V-Machine

[Tony Ostinato]

im not so sure im standing up for v-machine as much as im saying if you need a hammer dnt use a screwdriver and just because you tried and hurt yourself dont blame the screwdriver.

i mean i don't have one yet, but even if it runs only one obscure little vst from 1998 if joe the jobber wants that plugin this is a way to run it without needing anything else, woohoo!!!

i use a full blown laptop and i like it, but more than once ive fantisized about just having something like a ewi usb and a v-machine that i could run out and jam on with only a minute of setup.

i dont care much for the ewi philosophy of pitch bend with the right thumb and vibrato with the lips pressure which is reversed from the yamaha wx5.

sadly i dont think theres gonna be a wx usb. argh.

but, bringing it back to topic, i cant use a receptor either because it doesnt run wivi, so again its about what tool you need for the job.

[delafuerte]

V-Machine is best for single plugin use, and is aimed at low cost and a very small size.

That's the problem!
Nobody told us the V-MACHINE was intended to run just one vst (and we could talk even about it)...but the commercial always says FREE YOUR VST!

That's a great difference! I'd have never bought it if I had knew that I could run just one vst! ....Combine VST and VSTi plug-ins into chains, splits, and layers to create extremely rich and unique sounds...what are you talking about man?!
No, no, it's a question of honesty....SMPRO should have been more clear!!!

Unfortunately I discovered this too late...and not just me; that's the reason why so many users are requisting this upgrade!

[delafuerte]

im not so sure im standing up for v-machine as much as im saying if you need a hammer dnt use a screwdriver and just because you tried and hurt yourself dont blame the screwdriver.

U can just read my comment above!

[Tony Ostinato]

thats a thing about us musicians, we are so very susceptible to myth and illusion and somehow getting ourselves to believe things the way we would like them to be rather than the way they are.

so its like buyer beware but also buyer educate and buyer research, because we're musicians the way we think it will be will almost always be wrong.

im not saying smpro per se but literally all audio manufacturers take advantage of this trait in musicians and intentionally misdirect with their ad copy.

to me my instinct is always small and cheap = low power and features but of course good portability. just like with netbooks and palm pcs etc i dont expect any of them to perform on a par with my laptop.

so with v-machine i dont even care what their ad copy says and tttt i havent even read it, at least not seriously and remembering what it says cause its ad copy.

instead i read here, and google "v-machine problem". then i know warts and all.
im still thinking of getting one and id have one already if i had lots of spare cash right now.

if yamaha came out with a wx usb id get that and v-machine tomorrow, like ive said.

[AzureCrystal]

im not so sure im standing up for v-machine as much as im saying if you need a hammer dnt use a screwdriver and just because you tried and hurt yourself dont blame the screwdriver.

Very well put !! I have to admit I do feel a bit deceived by the promise of the vmachine, but putting myself in smpro's shoes, I probably would have marketed it exactly the same way. The problem, I believe, lies in the fact the vmachine was not ready for mass production in it's current form, smpro should have waited to have more vst integration down like they do with OPX bundles(I bought that too), maybe even tried to sell it more as a SampleTank companion, but not as anything comparable to a Receptor for instance. I am sorry to say mine has been a paperweight from day one, I tried it live once and it was simply impossible to use, the fact volumes were not normalized across plugins was awful when playing live, and of course the audio artifacts coming from the cpu clipping was not fun either, I came to one of our gigs ready to show off, and it lasted about 20 minutes before I had to turn it off and continue the gig with my other keys.... The midi implementation had NOTHING to do with the cpu and could have been FAR better, something that would allow fast changing of patches, banks, or synths, not this bad kludge of changing midi channels !! Instead why not use using a smart program change option and use some other cc command like bank change to switch from one synth to the other... When I realized how long I had to wait to page through synths, I knew the appeal of using this live was dead, and my music pc has plenty of horsepower so it became a nice studio decoration very quickly to my dismay, I wanted so badly to love it.

I do see your point about it possibly being a great single purpose plugin player, but for the life of me, I tried loads of free and commercial plugins, and besides not getting 80% of them to install right with the wizard files, for the few I did get on there, I was not able to painlessly run one of them with a good quality sound, low latency, no voice stealing, or audio clipping, not one I am sorry to say. Maybe the exception is Sampletank, which I also own, and like I said, had it been marketed as a nice complement to a vst sampler, I would have been happy.

All in all, I may keep it around and hopefully the os will improve and smpro may catch up with some of these glitches, but in the meantime I purchased a "Plugiator" which comes bundled with 8 different Creamware vst synths in one box. Considering I almost bought the "MiniMax" alone a while back, which would have been $1,200, getting this new bundled box (minimoog, hammond b3, ppg wave, arp oddysey) at around around $599 was a great bargain, I can even add the Prophet 12 module for only $45(another one I was going to buy the full console for about 1200) More ! So far the reviews are all glowing, plus I know Creamware as a company very well and they put out first rate vst/hardware combos !!

