Steven - VSL is pretty stringent, but it appears some of their re-sellers are not quite so attentive to detail. I'm sorry you ran into this, I think it is unacceptable. I made a couple of VSL purchases through Sweetwater, and they made sure I understood the licensing before they took my money. I have a couple minor quibbles with them, but overall they do take good care of me. I've also made a couple purchases through JRR, AudioDeluxe, and the like, and while I've received what I expected I just don't get the same warm/fuzzy feeling. Might be me, I am something of a curmudgeon I guess?
Elffin - building templates is a bit of an adventure (understatement intended). I'm still building templates, specifically for Sonar, and after several false starts I've settled on the following - please note that I am not finished, and I could discover this approach won't work either<G>...
I have multiple VEPro instances, each of which contains one VIPro instance, and multiple Kontakt5 instances. I am still experimenting with sticking 64 instruments into a single instance of Kontakt vs limiting it to 16, or less. I am launching every instance fully purged, and that is working well for me.
I then use Sonar's brilliant track templates to access the various instruments. I am still a the stage where I have to build them as I go, but I'd like to think that the will eventually become reusable (this would be a great opportunity for Cakewalk to introduce folders in folders - hint hint)
So far I've built the following VEPro instances - I can send you the detailed listings if they'd be of any use. Initially it looked like 1100+ instruments, and clearly I'd never use them all, nor could I even load them all. I've been trying to think the herd as I go. Most of the instruments fell into the last few categories, and they are things that I would hope I would not reuse, but you never know. My goal is to cut it down by at least half, and simply add an instance or two if Kontakt for those "add some spice" tracks.
- Ensembles (I am slowly rolling all the family ensembles into this instance, not sure how that will work out)
- Strings Ensembles
- Strings Sections
- Strings Solo
- Winds Ensembles
- Winds Sections
- Winds Solo
- Brass Ensembles
- Brass Sections
- Brass Solo
- Pianos (includes prepared and designed pianos)
- Keys (pretty much every other keyboard except synths)
- Choirs & Vocalists
- Percussion - Handheld
- Percussion - Found
- Percussion - Cymbals & Gongs
- Percussion - Orchestral
- Percussion - Cinematic
- Percussion Ensembles
- Drum Kits (not sure if I'll keep this, I use Toontrack Superior for most of my drum kits)
- Sound Design
- Experimental
- Sound Effects (very little here, I have 150GB of SFX libraries that I am too familiar with)
I hope this gives you some ideas. I will share that I've been at this for 6 or 7 months now, working out how I switch articulations, how I group instruments, and just understanding some of the underpinnings of VEPro. I'm also still using a single computer, I really need to add another machine to host VEPro!
I do have a second machine in the studio, and I have an instance of VEPro on it, specifically for synths - which require CPU but not a lot of memory. It is an older build (Q6600, 8GB) and works well for that. I'm also using it to host my Frontier Design Dakota/Montana, four Tangos, and a Sierra. This provides me with 32 analog inputs which I use for some of my old synths. I'm looking for time to try SilentWay so I can use the outputs to drive a couple of ancient synths too<G>!
My only minor gripe is that the user interfaces for the remote processes require some hoop jumping. I've tried Multiplicity (or whatever it is called these days) and really like it, but it requires additional monitors, and I really don't have the space (or $) for that. For now I use VNC and it works, but it lags.
Have fun!