Running multiple receptors
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- KVRian
- 691 posts since 13 May, 2004 from Silicon Valley
Hi ollywood,
Yes it is possible to use multiple receptors with Uniwire in a studio. I have been beta testing a new Uniwire out on a ProTools host (eg. RTAS wrapper of VST Uniwire), and this works well with 2 Receptors from my experiences. I have been able to sequence a session with UniWire plugs, distributed across two Receptors. The Uniwire interface made it pretty easy to connect to either Receptor, and configure which Receptor Channel is being addressed. Quitting the host and restarting the host session went smoothly, all channels reconnected without any problems.
A few caveats:
1.) This is not quite a 'daisy-chain' configuration (more like a 'star' configuration). I run this with multiple receptors and the host connected via a giga-bit switch. On the newer Macintosh Towers, they have multiple ethernet ports - so theoretically, you could connect 2 receptors directly to one host.
2.) While external Receptors (via Uniwire) do in fact unburden your host, it does so at a cost to your host. I've noticed ~3-4% cpu utilization per uniwire instance on my (modern CPU) host. While this doesn't sound like alot, it adds up to over 40% for 16 channels (via 16 instances of Uniwire). Spreading this out over multiple Receptors doesn't change anything, because this is the cost for the host to listen to each channel.
3.) The cost for each channel on the Receptor is much harder to predict, and it is totally based on your Receptor HW, and the number/kind of plugins you are trying to execute. It is also dependent on the MIDI activity, and how much of it is synchronous (eg. If you have 5 modelling VA plugins all responding as a layer to the same MIDI channel, you will spike the Receptor CPU pretty hard). This manifests itself as 'crackles and pops' on the Uniwire audio when the CPU peaks to 100% on a Receptor. With more typical music sequencing, you will rarely have this type of behavior.
4.) There is a noticeable improvement, based on Receptor HW. The two Receptors I used for testing were a Receptor Pro (Rev C) and a Receptor 2 Pro Max. The Receptor 2 was probably giving me something like 30-40% additional performance (in very rough approximation - I haven't done a proper study of this). For Uniwire usage, this means you will get more Uniwire channels without CPU peaking on the newer platforms. How Many? Read [3] above. With a variety of different plugs (1/3 VA, 1/3 Streaming sample players, 1/3 ram sample players) I was able to populate 16 channels on uniwire (with distributed MIDI activity on all channels).
Overall, based on my testing experiences, I'd say that Uniwire is looking a lot more promising than it was previously. It is dramatically improved for ProTools, and it works seamlessly for multiple receptor clients.
Hope this helps, Regards,
Kevin L
Yes it is possible to use multiple receptors with Uniwire in a studio. I have been beta testing a new Uniwire out on a ProTools host (eg. RTAS wrapper of VST Uniwire), and this works well with 2 Receptors from my experiences. I have been able to sequence a session with UniWire plugs, distributed across two Receptors. The Uniwire interface made it pretty easy to connect to either Receptor, and configure which Receptor Channel is being addressed. Quitting the host and restarting the host session went smoothly, all channels reconnected without any problems.
A few caveats:
1.) This is not quite a 'daisy-chain' configuration (more like a 'star' configuration). I run this with multiple receptors and the host connected via a giga-bit switch. On the newer Macintosh Towers, they have multiple ethernet ports - so theoretically, you could connect 2 receptors directly to one host.
2.) While external Receptors (via Uniwire) do in fact unburden your host, it does so at a cost to your host. I've noticed ~3-4% cpu utilization per uniwire instance on my (modern CPU) host. While this doesn't sound like alot, it adds up to over 40% for 16 channels (via 16 instances of Uniwire). Spreading this out over multiple Receptors doesn't change anything, because this is the cost for the host to listen to each channel.
3.) The cost for each channel on the Receptor is much harder to predict, and it is totally based on your Receptor HW, and the number/kind of plugins you are trying to execute. It is also dependent on the MIDI activity, and how much of it is synchronous (eg. If you have 5 modelling VA plugins all responding as a layer to the same MIDI channel, you will spike the Receptor CPU pretty hard). This manifests itself as 'crackles and pops' on the Uniwire audio when the CPU peaks to 100% on a Receptor. With more typical music sequencing, you will rarely have this type of behavior.
4.) There is a noticeable improvement, based on Receptor HW. The two Receptors I used for testing were a Receptor Pro (Rev C) and a Receptor 2 Pro Max. The Receptor 2 was probably giving me something like 30-40% additional performance (in very rough approximation - I haven't done a proper study of this). For Uniwire usage, this means you will get more Uniwire channels without CPU peaking on the newer platforms. How Many? Read [3] above. With a variety of different plugs (1/3 VA, 1/3 Streaming sample players, 1/3 ram sample players) I was able to populate 16 channels on uniwire (with distributed MIDI activity on all channels).
