# What is Your Experience & Opinion of Vienna Ensemble Pro?



## pacificm (Jan 18, 2017)

A little over a year ago I took the plunge and ordered a copy of Vienna Ensemble Pro (VEP). I had been using Digital Performer on a single iMac, adding more virtual instruments (VIs) to my projects and at times crashing due to overloading VIs on my machine. I find recording tracks as I compose to be cumbersome and so avoid it if at all possible.

Then I heard of VEP and how using multiple machines could increase the amount of VIs you could use. So, I now have VEP 6 and am currently running two of the three licenses on two iMacs - one on my "master" and one on my "slave." It's been quite a challenge dealing with all of the configuration issues, but when everything works well it's nice to have access to all of the VIs.

I'm now in the process of adding a third machine to the mix to use the third license. I tried to use a MacBook Pro, but ran into all kinds of issues. So, now I'm thinking of adding a Mac Pro. With the prospect of adding a third machine, reconfiguration is an issue all over again.

I'm curious what the experience and opinions are of others who are using VEP, or have used it, and those who have decided not to use it. What is your opinion of this extraordinary Austrian creation? Please let me know what you think. Thanks!


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## Vanni (Jan 19, 2017)

if it was priced x times more than what it is everyone would still be buying it. I'm not aware of alternatives.


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## Simon Ravn (Jan 19, 2017)

Invaluable.


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## NYC Composer (Jan 19, 2017)

One of the two essential pieces of software I own.


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## trumpoz (Jan 19, 2017)

It an elegant piece of software.

Follow the instructions and there will (well should) be no problems. Never had a problem with it.


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## Nathanael Iversen (Jan 19, 2017)

It is magic. Powerful, deep, awesome magic. It just works.


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## devonmyles (Jan 19, 2017)

It's the hub of everything for me.
A terrific piece of software.


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## garyhiebner (Jan 20, 2017)

Once you get around the technical issues of setting it up, it works like a charm. Being able to offload instruments to slave machines is priceless. And beef them up with SSD's and as much RAM as possible.

It's obviously a bit more steps then a super beefed up single machine. But it's a great way to repurpose old machines.


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## camelot (Jan 20, 2017)

I just added a HP Z420 Workstation with 64 GB RAM as my first time ever sample slave to my main daw. 
I used VEpro on the single machine before. So the only new part for me was the network stuff. But there was not much to do. It worked directly from the beginning. I was expecting some trouble (I always do when I change my hardware setup), but nothing like that. Working like a charm. It is absolute high quality and probably worth every penny.
But I am all PC only, no Mac. So I do not know what problems you run into.


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## wst3 (Jan 20, 2017)

I'm still using VEPro on a single machine, but even that has made a pretty big difference in the number of instruments at my fingertips.

There are several ways to configure VEPro regardless of the single/multiple machine bit, and I am still experimenting with that - I like the idea of decoupled, and that may work better when I (finally) add a slave... we'll see<G>!

There are several ways to route audio and control, and I'm experimenting with that too. My preference is to leave VEPro alone and route everything back to the daw for mixing and processing, but I work with two different DAWs, and I may end up doing at least some of my mixing in VEpro. Again time will tell.

All in all it is invaluable!


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## NoamL (Jan 20, 2017)

It's liberating. You stop worrying about tech issues, RAM limits, load times, the focus goes back to the music where it belongs.


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## jononotbono (Jan 21, 2017)

I love it. I use it on a single machine and with a Slave. It's worth every penny.


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## Andrew_m (Jan 21, 2017)

jononotbono said:


> I love it. I use it on a single machine and with a Slave. It's worth every penny.


How does one set up a slave? and how much money does it cost? I've only heard the idea be tossed around a bit.


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## jononotbono (Jan 21, 2017)

I'm a little busy at the minute and only on my mobile phone away from home so I can't really answer that in-depth atthe minute but it is really simple. Hopefully someone else will chime in here but you essentially install VEPro on all your computers. They connect via a Cat 6 Ethernet Cables. Obviously you need to have your Slave computer setup with your music software and both versions of VEPro need to be the same version. How much? Depends on what computer you buy or build.

You need an elicenser Dongle with a VEPro licence on it, for each computer using VEPro (you get 3 licenses with the intial,purchase). 
PCs are definitely the way to go for a Slave. I use mine for nothing but streaming samples and have no problem with it, ever. My only problem is that I've run out of money to build another one


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## dog1978 (Jan 21, 2017)

Andrew_m said:


> How does one set up a slave? and how much money does it cost? I've only heard the idea be tossed around a bit.


I love it and I have done a few videos:


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## Andrew_m (Jan 21, 2017)

dog1978 said:


> I love it and I have done a few videos:



What specs does your slave PC have? I'm still confused by the process. Does it only work with vienna ensemble libraries? Or could I use Kontakt libraries as a slave and load them up faster too?


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## wcreed51 (Jan 21, 2017)

You can use any VSTi library


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## mcalis (Jan 21, 2017)

Andrew_m said:


> What specs does your slave PC have? I'm still confused by the process. Does it only work with vienna ensemble libraries? Or could I use Kontakt libraries as a slave and load them up faster too?


I don't own VEP and have never used it, but the idea is quite simple. Usually your DAW hosts all your plugins. With a VEP set-up, all the plugins are hosted inside VEP. Well, not all of them! You can still also load plugins inside your main machine, but that's up to you!

Think of it this way: VEP allows you to bring in a 2nd (and 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc, as many as you want) computer to help out your main computer. Your 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc computer are called the slave machines whilst the one that runs your DAW is referred to as the master or host computer.

