I finaly have a new laptop capable of running Sib.5 along with VDL2.5 and want to know if I need a new sound card(as I am fairly confident that my HP pavilion laptop does not have and ASIO compatible soundcard) to play VDL2.5 with or does Sib.5 handle more of this now? I am of the understanding that Sib.5 uses less resources when combined with VDL2.5 and other similar programs because these programs are hosted IN Sib and not along side it. Now my understanding could be very very misinformed here. If I do need a sound card would the M-Audio TRANSIT USB be a decent option for a laptop.

run down of my pc:
Vista 32 bit home premium
2MB RAM
2x120GB HD(5400rpm)

If you cats need more information on my PC hardware let me know.

Is the USB Transit Vista compatible??

Thanks everyone

'Mike

Hi Mike,

While running VDL as a plug-in within Sibelius 5 will be a more efficient way of working, it won't make a cheap audio card suddenly more capable of higher processing power. So you may want to see what type of results you get, but if using a low-grade, built-in audio interface, you may see some quick limits before audio gives you what you want. The Transmit would likely be one of the least-expensive ways to get into an ASIO formatted audio interface, and it looks like they do have a Vista driver available at http://www.m-audio.com, so that should work for you.

As a side note, the 5400rpm hard drive in your PC laptop might be something to keep a watchful eye on. Typically, sample based virtual instruments like VDL will ";stream"; from the hard drive, which work best when running from faster drives (7200rpm or higher). Often, laptops come with slower hard drives to help preserve battery life. You can fiddle with DFD settings within Kontakt Player to help with results, but if streaming a lot of data, you may later want to upgrade to a 7200rpm drive. No need to run out and do this just yet...just something to keep an eye on.

Thanks for the information Jim. I figured i would get Sib.5 up and running then work on VDL and see what is holding me back and upgrade things from there. Most of my use of VDL is for battery only scores, or is has been up until now(who knows with new sounds to play with I may start doing more with it), so I am hoping that will give me less hardware issues. I have 2 120Gb HDs so perhaps I can swap one out for a faster 7200rpm HD without having to go through a lot of trouble with OS and setting ect...

For now I think I am going to try to keep Sib.5 on one HD and load VDL in the other or perhaps use one HD just for Sib.5 and VDL2.5.

Again thanks for the quick response Jim. As always the site continues to kick arse.

'Mike