# Audio Impressions Audio Port Freakin Works!



## Colin O'Malley (Jan 31, 2009)

Thanks Gabe Shadid for turning me on to this. You're the greatest. 

I'm just running this through the paces and I'm shocked how well it works. Shocked. I'm running it in Logic 8 and piping in from a number of slave pcs. So far so good. Timing is rock solid to me. I'm A/B ing directly - playing the same patches over light pipe. They seem virtually identical. I'm also running midi over lan and remote desktop on the same gigabit ethernet network. I was worried things would start to get clogged up with too much data, screwing up midi timing or causing drop outs, but so far so good. I'll post more when I have a full orchestral template(multiple outs across all my pcs playing) and see if the bandwidth still holds up. That will be the real test. Right now I have 5 stereo inputs across 5 different instruments banging away tons of midi with no dropouts whatsoever. 

Set up was simple. You can have 32 channels per computer so it is equal to 4 light pipe ports. In my opinion this is a complete game changer just like MOL was. I'll definitely phase out my light pipe cards and racks of 2408s if this continues to perform like this in a large orchestral template. Dozens of cables and racks of hardware POOF. 

There is no mixer built in ala Vstack. It just routes audio directly to your daw. However you can choose to combine or double up a signal at any output. In this way the routing is way more flexible than Vstack. For example you could sum output 1,2,7,8 out of Kontakt to show up on input 1,2 in your DAW. Or you could have Kontakt outputs 1,2, show up at inputs 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 in your DAW. Simply put you can cable it however you want. You do not need Vstack or Bidule anymore if you use this. You can create setups consisting of multiple instruments and save them just as we do in other hosts. If you apply EQ and FX on your DAW side as I have always done this works great. I suspect some people will prefer a more robust mixer in the vein of Vstack

Now after all the gushing, here is what needs to be improved. BIGGY, you have to individually hit a connect button for each input in your session each time you load it up. In my my case I'll be clicking connect about 30 times each time I load up. I can create a screenset in logic with the various plugins open so I can do this quickly, but they definitely need to fix this with some sort of auto connect or connect all feature. All said, it's not that big of a deal. 

This is my first dealing with this company and I'm really impressed. I'll post back here if I run into anything else. 

Colin


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## Frederick Russ (Jan 31, 2009)

I wonder if it works with Mac slaves.


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## Ashermusic (Jan 31, 2009)

Frederick Russ @ Sat Jan 31 said:


> I wonder if it works with Mac slaves.



No, PC only.


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## Will Loconto (Jan 31, 2009)

Colin O'Malley @ Sat Jan 31 said:


> I'm just running this through the paces and I'm shocked how well it works. Shocked.



It's working well here for me too. I was shocked also. I am happy to get rid of V-STack.

+1 on the complaint about having to reconnect it every time.

I am running it in Bidule Rewired into Pro Tools 8. They told me they are working on a RTAS version. I've had a couple of crash problems trying to run Zebra 2 as a VST, but Kontakt seems to work flawlessly.


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## gsilbers (Jan 31, 2009)

nice! cool yuou guys took the pludge 1st. i was going to get it but was nervous it wouldnt work or be a pita to setup properly. 

i was about to buy lotsa hardware adat to link my slave computer. 

keep informing you guys. this looks awsome. 

so in logic8 it comes up as an instrument plugin or channel insert on an audio track and thus you hit record and thats it?


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## Colin O'Malley (Jan 31, 2009)

In Logic you insert it as a plugin on your regular inputs. The input behaves exactly the same as if you were physically porting over lightpipe at that point. Switching a template over should be pretty easy. 

Colin


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## Christian Marcussen (Jan 31, 2009)

Can someone in a few words sum up for me what this program does that FXTeleport, V-Stack or others don't? I'm not sure I quite grasp what's new?


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## gsilbers (Feb 1, 2009)

Christian Marcussen @ Sat Jan 31 said:


> Can someone in a few words sum up for me what this program does that FXTeleport, V-Stack or others don't? I'm not sure I quite grasp what's new?




fx teleport doesnt work for mac. pc to pc.


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## Fernando Warez (Feb 1, 2009)

Christian Marcussen @ Sat Jan 31 said:


> Can someone in a few words sum up for me what this program does that FXTeleport, V-Stack or others don't? I'm not sure I quite grasp what's new?



