V-Machine

[amiga909]

He was talking about Truepianos... is THAT "a large CPU load", in V-Machine terms??? Well, that's it for me then. I'm extremely disappointed.

I've been following this thread for weeks, reading about the V-Machine for months, hoping that I was finally able to replace my CX-3 and Promega 3 with a V-machine running VB3, Truepianos and Elektrik Piano simultaneously.

I believe the v-machine is gonna be a great product after a few debugging issues. imho you have wrong expectations towards this thing.

- running big sample-VSTis requires a lot of internal RAM. loads of internal RAM need a large motherboard, this again requires another housing, etc...

- show me a PC below 1000$ that runs VB3, truepiano and NI elekrik with 10x3 voices at the same time...

- its not probable the v-machine runs all major plugs. even if NI elektrik would be compatible now, I am not sure if NI+Co. would block the compability in future releases - unless SMPro has a binding contract with the vst dev.

- u cannot compare a v-machine with a Promega 3 or a CX-3. the GM Promega 3 is about 7 times more expensive - surley it has more power! also the promega is about 10 times heavier... of course, even if you had 7x v-machine you'd hardly get the 320 polyphony of a Promega: the v-machine is all-purpose, it has no specific synthesis architecture.

the big advantage for a v-machine in my eyes is that you can easily add another one to your setup. while going on tour with 3 laptops is not very reasonable, you could get a distinct v-machine for every big plugin u need to run.

[fas1piano]

for those who need more power, IMO decent laptop running brainspawn forte is still the ticket.

for just an instance of vb3 or a few fx, a v-machine will be cool, once it works as expected. if you don't nned/want a laptop around.

fab

[DustnPottyMouth]

I ordered my vmachine this morning. I am planning to use it for electric drum samples. Has anyone tested Superior 2.0, Addictive drums, Battery 3, EZ Drummer, or BFD on this thing? I'd prefer a real answer meaning yes or no and their experience with that particular plugin. My thoughts are I will load the samples on a external usb drive or stick. I loaded them up in the VMachine GUI no problem so I'm hoping if it works in the software that it will have no problem in the vmachine. As long as I can get 8ms I'll be ok but idealistically I'd prefer something much lower. I'd prefer a response from VFXAU if possible.

Thanks,
-D

[dirkpiano]

- running big sample-VSTis requires a lot of internal RAM. loads of internal RAM need a large motherboard, this again requires another housing, etc...

I only asked for 2Gb, not 16 or so. 2Gb can fit on 1 sodimm, so what's the problem? And it already has been stated here that you can upgrade to 1 gb. That's still not enough, but why not DELIVERING it with 1gb, what would the extra cost be? 10€ ?

- show me a PC below 1000$ that runs VB3, truepiano and NI elekrik with 10x3 voices at the same time...

huh?? My 800€ laptop (2007 price, would be +/- 700€ today) has no problem running a cubase 4 song with truepianos, vb3, realguitar, realstrat, jamstix, halionone, chrishein bass, all running (and playing) simultaneously. Well OK, I would eventually get some cpu spikes, but i'm not asking that much from V-machine, do I? And still, that laptop doesn't cost much more than the V-machine. BUT: i would NEVER take this laptop on stage! It's still windows, and windows can crash (can't afford a mac). That's why i liked the concept of the v-machine so much: finally using that PC-power for nothing else then VSTi's without the drawbacks of a pc.

- u cannot compare a v-machine with a Promega 3 or a CX-3.

That's not the point, and I'm NOT comparing a v-machine with a promega or a cx-3. I want to replace those boards by VB3, Truepianos and NI Elektrik. That's not the same. I have purchased these vst's, I like them enough to put those other keyboards to rest, they run fine on my laptop, now I just need a good, reliable, not-to-expensive platform to run them on stage, that's all. Nothing to do with promega or korg.

the big advantage for a v-machine in my eyes is that you can easily add another one to your setup. while going on tour with 3 laptops is not very reasonable, you could get a distinct v-machine for every big plugin u need to run.

sorry, but again: i don't need 3 laptops to run what i want. Mine does it allright by itself, but will never see a podium.

You are right that my expectations were high, but isn't that normal after reading their website: "...within one preset you can have up to four channels and up to two fx channels. Each channel can load up to three plug ins and each fx channels also has three plug-in slots. Even the master channel can hold up to three plug-ings so you can run up to 21 plug-ins in each preset!..." .

Again, i didn't need THAT much!

Well, waiting for the V-Machine MkII then, I guess.

