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  • VSL on stage?

    I'd like to play Vienna Instruments live but I REALLY DON'T WANT to use a computer on stage (I guarantee when the chips are down it will freeze, crash, refuse to boot or burst into flames, or possibly all four at the same time.) What, if any, are my options? Receptor?

    (BTW please don't tell me your computer is 100% reliable, it will only depress me further.[st])


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    @Conquer said:

    I'd like to play Vienna Instruments live but I REALLY DON'T WANT to use a computer on stage (I guarantee when the chips are down it will freeze, crash, refuse to boot or burst into flames, or possibly all four at the same time.) What, if any, are my options? Receptor?

    (BTW please don't tell me your computer is 100% reliable, it will only depress me further.)

    The only option is a computer. Receptor is not an option, I'm afraid.

    D


  • ...if you configure your system the way you need it, test it in any way you want to use it, don´t try other things but only those on stage and keep it that way....you can trust your system... receptor is no solution...sorry if i depress you any further...but i don´t see any other solution, apart from a roland rompler...

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    @Another User said:

    i don´t see any other solution, apart from a roland rompler...
    [st]

    Thanks DG and teloy. Roland Rompler sounds like a Republican candidate. Surely there must some way . . . ???


  • There is no way, other than using a computer, I'm afraid.

    DG


  • OK, thanks. If not Vienna Instruments, how about running the Kontakt version of Pro Edition with Receptor? Is that at least technically feasible?


  • Hmmm, Receptor is nothing else than a computer (within another case - thinks it uses a Linux/Unix-system instead of Windows). Depending on the music you are making burning your computer live on stage could be a special effect .... I think for several years now people are using computers on stage - of course here the configuration comes into play. Of course a computer on which the latest demos and games are installed and used my not be the ideal config. best

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    @steff3 said:

    burning your computer live on stage could be a special effect
    Good idea! I could do a tap dance while it burned. I take your point about Receptor being another computer, but probably a more reliable one for live use (for one thing, I guess its hard drive wouldn't be cluttered with all the extraneous software that comes bundled with Windows and Mac OS's).


  • ...if your system is specialised for that reason and configured for your purpose and tested in many rehearsal situations and left from that point on really untouched ....you defenitly have a trustable instrument on stage. an actual macbook with full ram, logic 7 (err, not 8, i´m afraid) as a host and some fixed patches of the vienna instruments (up to 20 instances with no problem), an external harddrive that was not the cheapest you can get and an interface with midiports on board, userfriendly and stable like the presonus firepod... and you can enjoy your live performance in any case.....promise. if you even think about buying an receptor, which is slowly running out of business these days, you can make it safer than than safe and run a second similar system for permanent backup....there is no better, safer and more professional solution than that...

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    Thanks for the advice teloy. I run Logic 7 on a Pre-Intel Mac G5 with 2GB of RAM. When I bought the Mac I made a conscious decision only to install the music software I needed, so it's a pretty pared-down system and actually I don't use any third party instruments inside Logic - they're all installed on my PC. Nevertheless, the G5 regularly freezes for a short period and Logic will occasionally stop outputting MIDI for no apparent reason. Logic also crashes from time to time (although to be fair, that generally happens when I'm programming, not during playback.)

    For those reasons, I don't feel a computer on stage is the way to go.

    @teloy said:

    receptor, which is slowly running out of business these days
    Why do you think that is? It seems like a good idea to me, I can't understand the obstacles to running VI on Receptor.


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    @teloy said:

    receptor, which is slowly running out of business these days
    Why do you think that is? It seems like a good idea to me, I can't understand the obstacles to running VI on Receptor.

    Receptor is old, slow technology, difficult to update and very expensive for what you get. The only advantage is the very quick boot up time. However, VI and Syncrosoft would have to be reconfigured to run with Receptor, and so far this hasn't happened. I guess that the cost is outweighed by the fact that there is no demand. Until today...!

    DG

  • Have you seen the products from OPEN LABS, their keyboards are awesome, they're windows base, you can stream all samples right from the keyboard without using any external computers. I know someone who has one and is uses always (he's the musical director for the Chilean version of the show "Dancing with the Stars" - Strictly come dancing in the UK). I just saw their latest model which even features the Vienna Special Edition and East West Libraries as a bundle http://www.openlabs.com/neko-lux-edition.html This is a little more affordable http://www.openlabs.com/timba-overview-neko.html

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    Great, a positive suggestion! Thanks Felipe. The Neko 61-note keyboard looks like a good option (expensive though), especially since I run Vienna Instruments on a PC.

    @Another User said:

    there is no demand. Until today...!
    If it were possible, I'm sure it would catch on with at least one other user.[8-|]


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    @DG said:

    there is no demand. Until today...!
    If it were possible, I'm sure it would catch on with at least one other user.

    I looked into this a few years ago, and even then there was not much advantage in using these machines. I mean one even had to send the machine back to upgrade the hard drive. [:O]

    DG

  • Thanks DG - I read it as pithy rather than snappy, but either way it's sound advice. Logic's bugs are a law unto themselves and the idea of the Apple corporation allocating resources to fix them seems laughable.[:D] I don't use a sequencer on stage but the flaky performance of certain pieces of software has, unfortunately, coloured my view of the reliability of computers. The hardware isn't above suspicion either - on a recent film score gig, both my and the main scriptwriter's PC's hard drives failed totally and had to be replaced. Our data was backed up, but valuable time was lost. That kind of thing just seems to happens more now that we all rely on computers.


  • You should try to let it open and send midi data for a full day. Remove the screensaver and any useless (for the show) softwares (antivirus, etc). I had to work on a show in front of 70 000 spectators without problem. In this project, I wasn't on the stage with my midi keyboard (I had to project texts on a very large screen from the beginning to the end) but the pianist had his own computer.


  • Thanks Mathieu. I'm determined NOT to take a computer on stage, but if I ever do I shall follow your good advice!