I'm not sure but from what I've read you launch audioport on you server only once then load instrument(s) and then assign each instr. to a midi ch. via MOL. As oppose to launching one instance of FXT for every instruments when you use FXT. 

Assuming I'm correct, the main benefit i see here is that i would load K2 or K3 only once on my slave and save 60 mb of ram for every additional instrument.

The other cool thing is that it's about 1/2 the price of FTX for 1 host and 3 server. Or is it 4 server? 

The down side is I'm not sure if it works as well as FXT with instrument tracks in Cubase4. FXT is really neat for that.

Also, i don't understand why they didn't include midi.


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## Fernando Warez (Feb 1, 2009)

Actually, i was wrong. Or half way wrong i guess since one could mix inside kontakt but that is far from ideal. It depend how you work i guess. But it does have more routing possibilities. 



> you instantiate one AudioPort plug-in for each pair of channels being received in the sequencer or DAW.



http://www.audioimpressions.com/products/audioport-universal/ (http://www.audioimpressions.com/product ... universal/)

I'm not sure if there's any benefit for Pc users after all. Excluding the price.

And this seem a little more complicated compare to FXT:



> Standard Ethernet connectivity is always required so that MolCp3 can provide MIDI communication; it's also useful for advanced tech support and for downloading software and updates. To ensure that the network is fast enough to provide glitch-free, low-latency audio delivery, we require that you use a second Ethernet port (or "NIC") dedicated to AudioPort - using its own set of Cat 6 or Cat 5e cables and Gigabit switch.



Looks like you need 2 Ethernet cables. One for midi and one for audio.

http://www.audioimpressions.com/technology/audioport/


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## Will Loconto (Feb 1, 2009)

Fernando Warez @ Sun Feb 01 said:


> Looks like you need 2 Ethernet cables. One for midi and one for audio.



So far in my testing I haven't done that. Maybe when it gets really dense I will need to, but it's worked fine so far without my setting up a second ethernet cable to each slave.


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## Colin O'Malley (Feb 1, 2009)

Just to clarify the comparison to FX Teleport, on your slave pc you launch one "host" application. This is very similar to vstack, where you create setups with multiple Kontakts and other instruments and route them to the appropriate ouput. You have 32 outputs that you can/ route sum however you want. You can use a K2 multiple out version to route to various channels. 

On your main DAW you create 32 mono/ 16 stereo inputs to account for the 32 channels. You insert the audio port plugin on each one of these inputs channels, hit connect and you are done. 

I understood that FX Teleport actually works at a plug in level, launching instruments on other pcs from your main DAW. I also heard you can bounce off line(I might be wrong). This all sounds fabulous but it has never been available for us mac guys. Audioport basically replaces physical lightpipe etc. connections and hardware. Once it is setup it functions identically in my template. Latency is very tight. 

I'm not using two ethernet cables per machine for MOL and Audioport. Just one cable per machine. 

Colin


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## Hannes_F (Feb 1, 2009)

Colin O'Malley @ Sun Feb 01 said:


> Latency is very tight.



Colin, is it possible to quantify how tight?
FXteleport seems always to double the latency, so if you have 512 samples on your main soundcard you have 1024 samples for the slaved instruments.


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## Lex (Feb 1, 2009)

so, no offline bounce with Audio Port? If you r rendering stems you have to do it real time?

aLex


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## Colin O'Malley (Feb 1, 2009)

Hannes, 

I haven't measured it yet. It seems very similar if not identical to what I was getting via lightpipe. Definitely not doubling the latency of the buffer. I'll measure and report back once I get a full template of all my pcs running. That will the real test. 

Colin


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## Colin O'Malley (Feb 1, 2009)

Lex, 

Definitely no offline bounce at this point. It's just routing audio over the network. I've had to bounce on line with my external pcs for so long I guess I'm used to it. I have everything routed in my orch template so I run the whole thing once and all my stems are printed. 

Colin


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## Will Loconto (Feb 1, 2009)

Colin O'Malley @ Sun Feb 01 said:


> Definitely no offline bounce at this point. It's just routing audio over the network. I've had to bounce on line with my external pcs for so long I guess I'm used to it.



