# VEPro with 2 Computers



## patrick76 (Nov 27, 2014)

Hi,

I am considering getting VEPro to use with two computers as follows -
- Master Computer with Cubase, Kontakt, etc.
- Slave computer with Kontakt.

I have a few questions I hope someone can help with...

1. Do I need a USB e-licensor dongle for each computer?
2. Can I open the Kontakt on my slave computer in Cubase on my master computer via VE Pro?
3. Do I only need an ethernet cable to connect the two computers?

Thanks!

Patrick


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## khollister (Nov 27, 2014)

1. yes
2. You can connect to a Kontakt VEP instance from Cubase, but in order to use the Kontakt UI, you need to use Remote Desktop or VNC to access the VEP instance and the Kontakt instances it contains on the slave they are hosted on.
3. Correct - a switch is not needed for only 2 computers.


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## patrick76 (Nov 27, 2014)

Thanks for the info! Do you think this would be the most efficient and cheap solution for the setup I am trying to create (Master Cubase computer controlling 2nd computer with Kontakt)?

Best,

Patrick


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## Zardoz (Nov 27, 2014)

patrick76 @ Thu Nov 27 said:


> Thanks for the info! Do you think this would be the most efficient and cheap solution for the setup I am trying to create (Master Cubase computer controlling 2nd computer with Kontakt)?
> 
> Best,
> 
> Patrick



Yes, that is typically how it's done. The slave needs to be the beefier of the two computers (lots of ram, etc) and houses the VE Pro server software, Kontakt and all of your samples. The Master is used exclusively for the DAW software (Logic, Cubase, etc). 

The point is to unburden your daw computer with all of the ram and processing requirements of the samples and sample players and offload this work to a cheap but powerful windows slave allowing bigger templates. 

There are lots of variations on this setup but the above seems to be the most common.

Also, you only need 1 elicenser dongle for a two computer setup. It goes on the slave computer where the VE Pro server software resides. The VE plugin for you daw on the master does not require a dongle to run.


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## Zardoz (Nov 27, 2014)

Also, your slave computer can be run "headless" (no monitor,keyboard or mouse) once you get it set up. As was said above you can just use a VNC program to remotely view and control your slave from your master daw computer.


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## khollister (Nov 27, 2014)

Zardoz @ Thu Nov 27 said:


> Also, you only need 1 elicenser dongle for a two computer setup. It goes on the slave computer where the VE Pro server software resides. The VE plugin for you daw on the master does not require a dongle to run.



Well, that's embarrassing :oops: I was originally running VEP servers on both my master and a Mac Mini slave so I had two dongles. When I moved all of the instruments to the PC slave, I kept the dongle plugged into the master because I also had my MIR Pro license on there. I never realized I didn't need the VEP license on the master dongle if I was just using the plugin (aka client).

Talk about clueless :D


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## Zardoz (Nov 27, 2014)

khollister @ Thu Nov 27 said:


> Well, that's embarrassing :oops: I was originally running VEP servers on both my master and a Mac Mini slave so I had two dongles. When I moved all of the instruments to the PC slave, I kept the dongle plugged into the master because I also had my MIR Pro license on there. I never realized I didn't need the VEP license on the master dongle if I was just using the plugin (aka client).
> 
> Talk about clueless :D



Eh, this stuff is needlessly complicated. We all get confused sometimes. I'd hold on to that key though in case you ever run a second slave. VE Pro gives you a license for up to 3 slaves, but you need a dongle for each of them.


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## jononotbono (Feb 27, 2016)

khollister said:


> Well, that's embarrassing :oops: I was originally running VEP servers on both my master and a Mac Mini slave so I had two dongles. When I moved all of the instruments to the PC slave, I kept the dongle plugged into the master because I also had my MIR Pro license on there. I never realized I didn't need the VEP license on the master dongle if I was just using the plugin (aka client).
> 
> Talk about clueless :D



I have done the same thing. Haha. Nevermind. I needed a second eLicencer to run Cubase on the Master and the second for VEP on the slave. We live and learn...


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## windyweekend (Nov 24, 2016)

Hope nobody minds but I'm going to jump in this conversation with my own dumb questions (even though I'm nine months late to the chat). I'm about to dive into the VEP world myself so am trying to figure out how to best architect the set up before I screw it up.

Q1 - I've been having ASIO performance maxing issues on my current sole machine. I'm running about 70ish tracks on average with mainly Kontakt and Spitfire libs. If I offload these to a slave via VEP will I still have the same performance woes on my Cubase master machine because I've still got the same number of tracks I.e. Is all I would have done be to offload some RAM load, but nothing else?

Q2 - which machine needs the best CPU power? My master today has i3 cores and candidate slave will have i5 cores (both with the same amount of RAM). Am I best swapping them, or give the slave the meatier processors?

Thanks for the advice all!


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## kitekrazy (Nov 26, 2016)

windyweekend said:


> Hope nobody minds but I'm going to jump in this conversation with my own dumb questions (even though I'm nine months late to the chat). I'm about to dive into the VEP world myself so am trying to figure out how to best architect the set up before I screw it up.
> 
> Q1 - I've been having ASIO performance maxing issues on my current sole machine. I'm running about 70ish tracks on average with mainly Kontakt and Spitfire libs. If I offload these to a slave via VEP will I still have the same performance woes on my Cubase master machine because I've still got the same number of tracks I.e. Is all I would have done be to offload some RAM load, but nothing else?
> 
> ...



I wanna know too.


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## patrick76 (Nov 27, 2016)

windyweekend said:


> Q1 - I've been having ASIO performance maxing issues on my current sole machine. I'm running about 70ish tracks on average with mainly Kontakt and Spitfire libs. If I offload these to a slave via VEP will I still have the same performance woes on my Cubase master machine because I've still got the same number of tracks I.e. Is all I would have done be to offload some RAM load, but nothing else?


You would probably have better performance with VEP according to this information I found on the Steinberg forums https://www.steinberg.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=181&t=54118


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## agarner32 (Nov 27, 2016)

Zardoz said:


> Also, you only need 1 elicenser dongle for a two computer setup.


I didn't know that. I thought you needed two. I have an eLicenser for Cubase on my slave and one on my master for VEP. Did I not need the master one for VEP? It doesn't matter though because I still need it for VSL instruments.


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## Ashermusic (Nov 28, 2016)

You need an eliscenser dongle for each computer that you want to run the server on simultaneously. If you only want to host the plugin on your main daw, that machine does not require the dongle. But for instance , in my case, I run the Hollywood Orchestra in the VE Pro server on my slave and Kontakt orchestral stuff in the VE Pro server on my main Mac and connect to both from Logic. For that, you need two dongles.


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## sinkd (Nov 28, 2016)

Q1: Yes you will have much better performance on your master. Instruments will be loaded into RAM and played back from the slave, freeing your master to be MIDI and audio mixing only, plus any tracks that you need to host locally.
Q2: Depends on RAM, but I would try it first with the i5 candidate hosting VEPro.


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## windyweekend (Nov 29, 2016)

Thanks for the advice folks! Will be plunging in soon. Fingers crossed!


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