Problem solved and the strings sound amazing. I have been so used to combining various libraries to try and get "the" sound that my VEP template was ridiculous. So I stripped everything down and braved using synchron strings 1 alone (with a couple solo string patches way back in mir pro). The result is crazy good and my ram load is way down. No clicks and pops. No instruments dropping out. 

For the first time ever with samples, I can feel the double basses in my chest. The resonance is amazing. It sounds mix ready.

Sorry I doubted you. Waiting for synchron strings 2.

Geoff

Here's the Synchron speed for my SSDs from the Synchron player. 920.2 mbs

I have a couple libraries on an external Thunderbolt 3 SSD that are giving me 147.5 mbs in the synchron settings but in a test I was getting 430 mbs read speed.

None of the drives is formatted in fat 32/exfat

I have the buffer size at 1024.

I have the preload sizes maxed.

Still not working.

I've adjusted the voices limits to 1024, tried various thread counts and preload sizes (restarting VEP and daw each time) and I'm not noticing a change in performance. The cpu graph in synchron player shows about 2% usage with some spikes as high as 17% (Very rare that it goes above 5%) but that's it. It looks like it gets into the red when it's very low and 3 or 4 %. so not sure what is going on. Any ideas? This is extremely frustrating. I'm on a deadline of course and really wondering if I made a mistake in my purchase.. if it's not working on an iMac Pro then how are people with laptops finding Synchron usable. I've been using synchron dimension strings with no problems.

Yes. All on SSDs. All my synchron samples are on the internal drives in the Mac so that's about as fast as it gets. I'm doing some more digging in the synchron manual to see what might improve the performance. 

Geoff

Just bought Synchron Strings and Percussion 1 standard. Love the sound but I am having clipping and dropouts when I try to play multiple sychron instances. The CPU usage appears to be low per the meter in the synchron player. I've set the preload to the max and set the threads to the max. I'm using the latest Vienna Ensemble. I do have quite a few instruments loaded but I've never had a problem on this computer before.

Here's the set up. Any ideas?

iMac Pro, Intel Xeon W 3ghz, 10 cores, 128 gb of ram

Deitz- Checked all the MIR settings and they were set to mono-stereo instead of stereo to stereo. Everything is sounding incredible and I'm getting the kind of sound that I have been hoping for. Truly stunning!!! Thanks for you help.

Geoff

Seems to all be working fine now. It appears MIR is all in stereo unless there is something you saw that said it wasn't. Appreciate your help and your incredible products.

Geoff

Okay, I have removed the Mir Pro from those channels. I don't undertand the monoi version of Mir Pro comment. Did I set something up in a bone headed mono fashion?

Dietz- That is exactly what I am trying to do. I've bypassed MIR in the mixing board of VEP but the signal is straight up center. I've lost the panning and location in the synchron stage from the Synchron Instrument. Plus I still see a representation of the Synchron Instrument in MIR. This is why I'm confused. 

Dietz-
I really like the baked in sound of synchron instruments and the synchron player brings some controls that I really like. The problem for me is that I’m combining different instruments in vep with the synchron instruments to fatten the sound. Those other instruments (both VI pro and other libraries) are being placed in mir pro on the synchron stage and then combined with he synchron placed instruments on a output bus so I have control in my daw over the mix levels of violins I &II, violas, etc. in my daw.

So my question is really in vep how do I keep he baked in sound of synchron instruments when I have mir pro running in vep to place the other instruments? When I turn off mir on a mixing channel for a synchron instrument in vep, it appears I lose the automatic placement (the baked in sound). I just want the synchron instruments to pass through to the output bus untouched to be combined with VI pro instruments and others I have placed in mir. Does that make sense?

Geoff

Just want to make sure i’m Setting up the synchron player in vep with mir correctly. My big question is that synchron places the instruments in the synchron stage in their proper position. So in the mixing window in vep do I have my synchron player channels with mir turned on or off. Also do I route it inline or , in my case since I am splitting off each string section to it’s own output, do I have mir on and then use the bus to route to the pro-era output.

