Some Receptor competition?

[TechEverlasting]

Why dismiss it as BS until we know the full facts.

Years of experience, that's why. They are making some substantial claims and I haven't heard anything that backs up these claims. Essentially this box is supposed to have solved all the problems Receptor users have been dealing with for years. If this is true I will certainly buy one, but I won't be "pre-ordering" .

[Talk Show Host]

But seriously, if we were willing to put up with Muse's B.S. for this long, I'm sure another company's product wouldn't be nearly as bad.

Simply put, if these products do exactly what they're supposed to, the Receptor will be put to shame.

P.S. It has been over 4 years since the receptor was released, and it still has poor USB midi implementation, and doesn't install all VSTs as initially promised.


I think it's about time other companies gave them a run for their money.

[Robert Karasek]

FYI:

1) the guys couldn't tell me in detail about iLok & synchrosoft (".. support is planned for the future")

2) they didn't show how flexible (capable?) that box is when it comes to layering, splits and such...

3) commercial plugins ?? (we've been told it's no problem to load any plugin.. so, why didn't they have major comemrcial plugins in it ??

4) all plugins are being instantiated when booting... into RAM ?!?
2GB RAM and running something like IVORY without any problems ?!??

[Talk Show Host]

SM Pro Audio, being a much bigger company than Muse, has the funds and staff to run with the claims they mentioned.

Shipping is still 8 months away, so there's plenty of time to resolve issue BEFORE they distribute to end users.

Amplitube 2, a commercial plugin, can be launched on it. Therefore it is safe to assume that VSTs using the same authorization tactics will also work.

[Talk Show Host]

Some plugins that work on V-Box:

GTG 44s
DSK mini drumZ
Albino 3
Amplitube 2
mda Piano
MinimogueVA
AlgoMusic Arpy

You can program layers, stacks, and splits via the included editing software.

V-Box 1 Ghz CPU 2Gb RAM
V-Pedal 1.5 Ghz CPU 2Gb RAM

1ms Latency
15 Second boot time
All plugins are "directly compatible;" no V-Boxed versions to spend extra money on.

[Paulie Phonick]

Have they been more specific about their OS?

Well, they have mentioned that all the stuff runs in virtual machines (=VMWare of some sort), so they may for instance be running a heavily stripped down XP in a virtual machine on a stripped down version of Linux.

The claim of a 1 GHz CPU in a V-Box being equivalent to a 2 GHz CPU in a Windows box may not be far from the truth when you consider how bloated XP is and how many things they are able to get rid of in their virtualized environment (the whole networking stack, antivirus, even video output handling).

As for the authorization, the guy in the interview mentions that they will be making sure that I-Loks work with the products and that other authorization methods would be able to generate their codes for the virtual machine like for a normal PC. I can't see why this wouldn't work - it clearly does for C/R as they have AT2 running - but I will remain somewhat sceptical until they publish a plugin compatibility list together with installation procedure descriptions (esp. for the Synchrosoft stuff).

All in all looks like they have found a good approach (using VM-s) that can work much better than the Receptor. I'll be keeping my eye on the V-Rack for sure.

What really gets me wondering is how tight will the integration with the host be when using the V-Rack. Will it be like with external hardware where you upload a VM with your setup and interact with it through audio channels and MIDI? Or will each plugin in the virtual environment have a virtualized interface in the host so that it can be controlled and chained as if it was run on the DAW PC itself? Or will it be something in between - like a virtual machine VST that you can run in you host and control the plugins and routing in the V-Rack through it? Also, will it be possible to send/receive audio signals through the LAN connection?

Guess we'll have to wait for more details about it to find out.

[richwhite9]

Windows WMs would be intensive as it would require an instance of Windows for each VM if it follows the VmWare and VirtualPC model.
.
The implementation will be interesting. I also am skeptical that they thought out all the required elements in gen 1.

[UltraJv]

Have they been more specific about their OS?

Well, they have mentioned that all the stuff runs in virtual machines (=VMWare of some sort), so they may for instance be running a heavily stripped down XP in a virtual machine on a stripped down version of Linux.

