To be real creative and efficient when composing (for me at least) you need a good setup so you don’t have to wait for instruments to load. I have spent many hours in finding my own template, and it is a piece of constant development. In this first part I’ll cover all the apps I use outside of my DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), which is Logic btw.

Note: The following is just an example of how I have done it. There is no right or wrong way here, just make one that you’re happy with. The following works for me and use it as a guide if you wish. This first part will cover the “outside” of the DAW, standalone applications that is, since it has a two advantages compared to hosting everything inside Logic, memory and speed.
 

Why bother?

The memory issue is important of two reasons. First, if you load many samples into instruments hosted inside Logic, you’ll end up using a lot of memory. The more memory Logic needs, the more often it will crash. Plus, my template wouldn’t fit into Logic’s memory at all. The recommended memory usage for Logic is approx. 3Gb. The second benefit is that it takes almost no time at all switching between projects since everything is hosted “outside”. Switching is do a lot, perhaps not the most efficient way to work but I do it nevertheless.

I have the following applications running alongside Logic: VE Pro 32-bit server and VE Pro 64-bit server. Each of these servers can host eight instances with 16-MIDI channels each and 8-channels of audio! Impressive to say the least.

When I need to I also load up PLAY with the full Soprano-Alto-Tenor-Basses choir (and Wordbuilder to go along of course). I “pipe” the output of PLAY into Logic using the digital in/out on the MacPro, a single cable running from the output to the input. I only need a stereo-pair of audio for the choirs anyway.

As you can see from the screenshot below the memory use of all applications is approximately 6GB. Logic is using about 700MB, plenty of room for more PLAY instances of Gypsy or RA for example. Nice…

KxMemServer is Kontakts memory manager.

So, let’s get on with the setup…
 
 

Vienna Ensemble 32-bit Server

I have four instances in the 32-bit server. Since VE Pro can handle eight instances I have four to spare. It can handle more but a maximum of eight is recommended by the VSL team.

Screenshots of VE Pro 32-bit server:

First instance is one Kontakt 3 plugin using 16 MIDI-channels (A01-A16). This one holds a couple of harps, pianos, a celeste, a guitar, the full Spiritual Winds, DIVA, Giovani and the Church Choir from Symphonic Choirs.

Those channels with more than one patch respond to program change. Several of the patches also have keyswitches.

Second instance also with one Kontakt 3 plugin, using 16 MIDI-channels. This is the basic percussion, almost all from Elite Orchestral Percussion.

Third instance is one Kontakt 3 plugin as well (starting to see a pattern?) using 14 MIDI-channels. Here are the most of the cymbals, tambourines and metallic percussion.

Fourth and final instance with one Kontakt 3 plugin. This instance holds all the “exotic” percussion. Gathered together are patches from Epic Tom Ensemble, Drums of War, CineToms and both big and small percussion from Stormdrum.

Vienna Ensemble Pro 64-bit Server

The only 64-bit compatible plugin I have at the moment is Vienna Ensemble Pro which can host Vienna Instruments. So I have simply collected all my VSL strings in the 64-bit server. Oh yes, and the Soprano Choir of course.

Screenshots of VE Pro 64-bit server:

 
In the next part I’ll cover how it looks inside the DAW and in part 3 how I have setup Logic’s environment to give me the control I need over all the instruments/tracks.
 
You can read Part II here »

daw, kontakt, play, setup, tutorial, ve pro