Those Using Giga 3 with MAC Setups?

[wells]

Ok, well, here is one question...

Of those here using MACS (sequencer), and GIGA 3, would you mind posting your "specific" set-up?

There seems to be a few different ways about going to this and am curious about the lot of them.

Cheers and thanks.

[Journeyman]

I thought Gigsampler was PC only....

[haarbol]

:) he means a mac-sequencer connected through <insert setup here> to a gigastudio pc :-)

[JohnnyP]

Wells,

I don't have Giga 3 but still 2.5 and a Mac where I do my sequencing and mixing.
I do it the pre 'FX Teleport' way. I have GSIF card on my Giga pc and take lightpipe out to my Digi 001 light pipe card on my mac. So in Pro Tools or whatever software on the mac side you have 8 channels coming in.
I'm debating about which way to go with this. On the Mac side, I'm wanting to upgrade my OS before I try teleport. Also, I don't know where TASCAM is. The upgrade took so long. For my needs, I like the orchestral sounds, but KONTAKT has really taken over IMO. VSL to me is the only reason I would want Giga at this point.

Sincerley,

Jonathan

[Nick Batzdorf]

I simply have Giga on two machines, connected by lightpipe to one of the MOTU 2408 boxes on my Mac. Since the Frontier cards on the Giga machines have no word clock inputs, I'm using their S/PDIF inputs for clock.

(I also have a Pro Tools Mix system on the same Mac, but that's irrelevant to the issue.)

[Will Loconto]

I run ProTools on the Mac and connect 4 PCs using RME Hammerfall cards via lightpipe and spdif to my Digidesign 192 and 1622. Depending on the project, the PCs can run Giga 3, Giga 2.5 or any combination of software instruments. I also recently switched to using MidiOverLan CP for my MIDI data.

[SWL]

I simply have Giga on two machines, connected by lightpipe to one of the MOTU 2408 boxes on my Mac. Since the Frontier cards on the Giga machines have no word clock inputs, I'm using their S/PDIF inputs for clock.

(I also have a Pro Tools Mix system on the same Mac, but that's irrelevant to the issue.)


Very similar setup here ... lightpipe to Mac from Pcs - all hard wired midi (still fearful of midi over lan) - i have all cards clocked to Aardvark Sync.

Each output from the PCs shows up as an input channel in Logic, etc.

Very painless!

The key is balancing what the role of the PCs and the Mac ... there are some samples that are better off being kept on the Mac, and others better left in Giga land.

AND - having load and go templates.

Also, i use Remote Desktop to communicate with the PCs - no Keyboard/Video/Mouse .... all controlled via Apple Remote Desktop.

[Jordo]

Very similar setup here ... lightpipe to Mac from Pcs - all hard wired midi (still fearful of midi over lan) - i have all cards clocked to Aardvark Sync.

Each output from the PCs shows up as an input channel in Logic, etc.

Very painless!

The key is balancing what the role of the PCs and the Mac ... there are some samples that are better off being kept on the Mac, and others better left in Giga land.

AND - having load and go templates.

Also, i use Remote Desktop to communicate with the PCs - no Keyboard/Video/Mouse .... all controlled via Apple Remote Desktop.

Whoa whoa whoa....... I was under the impression that Apple remote desktop did not work with windows remote desktop??

I have been thinking of doing something like this myself.... This summer I will be investing a large amount of $$$ into my current setup. I have been debating wheather to buy sampler PC's dedicated to GIGA and purchase the giga libraries (VSL, SAM etc), or purchase a new G5 and work exclusively in EXS and KONTAKT.... What do you think?

My main concern is the amount of input channels that you can get from the giga machine. Can you only get 8 channels out and into the sequencer machine? If this is the case maybe it is better to use most libraries on the sequencer machine. I am confident that come summer apple will release a tower with dual multicore processors so I think if I hold out untill then the new mac with the Tiger OS should be able to handle a lot. I also thought about being able to somehow harness some of my G4 tower in that setup as well but haven't figured it out yet.

Is anyone using multiple macs for distributed virtual instruments? If so what is your 'specific setup'. Is there an equivalent of FX teleport for OSX?

Any guidance and opinions would be helpful.

-Jordo

[SWL]

Yes, i use Apple Remote Desktop (admin) on the Mac. And i use RealVNC (freeware client) on the PCs. If you have other remote desktop experience, you will understand that the screen redraw is a bit dodgy at times, but i never need realtime display .... load, edit, etc.

Did you ever mention what sequencer ?

On PC1 - i have 16 channels (8 from Giga, 8 from VStack)
On PC2 - i have 16 channels from VStack

Also, for instance - when running QLSO - i have Strings on PC1 - Brass/Winds on PC2 and Percussion on the host Mac as well as Stormdrum, EXS, etc).

If you use Logic, you can use the G4 as a node for native Logic plugins (no samplers or 3rd party) - or use it to run VStack.

FXTeleport is mac friendly now (i believe) ????

I like Giga, so i cant go all mac. But Kontakt is great too! Still ---- i cannot image putting all the burden on the host machine.

[wells]

Thanks for some of the replies, yes, I meant exactly what one poster replied with, using the MAC as a sequencer...

But this raises a few other questions...

I understand some of FXteleport way, although not sure if it works with MAC and PC.

The second is, while I understand that lightpipe/ADAT can supply 8/16 outs from PC, you would need another card in the mac (for example) that has 2xADAT connections to receive the 16 audio tracks from the PC correct? If so, when you hit PLAY (on your MAC), what set-up do you use to "start" if you will, the GIGA 3 to play, i.e., synch up with the MAC, are you using wordclocks on the said cards? Do most of you have the same cards on both (examples) PC and MAC, lastly, I'm sure there has to be a firewire way to bring the samples into the MAC from the PC, you would think that we're almost at that point where ADAT/lightpipe would be superceded by firewire or mLAN, although I still read this is still very glichy.

