I was wondering if anyone is using external slave computers to run, say, Kontakt sample instruments. I have a 2009 mac pro and was sort of thinking about building a pc or 3. I have built computers before, but I'm not really sure about using windows with yosemite. I remember trying once to network xp and mac and it was a nightmare.

I primarily use logic x. Has anyone had any luck with this or have any ideas?

Thanks.

 

Vienna Ensemble Pro 5 can do distributed computing (don't have the link, someone was using his macbook pro networked with a small "farm" of 8 mac minis using VEP5). As I understand it, it can host external VSTs. However, I would ask their tech support if such thing is possible before committing to a purchase. http://www.ilio.com/products/vienna-software/ensemblepro5 Cheers!


Later edit: It seems it fully supports 3rd party AU (Mac) and VSTi (PC) hosting – Instantiate Vienna Instruments along with other 3rd party VSTi and AU plug-ins (works with nearly all available VSTi/AU plug-ins and supports multiple outputs).

 

Last edited by a moderator: Nov 13, 2015

I'm using a Lenovo Thinkpad 410 [Windows 7x64] with Reaper's Reamote over LAN for additional DSP plugin processing. It works really well and with really small latency. I suppose there is Reamote that comes with Reaper for OS-X, too.

 

Last edited: Nov 13, 2015

Nowadays its pain in work with slave computer because power exists.
Match pairs of old 6 cores xeon can work at 4,5 gHz... 12 cores are enough!
Server Motherboards are cheap too if you do not need ddr4, usb 3.1 and pci 2.0. Modern motherboards exist for xeon w3680 but they are pricey.
The thing is that Apple stick with thunderbolt, so pci drivers are disappearing.
To run large libraries you must have lots of raids and ssds.
Also backup is a nightmare with many machines.

 

I didn't think about back ups. Vienna pro is 2 grand. Reaper is streaming audio over Lan. Restream? It seems like logic has some midi/audio over Lan plug in. I tried to control my friends computer over the Internet with it.

Too much to think about tonight.
Someone has blown up night club and football stadium.

 

"Vienna Ensemble Pro Server" is the software that hosts your own VSTs, you get 3 authorizations for around $350. You have to buy an elicensor key for $20 per machine. I think the software comes with one key. It works flawlessly. They update it every 30-40 days so it runs very smooth. No more midi interfaces or audio interfaces. The more audio streams that you flow out of your slave computers the more CPU power you use up on your master machine. You can run it very lean if you have older computers (with just one stream that is a mix of many instruments per slave computer instead of each instrument coming up on it's own buss in your master sequencer mixer). The latency is tolerable. It is better than running lots of kontakts and omnispheres on your main system. I can get 8 Kontakts and 4 Omnispheres and 4 Zebras, all running their own eventide, lexicon or valhalla reverb per instance per slave without breaking 50% CPU on mac minis running El Capitain, 16GB, regular 5400 internal with USB3 4TB externals for libraries. The USB/HDMI switching for 4 machines to one monitor was about $80. You also need an ethernet switch and cables for each machine, around $50.

You can also run it on your master machine in parallel with your DAW and it acts like an external slave machine within your master machine. It is optimized to utilize multicore processors much better than the DAWs I use and really lowered the CPU load hosting the same VSTs that I was using within my DAW. Plus the benefit of not having to reload samplers between songs.

The whole setup works really great and it saves so much time not reloading instruments when switching between different songs. Definitely spend more time now making music less time messing with computers (once you set everything up).

Vienna Pro is easily the 3rd or 4th best software money I have ever spent.

 

Last edited: Nov 14, 2015

Try that before buying anything :
http://www.fx-max.com/fxt/

 

Check out COPPERLAN too

http://www.copperlan.org/

 

Last edited: Nov 14, 2015

I've been investigating this for a while but this is the only post i've found that actually spells it all out. thanks heaps.
I've got a few core 2 duo PCs for $30 each for this purpose
I'll try it out if they have a demo version.

 

OK I had a bit of time to look into your suggestions. Copper Lan is Midi only, so, I would need to work out the audio. Fx-max looks nice but it is only pc. Haven't checked to see if reaper would work with logicx.

VEP Server looks great... (Maybe Santa can hear me).

I also found someone using Bidule to make his template

He has all of this on one machine! (I don't fully understand what he is doing.)

In the short term I am leaning in the direction of making channel strip presets in logic to serve as a goto "template-like" setups.
Installing more ram. Using the Freeze button if cpu starts to be an issue. Maybe rewire with Ableton and using it like a template that stays loaded full of kontakt instruments..? (Can I run two versions of Logic at the same time?) Maybe make stems and then mix in a new session.

I wonder if there free cluster/grid computing software (like for the sciences) that I could use...?

 

If you just want to build a pc to run kontakt on then the simplest thing is run kontakt on the pc as a standalone version and control it via midi. Thats what i had setup for a while with the audio coming back into my main machine via sp/dif, worked out very well.

 

I had a client a few years ago, doing film scores. his "main computer was a MAC with LOGIC and i built 4 PC do he gould run GIGA studios with VSL. all connected via midi pipe. worked really well but this was 10 years ago. You can get old servers dual quad core Xeons w/16 gig ram complete on eBay for 250-300 euro that work awesome. i had one i ran as my Audio PC for many years until earlier this year. you can do some amazing stuff with these and the price is right. Just cause its old docent mean it aint good

 

I am writing 4 minute trailers at the moment with 80 or so tracks and it is taking all my 2009 2 x 2.26 GHz Quad-Core 16Gig ram has. I was thinking about film compositions that need more than 4 minutes of music.

The way I understand the solutions there is
1. Distributed Processing
2. Midi over LAN
3. Audio over LAN
4. Could go the old way of midi machine control and an external audio + midi device

Then there would be the need to see and control the slave computer
1. A kvm switch or an additional mouse, keyboard, and monitor
2. remote desktop

An Ethernet switch to create a LAN

Use your strongest computer to run the DAW
Slave computers need big hard drives.
[How far away can I have these computers.. How loud are they?]


This is where I am. There is a lot to think about.

 

I use COPPERLAN + Input Director , works very well

 

This is the most blunt way that I can think of :

Step 1.) Get 1 slave computer w/ optical outs on the mother board, or cheap audio interfaces w/ optical

Step 2.) Connect the slaves ethernet out, to the master's ethernet in - using a cross-over ethernet cable

Step 3.) Connect slaves optical out to master's optical in

Step 4.) Install COPPERLAN - it's free. This will provide you with virtual midi cables that travel over the ethernet connection. Much more
stable, less latency, less jitter. *You might have to install on slave computer too.

This seems like a pretty cheap and non-cluttered solution to get the job done for now.

 

I think I would eventually like VEpro and a few server boards. I set up plogue bidule on my solo computer, next I will add in orchestral instruments and get a feel for working with external vsti's and making a dedicated template so I don't have to load them every time I start a new cue. It's like having an external computer as far as work flow inside of logic.


I found this series on building server audio slaves https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbJ3UqfveVHXOVxj5yjGTLFSt7xxGEOOJ

I'll check Craigslist for El cheapO computers to do a test run.

Thanks everyone!

 

i have mac and pc. mac is main comp, pc is slave. i use copperlan to transfer midi from osx to pc, and then i use audioport to transfer audio from pc to mac. so, logic pro sends midi to pc, triggers a plugin and that signal pc sends back to logic, in realtime, so i can record that audio signal in logic. dont know how much it's stable to use this all the time but when i need some preset from pc soft synth that i dont have installed on osx, this is a solution

 

Last edited: Dec 16, 2015