Same here. Using Pro Tools and VE3, offline bounce isn't ever an option for me anyway. Audioport is similar to the audio over network portion of VE3 as far as I can tell.


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## cc64 (Feb 1, 2009)

Frederick Russ @ Sat Jan 31 said:


> I wonder if it works with Mac slaves.



I asked AI and Gary Davis wrote back and said it could work if you boot your MacFarm in Bootcamp running Windows XT or Vista.

They are working on a Mac Version. No date announced.

HTH

Best,

CC


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## Ashermusic (Feb 1, 2009)

cc64 @ Sun Feb 01 said:


> Frederick Russ @ Sat Jan 31 said:
> 
> 
> > I wonder if it works with Mac slaves.
> ...



At that point, you have turned your Mac farm into a PC farm.


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## gsilbers (Feb 1, 2009)

Fernando Warez @ Sun Feb 01 said:


> Christian Marcussen @ Sat Jan 31 said:
> 
> 
> > Can someone in a few words sum up for me what this program does that FXTeleport, V-Stack or others don't? I'm not sure I quite grasp what's new?
> ...




at namm they said they will.


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## Fernando Warez (Feb 1, 2009)

gsilbers @ Sun Feb 01 said:


> Fernando Warez @ Sun Feb 01 said:
> 
> 
> > Christian Marcussen @ Sat Jan 31 said:
> ...



Thats better.

Thanks.


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## Jack Weaver (Feb 1, 2009)

Anyone tried this with Omnisphere (also Stylus) or Play on the slave yet?


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## Synesthesia (Feb 1, 2009)

Anyone tried to run this and VE3 at the same time?

I'm not a heavy vsl user but would probably want to have access to it. ..

Cheers!


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## Jack Weaver (Feb 1, 2009)

Synesthesia,


> Anyone tried to run this and VE3 at the same time?



*Uh....yeah now that's a good question.* (VE3 user here, too.) 

My original thought on this is since I have a Mac Pro and they have 2 GigE ports is to use another port than is used for VE3 and maybe even another switch in order to prevent collisions. 

You would have VE3 with its ethernet traffic and tons of audio channels and MoLCP/AudioPort Universal with its MIDI and audio information. I'm thinking separate ports and switches could be the way to go. 

Come to think of it, I might even have both ports used now (VE3 - Internet). In this case taking up another PCIe slot with a GigE card tied to another switch might be safest. I actually came up with this idea when I was talking with VisionDAW regarding the possibility of integrating an AI DVZ setup into my rig. DVZ of course utilizes AudioPort. I don't think VisionDAW has added a DVZ to a rig that already has VE3 yet. (note: I'm still waiting for the final answer on how DVZ will work with Logic - they're still playing with the concept.) 

I don't think they have a working VE3 system at AI headquarters so asking them could just be more speculation on their part. Erring on the part of safety might be the best course of action here.

_Still want to know if Play will work on AudioPort Universal and if the Spectrasonics stuff will sync with all the tempo info._


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## Dan Selby (Feb 3, 2009)

Hi Colin,

Sounds interesting. One thing I'd really be interested to know (because it's a major PIA with FX-Teleport) is if any of the slaves or the DAW crash does it effectively bring down everything? If your DAW crashes (or you load another project or restart) can you reconnect to the slaves straight away or do they need to be reloaded/restarted/reset in any way?

Cheers,

Dan


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## Waywyn (Feb 3, 2009)

Hey Colin,

thanks a lot for your experience. I am currently having like 4 PCs eating dust here. Maybe I see them back in bizz soon 

I think I am still too 64bit focused. Although if this might take another year or so I will definitely check out Audioport. However in the end I am happy that finally a company had a bites to develop a working solution for audio via LAN network. I really appreciate and gratz to AI!!


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## Colin O'Malley (Feb 3, 2009)

There is no risk of crashing everything when one DAW crashes - anymore than there is with sharing internet over a gigabit ethernet network currently. 

In the next couple of days I'll post back what happens when I really push this with 4 pcs and a very large orchestral template, midi over lan and remote desktop sharing the same gigabit network. If it works with the current latency I will be giddy. Worse case I may be splitting this out to two separate networks. We'll see. 

