VE PRO: Deciding which machine to make the slave?

[soundspot]

Hey guys, just bought a second Mac Pro to replace my previous slave…

So – I now have two Mac Pros, 1 is a 12-core and the new one is a 6 core. (Same year, 2012.) They both have 64 GB of RAM so they’re on equal footing as far as memory goes. Each machine also has identical SSDs as the sample drive.

My template has gotten pretty big and I’m starting to get occasional dropouts depending on how many parts are playing…

So my question for you VEP guys is this:

Do you tend to make your faster machine the slave (for Kontakt)?

Or do you prefer having a faster machine running your DAW?

I should mention that I often leave anything that may vary from project to project on my main machine “locally” hosted in VEP for quick access. (Omnisphere, guitars, etc…)

Anyway, if there are any VEP wizards on here some advice would be greatly appreciated…

[Mark_Petrie]

I’m no help but I just wanted to chime in and say that is a monster rig you have there. My one computer is slower than both of yours, and I typically run about 120 tracks in a session. I have friends that write for trailers that work off a laptop. What are you working on that needs such insane firepower?

[MichaelL]

@soundspot, I have a very similar set-up…two Mac Pros, one 12 core and the other is a dual core (4 cores).

I tend to agree with Mark. That is a lot of power. I originally got VEPRO in order to access all of the RAM (16 GB) on my older MAC, before things started going 64 bit. Now, I just use it to host East West libraries. I use them the least, so sometimes that MAC doesn’t get turned on.

My 12 core has 24 GB RAM, and hosts my other VI’s of which there are nearly 200. Because I do not generally write “Epic” music,the only reason that I’ve contemplated setting up a huge template is for quick access to everything.

If you’re getting dropouts:

1) Check your buffer settings. They may be too low.
2) Make sure that all your buffers are set at the same number
3) Make sure that your audio drivers are up to date
4) Make sure that VEPro is up to date
5) Make sure that you are using the same version of VEPRO on both Machines

Rather than moving in the direction of more computers, my inclination to go with more RAM and SSD drives.

Are you under a lot of time pressure with deadlines? As an intermediate solution to setting up a massive template, I’ve created vframe files for each instrument. As a composition develops, I can just drag whatever vframe file is needed in to the open mframe, then save the frame as part of the project, or as a template for that kind of cue.

Do a search for VEPRO and/or templates on ViControl or gearslutz. Plenty of opinions there. There’s also at least one guy who does consulting…for a fee.

Best

_Michael

[woodsdenis]

Accepted wisdom has been to make your fastest machine your master,I assume the 6 core has a faster CPU and both machines have the same chipset, although most DAWs multithread, most plugins don’t. So a big Omnisphere patch or CPU hungry reverb could easily bring a 12 core to its knees as they can only access one core at a time. VEPro does multithread so I would think the 12 core would be the slave running Kontakt.? I have a 6 core 3.33 MacPro and very seldom will a plugin max out a core.

As the guys said SSD for samples seem to be a given these days for the big libraries.

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