How-To video: Connecting VEPro to DP8 (48 MIDI ports)

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dix
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Re: How-To video: Connecting VEPro to DP8 (48 MIDI ports)

Post by dix »

If you are referring to quitting VEPro, it always asks to save on quit - it simply saves the instances added into the server host.
Thanks! By 'instances' do you mean instruments added or VEP instances? I guess I don't understand 'instances' in this instance. ....is there some reason you'd want multiple VEP instances running on one server? Does DP not also save the info VEP server info? Is there some reason why I can't just simply Save the current doc?

Example: I'm working on one big project these days. The template is evolving slowly as the project does. I'm adding instruments as needed. Would I need to save a new server doc every time I quit VEP in this circumstance? My choices when quitting are to either not Save or Create a new document. Just Saving is not an option.

Thanks again. ...sry. as you can see i'm just not getting this yet.
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Re: How-To video: Connecting VEPro to DP8 (48 MIDI ports)

Post by kdm »

Instances are the VEPro hosting apps within the VEPro server metaframe. You should see those listed in the Server app. The server can save metaframes that contain the setup for all instances you might have loaded - such as one instance for strings, one for brass, etc.

I run the local portion of my template in one server (others are hosted on external slaves) - here is an example of what I'm referring to with my local Server:

Image

All of my instances are decoupled so they are loaded once and accessed by each project. I'm guessing you are running yours coupled, so VEP isn't actually running the server standalone, but each instance is loaded when the project is opened. I don't run VEPro coupled, so I'll have to test it a bit to see if the save issue is because of that, or something else.
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Steve Steele
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Re: How-To video: Connecting VEPro to DP8 (48 MIDI ports)

Post by Steve Steele »

dix wrote:Can someone please explain VEP a bit better to me? For instance, I don't understand why VEP Server wants me to create a new document every time I quit it. I'm not clear on what I'm suppose to do when it asks me if I want to save. Do I need to save the server info? Isn't everything needed saved in DP? What exactly is being saved in server docs?

Thanks!
It is a bit confusing at first. If you have the instances preserved in DP, then when you save and close a project in DP then you can choose "Don't Save" when quitting VEP. The Save dialog box is basically a second chance to save the VEP Metaframe. I save them sometimes just to organize them. But it's not necessary if you have that metaframe instance preserved in DP.

But if you want to use that same Metaframe with another DP project YOU MUST preserve that instance or it won't show up in the Server Interface window.

Make sense? Try it on a test project and see for yourself. If you preserve in DP, and have that VEP instance open it will show in DP's Server Interface. If it wasn't preserved it won't. But the additional Save dialog is just a separate way to save Metaframes for later use.

Also, read pages 38-42, and 49-53 in the latest VEP 5 manual.

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dix
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Re: How-To video: Connecting VEPro to DP8 (48 MIDI ports)

Post by dix »

Thanks Steve. That helps a lot! So the Metaframe system is basically geared for preserving templates. I'm new to VEP (obviously) and I haven't yet had the time to create templates for future use, but I think I now understand how to do it. ...and thanks to kdm's posts I understand why I'd create them.

Thanks again!
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Re: How-To video: Connecting VEPro to DP8 (48 MIDI ports)

Post by dreamuse »

Hi there, Steve Steel, and thanks much for your informative posts and video tutorials!

I've used VEP for years, but am new to LASS and its attendant usage of ports. Specifically, I'm trying to audition LASS' Multi's which as you know have stuff loaded, sometimes on all 4 of Kontakt's ports (A-D). I've tried experimenting with VEP's MAS plugin, as well as tweaking the VEP Port and channel select. Specifically, I'm trying to hear the patches loaded into Port B, and if I put the VEP instance's port select at "2", and leave the channels at "all", I'm still hearing the LASS stuff loaded into the slots in Port A.

Am I hitting a Kontakt limitation? I read somewhere that only the standalone version has all 4 ports available, while elsewhere people were refuting this.

Thanks in advance for any light you can shed here!

Len
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Re: How-To video: Connecting VEPro to DP8 (48 MIDI ports)

Post by dreamuse »

Actually [with a slightly sheepish tone], I mostly answered my question by watching the Audiobro videos one more time; the ARC takes MIDI from one port and routes it as it needs to to the other ports. STILL...my question about Kontakt remains: Can we use Kontakt's multiple ports while it's instantiated within VEP?
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Re: How-To video: Connecting VEPro to DP8 (48 MIDI ports)

Post by Steve Steele »

dreamuse wrote:Actually [with a slightly sheepish tone], I mostly answered my question by watching the Audiobro videos one more time; the ARC takes MIDI from one port and routes it as it needs to to the other ports. STILL...my question about Kontakt remains: Can we use Kontakt's multiple ports while it's instantiated within VEP?
I'm glad you watched those videos. Just a recap. If you're going to use LASS' ARC, you only use one MIDI channel in DP for an entire instrument. For Violins 1 set your MIDI channel in DP to VEP port 1 channel 16, and use key switches to switch articulation. Violin 2 would be VEP port 2 channe 16, and so on. That's why it's so important to use the MAS version of VEP. The AU and VST versions make you use the Event Input plugin which was very buggy. MAS is a multiport format! 48 ports in fact. 48 ports x 16 MIDI channels = 768 MIDI channels available in your VEP template.

To your second question. Yes and no. You need a Kontakt script to reach Kontakt ports B, C and D. But there is one way to access them. If you load and instrument into 17-32 (port B) and leave both VEP and the Kontakt instrument on Omni you can play the instrument on any MIDI channel in DP. But that rarely is useful unless you're stacking a bunch of Percussion or synth patches.

Steve

Watch for more DP videos coming soon. I got a good one in the works.

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