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  • Chopped Sound When Connecting to VEP5

    Hi guys, 

    I was hoping you could help me figure out this annoying issue. 

    => When I play during playback or playback the sound gets chopped, broken, and delayed. When I play with the sequencer stopped it sounds perfect. This only happens with VEP connected instances, and it is related to the number of instances connected. 

    I am running Logic Pro 10.4.4 in an iMac connected by a direct ethernet cable to a slave Mac computer running VEP5.

    My template was designed to connect to around 100 instances with VEP5. However I am having problems with this. In the moment I try to connect to more than 15-20 instances, I start getting glitches in the sound, ONLY WHEN I PLAYBACK or play while the playhead is moving (playing back), inside a session with no midi notes or regions. This is as if the sample rate between Logic and the Kontkat instrument in the slave was different (which is not). Increasing the buffer helps a lot, which shows it is a problem with the processing of data. However soon after I connect more instances, the problem persists. This tells me that the computer is not being able to handle the data at a certain amount of VEP connected instances.

    Please note this happens no matter if the instance loaded in VEP contains a kontakt instrument, or a EW Play instrument, or VSL instrument. So Kontakt seems not the be the issue here.

     

    Please note that Activity Monitor in the Main Computer says CPU load is at 2%, and 7% in the Slave computer. The ram being used in the slave computer is just 60Gb of 128Gb available.

    Also, I know this is related to VEP for the following reason: I tried to disconnect the instances one by one, until I reach the maximum number at which the sound does not get chopped. Then if I connect one more VEP instance the sound breaks again. However, if instead of connecting a VEP5 instance I load an instrument inside the Main computer, the sound is perfect, no matter how many instruments or tracks I add (until I reach the common situation of adding too many tracks and getting a system overload alert).

    So the reason why the sound is being chopped, broken, and delayed, seemed to be related to the Ethernet connection. However, I don't understand how this could be an issue: I am using a CAT6 cable. My Ethernet connection is set to Configure IPv4 Manuallly, with an IP Address of 10.0.0.1 in the main computer and a IP Adrress of 10.0.0.2 in the slave. Both have a Subnet Mask of 255.255.255.0. Under "Router" the Main computer has a number 192.168.1.1, and the slave has it empty. 

    Lastly, as I said before, "in the moment I try to connect to more than 15-20 instances I start getting glitches in the sound". Well, in the moment I try to connect more than 30-35 instances, Logic crashes. This happens when the instances are connected. If they are disconnected there is no problem. I already contacted VSL support about this, and I'm in the process of finding a solution. But I think the fact Logic crashes could be related to the fact I get glitches in the sound. 

    Thanks for helping, means a lot to me.

    -------
    SPECS:

    Main computer - MacOS High Sierra 10.13.4, iMac 2017 27inch, processor 4.2 GHz Intel Core i7, memory 64Gb

    Slave computer - MacOS Sierra 10.12.6, Mac Pro (early 2009) processor 3.46Ghz 12 core

    Logic Pro 10.4.4

    VEP 5.4.16181

    4.2 GHz Intel Core i7