Colin


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## gsilbers (Feb 3, 2009)

cool! thx for sharing, 

so for only 16-32 channels at 48k you can have midiover lan in the same ethernet cable right?


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## Dan Selby (Feb 3, 2009)

That's good to hear, Colin - so if you load a new project, or your DAW crashes you can reconnect to the slaves without touching them?

Look forward to hearing how you get on when you put it through it's paces under full load.

Cheers,

Dan


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## Colin O'Malley (Feb 3, 2009)

Dan, 
If a daw crashes you do have to "reconnect" the plug-in. That was the one gripe I mentioned above. Hopefully they will fix that with an auto connect of some kind soon. 

gsilbers, 
16-32 tracks sounds reasonable, but I'll report back very specifically soon. 

Colin


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## gsilbers (Feb 3, 2009)

Colin O'Malley @ Tue Feb 03 said:


> Dan,
> If a daw crashes you do have to "reconnect" the plug-in. That was the one gripe I mentioned above. Hopefully they will fix that with an auto connect of some kind soon.
> 
> gsilbers,
> ...



thanks!


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## gsilbers (Feb 3, 2009)

BTW, somewhere i read that its recomended that yoiu use a second ethernet cable, one for midi over lan and internet and the other for audioport. is this true or did i misread it? 
cause i dont see many computers with 2 ethernet conncetions


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## Jack Weaver (Feb 3, 2009)

Well, there was some speculation about that in this thread. But I don't know what the manual actually sez.


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## Fernando Warez (Feb 3, 2009)

Jack Weaver @ Tue Feb 03 said:


> Well, there was some speculation about that in this thread. But I don't know what the manual actually sez.



I wrote that because i found that on their website. I posted the link in a post earlier.

I'm guessing and only guessing they are saying so just to be on the safe side. And i wouldn't be surprise to find out the opposite is true. 

I say try it with one cable and see what happens.


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## Will Loconto (Feb 4, 2009)

I can confirm that it works here with one cable for light usage (4-8 separate audio channels). It might need 2 when you push that up to 16-32 channels.

I'm in the middle of some deadlines and haven't been able to spend the time changing my setup and try running full templates on multiple slaves though.


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## Colin O'Malley (Feb 4, 2009)

I did a test last night using 20 different audio inputs and 20 midi tracks spread across 4 pcs banging away with ton of midi notes and controllers. So far so good. No added latency or audio or midi dropouts. Maybe a gigabit network has a lot more headroom than I realize? I'll post again when I have a real template up. 

Colin


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## Ashermusic (Feb 4, 2009)

You guys are going to love this one:

I have had a PC sitting in my studio for app. 1 year that I have never even turned on. It has Gigastudio installed. A client had 4 of them and did not need them all any more so he simply gave it to me.

Every day I have looked at it and said to myaself, "well , maybe tomorrow."

WHn tomorrow came I would look at it and say, " Nah."

THe A.I. thing inspired me to try yesterday. So I attach in the monitor, plug both the computer and monitor into a fully functional power strip, press the On button and......
nothing... no fan noise, no light, no hard drive sound.....nada......

I think it is an omen.


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## MacQ (Feb 4, 2009)

"I don't need this Giga PC anymore ... since it's broken. You want it?"

But seriously ... the power switch on the power supply is flipped to "on" and NOTHING happens when you press the front panel power?

~Stu


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## Ashermusic (Feb 4, 2009)

MacQ @ Wed Feb 04 said:


> "I don't need this Giga PC anymore ... since it's broken. You want it?"
> 
> But seriously ... the power switch on the power supply is flipped to "on" and NOTHING happens when you press the front panel power?
> 
> ~Stu



I only see a power switch on the back and it is switched to on.

I think this is a custom built PC. The front of it has a key locked door that leads to the drives, etc.


OK, well this is embarrassing. Inside the door are 2 other switches.


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## PolarBear (Feb 4, 2009)

A key locked door won't prevent your PC from booting, but... shouldn't this be in a seperate topic? You'd sure get more help there and if you post some more info about the PC. It may just be a defective PSU, or maybe even a locked mobo only. Who knows.


