EXS 24 Logic Sampler Users Group

From: Sean McCoy <osr@...>

>MOTU got back to me surprisingly fast! According to Nathan at MOTU tech
>support, the PCI-424 driver is indeed multi-client, which he said he
>himself had tested and could verify. So, based on all the information I've
>gathered here and on the VSL forum, it is currently at least theoretically
>possible to run EXS with up to 3.5 Gb of samples loaded into RAM,
>simultaneously with Kontakt, either standalone or using a VST host, with
>another 3.5 Gb of samples loaded, doing all sequencing with Logic,
>triggering the Kontakt samples via Core Midi's IAC, with individually
>assignable outputs for the two samplers off of a single PCI-424.
>
>Anybody willing to test this out?  The problem is that for the cost of
>another 4 Gig of Mac RAM, you can buy a decent PC and eliminate the
>risk.  And even with a 2.5 GhZ G5, 7 gig of streaming samples could provide
>a serious test of CPU power, not to mention disk throughput.
>
>As obviously attractive as the idea of having that much sample playback
>power under one hood is, I think it's still not yet as practical as
>multiple machines.  Maybe once we're dealing with all 64-bit programming,
>but not now.

Interesting. The other advantage to running samplers outside Logic - 
either on PCs or on the same Mac - is that you can keep them loaded 
when you change Songs (or Logic crashes). Now the question becomes 
how you route those Kontakts back into Logic or wherever you mix. I 
guess a physical lightpipe-to-lightpipe connection is the easiest way.

There's probably an amount of RAM in a G5 that makes the most 
financial sense, most likely 4 or 4-1/2 gigs. I think that even a 
fully loaded G5 isn't going to be the single-machine solution we 
users of HUGE libs want. Right now I'm running two Windows machines 
in addition to my Mac (a G4), and it's not enough; that plus a G5 
might be almost enough.

***

Naaaah, not a chance!
-- 

Nick Batzdorf
818/905-9101, cell 590-9101, fax 905-5434