Hi! I'm wondering about how Sonar Platinum would work with using one or more extra pc's to handle VST processing.  Any advice on where to go to start?

I can't contribute (yet) but I want to throw in that you might want to add some of your hardware constraints (i.e. what you own/intend to use) as there are probably hundreds of ways, each with their own pitfalls ...
 
Do you want to just connect via MIDI and convert audio several times? Or do you envision some sort of digital connection, which is not trivial considering interfaces, clock sync etc ...
 
I will listen in on this thread, hopefully those who use mulitple DAW configs can share their experiences

Something like VEP would probably be the least amount of fuss (Once you set it up correctly, of course):
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCoagnXH1a8
 
The other argument is that once you start spending over $200 towards a multi-PC setup, maybe you should be looking at just upgrading to a single fast PC.

Hey thanks!  I'm really not sure how I want to connect them, but it will definitely have to be by more than midi since VST's will be producing audio on the remote machine, probably over ethernet or Firewire?  I guess Firewire would be best.
 
The thing with a single fast pc is that I will probably run out of CPU eventually like I have with my i7-950 (at 4Ghz).  So instead of building a new $1200+ pc, I figured it would be better to just pick up a used core i5 / i7 every now and then.  I see them on sale pretty often for $200 - $250.  Added costs would then be I don't know what...  FX-Teleport is free, but old and 32-bit only I think.
 
This is what I have at present:
 
core i7-950 @ 4Ghz
16Gb RAM
Focusrite Saffire Pro 14 (firewire interface)
Sonar Platinum
tons of VSTs
 
The "Vienna Ensemble PRO" JonD suggested looks like a pretty good option....
 
 

JonD
Something like VEP would probably be the least amount of fuss (Once you set it up correctly, of course):
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCoagnXH1a8
 
The other argument is that once you start spending over $200 towards a multi-PC setup, maybe you should be looking at just upgrading to a single fast PC.

 
just watched the video. interesting tool - and incredibly cheap compared to any solution using hardware ... but latency for live playing VEP adds 2x buffer size (=triple latency!?!) ... how do you play live then ??? you can disable the buffer, but does it still work ... ?

I'm currently using one fast PC, but I'm about to add at least one, and maybe two additional machines. I've run a bunch of different machine configurations over the years, from single machine to Master plus GigaStudio slave (for those that remember Giga) to single machine using VEPro to host Kontakt to Master plus Audio+MIDI slave using Lightpipe and MidiOverLan to Master plus Audio+MIDI slave using VEPro... well, you get the idea<G>.
While FXTransport, MIDIOverLAN, Dante, and other such tools work, VEPro simplifies things so much that I recommend just starting there. It will still require some work,
 
The hardware requirements for a secondary machine depend on what you plan to host there. It doesn't need to be a fire-breathing dragon, but it still needs to be reasonably fast, and you may be limited to CPU/Motherboard choices by your memory requirements.

I have a Q6600 based system (my previous DAW) which is limited to 8GB of memory. I will use this to host a bunch of synthesizers, and since it still has "real" PCI slots I've loaded it up with a Frontier Dakota/Montana/Sierra giving me 32 audio inputs for my (hardware) synth rack, and 32 CV outputs for my analog synths, and an 8x8 MIDI interface, also for the hardware synths. All of which will use VEPro to get back and forth.

Then, when I've recovered from that adventure I will need to build a machine to host Kontakt and Vienna Instruments. Currently 64 GB seems to be the practical (affordable) limit, and that's my target. I'm also concerned that just because a machine can host 64GB (approx) of instruments doesn't mean it can stream them all. There  could be other bottlenecks. So it's always a game of optimization, and 64GB seems to be optimal at the moment.
 
So the only thing I can say definitively is start with VEPro and save yourself some aggravation<G>!
 
That's what I know at the moment... good luck and please share your results so the rest of us can piggyback off your hard work<G>!

I am not at all sure what you are running with for a load, but I have a single PC running Windows 8.1, with 32 GB of memory and an AMD A10-7850 CPU.  I have a single SSD as a primary drive, holding all applications and the OS, and 5 HDD's that are each 2 TB in size, holding Cakewalk Projects, Content, user libraries (documents, downloads, etc.), and 2 sample library drives.
 
I have never ever even once had to freeze any tracks or take any additional measures for any project I have ever created, so I am really wondering how you are running yourself out of a single computer.
 
Can you please provide additional detail as to how your typical projects are put together, so I can better understand?
 
Thanks, 
 
Bob Bone
 

I can try...
 
