Cubase 5 on PC vs Logic Pro on Mac via rtpMIDI

Tollemache

New member
Hi all! Hopefully one of you can help me with a little problem that has me tearing my hair out...

I have a Macbook Pro and a Lenovo laptop, with different strengths and weaknesses - the mac seems more stable and easier to use, the PC has the storage capacity and decent processing umph. I'm running a lot of plug-ins including Vienna Instruments which loves to hog memory, so I'd like to divide the load between them, ideally by having the PC with Cubase run as slave to the Mac with Logic. Is this even possible?

I've got rtpMIDI running on the PC and have established a connection between the two machines, so I'm thinking it's a matter of getting the MIDI preferences on the respective DAW's right. This is where I fall down - I've tried pretty much every combination of settings with absolutely no success.

Anyone done this before? Cheers for reading my maiden post btw
 
Hi,
I suppose it's possible to have the session audio and midi data running one one machine, and have the midi piping out via hardware to another machine with vienna on it.
I've never tried anything like this but I suppose it could work.

When it comes time for final bounce I suppose you could export the midi from the main machine to the auxiliary one, and bounce your vienna stuff externally,
then bring it back as wav to the main session machine for full final mixdown?

Is that the kind of thing you were thinking of?
 
The idea is to have the midi piping out via rtpMIDI to the machine with Vienna on it, then bounce the Vienna tracks to wavs and move them back over.
 
Nor have I but I'll look into it!

Another thought - might it be possible to use an iPad as control surface and link both computers to it so at least they'd play, stop etc at the same time and always be in the same place? Then I could have both their audio outs going to a mixer and voila, the results would be much the same as having them communicate directly with each other....
 
I'm not sure that's the way to go.

I'd stick with one of the computers pretty much being a hardware synth.

In fact, that would have been a much much simpler way to word my first reply! :p
 
I've never used rtpMIDI, but I have used multiple computers with using just standard midi out from one sound card of Master PC, to my Slave PC, then send analog audio back from the Slave to Master PC. This is Old-School for sure, but works great. You can use any DAW software you wish on each computer, Mac and/or PC's. I'm guessing rtpMIDI is basically close to the same thing.

Since I'm a Cubase user, I now use VST System Link, which is Steinbergs proprietary method of linking/synchronizing multiple computers. You need a Steinberg product of each computer (works Mac and/or PC's) I've linked up to 5 desktop PC's and a laptop with System Link, all with sample accurate perfect synchronization.

I've grown very accustomed to using multiple computers myself, and don't see it as a big deal, nor all that hard to do...once you know how to do it! Even though I have and use multiple PC's, I often only work with just ONE at a time. VST System Link makes this possible, because I can run just my dedicated VSTi PC, recording all my midi tracks directly here. When finished, I send a stereo audio VSTi sub-mix to my audio PC (digitally with coaxial s/pdif). Since I can be working with VSTi's & midi for days or weeks at a time, or my audio for a long period of time as well, it doesn't make the best sense to run multiple PC's full-time when I don't have to. Being able to use just one PC at a time makes working with multiple computers even more attractive to me. I do run multiples when needed though.

You say you use Vienna instruments? Does this mean you have Vienna Ensemble Pro (VEP)? If so, use that. If not, look into that as a possibility. You can use it with Mac and/or PC's, and use any DAW software on each computer as well. I believe VEP comes with 3 licenses to use on 3 computers.

But using just standard midi and audio among sound cards works well too, as I'm sure rtpMIDI does.
 
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