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## gsilbers (Feb 4, 2009)

Colin O'Malley @ Wed Feb 04 said:


> gsilbers,
> 
> Yes 20 MOL tracks cranking away with tons of fast notes and controllers. I think it's actually way more midi data than I would ever actually have going on at once, but hopefully 100 tracks playing intermittently has the same result as 20 playing constantly. I enabled 64 inputs (but only routed audio to 20) just to see if enabling them alone ate up bandwidth or causes things to blow up. So far so good. I also have remote desktop for 4 pcs active and sharing the network. I run the buffer on my mac pro at 256. I think the latency is slightly higher than what I was getting via lightpipe at 256, but definitely still less than 512. It feels like 300 with a lot less cables
> 
> Colin



nice! 

what samplers are you running on your slaves?

gigastudio?


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## Colin O'Malley (Feb 4, 2009)

I'm using all Kontakt 3. I have not tried any other samplers or plugins. 

Anyone using this with Gigastudio?

Colin


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## gsilbers (Feb 4, 2009)

Colin O'Malley @ Wed Feb 04 said:


> I'm using all Kontakt 3. I have not tried any other samplers or plugins.
> 
> Anyone using this with Gigastudio?
> 
> Colin



hmmm.. should it matter? 

how is the setup in the slave side? you are using kontakt standalone right?


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## Colin O'Malley (Feb 4, 2009)

You just drag the .dll file onto the Audioport host and it opens up the plugin. I think it's launching the VST plug of Kontakt. Maybe I'm wrong. 

Colin


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## gsilbers (Feb 4, 2009)

Colin O'Malley @ Wed Feb 04 said:


> You just drag the .dll file onto the Audioport host and it opens up the plugin. I think it's launching the VST plug of Kontakt. Maybe I'm wrong.
> 
> Colin



ok.. im a little confuse on your answer... 

how do you have it setup? kontakt standalone or kontakt plugin?


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## Colin O'Malley (Feb 4, 2009)

I believe it is launching the VST plugin.


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## Will Loconto (Feb 4, 2009)

Yes, it definitely runs VST plug-ins inside the AudioPort software. It's like V-STack, and you route the VST plug-in outputs to the AudioPort outs that return to your DAW. I know Kontakt works pretty well. I have had some trouble with other VSTi's in AudioPort, but I haven't had time to properly test very many.


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## Jack Weaver (Feb 4, 2009)

Anyone tried Play yet?

I didn't see them do that at NAMM.


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## gsilbers (Feb 4, 2009)

damn. i have gs3 and lotsa .gig files. 

ill have to convert them all into kontakt,,, which i have but been using it for mac. 


so, if this is the host and it says in the faq that its a 32 bit app, that means that no matter how many instrument u have on the host itll have the 2/3 gigabite ram limit

hmm and thats problably why dvz strings require 2 computers...

still, 1st app to from pc to mac audio over ethernet. im still getting it.


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## Colin O'Malley (Feb 4, 2009)

If you read the top of the FAQ on their site, the first thing they say is this works great with Gigastudio. Still might be hope. 

Colin


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## Jack Weaver (Feb 4, 2009)

I saw it work with Giga @ NAMM. They were using a wrapper. 

It seemed to work as well as Kontakt.


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## gsilbers (Feb 4, 2009)

Jack Weaver @ Wed Feb 04 said:


> I saw it work with Giga @ NAMM. They were using a wrapper.
> 
> It seemed to work as well as Kontakt.




do you know what wrapper? i emailed them but haven't gotten a response. 

im still hoping cause i was looking into converting .gigs to .nki and the task is too daunting :cry:


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## Will Loconto (Feb 4, 2009)

Jack Weaver @ Wed Feb 04 said:


> Anyone tried Play yet?



I just tried the newest version of Play with SD2 Pro and AudioPort. It works fine so far.


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## Jack Weaver (Feb 4, 2009)

> I just tried the newest version of Play with SD2 Pro and AudioPort. It works fine so far.


That's great news Will. Thanks for the info.



> do you know what wrapper? i emailed them but haven't gotten a response.


