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  3. Akai Advance 61 'VIP' Compatible with VEPro?

  • Akai Advance 61 'VIP' Compatible with VEPro?

    Z
    Z

    Hello Everyone.

    I am thinking of purchasing an Akai Advance 61 but am rather concerned as to how it's VIP wrapper will function, or conflict, with VEPro.  I use VEPro in almost all of my compositions so it is of major importance that there won't be any issues with selecting this model of keyboard.

    I would be very grateful to hear from anyone who may have any knowledge or experience of using this keyboard and its VIP software wrapper and it's interaction with VEPro.

    This also goes for the Native Instruments s61 Keyboard, as that seems to be the other keyboard that I have managed to reduce my search down to.

    Many thanks in advance for any help or experience you may be able to pass my way.

    Kind regards to all,

    Zabazz.
  • J
    J

    Hi Zabazz,

    I have recently bought an advance 61 that I like alot. I also got VEpro5/VI Pro2 and I will happily share my experiences.

    1. There are no maps for the vienna instruments... and the reason for this is of course that one instance of VIPro is considered an instrument/patch in VIP (Akai). 

    2. It's easy to create own mappings but you'll have to remember that the patch will save *all* of an instance. If you load up an instance and only load Solo Violin you can easily import that patch into VIP for later recall. You can also you can load up an instance with for example all Solo Strings instuments and import that instance to VIP naming that patch "Solo strings instruments". All being quickly accessible from the keyboard.

    3. No duplicate loading of samples.  If you have one instument loaded into an VEPro instance the load time when using that instument in another slot/instance (creating a multi) is almost zero.  Just as expected.

    4. It's a no brainer (but time consuming) to load all single instruments into VIPro (one at a time) and import them into VIP creating the mapping. It is absolutely great to be able to load the VI's not using the computer :-)

    5. I repeat: all parameters of all VI's loaded into VEPro is saved. So if you enabled reverb algorithm on one instument or changed volume or midi channel in the VEPro GUI all these parameters will also be reloaded when firing up the patch. Good in some situations, bad in another. This means that I have setup one patch for Solo Violin Dry and one patch for Solo Violin Wet depending on the rest of the production chain. Using the tagging system in VIP it is still easy to find the right patch.

    6. There is currently no way of updating an already existing patch in VIP (Akai). If you do some changes you'll have to import that patch and delete the old one. Import always creates new patches.

    I hope you got something from this. About the keyboard - I'm very satisfied. Fairly good touch, clear user interface. You can create a new exiting multi in a snap. If you have your 88-weigthed keyboard you can hook that up to Advance's midi in, assign midi channel X on the 88 and in the multi load a patch from any VSTi and route that to use only midichannel X. Advance VIP will be your friend if you need quick splits and different VSTi's on different keyboards. I have a midi merge that enables me to play many VSTi's on all my keyboards using VIP. Really creative in my opinion. Advance and VIP has turned all my VSTi's into a easy-to-control synthesizer :-)

    Best regards

    /Jocke
  • T
    T
    Hello Jocke, I'm considering getting the Akai Advanced 41. I have VEPro 6 installed on both my main computer (Mac), and my slave computer (PC). I have all my Vienna instrument samples on my Mac, and VST samples on my PC. Do you mind if I ask you what type of computer set-up you have? I would hate to run out and get the Akai to find out it doesn't work in sorting out my Vienna instrument samples on my Mac, and that it does not work through VEPro installed on a slave. I use Logic X as a sequencer and I know that Mac uses AU's not VSTi which the VIP software of the Akai is designed for, but I'm so new to this stuff I have no idea what format my Vienna samples on my Mac are in. Any information you may have that you can share would be greatly appreciated. It looks like a great keyboard. Kind Regards. Trevor
  • JT3_JonJ
    JT3_JonJ

    Did you ever find out if the VIP software works inside VE Pro on both a mac DAW system and PC Slave system?
  • T
    T

    Hello Jon,

    I contacted AKAI technical support and they informed me that the VIP software is designed to work on the host computer.  So for example the AKAI VIP software works inside my VEPro software as long as the VEPro software and keyboard are running on my host computer.  I have no luck at all with getting it to work on my slave computer. It does however function like a regular midi controller on my slave computer, click midi learn in most software, and turn a knob on the keybaord.  Other than that its no different than any other keyboard controller with regards to working on a slave computer it seems.  This is just what my experience is, and what I'm glaeaming from the AKAI tech support.  I still like the keyboard though. Great for producing the electronic segments of tracks in a film score lets say.  Just FYI my configuration is that my main computer is a mac and my slave is a PC. 

    Hope this helps,

    Trevor
  • JT3_JonJ
    JT3_JonJ

    For sure helps! Thank you so much for your reply! IMO this lack of cross compatability negates the benifits of the VIP software. VIP sounds like an awesome way to manage all your sounds in a single loacation, which allows you to easily browse all your synths at once instead of one by one. But since I use both a DAW and sample slave machines, and I actually try to load as many synths & samples as I can into my PC slave to take the load off my mac DAW machine, this seems to negate that idea completely. 

    I would hope AKAI one day updates their software to allow integration on both your DAW and slave systems, but seeing as how our needs are extreamly nitch and probably more complecated to code for, I don't see that happening.