Anyone with experience building DAW Slave w/VEPro 6 for media/film scoring use?

[JywK]

Hello,

A newbie to the forum here...So much information here to go through so I though I'd cheat a little by getting some directions.

If anyone understands the title, I really don't have to explain much other than below.

Current Mac: Mac Pro (late 2013), 3.5GHz 6-core Xeon E5 w/64 GB RAM (used as DAW master).
Library template size: Max. 2000 MIDI tracks/single articulations, probably could live with 1000 for now. May build more slaves.
Template Instrument/audio: ONLY 2 audio I/O per VEP Kontakt instance i.e. 1 stereo output for all 16 articulations in Kontakt multi patch "Violins 1 - Long". I'll export all audio to PT after mock up.
Primary DAWs: DP 9.5, Pro Tools 2018 HD. Sometime with Cubase and Studio1 4.
My primary DAW could be changed to Cubase or S1 if there are specific advantages for this build.

No video necessary other than onboard graphics.
No wifi necessary
Absolutely no other purpose other than as a VEP server.

I'm open to using a straight forward PC slave, but please tell convince me because I have a tendency to smash things that look Windows, lol.

All advice welcomed! Just don't ask me why I do this....

THANKS FOLKS!

 

[trs96]

Make sure to check out the https://www.tonymacx86.com/forums/music.21/ part of this site. Lots of helpful info there.

 

[zipb]

Just use Windows... Don't be silly. If VePro is the only one thing that matters, buy a PC workstation from a reputed dealer and get on with your life.

 

[JywK]

Just use Windows... Don't be silly. If VePro is the only one thing that matters, buy a PC workstation from a reputed dealer and get on with your life.

Thanks, zipb. I AM trying to get on with my life.
If you could just point me to a build specs, please?
If you know exactly what I need...I've built a few gaming PC's going back about 10-15 years, but just not the same world anymore.

And I don't feel like paying for some "reputation" or to have someone with reputation build one for me. I could put a PC together over a lunch. I just need to get the specs from someone who knows what I needs.

 

[trs96]

convince me because I have a tendency to smash things that look Windows

Does this mean you completely want to avoid using Windows due to past problems with that OS ?

 

[JywK]

Not really. I just haven't used Windows in a while (like 10+ yrs) and don't have much fond memories.

If it can be a 'build-and-forget' type of a slave PC, with little to zero maintenance, I'll definitely consider it. Heck, I don't even know if my Apple formatted SSDs will even get recognized by a Windows, which is one of the reason why I'm looking for a Hackintosh build.

Just don't want to have to deal with those...little things add up...an exception here, there...pretty soon...more headaches and I'll just end up pulling the trigger on something that's an overkill for what I actually need. Unfortunately, I have a long history of doing this.

 

[trs96]

The VE Pro 6 hardware requirements don't look to be that much. I have no experience with it. What will the VE Pro 6 slave PC be doing most of the time ? How much ram do you need ? How many cores CPU ? It should be quite easy for you to build a basic CustoMac Pro hackintosh to use for this.

Look at the supported hardware in the Buyer's Guide and choose from that.
https://www.tonymacx86.com/buyersguide/may/2018/#CustoMac_Pro

Build it and install Windows 10 and see if it works for you. If not you can easily install macOS Sierra and use that.

As very general guidelines, get an Asus or Gigabyte mobo, an Intel i5 or i7 CPU and at least 16 GB of ram in a 2 x 8 GB kit. Any of the current Z or H370 motherboards with 4 ram slots can support up to 64 GB of ram.

 

[JywK]

The VE Pro 6 hardware requirements don't look to be that much. I have no experience with it. How much ram do you need ? How many cores CPU ? It should be quite easy for you to build a basic CustoMac Pro hackintosh to use for this.

If you have no experience with VEP, ...Idk... from what I know, it's not just VEP; it's the relationship between VEP and DAW and how it's being used. Unless you understand why people use this Master-slave in a film scoring template, and the scale of the template size, it's not as simple as deciding on a number of cores and CPU clock speed and RAM. I wish I could tell you more, which is actually I posted this question here.

I am just getting into using VEP myself, which is why I am looking for someone with experience with VEP. More specifically, I'm looking to run a min. 1000 midi tracks through VEP on DP 9.5, up to 2000 per each slave machine. I know people who run 6 slave PCs. Search VEP PC slave on Youtube, you'll see some jaw-dropping uses for this. I just can't find one with more recent specs for a PC slave build. Ones I found with specs are relatively old. I just want to have someone tell me even those built +3 yrs ago are still functional today, and possibly future-proof as much as possible looking +5 ahead.

For example, I'd want to someone to tell me "6-core, 3.5GHz Processor with 32 GB DDR3 RAM, on XYZ motherboard with ABC PSU will do the job" BECAUSE HE/SHE HAS BUILT ONE and it's been working fine with whatever DAW and PT, etc...

 

[trs96]

For example, I'd want to someone to tell me "6-core, 3.5GHz Processor with 32 GB DDR3 RAM, on XYZ motherboard with ABC PSU will do the job" BECAUSE HE/SHE HAS BUILT ONE and it's been working fine with whatever DAW and PT, etc...

Then it's probably best to use the link in post #2 above and ask other DAW users what they would suggest.

 

[JywK]

Will do, thanks again!