Sorry gsilbers, I don't remember - selective memory on my part because I never was a Giga guy. But maybe somebody like Craig Sharmat will recall. Craig was there and I believe he used to (or still does) use some Giga. You could always try giving Audio Impressions a call - (818) 431-1050


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## sbkp (Feb 4, 2009)

Pretty sure it was the Giga wrapper from FX Max (http://www.fx-max.com/gva/), but I have no recollection where I heard that.


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## Justus (Feb 5, 2009)

I hope that AI will offer a trial version of Audio Port.
I have to test it on my system before purchase.


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## gsilbers (Feb 5, 2009)

sbkp @ Wed Feb 04 said:


> Pretty sure it was the Giga wrapper from FX Max (http://www.fx-max.com/gva/), but I have no recollection where I heard that.



hmm... i think then itll be a bit too much. gs3 is barley stable as a standalone i couldnt imagine it being wrapped and then go through audioport.. plus MOL 
damn i dont wanna go into kontakt :(


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## gsilbers (Feb 5, 2009)

a little bit off topic but why cant a company start doing 64 bit. audio impressions should be putting out a 64 bit host. i mean, hanz zimmer paid one of his assistants and has had a 64 bit sampler for more than a year earlier than any other sampler. 
why is this difficult for a company that deals with only computer programming.. 
i know i cant do it but if i owned a company that does samplers and works mainly with computer programs id be sure to do this as its going to put it ahead of the competition cause no one is doing it, or doing it very late. 
just my opinion.. :idea: :roll: 
maybe i should buy gigastudio from tascam. P


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## Colin O'Malley (Feb 5, 2009)

Kontakt 3.5 = 64 bit


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## gsilbers (Feb 5, 2009)

Colin O'Malley @ Thu Feb 05 said:


> Kontakt 3.5 = 64 bit



its hasnt come out yet right? didnt see it in the ni site. 

also, if the host in audioport is 32 bit only and loads up kontakt 64 bit (when it comes out) the performance will still be 32 bit. right? 
from what ive read you need to have 64 bit end to end to have it be really 64 bit. 
that would mean 64 bit OS also.. hurry up windows 7!!!


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## Colin O'Malley (Feb 5, 2009)

I'm on XP 64, but aside from seeing the # 64 when I launch I have no idea if this helps me  We'll see. 

Logic/ EXS 24 has managed to overcome the 32 bit memory limit in an OS that is not completely 64 bit. Hopefully NI will do the same. 

Colin


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## PolarBear (Feb 5, 2009)

It's not that they couldn't do it, it's that the majority of potential buyers is still using 32bit only and exclusively. The 64bit market is the future market and migration is slower than the power-geeks are expecting it to be.


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## gsilbers (Feb 5, 2009)

PolarBear @ Thu Feb 05 said:


> It's not that they couldn't do it, it's that the majority of potential buyers is still using 32bit only and exclusively. The 64bit market is the future market and migration is slower than the power-geeks are expecting it to be.



what did you call me?!! :evil: hehe just kidding. 






i got a reply from them and they said it was that giga wrapper from fxmax.


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## gsilbers (Feb 6, 2009)

PolarBear @ Thu Feb 05 said:


> It's not that they couldn't do it, it's that the majority of potential buyers is still using 32bit only and exclusively. The 64bit market is the future market and migration is slower than the power-geeks are expecting it to be.




so if i ge xp 64 and kontakt 3.5 it wont matter that its 64 bit cause audioport is 32 bit right? thus, itll have kontakt 3.5 a a vst, same for plague bidule and any other 64 bit app inside audioport which is 32 bit. right?


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## Will Loconto (Feb 6, 2009)

I am pretty sure you won't be able to run a 64-bit VST inside of any 32-bit host. You'd have to run 32-bit versions of the VSTs.


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## Ashermusic (Feb 7, 2009)

Will Loconto @ Fri Feb 06 said:


> I am pretty sure you won't be able to run a 64-bit VST inside of any 32-bit host. You'd have to run 32-bit versions of the VSTs.



Not true. Rembert of N.I. told me that the 64 bit Kontkat 3.5 WILL run as an AU in Logic Pro 8, although he said it required them some pretty fancy coding to pull it off.


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## gsilbers (Feb 7, 2009)

wel there are some 64 bit but 32 bit compatible plugs around. one that comess to mind 
is ozone plugs. 


i got a response from audioimpressions and seems they will upgrade to 64 bit and will be free for owners of the 32 bit version.


