Just my every few month check in.  Still ok without it, but I haven't done any of the really big stuff yet.  And fortunately a lot of my instrument settings/setups were saved - so I can run 'em as a plugin (Ivory, Trillium, Omnisphere, newer Spitfire etc) and some inside Kontakt. Everything would be easier if VEP worked.  It's been fun learning work arounds and the capabilities of this machine (Mac Studio Ultra / 128 RAM).   Pretty astonishing. 

I installed a couple NVMe's in a Sonnet Echo Dual NVMe (RAID) because the Mac Studio Ultra (128 gigs RAM) can easily handle it.  I moved (re-downloaded) all my VI samples to that.  So really I don't need VEP anymore - but it sure would be nice for all the earlier work.  And because I love its organization / bundling of VI"s in one place.  Haven't hit the RAM ceiling - or come close yet - and I've done some fairly complex stuff.  But no full tilt Hollywood scores / soundtracks etc. 

Just got the note that Pro Tools will be releasing a Beta that is compatible with Apple Silicon.  Avid is one of the most cautious software developers out there.  If VEP doesn't step up to the plate soon, that wonderful, unique and incredibly USEFUL Swiss Army knife will become a fossil.   I don't need new libraries.  But I would like to have all the old sessions I did with VEP to work. 
Apple Mac Studio Ultra / Pro Tools

iLok works fine with Pro Tools, Ivory, Omnisphere and a lot of software on my Mac Studio (Rosetta).  I've never been in love with iLok but it's never caused me much trouble either.  Pro Tools is going native soon.  They're testing Beta now w developers.  

The truth is, with my Mac Studio, I no longer need VEP.  Sad.  I love its economy and organization - and I have a mountain of old sessions that depend on it. Rebuilding those without VEP will be an enormous headache.  

Last I heard, Apple is nowhere near as big in Europe as it is in North America.  I suspect this is a bit of what's going on.  When I switched from analogue tape to digital in the 80's, Apple was the only game in town for audio.
I never left the platform, although we did buy a bunch of Windows machines in the nineties when we were developing interactive multimedia.  From that experience, I have no plans of switching to Windows anytime soon!  

I think letting VEP slide much longer will be a big loss for VSL.  Maybe they should switch to a subscription model to provide enough funds to keep VEP up to date?  Avid did it.  It's expensive.  And I would hate it but, since they started the subscription thing, Pro Tools has finally started working again. 

I don't think we should hit Ben too hard.  He's just a screener - a relay for which messages seem possibly important.  More similar to the greeter outside a big box store. 
And Ben - I use VEP with a Mac Studio Ultra with Pro Tools running in Rosetta and - even running in Rosetta its' so far beyond my old Mac Pro that, to me, waiting is crazy.  Everything that was awful and time consuming before is gone now.   
I can do massive orchestral VI sessions without any crashing etc.  
The push to Apple Silicon is important though.  Pro Tools is Alpha testing their M1 compatible version, so it will be out early in 2023.  When that happens, I might not be able to use VEP at all

Case in point - I'd been wrestling with VEP and the dreaded Kontakt for two days - which is a LOT of time at 74 - trying to get the outputs working correctly.  Out of habit and being an old timer, I always do individual outs for audio.  Nothing was working.  In a combo of fury and panic I decided to try bypassing VEP and just running Kontakt - figuring my machine - Mac Studio Ultra - could handle it.  Sure enough!  After dealing with the incredible convoluted weirdness of Kontakt's tedious take on output architecture, I got it all working in about an hour.
This doesn't mean I don't miss or won't keep using VEP.  If nothing else, it's a great organizing tool and, once set up, it's incredibly plug and play.  
If I was a Vienna CEO, I wouldn't drag my feet too long on the VEP / Silicon problem.  
And I would design a better alternative to Kontakt.  They would have to widen the doors of their bank to make room for all the money they're hauling in.  The competition in orchestral virtual instruments is profound, but there's only one Kontakt and, to me, it's a sitting duck. 