What I am hearing is that with mir on and in line I lose the synchron player panning. If I turn on mire in the channel and rout it to the bus I get the synchron panning.

It’s just confusing and I can’t find anything that addresses this in the synchron, vep or mir manuals (at least not in a way that I am understanding it).

Figured it out. The MAS plugin was disabled in MOTU. Not sure why but it's all working now. Nice win for VSL and MOTU getting the VEP MAS conflcit figured out. Thanks Paul.

Paul- Well I downloaded VEP 6 and installed it in DP 9.51 with the latest High Sierra update. When I open my DP file all the instances of VEP didn't load. I began replacing them with VEP 6 and reconnecting the midi channels figuring there were just some things that it wouldn't do automatically. But now I've found there is no VEP Pro MAS installed only AU. I reinstalled and still the same thing. The AU version works but I don't have as many midi channels which messes up my entire template. Why am I not seeing the MAS version? Any ideas?

RLD- Thanks for the info on TEC. Yes, one of the things I love about the EWI is the ability to add vibrato with the bite controller for certain instruments. Feels extremely natural to me. Unfortunately the VSL instruments weren't really conceived that way and I have yet to dig in and program some kind of cross fade using the bite sensor in VSL between no vibrato and vibrato sustains. I tend to try and create the flow of a line first and then add keyswitches later to refine a performance in VSL. I'm not that gifted at doing two things at once. I tend to combine multiple patches from different companies to play to all their strengths. The SWAM instruments from Audio Modeling were built for breath and wind controllers and combining those with VSL is pretty stunning. I'm very happy with the results but I'm always looking for ways to get a better sound. VSL is the rock I build everything on. MIR has been a game changer for me.

Paul and all- Thanks for the info. The EWI works for me because I grew up playing saxophone so it's more natural than a breath controller with a keyboard. I do love the fade you are getting with the hornberg.

I've found the velocity cross fade alone to be less smooth than I'd like. I've been combining it with the expression and experimented with the expression curve. It seems to work well at .37 for me and feels more natural. We'll see if that holds as I work on other pieces.

I'm still not to the point where any of this works live but in crafting a midi performance where I can tweak it to get it where I need it to be, these tools are pretty amazing. Thanks for you're expertise and incredible products.

Hoping the MAS fix for High Sierra is around the corner. Had to go back to VEP 5 and re set up my template. It works but VEP 6 is a much more elegant interface. I know you and MOTU are working hard to find the solution.

Geoff

I'm not sure which one of the VSL gurus uses a breath or wind controller but I am using an EWI. In a thread here it was mentioned to use CC2 for both Velocity crossfade and expression with some kind of altered curve on expression. Can someone share what they have found that works well? I'm playing with it but sure would help to lean on expertise and get the settings from someone who has been doing it longer than me.

I have been on with DP support and going back and forth trying to find a solution. VEP 6 doesn't work and there is no work around. VEP 5 will work if you uncheck the MAS VST button in preferences. 

Switching back to VEP 5 kills me because I had just rebuilt my template using VEP 6. So I am now rebuilding it in VEP 5. Probably take me a day or two to load the instruments and route everything but at least I will have the "sound" I want. It may not be as functional and pretty but it will work until they get around to finding a fix for VEP 6.

Switching DAWs is more of a pain to me than using VEP 5 and it should be seemless to switch once they figure this mess out. It wasn't sounding like a solution was imminent. We are 4 months down the road from the first post on this board about this issue so I am not optimistic about the next few months.

I wish VSL was a little more proactive here supplying some solutions or at least sympathy. If there are a few of us here on the boards there are a lot more out there scrambling and that doesn't make anybody look good. MOTU loses in this situation because there is no other option for VEP/MIR while there are a lot of DAWs and they aren't nearly as expensive as samples

G

Gluppy... Gee thanks for telling everybody that they shouldn't upgrade to a newer system. Now to reality... I bought an iMac Pro that only runs on High Sierra. So what am I supposed to do. I can't go back. There were no warnings about the problem from either VSL or MOTU. Unless you dug into the bowels of the VSL or Motunation forums and knew what you were looking for, nothing popped up.

