This is a tutorial for setting up your system with AULab. It is an application that can host AudioUnit plugins, which allows you to load up multiple instances of VDL2. [b]The long setup may look intimidating, but it works really well and doesn't require much (if any) work after the initial configuration.[/b]

Here's the setup I use on my laptop (1.5GHz G4) and desktop (dual G5):
Mac OS X 10.4.x (with the latest updates)
Sibelius 4
Virtual Drumline 2, with the AudioUnit installed

Make sure that AULab is installed - it should be at:
/Developer/Applications/Audio/AULab.app
If not, find your developer tools disk and install it from there.

[b]Audio MIDI Setup... setup[/b]
You will need to enable the IAC busses in ";Audio MIDI Setup";:
1. Launch Audio Midi Setup
2. Find the ";IAC Driver"; icon and double click it
3. Check the ";Device is online"; box to enable it
4. Click on the ";Ports"; tab to activate it
5. Add the number of ports that you will use, and give them useful names. I use 3 on my desktop (for DLS, drums, and keyboards) - more on this later

Next you need to set up either the notation app or AULab. I'll start with AULab...

[b]AULab setup[/b]
1. Launch AULab
2. Just accept the default settings from the ";New document"; window that appears

Now we'll add the DLS instrument
3. Select Edit->";Add Audio Unit Instrument...";
4. Pick the correct IAC bus for the ";MIDI Input Source";, make a useful name, and make sure DLSMusicDevice is picked for the instrument, and click OK.
5. Once the strip for the DLS instrument is added to the document, select it and choose Edit->";Edit Selected Group...";
6. On the sheet that appears, select ";Edit Thru Params...";
7. Channel 1 should be selected in the Active Channels - hold down shift and click on channel 8 so that the first 8 channels will be active.
8. Close the window and sheet

Now we'll add the VDL instruments
9. Select Edit->";Add Audio Unit Instrument..."; again
10. Pick the correct IAC bus for the VDL sounds you want - 'drums' for instance, and give it a good name
11. From the instrument popup, pick the NativeInstruments->";Virtual Drumline 2"; item, and click OK.
[i]NOTE[/i] - if that item doesn't appear in the menu, you probably don't have the Audio Unit installed - go back and install it from the DVD (you shouldn't need to reinstall the other parts)
12. Load the instruments you want into the slots in the Virtual Drumline 2 Audio Unit. Eventually we will need to make the MIDI channels for these instruments match the channels we will use in the notation app.

Repeat steps 9-12 to add more copies of the Audio Unit, which will allow you to load more than 8 instruments at a time. Just remember that more sounds will take up more memory and CPU.

[i]IMPORTANT!!![/i] Make sure to save your AULab document now! It will automatically load all of the sounds for you the next time you open it.

[b]Sibelius setup[/b]
1. Launch Sibelius
2. It will probably show the ";Playback and Input Devices"; dialog - select the device that will probably have the most staves. When I write band scores, this is the IAC bus for the DLS sounds, so I pick the port I created in Audio MIDI Setup. Then click OK, and load your document.
3. Bring up the mixer (press 'm'), and click the Devices popup to see if your IAC busses appear. If not, press the ";Reset Devices"; button and they should appear.
4. Now go through and set the correct device and channel for each instrument, so it can send the MIDI messages. For instance, if you loaded the snare drums in AULab as channel 1 for your 'drums' bus - pick the 'drums' device for the snare instrument and set it to channel 1.

[b]That's all the setup! Now you get to play...[/b]
You can enter notes and hear them play back with the correct VDL sounds. You can play back the entire score and it will play all of the audio through AULab.

When you want to record this audio to an AIFF file, just go into AULab and click the 'REC' button at the lower right of the ";Master Out"; strip. Switch back to your notation app to play what you want, and stop the recording in AULab when you're done. It will be a mixed version of all of the audio, including the DLS sounds - which is why we are playing them through AULab instead of leaving them in Sibelius.

My laptop can't handle too many VDL instruments at once, so I have a file that only loads 2 strips - the DLS and drum sounds, and I play the keyboard sounds through DLS (as well as horn sounds). My desktop can handle more, so it has 3 - DLS, drums, and keyboards, so the only thing playing through the DLS are the horns.

I hope this is helpful for people! It's a nice, inexpensive setup after the initial work to get everything configured. Let me know if you have any questions.

Hey Cory,

So I went through the AULab set up, and I got everything to work until it came to putting the VDL-2 sounds into AULab.  The VDL keyboard comes up, but when I choose to load an instrument, it doesn't let me select any of the choices.  Any idea what's up?

I only have an Intel machine in front of me at the moment, and with 10.4.9 it has trouble displaying the VDL view at all, so I can't even try to load an instrument.

So without being able to see your exact problem, can you tell me more about it?
What machine are you running? (Intel vs. PPC)
What OS version? (10.4.??)

I'm guessing that you have a channel strip with the VDL plugin showing when you have the problem - the UI is there and you can see the 'Load' button. Does anything happen when you click on the load button?

I used to see a problem where I would click and the instruments menu would appear, but it wouldn't pick the menu item the next time I clicked - the menu would still be showing. I would try clicking different items for a while, and try clicking outside of the menu to make it go away, and eventually it would do the right thing and select the instrument I clicked on. It's been a long time since I've seen that, but it might be what you're hitting.

Corey,

I've been running Sibelius through VDL:2 using Apple's IAC for a few months and it's been working great, but now I need more than 8 sounds.  This AU Lab tutorial that you've set up looks like the perfect solution for me to load more than 8 sounds.  The first thing that I did was I went back to the DVD and intalled VDL:2's audio units.  However, when I get to step 11 in your tutorial, the only ";instrument"; that is available in the pop-up menu is DLSMusicDevice.  I've gone back to the DVD several times and re-installed the audio units to several different locations, but I can never find them and DLSMusicDevice is still the only thing available in that pop-up menu.

I don't really understand how audio units work.  Where did they go when I installed them and how can I get AU Lab to find them in that pop-up menu?  Thanks for any ideas you may have!

George

You're running into the problem from this thread:
https://www.tapspace.com/forums/index.php?topic=1210.msg5190#msg5190

The AULab program is running ";Intel native";, and only shows AudioUnits that are the same. The VDL AudioUnits are PPC only, so they don't show up in this mode. When you launch AULab using Rosetta (directions in the link), the plugin should show up for you, though you may run into the drawing problem that I'm seeing.