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## gsilbers (Feb 9, 2009)

so , how is it going w audioport? still working fine?
i am about to buy it, and will have to change my template form giga to kontakt (i dont wanna buy the fx max) 
and wanna make sure its still working


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## Dan Selby (Feb 17, 2009)

I emailed a few questions to Audio Impressions and got a prompt and thorough reply from Gary, who suggested I post his responses here:

1. The manual is now available for download (looks very detailed):

http://www.audioimpressions.com/support/downloads/



> 2) We do not have built-in MIDI communication like FX teleport and we DO support MolCp. At some point we would like to incorporate an MolCp-like MIDI function, but that would be in a future version of AudioPort and I can make no representations about when/if that will happen.
> 
> 3) We are planning to release a 64-bit capable version of AudioPort, and that particular version will be a free upgrade for those who purchase the current 32-bit capable version. IF that version also includes MolCp-like communication, then you'd get it for free as well... but again, I am not able to say whether that will be part of the next release (I just don't know yet).
> 
> 4) It is necessary to connect the AudioPort plug-ins to their corresponding Host computers. You can save (as part of a session file on the sequencer) the instantiation of those plug-ins, including their IP addressing. Actually, you raise an interesting question as to whether each plug-in must be individually connected or not. Before I give an answer, I must check with the engineers about that... so stand by for this response.



then...



> to answer that fourth question, unfortunately the current release does require that each instantiation be "connected" with the click of a mouse button. Our engineers tell me that correcting this so that only a single-click is needed will be forthcoming. We have a more immediate issue with our VST plug-in on the Macintosh, and as soon as that's resolved then the single-click Connect issue you raised will be addressed; it's the very next item on our "to do" list. All such fixes will be in the form of updates that users will be able to download at no charge once they purchase an AudioPort Universal license.[/i][/url]
> 
> By the way, we at Audio Impressions do not make direct postings on user forums as our general policy. However, if you'd like to post the essence of this response, including the availability of the manual I mentioned in my last email, please feel free to do so.


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## Colin O'Malley (Mar 2, 2009)

*Re: Audio Impressions Audio Port Freakin Works! EDIT: to a point*

Just following up after working with this for a while. Audio port worked great in all my tests, when I did not have anything else loaded into my DAW/Logic. Once I started loading more FX and virtual instruments into Logic it started getting dicey. It sounded like Logic lost clock or something. All the sound dissolved into digital hash. I'm on a 8 core mac, so computer power is not the issue. It seems to be tied to having large numbers of audio port plugins loaded into logic (I was trying around 64) 

My conclusion - audio port works for smaller numbers of inputs. I would say 16-32. I was trying to remove 2408's from my template and use this for all my pcs. That required setting up to 32 inputs per machine x 4. I think that is asking too much of audioport at this time. 

One big caveat, I did not try running audio port on it's own discrete LAN network. I've just run out of time to mess with this and am back to lightpipe. I do see myself using audioport in the future if I add another pc. 

Colin


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## Frederick Russ (Mar 2, 2009)

Ah - so it loads into Logic as an Audio Units plugin which is mirrored by the PC? Sounds a bit like Wormhole 2.

Because I'm fully on Mac here, I've had to add yet another M-Audio ProFire Lightbridge to get up to 12 stereo pairs of digital audio out. They're great if you need inexpensive audio and a lot of adat ports. I know M-Audio has been slammed in many areas but their Mac drivers are pretty solid in both PPC & Intel. I currently own three.

By the way, our music store is now offering a Pro Audio line of hardware products specifically of interest to composers. Aside from M-Audio, we also carry Lexicon, Genelec, Blue Sky, Sennheiser, AKG, Dynaudio, Focusrite, JBL, Presonus, Mackie, Metric Halo, Motu, Ultrasone and Universal Audio for the short list. We'll make an announcement on another thread.


