Thanks Michael. I'll try these out and report back. Let me see if I can come up with the other articulations. Might take several days, got a full plate at the moment. I did build a TouchOSC interface for Synchron Piano, I might do the same for Synchron Strings. If you want a copy let me know.

Thanks again! Always enjoy when someone makes Prules. Saves me time!

Steve Steele
VSL Certified
stevesteele.com

Actually...😉 MOTU rebuilt DP’s Audio engine for v9.5. At first there were some major issues for most users. Now it’s great. MOTU likes to say it’s the fastest audio engine out there. The fact is that the last engine was pretty slow and us long time DP users didn’t know it! Now DP is up to speed with most good DAWs.

When VSL released the MAS version of VE Pro I thought it was just a nice gesture for us lonely DP users. But I think it had something to do with the new engine. Regardless, I’m loving DP 9.5 and VE Pro 6. Match made in heaven.

I still love Logic and Cubase though. All three are great. I would be happy using any of the three (I own all three). But you said it. The Chunks feature is just too good to give up!

Take care Jay!

Steve Steele

Many times I just accidentally closed the window (knowing full well what would happen), only to have my session go "poof"

For an encore, how about the VEP/MIR bug that keeps icons in the MIR window from being moved until MIR is undocked/docked?

Thanks guys!!!

 

Steve Steele

VSL Certified - VE Pro Tempale Builder

stevesteele.com

I'm VSL Certified and have clients from all parts, especially Hollywood, and the four most popular DAWs for composer are Cubase, Logic, Digital Performer and Pro Tools (yes, Pro Tools).

They all have great things about them and I'm always looking over the fence to see what I'm missing. That being said, don't ignore Digital Performer. It has some features that you'll wonder how you ever lived without. I believe DP is the most effcieient with VE PRO on macOS, (I have no numbers to back that up), but DP is better optimized for macOS than Cubase, and DP allows for 48 MIDI ports which means you get 768 MIDI channels per VEP instance, (whereas Logic only allows 1 MIDI port per instance, which I see you already know). Jay may a workaround for that that he uses, (other than the Event Input).

No DAW is perfect, although there are many workarounds too improve each. Out of the box, I'm upset that Apple rarely updates their AU spec and limits Logic to 1 MIDI port, (clearly documented on Apple's Developer website. But Logic has the best Score Editor IMO, although DP's and Cubase's are pretty good. I also like the overall interface. I enjoy working in Logic.

Digital Performer is sometimes seen as an old school DAW, with separate MIDI and Instrument channels. However,  is a blessing in disguise, IMO. DP is very deep. But, oh boy, I wish they'd fix that tiny 1988 font problem. I'm not even that old and I strain to read some of DP's text! Wish more developers would support MAS, like VSL (bless you VSL), and AudioEase do, when it's more than just a wrapper issue. DP is deep, deep, deep..

Cubase is a wonderful DAW, especially with it's well integrated VST3 implantation. Thank goodness for Cusbasis on iOS. I find DP and Cubase so close in a lot of ways, but am a 25 year DP user, (v1.7) and there's no prying me away now.

My point is, don't sleep on Digital Performer. It's powerful. It might be a bit intimidating to new users, but you can try the free 30 day downloadable demo and see for yourself.

Not starting a DAW war here. Trust me. I love the BIG THREE and use them all (especially when I want to shake things up). Just wanted to suggest you take a look at DP.

 

Best wishes,

 

Steve Steele

 

VSL Certified Vienna Ensemble Pro Template Builder

Nate,

I came up with a solution that you might find acceptable. I configured the VEP mixer so that each instrument's dry signal, it's MIR signal (both mics), and MIRacle's signal are independently bussed back to my DAW so that I have fader control over each signal in my DAW. In effect giving me a close, stage and room mix.

After using the appropriate settings in MIRacle, I also reduced MIR's reverb time and mic offset. I might tweak the dry sound with a small bit of Teldex early reflection from Hybrid Reverb, adjust MIR's resonance with some room Eq, and adjust MIRacle's modulation a bit more, but I'm quite impressed with the results. Btw, I used the Teldex venue with VSL Woodwinds.