VEP (licenser) / Pro Tools HD 2022.9 / Mac Pro Ultra 128G RAM / 2X Sonnet Echo Dual NVMe Thunderbolt Docks

Well, they should know, we would be happy to pay for the upgrade.  I don't know how it is for Vienna, but there are a LOT of Apple users doing audio. - at least in North America.  When I started my studio (eighties), it was the only game in town.  It's possible there is a concern that, with the tremendous increase in machine ability, Vienna Ensemble Pro might be suffering from 'writing on the  wall' syndrome.  As in, there's not a lot of need for it.  Having a Mac Studio Ultra I can see that, but I would still use VEP.  
I just wish someone would find something better  - less rickety and cranky - than Kontakt. I would pay big money for that! 
Or for all virtual instrument folks to switch to dedicated plugins - as many are doing - which I AM paying big $$$ for.  

No, I only use VEP.  

VSL is still in the Stone Age as far as Apple goes - but the Ultra affords you more RAM - which is critical for VI's.  Speed doesn't matter as much as ram for VI's.  I have an ultra w 128 gigs of ram and 2TB HD.  Everything except the iLok VEP works extremely well on it.  I'm still using the eLicenser version.  

Oh my!  I'd started a new thread figuring all of this would be figured out by now and that the answer would be easy.  The e-licenser version is working fine with Pro Tools Ultimate HD, Mac Studio Ultra / Monterey 5.1 - I'm just worried it will up and die on me at some point.  
Thanks

Sorry but I don't have time/energy to scour the conversations for the answer.  I'm still using the ELicensor version of VEP as, last I checked, the iLok version wasn't working at all with Apple - and esp Apple Silicon.   I'm not expecting Apple Silicon compatibility yet.  I just need to know what version of VEP folks are using.  I'm using Monterey 5.1  I no longer need a second machine. Pro Tools Ultimate HD.  Everything else works like a charm here!!!  Thanks.  

I have a Mac Studio Ultra / 128 Ram / 2 TB internal / Sonnet Echo Dual NVMe Docks (2) - one JBOD 2TB for Pro Tools sessions and one Raid 0 (4TB) for virtual instruments.  I JUST got VEP w the new Kontakt 6 working.  I'm using the eLicenser 1120 VEP 7 for now - just to simplify the transition. 

Everything's running under Rosetta.

Is it faster?  I can't say.  Does it work like a dream - absolutely!  Does it use much CPU power? hardly any.  
On my old dual Mac Pro cheese graters (5.1's maxed) they couldn't even play everything at once without freezing tracks and plugins all the time.  
Not to mention that they heated my studio in winter.  Now I have to use heat!!!

I live in Canada.

Do the NVMe's get hot?  Not at all.  The MC Ultra is cool to the touch all day long and dead quiet to these old ears.  

I use VEP within the Mac Studio Ultra.  I don't think you need a slave unless it makes organization easier. I have one session with maybe twenty five or so Spitfire Audio plugins running hard.  On Pro Tools there's a System Usage Meter and it barely moves unless a plugin makes it crash.  

I couldn't even use Spitfire's Symphonic Motions on my old Mac Pro's.  It would just crash every time. 
Since I straightened out Kontakt 6 no crashes.

 
I'd worry that a Mac mini wouldn't have enough RAM.  
I use VEP mostly to be a buffer between nasty Kontakt and Pro Tools.  They aren't lovers - to say the least. 

You've made a good purchase.  I think you'll be very pleased with it!

Just installed VEP7 and it's working just fine with a server!!!  All within the Mac Studio Ultra - and the system is barely lifting a finger!  I downloaded it directly from Vienna and installed from the download thinking the Vienna Assistant might be the culprit.  It recalled sessions from Pro Tools data like no time had passed - and this session is a few months old. Now the server is on the desktop and I don't know what that means.  Is it running via Rosetta or not?  So far Rosetta has been invisible. 
I'm a very happy camper so far.  Most of the weirdness I've encountered hasn't been from any glitch in the works as much as me remembering to set preferences and filter MIDI coming into Pro Tools.  Any program change stuff - which seems to leap out of the Doepfer Mk4 when I change presets - throws Pro Tools into a serious funk.  Quit - Restart etc.  
Now that I've cleared up most of those it's running like a rabbit!