BTW, I do remember a Tony Ostinato, producer/synthetist extraordinare who has graced many top notch albums circa 70s-80s, many of my favorites, just wondering if you are "that" Tony ?? I throughly admire your work, very inspirational for me (that is, if you are him , hehe !!)... -- Peace !!

[raymb1]

I used an EWI USB with the V-Machine, with good results. I've since traded the EWI USB for an EWI4000s and now have no need for the V. The V has some pretty good pre-loaded sounds. I would like to sell it for $250.00 firm. It's in like new condition. Later, Ray

[Tony Ostinato]

no, im not that tony, and id guess since its kind of a musical joke name neither is he. an ostinato is a repeated musical phrase.

sorry bout that.

[Peter999]

smpro should have waited to have more vst integration down like they do with OPX bundles(I bought that too)

Hi AzureCrystal - I would be interested in your personal experience with the VM Bundle since there have been only few feedbacks so far from buyers

[AzureCrystal]

Sure, I have some studio time coming up this weekend and I will be happy to give the bundle a good test

smpro should have waited to have more vst integration down like they do with OPX bundles(I bought that too)

Hi AzureCrystal - I would be interested in your personal experience with the VM Bundle since there have been only few feedbacks so far from buyers

[Biopharmer]

Can you use the V-Machine just to take heat off your computer?
So you can make music without any latency?
I mean... can you edit your VST in realtime on the computer and still control the V-machine box with midi at the same time?
Kinda like the Virus TI?

[raymb1]

I used the V-Machine with both and EWI USB and a midi keyboard. I had no latency issues at all. Later, Ray

[mon8169]

Can you use the V-Machine just to take heat off your computer?
So you can make music without any latency?
I mean... can you edit your VST in realtime on the computer and still control the V-machine box with midi at the same time?
Kinda like the Virus TI?

Short answer: No

Long answer: the V-Machine works like all the Hardware synths you may have. If you send them the correct midi messages you can edit them in realtime, but the VST interface on your computer doesn't send the midi messages to the VST loaded in the V-Machine.

I hope it makes sense to you. It's a little hard to explain (I think)

Ramon

[LukeVst]

V-Machine is best for single plugin use, and is aimed at low cost and a very small size. It has extra plugin slots not to run multiple plugins at the same time, but to load multiple plugins so that loading times can be reduced.

Eventually it may be possible if we do the development to go out and buy a usb soundcard and plug it into the v-machine to give you +4db XLR outputs for stage use, or one with a digital output for studio use. Options and possibilities are endless to tailor it to your exact needs.

The idea is low cost to buy a unit to get started, and then you can upgrade the basic unit to be what your after.

Hopefully that gives you something to be as excited as I am about the product as the V-Machine works great and the future releases about to be made just make it even better.

I wish this thing could work with a single plugin at least as they say... I've bought mine to load the library Sampletekk White Grand Jr. (only 1.3 GB, don't tell me it's too much...) with SampleLord... I've tried every audio buffer size settings ( from 64 to 384), I've tried every disk streaming size (from 100ms to 1sec - with and without precaching), my USB stick has nominal 30MB/s read speed... I can't play more then five-six note (with pedal down even less), there are a lot of clips and buzz... so what's the use with this thing? With my old P4 2.4GHZ Windows PC 1sec streaming size= 249 MB ram load, V-MACHINE shows 98% RAM full... this value doesn't change if I set 500 ms streaming size... so where are 512MB Ram? lightweight OS? On PC this sampleset (on SampleLORD) runs perfectly with low CPU usage (<20%) and low RAM usage... I'm going crazy, I was hoping it would be good at least as a sampleplayer but there must be something wrong... if someone could help, I'de be grateful... at the moment there's no use... maybe it would be better to sell it..

[Jazzy.Shredder]

Apologies if this has already been answered, but has anyone here used the V-Machine as an effects processor only? How well does it perform when you are to use two or more effects plugins simultaneously?

[Sharp]

Hi LukeVst.

If all your getting is 5 or 6 notes poly from Samplelord then I think it's worth the effort looking at your setup.I'm using Samplelord and a Reverb plug-in at the same time and I will never drop below 64 Notes of poly regardless of what sounds I load.

Some of the biggest sounds I load are a 1.3GB Piano and a 1.5GB Harp and I always get 64 notes and upwards. The V-Machine for me is just fantastic and it works perfectly with Sampleload and the reverb I use.

It's the perfect little sample playback unit.

Regards
Sharp