I'd be glad to share the project settings or a screen capture if you like.

Steve Steele

I"m glad I ran into this thread. I've been trying for days to figure this out with Digital Performer as my DAW. Actually the Quad return isn't a big deal in DP as DP supplies a fader-like quad channel (four mono or two stereo) trim plugin. And after going back and reading the MIR manual I wonder if the results would be the same to set up MIR in VEP as effects inserts and busing the wet signal to MIRacle using a tame Teldex preset, (to go with the Teldex room).

I'll be sending an email to support too if I can't get this working by tonight. But now I know I was on the right track.

Thanks
Steve

"- Disable Cells Feature in VI: You can now load samples of a cell only when it is receiving MIDI, and load presets with disabled cells, enabling them on demand."

Between the Disabled Cell feature and the Reset, Learn and Optimizie feature even the large Synchron libs will be very managable. I have a very large mixed VSL/Kontakt template that loads up with zero RAM footprint. Samples get loaded into RAM as they recive MIDI input (for both VI Pro and Kontakt). During or after I'm finished composing, before I print to stems I optimize everything. RAM footprint is reduced to such a low level, even computers with only 16GBs of RAM would be able to deal with playback, no problem.

(Not trying to self-promote) My Youtube channel has some VEP optimization videos, but I should make one for Synchron and VI Pro/VEP. Just ask if you want me to post a link (I don't want to step on any toes here).

Synchron!! Hallelujah!! I'm so glad VSL has taken this route. 

Steve Steele

Hi Greg - I heard they're working on demoes for those mics. 

(EDIT: I bought it and no, they're not up yet). I'm curious if the Synchron Percussion is available in the Audition Player. Anyone know?

Steve

Andi. I just double checked and the Wagner Tuba is the Standard library while my other single instrument Brass are Full Libraries.

Does that make a difference?

Thanks.

Steve

Great! So this must be simple. In Finale do I change the Program or Bank number to 2 to get my 2nd instance of VEP, then Bank 3 MIDI 1-16, for my 3rd instance etc..? Is that all?

[UPDATE]: I figured out that bank numbers allowed me to setup different MIDI ports/Instances.

One more question. I recently purchased the VSL Wagner Tuba full lib, and I installed as I do every other library, but instead of showing up in VI Pro underneath "- C - Brass PRESET Files, it's located under "- D - Downloaded Instruments - PRESET - Files". Is there any way to get the Wagner Tuba to show up in the Brass directory? All my other VSL libs show up properly in VI Pro. Is there something I should do in the Vienna Instruments Direcrory Manager? There wasn't anything obviousl that I saw that would make this happen.

Thanks again Andi!

Steve Steele

Hello all - Simple question. If I need multiple instances of VEP in Finale 25 do I need to use the Event Input Plugin as is the norm for AU based hosts, or is there a Sibelius type Sound Set feature that makes it possible to host multiple instances?

For consistency I'd like to use an AU based VEP template that's a replica of my Digital Performer MAS based template, which between VI Pro, LASS and MIR requires at least 8-10 ports and 4 instances of VEP.

I realize this is a question for the Finale folks but many people over there don't seem to know much about VEP, and it's a simple question for anyone here that uses Finale.

Thanks!

Where do I go to find out about upgrading from Brass SE Vol. 1 and 1 Plus to either one the Brass libraries or hopefully Dimension Brass if that's possible? 

Do you have info on this site, can I ask a direct question or do I need to contact ILIO in the US?

Thanks,

Steve

I go through all of the important new features of VEP6 as if I'm building a new template from beginning to end. There are a couple of things in the video that aren't mentioned in the manual. 

I don't mention any crashes. That's for another time and place. Let me know if you find it helpful and how I can improve my videos. Would you prefer I go deeper into very large templates or stick to features?

Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/9whfRMMwxeQ

It's nice that DP9.1 and VEP6 came out at the same time. Both are really good and stable. I ran them hard together for 24 hours straight and not a single crash. So I made a video about starting from scratch with an empty DP document.  I set everything up, wrote about 20 bars of orchestral music, did some editing and finished. I explain everything as I go.