[buscemi]

I believe the v-machine is gonna be a great product after a few debugging issues. imho you have wrong expectations towards this thing.

Agreed on the first part, but not for everybody. Piano players probably being not so much enthralled by this unit.

- show me a PC below 1000$ that runs VB3, truepiano and NI elekrik with 10x3 voices at the same time...

You can get a quad core Dell much better-spec'd for around $550 in the states. Not the same form factor, but that's not what you asked

the big advantage for a v-machine in my eyes is that you can easily add another one to your setup. while going on tour with 3 laptops is not very reasonable, you could get a distinct v-machine for every big plugin u need to run.

For piano players I think a rack unit is more realistic, and priced accordingly. 10 notes is not enough for realistic piano playing (you can sustain, etc more than you can play with your 10 fingers) and 32-note polyphony is pretty much the bottom of the scale for piano players unless we have traveled back to 2003.

[schoko]

@ dirkpiano:
...sorry, but it's still way to early to judge.

Of course, I myself am wondering how many voices with a special Absynth preset and so on, but we all don't have an overview yet about what's possible and what not.

So, let's see...

[amiga909]

but why not DELIVERING it with 1gb, what would the extra cost be? 10€ ?

totally agreed. + a less noisy fan.

Again, i didn't need THAT much!

most of the plugs u listed need a lot of RAM. and not CPU since the sound data is preloaded, not synthesized (basically).

really not sure about this: is it possible a v-machine does not good at running RAM-heavy plugs because PC's have more flexible motherboards and OS-tricks (virtual RAM) for that?

I think it's comparable to a P4 2.4 GHz running XP, since I've experienced similar limits/capabilities of my previous PC.

if this is true, its quite ok imho.

we should try to compare with a light+free plugin, so everybody can compare with his own system?
how many synth1-voices does a v-machine run, how many freeverbs?

[dirkpiano]

@ dirkpiano:
...sorry, but it's still way to early to judge.

well, my post wasn't based on speculation but based on a real user's experience about that vsti, and especially on sm pro's respons to that (not denying the problem, but implying that this vsti is too CPU hungry).

But I really hope you're right. OK, I'm not giving up yet.

[schoko]

But I really hope you're right. OK, I'm not giving up yet.

Fine. Let's see....

I think many things depend on how good the hardware / firmware works with each "special" vst dll.

Many ways to optimise things in future, I think (hope...?)

[stisti]

For piano players I think a rack unit is more realistic, and priced accordingly. 10 notes is not enough for realistic piano playing (you can sustain, etc more than you can play with your 10 fingers) and 32-note polyphony is pretty much the bottom of the scale for piano players unless we have traveled back to 2003.

Hi !

I'm a piano player and I'm very interested in the V-Machine. But after reading this topic, I'm not sure about the efficiency...
Do you have some examples about rack unit ? I search something with B4 and rhodes sounds, for Live, not for studio. Maybe dou you have an answer or an other topic with some explanations.

P.S Sorry for my english, but I'm swiss, and I only speak frencg...

[mobilenator]

I'm a piano player and I'm very interested in the V-Machine. But after reading this topic, I'm not sure about the efficiency...

after testing TruePianos, Lounge Lizard and MrRay73 Mark II,
I'm returning my V-Machine to the store,
not powerful enough for handling my demands as piano player

sorry guys,

let's see, maybe the next generation of V-Machines will cut it!

[amiga909]

I'm a piano player and I'm very interested in the V-Machine. But after reading this topic, I'm not sure about the efficiency...

after testing TruePianos, Lounge Lizard and MrRay73 Mark II,
I'm returning my V-Machine to the store,
not powerful enough for handling my demands as piano player

sorry guys,

let's see, maybe the next generation of V-Machines will cut it!

to what kind of PC would u compare the v-machine?

[DustnPottyMouth]

who cares about keyboards....does anyone own one that can test any of dfhs,s2.0, addictive drums, or battery 3?

[mobilenator]

to what kind of PC would u compare the v-machine?

not even a P4 2ghz

[VFXAU]

I'm a piano player and I'm very interested in the V-Machine. But after reading this topic, I'm not sure about the efficiency...

after testing TruePianos, Lounge Lizard and MrRay73 Mark II,
I'm returning my V-Machine to the store,
not powerful enough for handling my demands as piano player

sorry guys,

let's see, maybe the next generation of V-Machines will cut it!

to what kind of PC would u compare the v-machine?

I am not sure how you are testing these, Lounge Lizard works perfectly with very low CPU usage,I am somewhat dubious you tested these...