I was wondering if anyone uses 2 or more computers in their setup. For example one computer could stricktly be used to load up VDL2 sounds in Kontact, Aulab, etc. And the other computer used to edit and send MIDI data via Sibelius/finale/logic/Cubase etc.

I do this often. ";Sharing the load"; between multiple computers is how most professionals can achieve massive playbacks (like full orchestral stuff). I typically do this between my Mac (where I write), and a PC which hosts the sounds. Though so far, my new G5 Quad seems pretty apt to play back full band stuff with minimal hiccups, so I'm trying to keep it simple for now when time is tight.

The multi computer setup is pretty easy as long as each machine has a midi interface.

computer 1 -->1st midi interface OUT--> 2nd midi interface IN --> computer 2

Or if your doing this all on Macs and they each have Tiger, there's a way you can make MIDI connections via Ethernet if the computers are networked together. Go to Audio MIDI Setup, and select the ";Network"; option for MIDI. I haven't yet tried this, so I don't know how simple it is to do. In theory, it should be much easier than configuring numerous interfaces together, but this option is only available since Tiger.

[quote author=Jim Casella link=topic=1054.msg4388#msg4388 date=1142535818]
Though so far, [b]my new G5 Quad seems [/b]pretty apt to play back full band stuff with minimal hiccups, so I'm trying to keep it simple for now when time is tight.[/quote]

You just had to throw that in there didn't you Jim.  How does the new Quad compare to the Dual core for our purposes in music technology?  Thumbs up? down? undecided? 

I'm not much of an expert on these hardware sorts of things. But I can say the Quad is kickin pretty nicely. I also use a Pentium D 3.2 (dual core) which is nice and zippy. With my limited knowledge on the technical underworkings, they both seem like comparable systems and both work very well.

A friend & co-worker of mine went from the dual 2.7 G5 to the quad 2.5 and says it redefined what he thought was fast.  Even though it's not a ";cheap"; computer, it's about a grand less than most quad-xeon or opteron PCs.  OS X is also able to make better use of memory over 2 GB, which is sort of a wall for 32-bit Windows.  Apple.com has refurbished quad G5s for about $500 off too. 

I was wondering if anybody had compared the new dual-sore windows cpu's with VDL:2? I'd love to hear from some one running an X2 4400 AMD, for example.

Also, anyone upgraded to 10K Raptors from 7200 rpm HD? Raid 0 7200? Raid 0 Raptors? Discrete soundcard versus onboard sound?

I'm running an AMD 3200+, 4gig RAM, 250gig 7200rpm HD (8 mb buffer - I wonder if a 16mb buffer would help?) with VDL:2, Finale 2006, Cubase SX and Kontact. I'm running VDL:2 by ";Play Finale through Native Instruments VST"; as Jim suggested, and suffer few hiccups in playback. However, I am still annoyed to have to wait so long when I switch between windows. (I presume for the samples to load, even switching between still open windows in finale)

I'm using on-board audio, and it only recently struck me that upgrading that might further smooth out performance, but I think upgrading my HD either by adding another 7200 in RAID, or a 10K, or even 2 10K in RAID would be the only significant way to speed up the inter-window wait. Any experience or opinions would be appreciated.

The MacIntel Desktops later this year will be even more impressive I fear, Jim.

Thanks!

[quote author=Jim Casella link=topic=1054.msg4388#msg4388 date=1142535818]

Or if your doing this all on Macs and they each have Tiger, there's a way you can make MIDI connections via Ethernet if the computers are networked together. Go to Audio MIDI Setup, and select the ";Network"; option for MIDI. I haven't yet tried this, so I don't know how simple it is to do. In theory, it should be much easier than configuring numerous interfaces together, but this option is only available since Tiger.

[/quote]

I use this in the studio.  I haven't tried it running VDL:2 yet, but for massive Logic/Pro Tools sessions with a lot of virtual instruments and samples it works awesome.

I didn't set it up, but I guess it is pretty easy to do.  I'll check out the setup for it this weekend and re-post.

With 4 GB of RAM you shouldn't be using DFD with VDL2 or Kontakt.  All of the samples should be loaded into RAM instead.  I think Kontakt 2 uses DFD by default and you have to turn it off manually for each instrument loaded.  You have to hit the wrench icon to expand the options and change ";Source"; from ";DFD"; to ";Sampler."; 

My primary PC is a dual Opteron PC with 2 GB of RAM and 2 10k RPM Raptors in a RAID 0 array.  The hard drive speed makes initial loading a [i]little[/i] faster, but there's not much of a payoff for audio software.  I only have it because it's required for my video work when playing back uncompressed video. 

Another issue is which version of Windows you're using- 32-bit Windows XP hits a wall at 2 GB of RAM and anything over that doesn't help much.  Using 64-bit XP will make better use of your extra RAM, but you might find it difficult to track down drivers for your hardware because not all sound cards and MIDI USB devices are 64-bit compatible yet.  Some programs won't run either, but [i]most[/i] should work fine or have a patch available. 

Yes, I am not using DFD, at least not with Kontakt 2, but when I play VDL from finale as VST, I see no options...

I would think the initial load time would be cut dramatically, hmm.

I am using 32-bit Win XP MCE. I've thought very briefly about win-64, but not sure if it'd be worth the potential headaches... maybe I'll give it a shot and see. Anybody running Finale 2006 on win-64?

Thanks, jmattson!