@cpaf - hope this helps
@Meetyhtan - My setup has been fairly resource friendly to me, details about my resource usage configuration below. I'm definitely no expert and never tried to optimize my setup, I think I just got lucky that things are stable and work decently well.
OK so I finally had a few hours to take screenshots and ramble about this. Comments and feedback are very welcome!
5 screenshots attached about my setup.
For me, I don't have a "template" really. I have more like a "reusable evolving setup". So whenever I want to start a new project, I can just copy the VE Pro and Cubase setups from my most recent projects, delete all the track data and remove project-specific tracks, and that's it, good to keep going. Others will find great value in having a proper blank template, using track presets, using disabled tracks, etc. If they work for you, by all means use those features even if someone else doesn't like them - there's no "professional workflow" that's better than your own preferences. What's more important is to keep self-analyzing and evolving how you would enjoy your process more, how you could make changes to keep feeling inspired and productive.
Side note - One meaningful exception against "use your own preferred workflow" is for folks that have super fast deadlines like TV composers and work as part of a production pipeline. In that case, I think they do have some needs that take priority over their preferences, for the sake of receiving and outputting results reliably, quickly, and organized, and the way that their colleagues want it.
CH from Spitfire had a great video about that.
For my own non-pipeline workflow - in the past I was trying to use VEPro like a host for all instruments and keep Cubase 100% MIDI only. The mixing stuff, I was still trying to decide whether I would put it in VE Pro or Cubase. But the big problem with this approach for me was that it really hindered my ability to quickly set up automation, to set up a MIDI Learn CC control, and most of all, it was a grand pain to dive into synth VSTs to design a sound. It was getting really annoying to have to switch from Cubase to VE Pro, click through to reach the instrument I want to tweak, and on top of that I would have to remember to save my VE Pro setup every time I modified it.
Eventually I realized that this was hurting my creativity - there were many times where a simple tweak in the VST or a quick automation to an effect was all I needed but I mentally blocked myself from doing those things because it was so slow and annoying to do them.
So last year I tried a different approach: use VEPro for things I don't change very often, so i can just leave it in the background and stay in the flow by not leaving Cubase, and use Cubase for everything else. It was an instant boost in productivity. Well, it did feel a bit messy and uncomfortable at first - to have mixer settings in both places, virtual instruments loaded in both programs. But I'm getting used to that messy feeling and more importantly, it made it easier to do all the things I was mentally blocking away before.
So, in VEPro I set up all my orchestral instruments, all the one-shot/sound design/drums/loop/instrumental libraries that I would rarely be tweaking. And in VE Pro I also include a few rare mixing FX and mixing decisions that I knew I would rarely want to change. Then in Cubase I have a project-specific folder in my track list, where I add song-specific instruments that I can quickly access to edit and link to CC or automation. And I do all the song-specific mixing in Cubase.
Some notes about resource usage. I feel like this template setup has been suprisingly stable and capable on my machine. (96 GB ram, 6-cores Xeon E5-1650 v3, 3.5 GHz)
- I personally am OK with a slightly higher latency, which is a big help to my system working well. I've gotten used to playing MIDI with that little extra lag, at least for slow passages. And Cubase compensates for the delays to line things up correctly after recording too (I think that's due to Asio Guard feature? not sure)
- Disabled multi threading in Kontakt, I rely on Cubase and VE Pro to manage the multi threading.
- Loading most of the EWQL Play VST instruments in the first VE Pro instance - I feel like that may make a difference in the order that instruments load, and I feel like letting the EWQL Play VSTs load sooner somehow helped avoid stability issues (back in the day when Play had a worse reputation)
- VE Pro threading set to 4 per instance
- I know Cubase shows my CPU meter to be fairly high, I remember that's due to Helix Native plugins or something related to my Shreddage guitar mixes. And maybe some other song-specific VSTs. If I deleted all the song specific stuff, the CPU usage isn't that high.
- I actually don't use my audio interface's ASIO (RME). I should give it a try again. Believe it or not, I've found FL Studio's ASIO to be rock solid and perform great (with a slightly higher latency), and it also mixes with windows audio output, so I can switch between any other media player, Netflix/YouTube, and Cubase and all audio Just Works! My RME in theory can do that too, but I had disabled those drivers for a while because of one specific bug - otherwise the RME solution was working just as great.
To be continuned on the next Post....