I've been wondering how to do this for a while.

I own a server with a super fast network, and 2TB storage. Since I want to install many new libraries but I don't have space, I've been wondering if I could set up a streaming method, where instruments call the server to download the needed samples in real time, being able to play the instrument at the same time, just like you would do with regular buffering in kontakt. I don't care if it's a tiny bit slower.
The samples would be stored in a temporal file and deleted when not being used. Would this be possible to set up with, say, SSH?

Expert advices are most welcome!

 

Vienna Ensemble
Audio Gridder (free)

ITs slightly differnent then what you propose
but works for a lot of people

 

Awesome. Thanks a lot. I will check that out.

 

It's doable. Even with the most common 10Mbps network you can get about 100MB/s. If you can browse the server with the file explorer, you can add the library on the network to Kontakt as usual. It should work. I assume you are using Kontakt?

 

You could make a network drive of, say, your Kontakt libraries folder in your server.
On the other network PCs you only install Kontakt and use the libs like you would use them if they were on a local disk.

The caching would depend of the network protocol itself. I guess I'll use a local (LAN) file server-like protocol and settings.

Edited: but always a protocol that allows you to view the library on the server as a native disk. No FTP or similar is going to work well.

 

Last edited: Feb 1, 2022

Oh, you mean directly locating the folder via FTP/SFTP? Yeah, that could work. Although I don't know if it would ask for credentials everytime I want to transfer files from the server. I'll try that.

 

The server can reach 10gbps of transfer upload/download, much more than my local network which can reach only 600mbps download, so I think I'm good in that regard.

 

you could use a network file system such as NFS, set up the NFS server on the server side and the NFS client on the local computer, then you can mount the NFS stream on your system and use it as a standard disk.

 

Tried this myself in 2020, my Kontakt library from a 4TB NAS drive. It is possible, though I had an entry level NAS and the loading times were very (annoyingly so) sluggish. Learned a lot in the process; and did manage to make tracks using this method, but it was not at all practical for everyday use. To do this well you would need a much faster NAS, with more RAM (think mine was 8GB RAM) and a fast LAN connection. Coincidentally, I think I was using wifi at the time and it still worked. On the plus side, the NAS was very reliable in terms of storing data and data management. Think moving forward it will be a widely used and viable approach, but until the tech becomes more affordable and accessible, I would recommend sticking with an SSD, especially if it's for pro music production.

 

no, the proper way is to establish a working system via Audiogridder or VSL and never close the system
just close your main computer and let the network/Nas go to sleep

you have ALL you desired kits and instruments, like kontakt, uvi, spectrasonics and else open
just open your PreSaved init. Project and everything is always setup!
No need to route everything again, deactivate (if you need) certain tracks or groups in VSL aka AG
and all the midi Audio tracks stay in you main daw.

who cares if its 300 tracks with vst3 nothing is even working without actually triggerd
just get some super cheap ex - school or buisness servers and of you go. Works with Macs too.
this way you are truly system aka OS indepedndant
and with "sister" the software is ready to go

 

Interesting question.
I suppose that when you're playing instruments with lots of samples at higher polyphony, you'll get dropouts before you've increased the pre-load buffer size for DFD streaming in Kontakt.
It also needs a fast file sharing protocol with very low latency.
Another thing to consider is that using a few monolith nkx files instead of thousands of separate sample files will most likely help too.

I doubt that you'll get any decent performance though, compared to a local SSD.

 

Yeah, you lucky *%%%
I even cut out that part because I realized you said "very fast", so I was assuming 5-10Gbps.
The bandwidth should be more than enough. I wonder about the latency.
I'm very interested in seeing your results.

Like I said, I'd use the most advanced (like in fast and low latency) Windows network protocol you can find. FTP and all internet related (SFTP, NetBios over TCP, etc) are out of the question because they were designed for way, wayyy worse speed, latency and reliability (internet protocols add overhead to check if the data has arrived correctly vs LAN).

 

Last edited: Feb 2, 2022

Yes, it’s possible to set up a streaming method for your samples using SSH, though it may require some technical work. You could create a system where your instrument calls the server to download samples in real time. To achieve this, consider using a combination of SSH for secure file transfer and a lightweight protocol like RTP (Real-time Transport Protocol) for streaming audio. Temporary files can be created for the samples, and you can automate their deletion once they’re no longer in use. For the best performance, consider the latency involved and test different configurations to find what works best for your setup.