for your specific use case, I'd say ReaStream plugin in Reaper, that's all you need
every instance for track/bus, channel count is practically unlimited, as well as amount of computers (as long as your network can handle it)

 

VEP working like a charm here (Win 7) 3 machines

 

I don't know if I would personally go down that route. For a high end pc with 32 threads you will pay around €2000. Sure you could buy 10 used quad-core pcs for each €200, but I don't think it is a sensible option. The energy costs to run 10 pcs will be so high that it is not really something anyone should do.

 

Has VEP7 been released on the scene?

 

no because VEP7 can be used legally for free (without saving) which seems to be enough for most folks

 

It's best to learn from examples, so I'm going to give you an example of how it works for me with two computers, main being Linux desktop PC and secondary/slave being a laptop running W7. It's generally trickier to setup the secondary machine, more than the main. Also, you don't necessarily need any audio cards on the secondary machine, as it acts only as a DSP and plugin host, so Reaper is set to "dummy audio" and it also frees some CPU cycles for DSP processing. I have Reaper 6.8 (testing 7 lately) on both and using ReaStream connection for audio/MIDI/sync between them.

This is rather easy to setup. The only problem is - there is a bit of (too much for playing in real time) latency between them, which depends heavily on the network switcher and network cards, but it's manageable and I'm very satisfied with it. Mind you, I don't use the laptop much since most of what I need is already in the main computer. Secondary is mostly used for running effects that I miss in Linux, but of course it works just fine for virtual Instruments, too. Cheers!

 

It's always about utilizing what hardware you have lying around rather than buying new. For my huge projects, VEP has worked almost flawlessly throughout the years. But now comps have become monstrously fast and most of the peeps who make a living out of music have upgraded their rigs to a single WS that does it all. Not to mention AI will soon put us all out of biz hahaha but that's another story. Good thing i will be retiring soon enough
Cheers

PS: Shout out to my mate @SineWave. Longtime no see my friend. And yes i'm back alright. In a John Wick fashion haha.

 

https://www.bluecataudio.com/Products/Product_Connector/
https://www.bluecataudio.com/Products/Product_PatchWork/

These two plugins from Bluecat Audio are what I use to offload vst processing onto another PC. Works really well and is very stable. I've never had a crash with these plugins. Even use them for real-time processing on live streams as well.

 

VEP & Audiogridder for me, issue is when you load all machines and you press play it takes 3-7 seconds to start