MOTU told me VEP 5 would work .... Nope! I can't believe this hasn't been a priority fro both MOTU and VSL for months. Obviously it isn't. VSL has been cranking on Synchron Strings. I get it from their side but with the number of composers using DP and VSL together it seems a bit dangerous from a customer service perspective.

Sadly, I have another couple days before I have to pull the trigger on another DAW to start a new project. Love DP, not a fan of Logic but it's looking more like I don't have a choice.

Did this really work? I only use AU and MASplugins so if this can get me up a running again it would be amazing. Please let me know.

Deitz-

That would be wonderful! I haven't used the MIRx settings in MIR Pro so I'll have to look up how to access them. From your DP/VEP/MIR Syncron template I got a lot of the info. I'm experimenting with different libraries to see if using Dimension strings on desks really makes that much of difference compared to the full section and experimenting with combinations of articulations to see the differences. It's pretty stunning so far. 

Appreciate what you do. Looking forward to the MIRx settings.

Best-

Geoff

Deitz- I'm checking out what you posted here and I understand that there are so many variables that a single set up is impossible in MIR but what would be helpful is some kind of chart that shows the positioning of instruments within a space like Synchron (and an option in VE Pro that places VIPro instruments in a suggested position in MIR would be great). I can guess on the placement through pictures but it sure would be nice to have a screen shot of how you guys position your instruments in the Synchron space and any additional mics you use to suppliment the stereo mic that is in the basic set up. From there I can tweak to customize it but just that head start would be great.

I just got my iMac Pro and I am rebuilding my template to take advantage of the headroom and ram. I'm also a DP user so a fix for the MAS plugin of VE Pro for DP would be a godsend. I know VSL is working on it but because the iMac Pro only runs on High Sierra I am stuck waiting for the fix to get the most out of my new rig. Just a gentle reminder that the glitch is a brutal blow to many who depend on DP and VEPro playing nicely.

Best- Geoff

I was beginning to think I was crazy. Obviously this is awful. I’m trying to build my template and I’m faced with switching to logic or dumping VEP. Neither choice is palatable for me. My $10,000 computer is being rendered as useful as a brick. Appears this has been going on for months. I don’t think I can downgrade the system software on the iMac pro so I’m stuck waiting for this to be resolved.
I’m sure this will be a bigger and bigger issue with all the film composers on DP and the number of them I know who are buying iMac pros. I wish I would have known. I would have delayed the upgrade. Any idea how long this might take? I’ll contact motu as well. The more complaints the more resources they might put on this.

I’m in the same boat. VEP and motu are not playing nicely.. I’m on a new iMac pro so I can’t down grade the system. I pay that much for a computer to be able to take advantage of the power of vsl and other instrument plug ins and I can’t use my system!.

I hope this is fixed soon. This is killing me.

Okay Paul- Here's what I'm finding now... When I try to load an instance of Vienna Ensemble Pro in DP, I only get Vienna Ensemble as an option (not Pro). I've reinstalled VE Pro several times and I'm not seeing it come up in the instruments pull down menu in DP to add a VE Pro Track. For some reason the VE Pro instances in the old DP file were replaced with VE. That may have been the source of the problem. 

The standalone of VE Pro works great and has my instrument plugins. Any ideas? Sorry it's taken me this long to get things this far. I've been teaching and off my music software for about 6 months so I'm rusty. Hopefully this makes sense to you.

Best-

Geoff

Paul- I unistalled and reinstalled VE Pro and now things are working properly. VE crashed once after the reinstall when I opened it through VE Server while it was scanning the AU. I then launched VE Pro directly as a stand alone and it scanned everything and all my instruments are there. I'm not sure why it crashed or what the problem was earlier but it appears to be working now. 

I will run it through it's paces tomorrow but keep your fingers crossed that it was somekind of install error.

Best-

Geoff