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## gsilbers (Mar 2, 2009)

*Re: Audio Impressions Audio Port Freakin Works! EDIT: to a point*



Colin O'Malley @ Mon Mar 02 said:


> Just following up after working with this for a while. Audio port worked great in all my tests, when I did not have anything else loaded into my DAW/Logic. Once I started loading more FX and virtual instruments into Logic it started getting dicey. It sounded like Logic lost clock or something. All the sound dissolved into digital hash. I'm on a 8 core mac, so computer power is not the issue. It seems to be tied to having large numbers of audio port plugins loaded into logic (I was trying around 64)
> 
> My conclusion - audio port works for smaller numbers of inputs. I would say 16-32. I was trying to remove 2408's from my template and use this for all my pcs. That required setting up to 32 inputs per machine x 4. I think that is asking too much of audioport at this time.
> 
> ...







thanks for sharing. 

id problably only need 32 channel maybe 64 but i just wanted to make sure that when you are referring to the number of channels is WITH audio running through it instead of just conecting 32+ channels, meaning that conectiong the channel from the pc into mac wont take resources, without audio running through it.


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## Colin O'Malley (Mar 2, 2009)

Audioport is a plug-in so it takes resources when you put an instance of it on a track, regardless of whether audio is coming over the channel. It's not a hog at all though. Very low over head. The problems I described above seem to be more related to audiport and Logic losing clock somehow once I get a lot going on in a Logic session. I think I was just expected too much out of a single gigabit network that is sharing other things (internet and remote desktop). 

Colin


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## Nick Batzdorf (Mar 2, 2009)

Colin, are you using MIDI Over LAN? If so, what version?


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## Mr. Anxiety (Mar 2, 2009)

Colin, Sorry to hear about audio port choking in Logic. I had my fingers crossed.

I was wondering if anyone has tried running audio port in Pro Tools (mac)? That's my set-up.

I also use K3 or K2 standalone on my farm PCs. I've gotten more firepower that way compared to using it VST in VStack.

Thanks,

Mr. A.


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## Colin O'Malley (Mar 2, 2009)

Nick, 

Yes, I'm using midi over lan. I'm not in front of my DAW right now, but I think it's the latest version. 

Please don't make me go back to, hardware midi. Pretty please, Nick......

It is totally fair to point out, that all this may be the result of trying to do too much over a single LAN network. Audioport may not be entirely to blame for my difficulties. 

Colin


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## Nick Batzdorf (Mar 2, 2009)

The reason I'm asking is that I've been trying to get MOL to work in my attempted network set-up that uses both of my octo's ethernet ports. Unrelated to this I got a call from someone today - whose name I shouldn't mention - suggesting I use a different MOL version from the one I'm using.

But I don't want to post anything I'm not sure about, so I'll hold off.

And no, you don't have to go back to hardware MIDI. In the worst case you have my permission to use MOL v.2, which works perfectly...although it may not be happy with the two network ports either.

By the way, Christian Marin at VSL advised me not to use two ports - generically, before I attempted the current folly - and he's usually right about this kind of thing. He says the system can get confused about what to send over which port. But I still want to try as part of the learning process. So far AudioPort is working very well; I don't need more than eight ports per machine, and I haven't ever had to fire up all four of my slaves.


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## Synesthesia (Mar 3, 2009)

Nick - 

I am using MOL 3 happily and keep two ports going - one for MOL and one for internet.

On your Octo in Sys prefs you can specify which port uses what IP and mask, so you can keep them separate, and then just direct all the MOL traffic physically via a separate switch.

Works for me!

Cheers

Paul


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## Nick Batzdorf (Mar 3, 2009)

That's too easy. I'm trying to get it set up with MOL on machines attached to both ports, which I don't think is going to work. Not a big deal.

But I've just been accessing the ports by name, not changing subnet masks. Can you change the 255.255.255.0 to something else? That's not an issue for the octo, but two of my slaves have dual ports (because I add gigabit cards) and I'd like to use the slower ones for Remote Desktop Connection and keep that off the AudioPort bus.


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## PaulWood (Mar 3, 2009)

Aside from having a host on your slave PCs, how is this different to Wormhole 2, which is now freeware?

P


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## Nick Batzdorf (Mar 3, 2009)

One difference is that it works. 

But I shouldn't be nasty - I haven't tried Wormhole for a long time.


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## PaulWood (Mar 3, 2009)

:D Fair enough. I may look at Audio Port then - could save on having to buy 2 expensive lightpipe interfaces!


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