Overall, based on my testing experiences, I'd say that Uniwire is looking a lot more promising than it was previously. It is dramatically improved for ProTools, and it works seamlessly for multiple receptor clients.
Hope this helps, Regards,
Kevin L
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- KVRer
- 7 posts since 4 Dec, 2009 from los angeles
Thanks for that. However I cannot seem to get remote control to see two receptors that are connected via both ethernet ports. It will only see one at a time. How should I connect them so that it will?
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- KVRian
- 691 posts since 13 May, 2004 from Silicon Valley
Hi again,
I use a high speed digital switch (eg dlink or one of the standard ones, gigabit switch will work well). I connect my Receptors and my DAW (PowerMac for me) to the switch, and they are all seen in Receptor Remote.
Regards,
Kevin L
I use a high speed digital switch (eg dlink or one of the standard ones, gigabit switch will work well). I connect my Receptors and my DAW (PowerMac for me) to the switch, and they are all seen in Receptor Remote.
Regards,
Kevin L
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Kevin@MuseResearch Kevin@MuseResearch https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=200693
- MUSEician
- 188 posts since 11 Feb, 2009
In my time doing support I've seen a lot of funky things with that second ethernet port on the new mac towers. IT may correct the problem for you to set both receptors connected to the mac to auto DHCP mode. Although I've never sat and fooled around with one myself, I tend to recommend that users either connect one Receptor at a time with those, or buy a switch/router. Often identifying networking problems just comes down to IP addresses, making sure every receptor/computer on the system is being assigned a correct IP address. correct IP addresses usually start with 192, or 172, while an IP adress that starts with 169 is always a sign that the device cannot communicate with anything else on the network.
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- KVRer
- 7 posts since 4 Dec, 2009 from los angeles
Most helpful.looneytunes wrote:Hi again,
I use a high speed digital switch (eg dlink or one of the standard ones, gigabit switch will work well). I connect my Receptors and my DAW (PowerMac for me) to the switch, and they are all seen in Receptor Remote.
Regards,
Kevin L
So presumably the Netgear GS105 would do the job? Must one use crossover ethernet cables, or regular ones?
Regards
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- KVRian
- 691 posts since 13 May, 2004 from Silicon Valley
Hi again,
Yeah, that one should work. It's a good idea to plan ahead for the ports you might think you need. (eg port 1: ethernet from cable modem, port 2 Mac/DAW, port 3: Receptor 1, port 4: receptor 2, .... as you can see, you can eat-up ports rather rapidly). In my case, I got an 8 port switch, and reserved some ports for expansion.
As far as I know, you use standard ethernet cables when using a switch.
Regards,
Kevin L
Yeah, that one should work. It's a good idea to plan ahead for the ports you might think you need. (eg port 1: ethernet from cable modem, port 2 Mac/DAW, port 3: Receptor 1, port 4: receptor 2, .... as you can see, you can eat-up ports rather rapidly). In my case, I got an 8 port switch, and reserved some ports for expansion.
As far as I know, you use standard ethernet cables when using a switch.
Regards,
Kevin L
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- KVRer
- 7 posts since 4 Dec, 2009 from los angeles
Copy that Kevin. Appreciate the help.
Best
Ollie
Best
Ollie
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- KVRer
- 7 posts since 4 Dec, 2009 from los angeles
Any have an idea how to troubleshoot when the Receptor refuses to enable Uniwire?
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Kevin@MuseResearch Kevin@MuseResearch https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=200693
- MUSEician
- 188 posts since 11 Feb, 2009
ollywood,
Uniwire turns on and off automatically. So once you load the Uniwire plugin in a host sequencer it should automatically turn on Uniwire in the Receptor.
Uniwire turns on and off automatically. So once you load the Uniwire plugin in a host sequencer it should automatically turn on Uniwire in the Receptor.
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- KVRer
- 7 posts since 4 Dec, 2009 from los angeles
Right. Ok, Kevin, forgive me for being so inept. I've got the receptors talking to the computer via the remote control satisfactorily. Now the problem is that when I open a Uniwire instrument in Logic, I am unable to edit any parameters in it. (I am using the latest Uniwire 1.3 and the latest 1.7 update in Receptor).
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Kevin@MuseResearch Kevin@MuseResearch https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=200693
- MUSEician
- 188 posts since 11 Feb, 2009
Ollywood, at this point, it sounds like it may be best for you to open a support ticket at our online support site http://www.plugorama.com/hd.php so you can submit some of your MAC system information. To do this click on the apple logo, then select 'about this mac'. A small screen should appear, click on the 'more info button'. Once that shows up go to 'file > Save' and save it as a system profiler document. You can then send it through the support ticket to our support team for help in troubleshooting the issue
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- KVRer
- 7 posts since 4 Dec, 2009 from los angeles
Hmmm, ok, thanks again.