Machine Specs:
> CPU: Intel i7-4790k @ 4GHz
> Motherboard: ASRock Z97 Extreme4
> BIOS: AMI P1.30 (05/23/2014)
> Power supply: Corsair CX600M 600 Watt ATX Modular
> Operating system: Windows 10
> Amount & type of RAM: 32GB - Crucial Ballistix Sport XT 32GB DDR3-1600 (PC3-12800) CL9
> Graphics card/driver: none currently, using on-chip GPU
> Hard-Drives:
• Drive #1 (OS/Apps)- Crucial CT256MX100SSD1 256GB SATA III SSD
• Drive #2 (samples)- SAMSUNG 840 EVO MZ-7TE1T0BW 1TB SATA III MLC SSD
• Drive #3 (data) - Seagate ST1000DM003 Barracuda 7200 1TB SATA III HDD
• Drive #4 (content) - Hitachi HDS721010CLA332 1000GB, 7200rpm, SATA II HDD
• Optical Drive: LG 24X Internal DVD ReWritable Drive SATA
> Audio Interface: UA Apollo Twin USB, Presonus 1818VSL
> MIDI Interface: Alyseum AL88C
> DSP: UA UAD2/Quad

No such thing as a "typical" project, but one recent project that gave me fits included:

• 14 stereo audio tracks - 24 bits, 96 kHz, each has a compressor and equalizer, typically UAD stuff)
• 474 virtual instrument audio tracks - little or no insert processing on these
• 464 Virtual instrument MIDI tracks
• 12 Reverb Auxes (mostly algorithmic, and mostly UAD, 3 instances of Reverberate)
• 16 Delay Auxes
• 1 instance of VSS2

 
Virtual  Instruments (all hosted in VEPro):

• 5 instances of Kontakt5 for strings
• 4 instances of Kontakt5 for winds
• 4 instances of Kontakt5 for brass
• 2 instances of Kontakt5 for percussion
• 3 instances of Kontakt5 for tuned percussion
• 2 instances of Kontakt5 for ensemble instruments
• 6 instances of Kontakt5 for keyboards & miscellaneous instruments
• 6 instances of VIPro (all of the Special Editions Volume 1 loaded)
• 2 instances of Toontrack Superior 2
• 32 synth tracks

Now obviously I do not use every single track, and with background loading ALL of the Kontakt stuff is loaded fully purged, so I am only using the memory that I absolutely need. And not every instance has 16 instruments loaded - I try to divide by instrument family to make things a little more organized.
 
There are times where I'm above 30GB of memory in use, and the machine does start to complain at that point.
 
Why work that way? Well that's personal preference I guess - I do not have all my Kontakt libraries at my fingertips, but I do have the majority of my strings, brass, winds, percussion and keyboards ready, and I have some of the specialty stuff that I (over?) use ready as well. A couple of the "miscellaneous" instances of Kontakt are reserved for stuff I might want to add on the fly.
 
Oh yeah, settings - mine are almost identical to yours, which makes sense since  I spent a great deal of time tweaking them when I put the 1818VSL into service, and I never bothered to test again when I added the Apollo Twin.
 
I use 24 bit word length for everything.
 
I was using 48 kHz for live audio, but recently I've been experimenting with 96 kHz for love audio and 48 kHz for virtual instruments (love that  I can mix and match). Not that  most sample libraries provide choices of sample rate<G>!
 
For tracking I keep the ASIO Buffer Size at 64, or even 32 if I can get away with it. For mixing I'll bump up the buffer size to at least 128, and sometimes 256 if I am running into problems. Record/Playback I/O Buffers are set to 512k.
 
Do you see anything obviously wrong?
 
I definitely want to re-purpose the old DAW (Q6600) as an audio/MIDI interface for the hardware synths using VEPro. Doesn't cost me anything but a little time and probably some hair pulling.

I'd love to skip over a third machine for Kontakt if I can. Not that I'm cheap or anything<G>...

Wow - I would never have guessed in a million years that someone would build projects with close to a thousand tracks in them, and I have absolutely ZERO experience with things that stacked.
 
I was aware of at least one other individual who at least at one point a couple years ago was running with templates that pretty much loaded every single thing he had, and he too had into the hundreds of tracks and synths that were loaded but never actually accessed.
 
To the best of my understanding, he just didn't feel like dealing with picking and choosing for full orchestral projects, so he just loaded it ALL in, all the time.
 
Do you get into freezing things as they get to where you are ready to move on to another section?  I suppose if this is really how you want to approach it, I suppose trying to move to a system with a CPU and motherboard that can deal with 64 GB memory would be the last frontier that comes to mind, other than as I indicated either freezing or bouncing things that can be, as soon as practical, to free up resources and reduce load on the system.
 
I just don't EVER come within several hundred tracks or soft synth instances of what you apparently load and run on a regular basis, so I have very little to offer.
 
I DO hope that you come up with a way to work with things so that you don't run out of running threshold at a crucial spot in any of your projects.
 
I would be quite curious as to what research you have done with targeted freezing/bouncing, in terms of freed up resources.
 
Bob Bone
 

Freezing and bouncing certainly free up resources, but I haven't needed to do that, yet. For the most part when  I run into problems with playback it is a stutter or a click and bumping up the latency gets me back on track.

As far as workflow goes - I'd give my right... turn signal for an orchestral library that occupied one track per instrument, and included all the articulations in each track, accessible via CCs. That would reduce my template to what, 35-40 MIDI tracks and 35-40 audio tracks for the orchestra. Pretty significant savings!
 
But library developers don't ask me<G>!

So the choices are:
1) build on the fly and load only those instruments and articulations you need
2) work with a template
 
As libraries increase is capabilities (and size) and until there is a uniform way to handle multiple articulations per track I think the template wins because loading on the fly is a real concentration breaker. At least for me.

Second (and third, and so on) machine is the easiest way to manage the load today. Not entirely true, I suspect a single machine with 64 GB  would do the  trick too, but I don't feel like building a new primary DAW right now.
 
Thanks,
 
Bill