VE PRO 4.0.4780 public beta
• AU: Added time synchronization to AU hosting
• AU: Fixed crashes when loading East West Play in the same host as the connector plugin
• AU: Fixed redraw problems with Ueberschall products
• WIN: Fixed bug which disallowed VST editors to create new windows (as seen in Synthogy Ivory)
• WIN: Added RTAS version of VE PRO Server Interface
• Fixed crash when a Vienna Instruments startup.fxp is available
• Added ability to save/load channel presets and sets
• Added update checking functionality
• Possibly fixed slave instances not showing in the VE PRO Server Interface with a lot of instances present

Haven’t tried it out yet, just doodling around on paper…

I’m a bit scared of opening up this plug, sometimes I start to play with the various presets and time just flies. But it is one of my favorites for getting that “ultra” analog sound.

Apart from various small fixes it also includes several new presets from J Thompson, K Lamb, R Lyons, T Conrardy and T Odakama. How does it sound? As lovely as always…

More info over at Arturia »

As you can see from the screenshots below (and from the first part) I have all the processing for the different audio channels in Logic. I could just as well have loaded the plugins directly inside the VE Pro hosts but this way has one big advantage. I can easily sculpt the sound the way I want for different songs/projects without messing with the VE Pro setups. Seems more “Logic” to me (pun intended) since the “sound” is saved with the different songs, not in the VE Pro templates.

VE Pro 64-bit

Since this is mainly strings, orchestral, chamber, solo and a little soprano choir there is simply one channel for each section.

VE Pro 32-bit, first instance

Also pretty basic. The only summing taking part here is for the two harps and the four different tracks of the choir.

VE Pro 32-bit, second instance

This is where it gets a bit more “creative”. As you can see there are two audio tracks for toms (Toms and Epic Toms). The second one is actually for a few more instruments as well. All the instruments coming through this channel has some “wetness” or “ambience” already in the samples. That’s why I don’t add any reverb in Logic.

Also, I could have used a single channel for the timpanis and the bass drums but since the generate quite a lot of low frequency I like to have them separate, just for controlling the different lows.

VE Pro 32-bit, third instance

Very straightforward. Simply two channels. One for cymbals and one for other “metallic” instruments.

VE Pro 32-bit, fourth and final instance

Also a simple approach. The first track is a “dry” one just for the Epic Dohl. Drums of War has it’s own channel, again for controlling the lows. Finally there is one for “big” drums and one for “small” drums.

PLAY – SATB Choirs

The only audio-interface-input in my setup is from the digital input. this is where my Symphonic Choirs from play gets routed into Logic. It simply has one channel because I think it’s enough. The reverb on the choir is from the built-in in PLAY.

Done!

So there you have it! All in all there are 31 stereo channels virtually wired into Logic! Who could have dreamed about this 3-4 years ago? In part 3 I’ll show you a bit of how I’ve setup the MIDI-tracks in Logic and how I use Logic’s Environment to take control over them.

If you missed the first part you can read it here:
Setup Part I: Outside the DAW »

Seems that this Christmas will be something extra indeed! Can’t wait!

More info over at Tonehammer »

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 »

Here is a link to the plugin Input Calibrator by yours truly. Input Calibrator let’s you set different delays (in ms) for the left and the right channel. Also, you can dampen the left and right channels independently.

To use this plugin to it’s fullest please read the book “The Composer’s Approach” by Mike Novy. More info about the book here:
http://www.the-composers-approach.com »

You can also read my mini-review of the book here:
lavergren.com/blog/2009/11/the-composers-approach »

I’m in no way affiliated with Mike Novy or the book itself, just a happy reader of it. I just found Logic’s built-in plugins to be a bit fiddly so I wrote my own.

Download Input Calibrator v1 »
(ZIP-file, 120KB.)

VE PRO 4.0.4686 public beta changelog:

• AU: Fixed buffer size problems with Vienna Suite Convolution Reverb and Vienna Imperial
• AU: Fixed Modartt Pianoteq crash on instantiation
• VST/WIN: Fixed Modartt Pianoteq not showing in plug-in list
• Fixed crash in VE PRO Server when (dis)connecting from an unpreserved VE PRO instance while sending parameter automation
• Fixed potential wrong sample rate when instantiating 3rd party plug-ins
• WIN: Changed default process priority back to normal for VE PRO stand-alone and VE PRO Server
• WIN: Fixed storage of multiprocessing threads preference
• Fixed storage and recall if instance window geometry of VE PRO Server
• Fixed possible license problems when launching VE PRO from startup folder / Login Items

Download the VE Pro update here »
Requires login to your account

BLUE 1.8.5b

Rob Papen has upgraded BLUE to 1.8.5b. I don’t think I’ll have to say more than that…

Grab your update here: http://www.robpapen.com/blue.html