So far so good.  Straight, no instrument Pro Tools seems to work quite well.  I've been installing giant spitfire, Ivory, Omnisphere etc (instruments to a 4TB NVMe Raid0 drive) and a ton of plugins today.  Haven't tested most that I've downloaded today - and it's the plugins that drive P Tools crazy. I have only tested a few of the main audio plugins I use.  Rosetta seems to be working.  HDX - the PCIe card and I/Os seem to be working very well. 
As far as VE Pro not installing an AAX server - this is new territory for me.  I've worked with a slave machine for so long and I'm so gun shy about learning anything I don't need to learn (brain overload) that it's going to be all new.  IN the past I hosted Omnisphere, Trillian, Ivory and a few Kontakt instruments in VEPro.  
I should know more over the next few days.  I'll try to do an update on progress soon. 

Thanks for the encouraging words and really cool info.  Now I understand that Pro Tools, and most DAWS, use only a few cores at a time.  Based on that, I'm not sure about how Pro Tools parses out VI's across cores, so my question is about how VEP uses cores - and whether it's smart to continue using VEP in one fast machine - no slave.  My understanding is that VEP can make good use of the 20 available cores.  Now... maybe I've answered my own question and I WILL go ahead and install it on the Mac Studio Ultra.  

I'm not terribly worried about RAM at this point because I've never had more than 48 GIGs in the past!!!  And I don't use enormous libraries usually.   BBCSO is the biggest I have right now and I only use small sections of that. 
Thanks again

I'm reinstalling my world after ten years on two 5.1 Mac Pros.  One machine was a VEP slave -  with Pro Tools HDX on the other.  Over time and with the expanding libraries (Spitfire etc) things got very unpredictable, so I bought a Mac Studio Ultra / 128 RAM / 2TB internal / 6TB NVMe (2XSonnet Echo Dual.Thunderbolt)  One NVMe = a 4 TB Raid for VI libraries.  The other for Pro Tools sessions.  I'm wondering if I should still use VEP on the Mac Studio Ultra?  It seems to make better use of hyper threading / cores etc.  Any Pro Tools VEP users out there who can comment?
It would all be running via Rosetta, so I'm HOPING VEP will work.  
Thanks

VEP 7 - Didn't get more than one activation code so can only activate on one machine. Help!

OK! Just tried it and all VEP sees is SSD4. Then tried opening stand alone VEP and same thing. Will poke around more later but thanks for the hope!

Interesting. All I've tried to far is to instantiate it within VEP6 on the slave machine. I kenw it was AU and couldn't see why it wouldn't work. Havent really needed it yet cuz I'm doing a project with real drums that sound spectacular. But I'll poke around as time allows. 

Thanks so much! This is good news

Got an answer from Slate - No! New SSD5 does NOT work with VEP! Too bad. 

Has anyone tried using the new SSD5 with VEP? Haven't had any luck at all yet. 

Yeah I have full Kontakt, latest version. Am going to experiment with putting it on my server machine today. Will keep you posted

My first Spitfire library - bought yesterday 6 OCT/18! MIDI only gets through to one of the sections - second violins, MIDI channel 2. I can see the MIDI activity light (MIDI channel 2) following input but see nothing else. No signs of life in Spitfire. Have other libraries working fine in this config. 2012 Mac Pro 48GIGS Ram, Sierra, Pro Tools HD 12.5., installed on 1TB SSD (not OS) drive. I am hosting this on the main machine, not the slave. Opened other libraries to check and they worked fine. 

OK! This is strange. Works FINE in Stand Alone VEP6!!!

Doesn't work at all in Server. Just keeps "Loading"

Anyone using VEP6 with Wave Alchemy's wonderful Revolution (drum machine)? I can't get it past "Loading". Works fine in Kontakt but inside VEP6 it's a no go. 

I've been using it in Pro Tools 12.5 HDX and it's a Pro Tools eater. Frequent reboots, frequently deleting preferences etc. I really love the sounds though so put up with the lost time - which is of course very precious. 

Any tips would be great! I'm talking with Marnix about it and no solution yet.