release a compatiable version of AltiVerb plan on using that for reverb - at the moment I am using Cubase RoomVerb (not ideal but workable).

    Hope this is of interest.

    Cheers

    Tim
  • N
    N
    My experience with Wormhole between just two G5 Macs is that it works fine - for a few minutes, after which you have to reinsert it to get a clean signal again. I really want it to work, but it's just not working solidly for me.

    Also, it's only for two machines. According to the developer, a third won't sync properly.

    I reported this in a preliminary way in our latest issue (VI mag), and since then have worked with it a lot more. Wormhole is tantalizingly close, but unless you have a lot of patience it doesn't seem to be the cross-platform audio-over-ethernet solution we're all waiting for.
  • C
    C
    Thanks to both of you for continuing this research; this topic is near and dear to my heart!

    To clarify, does this Wormhole issue perhaps only apply to the G5 as slave (or host/both)? Are the Intel machines immune as slave (or host/both)?

    What would happen if the machine generations were mixed? G5 as host w/ mini slaves or some such thing. Just speculating.

    Thanks guys and keep tinkering!

    Clark
  • P
    P
    I've been lurking these 'Mini-Farm' posts for a few months, waiting to see what results everyone's getting - things seem overall quite favourable, so I bought my first mini the other day to add to my ever-increasing network.

    Plasq are no longer selling Wormhole or Rax.

    Dammit.

    I guess hardware audio interfaces are the way to go now...

    Am trying to set up MIDI over built-in Tiger LAN - what should I be using to host the VST/AU on the slave if Rax is no longer available?

    [*-)]

    peter
  • J
    J
    yeah-- I'm still wondering whether to go for a single Intel Quad now or jump into three Minis.

    The more I read about some of the caveats, the "less bad" it seems to freeze tracks and reload samples.

    Part of my brain says it shouldn't be so twiddly as to take the user so far afield from the arena of creativity. The other part of my brain says that this *is* the state of the art as it stands.

    My heart tends to side with the first part of my brain, but necessity and deadlines dictate immediacy.

    So, three Minis or and Intel?

    (I just passed on a Jaguar S-Type for the sake of these farms and petting zoos....!!! [6] [6] )
  • T
    T
    Wow - can't beleive Plasq have stopped selling Wormhole plus my 3rd Mini just arrived today to will be doing some setup and testing this weekend.

    Fortunately I'd already bought wormhole but maybe if they release it as open source or give it to the JackOSX crew it might still have a future. Otherwise it's waiting for FX Teleport for OSX.....

    Tim
  • N
    N
    The number of reasons why someone would stop development of two products is pretty limited, isn't it.

    But in all honesty I suspect they did anyone who was planning on using Wormhole instead of audio interfaces a favor.
  • P
    P
    I emailed Mark at plasq, to see if I could buy/blag a license - I got this reply:
    ___________
    Thank you for your interest in Wormhole2/Rax 2.

    As you know we have decided to stop selling Rax 2 and Wormhole2; and I can assure you we didn't make this decision lightly.

    However, once we had made the decision; we decided we could no longer sell Rax 2 or Wormhole2, and have therefore removed it from our store. We also realize that we cannot simply give-away these programs straight away; as this would not be fair for those that have already purchased them.

    If you could give us a few weeks to decide what we plan to do with Rax 2 and Wormhole2 - I will email you again to let you know what we have decided.
    ________________

    so we'll see in a few weeks, eh?

    PB