The claim of a 1 GHz CPU in a V-Box being equivalent to a 2 GHz CPU in a Windows box may not be far from the truth when you consider how bloated XP is and how many things they are able to get rid of in their virtualized environment (the whole networking stack, antivirus, even video output handling).

As for the authorization, the guy in the interview mentions that they will be making sure that I-Loks work with the products and that other authorization methods would be able to generate their codes for the virtual machine like for a normal PC. I can't see why this wouldn't work - it clearly does for C/R as they have AT2 running - but I will remain somewhat sceptical until they publish a plugin compatibility list together with installation procedure descriptions (esp. for the Synchrosoft stuff).

All in all looks like they have found a good approach (using VM-s) that can work much better than the Receptor. I'll be keeping my eye on the V-Rack for sure.

What really gets me wondering is how tight will the integration with the host be when using the V-Rack. Will it be like with external hardware where you upload a VM with your setup and interact with it through audio channels and MIDI? Or will each plugin in the virtual environment have a virtualized interface in the host so that it can be controlled and chained as if it was run on the DAW PC itself? Or will it be something in between - like a virtual machine VST that you can run in you host and control the plugins and routing in the V-Rack through it? Also, will it be possible to send/receive audio signals through the LAN connection?

Guess we'll have to wait for more details about it to find out.

XP bloated? Guess you never saw this then, it runs XP and unlike some others, its real, is established and is competition :

http://www.openlabs.com/

[richwhite9]

Depends on the use. For those running Ivory or B4 and wanting a weighted controller or 61-key waterfall board the Open Labs stuff may not be the best choice for that type of live use.

No question the portable DAW/VST player will be a booming industry over the next 10 years and arrive in many form factors.

The jury is out whether Muse backed the wrong horse by going w/Linux rather than XP. If Direct Install works for the majority of items then I guess the only other issue will be a new round of hardware upgrades.

I can't blame Muse because there are too many vendors that tie the VST to a specific machine ID rather than use a portable system like iLok.

And the new 76-key Open Labs Lux? It comes with Komplete 5 and EastWest Complete Composers Collection for a cool $24,000 US.

[Audio~Geek]

$24000! What a steal, I'll take 3! Do they come in cornflower blue? Will it make me a great musician? Will it suck my dick? Those are the features I really care about in the $20-25000 range.

[Acoutistic]

It is only the gold plated model that costs $24K. They are only making a few of 'em. The Timbaland special edition model is listed on Musiican's Friend for $4,299 - $4,999. Great gear.

M

[Curois]

$24000! What a steal, I'll take 3! Do they come in cornflower blue? Will it make me a great musician? Will it suck my dick? Those are the features I really care about in the $20-25000 range.

Incidently it might get your dick sucked because the gold plated type of keyboard really appeals to the "hoes" in the R&B/Hiphop scene

[c3boy]

$24000! What a steal, I'll take 3! Do they come in cornflower blue? Will it make me a great musician? Will it suck my dick? Those are the features I really care about in the $20-25000 range.

Incidently it might get your dick sucked because the gold plated type of keyboard really appeals to the "hoes" in the R&B/Hiphop scene

Haha, you guys make me laugh.

[umd]

(...)
The jury is out whether Muse backed the wrong horse by going w/Linux rather than XP. If Direct Install works for the majority of items then I guess the only other issue will be a new round of hardware upgrades.
(...)

I think not. Linux has had a tremendous development in this area and can perfectly be the basis for any future vst player "hardware". I would even risk saying that it will soon be better than Vista for that purpose.

[UltraJv]

(...)
The jury is out whether Muse backed the wrong horse by going w/Linux rather than XP. If Direct Install works for the majority of items then I guess the only other issue will be a new round of hardware upgrades.
(...)

I think not. Linux has had a tremendous development in this area and can perfectly be the basis for any future vst player "hardware". I would even risk saying that it will soon be better than Vista for that purpose.

Perhaps you dont understand the current problem. There is a issue on Receptor (Linux) which wont let various USB dongle protection systems work. If you want to run anything with a dongle, currently - you cant. The thing is - major developers are supporting Vista but not Linux. Linux is great for many reasons but is trouble with audio. That means if you have products from Steinberg/Arturia etc - you cant use Linux.