I tried a new method to condense an hour down to 20 minutes. Let me know if you still find the video helpful or if it's too fast. All I was trying to show was the process. That's really what the video is about. So the pace seemed ok. And you get to see enough of VEP6 to get an idea of what it feels like. I could have shown more VEP6 features but I just wanted to show it in action. Love the tabs! I'll probably continue to use this style in future videos where it fits. The fast pace starts around 2:15.

Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/0kKSSpMOHgY

Glad it worked. Thanks for reporting that the uninstaller gave you a choice to keep the rules intact (in this case for the server, port and protocol assigments) when uninstalling. I hadn't really thought about that because I've never uninstalled it. That was a nice gesture on the developers part though, even if it was just for troubleshooting or whatever.  

I thought more people would reply on this one. But I'm just happy to have thought about it and to have shared it.

Considering the way you did it, I could leave much shorter instructions. But because it involves opening ports I thought a little background was a good idea. Although I don't think opening the ports for Vienna Ensemble is a big deal. In fact, I think it's the solution.

Steve

Here my fix..

I hesitated at first to post this because I was not sure if Vienna Ensemble Pro Server needed to allow incoming connections from a VSL or eLicenser server, or potentially a slave computer. The VEP manual lists used network ports as 6472, 6473, 6474, 6475, 6476, 6477. That’s VERY helpful actually. But I saw via Little Snitch that it was also trying to connect via port 80. Has this been taken in to account for? I don’t know. But thinking about this actually led me to this solution. There are probably a few ways to go about this. I have two. One is the shotgun approach and requires a little clean up work. The other is precise although I didn’t actually try it yet but seeing how it’s potentially safer I’m going to (I’m sure it will work - you can find it in the middle of Step Two). . Both require the app Little Snitch which might have a downloadable demo (or you can do this part in the Terminal if you know how, I currently don’t).

This may not be perfect but it seems harmless and it worked for me. I see no reason it won’t work for everyone. It occurred to me that if Little Snitch can control incoming and outgoing network connections, and port and protocol assignments, it might just be able to “patch” this issue.

I use Vienna Ensemble Pro Server (64-bit) throughout this but it goes for either the 32-bit or 64-bit server apps.

Step one:

A previous post recommended to check the apps code signing status.

https://www.vsl.co.at/community/posts/t32838-incoming-network-connections#post207269

Open Terminal. We’re going to do some copying and pasting.

Before you do this PLEASE look at the commands closely. Notice the path to Vienna Ensemble Pro Server (64-bit) is in my Applications folder in the Vienna Ensemble Pro folder. If yours is too, you can copy and paste the commands below exactly as they are. If you keep VEP somewhere else, you need to either type in the path or drag the Vienna Ensemble Pro Server (64-bit) app into the Terminal after entering <codesign -vvv "> which will enter the path for you, then put a close quote at the very end.

codesign -vvv "/Applications/Vienna Ensemble Pro/Vienna Ensemble Pro Server (64-bit).app"

If it returns "code or signature modified" something has indeed gone wrong so go ahead and enter..

sudo codesign --force --sign - /Applications/Vienna\ Ensemble\ Pro/Vienna\ Ensemble\ Pro\ Server\ \(64-bit\).app

It should return.. "valid on disk" and "satisfies its Designated Requirement"

You’ve just given it a valid code signature. But that’s not enough. Time for surgery.

Step two:

Ok, now you'll need Little Snitch (or know the commands that change Servers, Ports and Protocols that applications use, which like I said before, I currently don't). And again, Little Snitch might have a demo mode, I'm not sure. I've owned it for so long I can't remember. It's a great app to own anyway, although until you set up all of the rules, it might get on your nerves a bit. Also, there should be several other utilities that can do what we’re about to do.

You can find Little Snitch at: https://www.obdev.at/products/index.html

Quit all running applications. Open Little Snitch. In the Little Snitch Configuration window see if Vienna Ensemble Pro Server (64-bit) is listed in the main window area. It probably won’t be, but if it is, select it and right-click or control-click and choose Edit Rule...

