How Many Soft Synths Can I Stuff Into a VRack?

[ggm1960]

So I've been using the Roland Fantom XR rackmount to double sounds from the two keyboards on my stand with great success for a long time but man am I tired of hauling the heavy rackcase! I've tried to use some SampleTank but an older i7 MBP with 5400rpm internal and 7200rpm external FW drives really hasn't cut it for live gigging. My interface is an 828mk3.

If I thought I could use my newer SSD and Thunderbolt equipped MBP with an external SSD drive of some sort to run a few softsynths reliably I'd pull that hardware out of there!
It would be nice to have SampleTank, AAS Ultra Analog/Lounge Lizard, and some Arturia stuff loaded in a Vrack and ready to go as I shift through song chunks.

Have you had success doing this kind of thing?

[HCMarkus]

Look into this: https://www.apple.com/mainstage

[MIDI Life Crisis]

MainStage is a good choice. If you want to use DP, your best option is to have any VI with large instruments (high sample count and/or complex scripting) be in their own instance of the VI. For example, one instantiation of Kontakt with a large piano sample, Another instance with maybe a few smaller sample instruments (percussion) and yet another instance for some string stuff.

Why?

Because then DP will a lot the CPU load across several cores and you won't have as much f a CPU bottleneck. The basic rule is, each VI with a separate fader in the mixer will address a different core (until you run out of cores). THat's a lot better than piling them all onto one core and not letting the machine do the work.

[ggm1960]

I remember MainStage being part of Logic 9 but I didn't spend any time with it or understand much about it, perhaps I'll need to go back and take another look.

I've been using DP on gigs for many years now because it has that chunk functionality that other programs just didn't have. I messed with switching to Ableton Live at one point but in the end stayed with DP for my live gig.

Thanks for the replies, so much to think about!

[ggm1960]

So now I have a new idea, I'm wondering if re-wiring Reason might get me where I want to be.

[HCMarkus]

Have you looked at MainStage yet?... it's cheap and comes with a plethora of synths/samples. Just sayin'.

[ggm1960]

Have you looked at MainStage yet?... it's cheap and comes with a plethora of synths/samples. Just sayin'.

I spent some time viewing youtube videos trying to determine how/if it would fit with what I do. I couldn't really determine that from what I saw so I've been dragging my feet on that because I'm busy and didn't want to start completely over having to learn something new. Does it integrate with DP at all?

I need to send patch changes to my Roland FA-08 and Korg Krome 61 for each song (the reason Chunks are so cool) and I even run sequences on a couple of songs.

[stubbsonic]

Does it integrate with DP at all?

Mainstage CAN work with DP, but it's a pretty complicated set up, and after all that, the word "integrated" is WAY too strong. IIRC, some people tried but bailed because of weird timing problems between them. YMMV.

If you are just needing to set up a "synth rack", Mainstage is pretty great, and very versatile. The bundled sample libraries are pretty decent, much better than you'd expect for the money.

[ggm1960]

I'll try to briefly sum up what I'm doing and I'm sure people here can relate. The band is pop/rock/dance, primarily current pop radio stuff, a little current pop country, a couple medleys of classic disco era stuff and even a little classic rock/hard rock stuff towards the end of the night. This band is typically a good draw around this area and people start dancing right away.

Currently I'm using a Roland FA-08 main board with a Korg Krome 61 on top and honestly that will cover most of what we do. The Roland FantomXR rack mount synth has been kind of a "secret weapon"; doubling/thickening most my patches (not absolutely necessary) but it has multi-sampling functionality that I do need for a couple songs. It all interfaces out of a MOTU 828mk3 with four outputs to the sound company (Keys L & R, click and pre-recorded audio out). There's a line mixer I could have already eliminated and will now. It's 2018 and I'd like to reduce hardware/cabling!

As we all know, what helps make DP so cool is the Chunks list where I can have all the song setups in one file and as I switch through chunks it sends patch, control and sysex messages to the hardware so I'm quickly setup for each song, a couple of which even have sequence backing tracks.

So what I want the computer/software to start doing is providing some multi-sampling that I need in a couple instances and also there are some songs where it's nice to have some extra analog style synth horsepower.

I've been a big fan of Reason for a lot of years and I recently used the multi-sampling of the NN-XT when I did a gig with the Dubuque Symphony Orchestra (an incredibly amazing gig BTW!) and that's what lead to my recent thinking that I could re-wire it into DP and go with that by switching out my older MBP and using my newer one that has Thunderbolt and SSD for improved speed and performance.

I have my rig setup downstairs with this week and next to attempt some radical change and this is the direction I'm currently leaning so I'd be curious if anyone has gone this direction or has a different suggestion given the gig/rig parameters I've laid out.

[mikehalloran]

As MLC suggested, you want to run separate instances of VIs up to the number of cores—should be 4 in a MBP. It's a bit of a balancing act but makes the best use of your machine.

If going Mainstage, that's a separate route but it's designed for live performance. $29.99 at the App Store or part of the Apple Pro Apps package through the Apple EDU store: $199.95 gets you MainStage, Logic Pro X, Final Cut Pro and two other apps.

Five amazing apps.
One powerful collection.
https://www.apple.com/us-hed/shop

[Kurt Cowling]

Mainstage is great, but I’m not sure there’s a convenient way to trigger sequences/midifiles from within Mainstage. Audio files, yes.

[ggm1960]

Mainstage is great, but I’m not sure there’s a convenient way to trigger sequences/midifiles from within Mainstage. Audio files, yes.

That seems like a bit of a pain, audio would really bump up my file sizes and slow down loading. Coupled with the fact that I'd have to start my whole project over from scratch I'm having difficulty finding a compelling reason to switch to that.
Don't get me wrong, MainStage is definitely cool but most of the videos I've been watching seem to get mired down in details about mapping or setting up keyboard controllers which is of little interest to me. The impression of it I'm getting is that it's the whole show rather than just an element, or tool, in a bigger system.