Through VEP you can load any plugin you want (kontakt libs, PLAY, UVI workstation, etc). You do this on the slave computers. Then, with the VEP software, you connect your main computer to the slaves so the two can communicate.

Your main machine runs your DAW and in it you load instance of the VEP plugin. The VEP plugin then connects to your slave, and as a result you can reach any of the plugins you loaded in VEP through your main DAW.

Hope that gives you a clearer picture of how everything is connected!


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## Andrew_m (Jan 21, 2017)

mcalis said:


> I don't own VEP and have never used it, but the idea is quite simple. Usually your DAW hosts all your plugins. With a VEP set-up, all the plugins are hosted inside VEP. Well, not all of them! You can still also load plugins inside your main machine, but that's up to you!
> 
> Think of it this way: VEP allows you to bring in a 2nd (and 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc, as many as you want) computer to help out your main computer. Your 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc computer are called the slave machines whilst the one that runs your DAW is referred to as the master or host computer.
> 
> ...


Very clear! Thanks a bunch! I have some ideas running through my head


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## camelot (Jan 23, 2017)

And you can find some really nice offers for refurbished workstations as the one I mentioned above. Just find one with lots of RAM.


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## Fab (Feb 8, 2017)

camelot said:


> And you can find some really nice offers for refurbished workstations as the one I mentioned above. Just find one with lots of RAM.



Where?


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## Tysmall (Feb 8, 2017)

Fab said:


> Where?


I'm seeing some on ebay with low ram for 3 - 400. Actually if you buy all refurbished i'm looking at an 800 dollar dual cpu 32 core rig with 64gb of ram for 800. 128gb would run me over a thousand but that's still way better performance to dollar ratio than amd's new chip should bring.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Z420-Workstation-2-20GHz-8-Core-E5-2660-16GB-RAM-2x-500GB-HDD-No-OS/182324092869?_trksid=p2141725.c100338.m3726&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20150313114020%26meid%3D26b461f10d9645d8a2692e507d55919e%26pid%3D100338%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D29%26sd%3D302208603997

don't buy that one, I call dibs . But that will get you in the right direction.


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## Andrew Christie (Feb 8, 2017)

Tysmall said:


> I'm seeing some on ebay with low ram for 3 - 400. Actually if you buy all refurbished i'm looking at an 800 dollar dual cpu 32 core rig with 64gb of ram for 800. 128gb would run me over a thousand but that's still way better performance to dollar ratio than amd's new chip should bring.
> 
> http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Z420-Workstation-2-20GHz-8-Core-E5-2660-16GB-RAM-2x-500GB-HDD-No-OS/182324092869?_trksid=p2141725.c100338.m3726&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20150313114020%26meid%3D26b461f10d9645d8a2692e507d55919e%26pid%3D100338%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D29%26sd%3D302208603997 (http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Z420-Workstation-2-20GHz-8-Core-E5-2660-16GB-RAM-2x-500GB-HDD-No-OS/182324092869?_trksid=p2141725.c100338.m3726&amp;_trkparms=aid=222007&amp;algo=SIC.MBE&amp;ao=1&amp;asc=20150313114020&amp;meid=26b461f10d9645d8a2692e507d55919e&amp;pid=100338&amp;rk=4&amp;rkt=29&amp;sd=302208603997)
> 
> don't buy that one, I call dibs . But that will get you in the right direction.



Ahh thanks for this...eBay's PC Servers and Parts Store looks to have some good stuff at a very reasonable price. I'm looking for a Vienna machine at the moment. I was also looking at Newegg but I'm not sure how reliable they are.


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## marclawsonmusic (Feb 8, 2017)

Can't live without it.


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## Matt Riley (Feb 8, 2017)

Something to consider: When Jim Roseberry built my PC slave, he said I was better buying two 64Gb PCs than one 128Gb. The reason was that Kontakt instruments start having issues when they are loaded over 64Gb of ram. I don't know if that's still the case though. I'm still using one 64Gb slave though (my orchestral template fills about 56Gb) with my synth instruments and few others loaded on my master imac.


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## Fab (Feb 9, 2017)

Tysmall said:


> I'm seeing some on ebay with low ram for 3 - 400. Actually if you buy all refurbished i'm looking at an 800 dollar dual cpu 32 core rig with 64gb of ram for 800. 128gb would run me over a thousand but that's still way better performance to dollar ratio than amd's new chip should bring.
> 
> http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Z420-Workstation-2-20GHz-8-Core-E5-2660-16GB-RAM-2x-500GB-HDD-No-OS/182324092869?_trksid=p2141725.c100338.m3726&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20150313114020%26meid%3D26b461f10d9645d8a2692e507d55919e%26pid%3D100338%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D29%26sd%3D302208603997 (http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Z420-Workstation-2-20GHz-8-Core-E5-2660-16GB-RAM-2x-500GB-HDD-No-OS/182324092869?_trksid=p2141725.c100338.m3726&amp;_trkparms=aid=222007&amp;algo=SIC.MBE&amp;ao=1&amp;asc=20150313114020&amp;meid=26b461f10d9645d8a2692e507d55919e&amp;pid=100338&amp;rk=4&amp;rkt=29&amp;sd=302208603997)
> 
> don't buy that one, I call dibs . But that will get you in the right direction.



Ha, not in my country anway.

Thanks, i like ebay but its alot of work. Also, had high hopes for AMD and teir new thing


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## ceemusic (Feb 10, 2017)

I bought it when I moved to Cubase & wouldn't be without it now. It has it's quirks but for me it's essential software for symphonic creation & production.


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## Walra48 (Feb 10, 2017)

VE Pro. Essential. Essential. Essential. Would pay whatever they charged to have it. Period.


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## davidgary73 (Feb 10, 2017)

VEP, my best investment ever


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