If you just installed Little Snitch and haven't opened VEP yet it won't be in the main window. So, from the Little Snitch Configuration window click New in the task bar. From Process, click the folder icon and select Choose Application. Dig through your Finder into the Apps folder and the Vienna Ensemble Pro 5 folder and select Vienna Ensemble Pro Server (64-bit).

Then enter this information… (This may take some trial and error but if you want to try the “precise” approach, create a setting in Little Snitch that allows Vienna Ensemble Pro Server (64-bit) to use port 80 as one of the port numbers allowed in Little Snitch’s main window. If you try this method, you can skip Step Three. If there’s still an issue after trying this method and you've done it right, then more investigation is needed).

Allow Connections

Process Owner: Me

Server: Any Server

Port: any

Protocol: any

Enabled: Checked

Click Ok.

Step three:

Open System Preferences. (I'm running 10.9.5, and these steps could be slightly different depending on which OS you're on). Click on Security & Privacy. Unlock the lock, enter you user password and Click on the Firewall tab. Open Firewall Options...

Make sure "Automatically allow signed software to receive incoming connections" is checked.

Take a screen capture or make a list of every app or process listed (You might need this later to add them back manually if needed or wanted). Select every app or process listed in the window and delete. Shift-click and you can select them all at the same time, then click the minus button. Click Ok. Lock the lock. Restart you Mac.

Step four:

Launch Vienna Ensemble Pro Server (64-bit)

Did it work? It did for me. If the “Allow incoming..” dialog box did appear click Accept, then quit VEP and restart you Mac. When it restarts, first thing go to the Firewall prefs and see if Vienna Ensemble Pro Server (64-bit) is now in the window and is Allowing Incoming Connections. Now, launch Vienna Ensemble Pro Server (64-bit) again. If no message, it worked. Restart your Mac and try again.

If somehow you've come to the end of this feeling like you've destroyed your Vienna Ensemble Pro Server (64-bit) app, just either reinstall VEP from your last install package if you want (you could just trash the Vienna Ensemble Pro Server (64-bit) app and then run the installer for a minimally intrusive installation. Download VEP from your account, or use the uninstaller and then reinstall.

Hope this helps someone.

Steve

 

Paul - How about throwing out or deleating whatever file VEP is using to remember plugins so it can start from scratch?

I've had similar problems with the versions of the VEP app I don't use (the non-server versions), but the 64-bit VEP server runs like a champ. Never chockes on plugins. And I think that's partly due to the fact that I manually move plugins that I don't use out of the plugins folder, and the 64-bit server app has a good record file of working plugins. Does that make sense?

When DP has problems with plugins I just trash the plugins cache file and all is fixed.

I have about the same amount of plugins and I don't think he should be having this problem. The current buikds have been very stable. I'm using the MAS version.

Steve Steele

If you're still getting the "Do you want the application “Vienna Ensemble Pro Server (64-bit).app” to accept incoming network connections?" when opening VEP and you want to get rid of it, I have a solution.

There have been posts before but I didn't see where everyone seemed to take note of it.

If this is still as issue let me know and I'll post the answer. (I just want to be carefull because it involves replacing the exsisting (code) signature for the Application Firewall. It's not a big deal. It worked perfectly for me. I no longer get that message and VEP works fine.

Steve

Is the dump file in the Notation section the only Finale related help on this site? I was hoping to find something like sound sets or some data files that help Finale know the pitches of percussion instruments and other things.

What do we have? Please let there be something good.

Its bad enough that Finale doesn't have ReWire support (although I think that's coming), but it's a pain to get it to work well with Digital Performer or VEP. I need Finale to sync with DP, while VEP is slaved to Finale or DP. That would be a dream come true. The owner of Finale, on his blog, asked users what they wanted to see in the next version of Final and a lot of people said ReWire. I shouted ReWire. He took notice. 

Notion is not the answer. Sibelius is obviously good. But it has a very weird tendency to feel "rubbery" I know that makes no sense. I hate the ribbon (turned off), the keyboard is ok, but I don't know. I went back to Finale after many many years and I'm gonna give it a serious go. 

So, sorry for that non related story but now it's frustrating to see all of the Sibelius Sound Set files, but nothing for Finale. Are there any Finale GURUs that would be kind enough to have a conversation with me. I would be forever in your debt.

Steve Steele

I just happened to be thinkng of buying MIR RP3 when I refreshed my browser and saw a new RoomPack! And it's a monestary too! I just downloaded the demo and am composing something for it. 5000 IRs for this room is a lot. Should be some good detail. Price is nice. I'd like to hear what others think.

There's an update to MIR with some new venue presets and an AIR DAMPNING control! Nice. The Gateshead Sage is now also in MIRx form. Sounds good. I wish VSL would do a RP3 for MIRx, although I'd proably rather have the full room with the hot spots and all. 

I just bought five single instruments today and will now buy another tomorrow to check this room out. I'll upload music soon.

Steve

Are you already connected via WiFi to the internet when you're trying to connect to your slave, or does your VEP connection get interrupted when you connect to WiFi?

I have two Macpros connected directly together. which create self-assigned IP address. I discovered with Little Snitch than when I'm connected to WiFi and then I launch my DAW (Digital Performer) and try to connect to VEP on the slave, DP wants to connect to 127.255.255.255 instead which is a loopback address (internal) which is generally used for testing of network programs I believe. 

Establish your VEP connection first, then get on WiFi. That should work. If that doesn't work, either don't get on WiFi while VEP is running, or get Little Snitch and see what's going on. Maybe you can work around it.

Good luck. 

Hey guys - I uploaded part 2 of my HOW TO DP and VEP 5. This time I added DP9 and a VEP slave, and I cover system configs and settings for VEP, MIR and touch on Kontakt while playing back a piece I wrote that tests my new MacPro slave.

Video is here:

https://youtu.be/-knS4ca6Obw

Part 3 will be up in a few days on total optimztion of system, VEP, Kontakt, VSL player and DP.  
Part 4 will "write a good cue in 10 minutes".  
I plan on covering DP9 very soon, maybe after part 3.

Enjoy!
Steve Steele aka nightwatch

Thanks for letting me post here.

Hey all - I uploaded part 2 of my HOW TO DP and VEP 5. This time I added DP9 and a VEP slave, and I cover system configs and settings for VEP, MIR and touch on Kontakt while playing back a piece I wrote that tests my new MacPro slave.

Video is here:

https://youtu.be/-knS4ca6Obw

Part 3 will be up in a few days on total optimztion of system, VEP, Kontakt, VSL player and DP.  
Part 4 will "write a good cue in 10 minutes".  
I plan on covering DP9 very soon, maybe after part 3.

Enjoy!
Steve Steele aka nightwatch

Has anyone been experiencing VEP 64-bit server (latest build) crashes on slave Mac when using DP9? VEP doesn't crash on host Mac, but was crashing during connection on slave. After a few days of slight tweaks VEP slave is connecting and running but it's not as stable as it was with DP8 and connection times are a lot slower too.

I''ll list some specs but just curious first if anyone else had this experience?

Thanks.

You can run as many imstruments as your CPU can handle, basically. There are many ways to optimize settings and workflow that can do wonders for your setup and playback.

Download and watch all the VSL videos that apply from your "My VSL" area.

Watch the Sonor videos that deal with optimizing Sonars playback engine (set buffer jigh when playing back!)

Get as much RAM as you can afford!

Get as many SSDs as you can afford!

Unerstand the best way to optimize your DAW with VEPro. I have a video on Youtube about that subject if you wanna check it out here... 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nYIzd3Ca7U&google_comment_id=z13ishqysryidhq1223jx1pwtvanv3jfs&google_view_type

I use Digital Performer but you'll see the big picture at least if not more. I have two more vids coming.

Optimize the VSL Instrument Player once note entry is done.

Do you have MIR?

Look for more Sonar/VEP videos and READ THE MANUAL!

Hit me back or PM me with questions if you want. You'll be up an running in no time.

Cheers!

Steve