I'm asking a lot of questions in the above, and of course, as always, appreciate any one-by-one point, by point anwsers, unless of course it's been anwsered in previous post's and I'm failing to see the solution(s).

Thank you again as this is very important.

[synthnut]

If you are using your Mac as a "master " so to speak, you need to be able to interface with all the PC's that you have sample channels on ....This means that you have to have an interface on the Mac that is capable of dealing with mainly Adat light pipe since it's now probably the easiest and most robust way of communicating 8 or more channels of data ...Depending on how many PC's you have, and how many channel's on each PC you want to be able to send to your Mac, depends on what card you run in your PC's ....If you want 16 channels of Giga comming out of any particular PC , you have to have a card that will give you 16 channels of Adat .....If you only need 8 channels you need a card that will support 8 channels ....Since you need to interface all these PC's to the Mac, the Mac now needs say for example sake, 24 channels of Adat .....Right now probably the interface of choice for the money would be one of the MOTU pieces that will handle 24 channels of Adat ....You could then set up say 3 - PC's with something like a Gina3G card that has 8 channels of Adat in each of your PC's....You can then use the SPDIF on each of the cards and the MOTU master on the Mac for your syncing ...It's a lot of work and a lot of money in cards, computers , and software....But if you want to have a large setup, be prepared to spend some large money !!...Hope this helps.....I can be very confusing ...I'm right in the middle of it all myself ...Jim

[Kaatza Music]

I have Giga 3 on a PC with a Tascam PCI-822 card connected to a MOTO 2408 MK3 via a TDIF cord which is run by my Mac running Logic. Current set up allows me up to 10 channels out of the PC and into the Mac (or my Mackie mixer) and 2 ports (32 channels) of MIDI from the Mac into the PC. This setup works flawlessly though it does have some limitations.

I am thinking about trying the MIDI over LAN route though.

[thesoundsmith]

My setup is more complicated, because I dislike recording live instruments directly o the computer - so I habe a dual 1.25 Mac w/2G RAM running DP 4.5 for my primary sequencer, plus GPO, Stylus RMX, Atmosphere and Silver, and Waves Gold 5 for FX. The PCs icluide a dedicated VSTi box, and a separate box for Giga 3. 2408 original and MTP II. Mixer i a Mackie d8b, with Mackie HDR25/96 for live audio recording. To shuffle all the options, I have the ZSys 8x8 S/PDIF switcher and the Frontier Apache for lightpipe. Layla 24 and MOTU Expresson the GS box, Gina 20 in the VSTi box. with MOTU parallel port Midi.

Generally it works like a charm. The lightpipe rouote with 2408 makes the network redundant for MIDI, though everything is networked for file transfer. The only hassle is turning all this stuff on...

[wells]

I'm not sure I'm getting all this....

Would I be able to record the midi (from Logic or DP, Pro-tools) and trigger the audio from the PC via routing? Perhaps this is the part that is somewhat unclear to me and the others I work with.

Thanks for clarification.

[SWL]

You trigger the PC's via traditional MIDI - the subsequent audio output is 'piped' to the MAC.

[JohnnyP]

Wells,


I'm not sure I'm getting all this....

Would I be able to record the midi (from Logic or DP, Pro-tools) and trigger the audio from the PC via routing? Perhaps this is the part that is somewhat unclear to me and the others I work with.

Thanks for clarification.

Haha. Sometimes I don't get it all myself. Everyone has listed several methods not merely one of connecting Giga on PC to a Mac.

To answer your question YES.

Think of it this way. You're turning your PC into a Giant sample box or instrument, not MERELY A computer and the Mac running the sequencer software is the HOST or CONTROLLER. If you Have a PC loaded with Giga 3 and you have sounds loaded say Legato strings, Giga Piano, etc you are taking audio and midi signals and routing them through the Mac computer and software.

Sincerely,

Jonathan

[Jordo]

I just checked fx teleport's site and it doesn't seem there is a version that is mac compliant. Is there any program similar to this that works under OSX? I would like to try this out b4 buying an audio interface.

[SWL]

Hmmmm, maybe only the MIDI over LAN is OSX -- i get confused ...

Ok, check out Wormhole .... it is audio over TC/IP - it is crossplatform.

I have never tried it, but it appears to be a plugin-insert that directs and recieves audio over TC/IP.

http://www.apulsoft.ch/wormhole/index.php

[tomshad]

i am using a setup that is what you were asking about very simple also . I have a dedicated pc running gig 3 and have a card with 1 midi in/out that also has spdif out and stereo out for audio. I use DP 4.12 and the pc is triggered via midi like any synth , The audio out of it is stereo now analog into a MOTU 828.
The comp and monitor card etc were assembled by a pc guru and costs about 2000

Tom Shad

[Mike Greene]

I work as Jonathan described. I treat the Gigastudio PC as an oversized rackmount sampler. So I run an ordinary MIDI cable from my Mac MIDI interface out to the MIDI input of my PC (a Layla interface.) Just like the Gigastudio was any other hardware synth.

The audio outputs from the Gigastudio back into my Mac is where I get even more primitive! I simply take the ANALOG outputs from the Layla interface of the Giga PC and run them into a Yamaha 02R mixer. This Yamaha mixer also gets my mix from the Mac ProTools hardware.

Primitive? Yes. But by golly, I have no wordclock issues, no MIDI LAN issues (I didn't even know that existed!) and if I swap Macs or PCs, I simply plug in the same MIDI and analog audio cables and away I go!

Admittedly, I really should go with digital outs from the Giga straight to the Mac, but then, there's a really long list of things I really SHOULD do. ;)

- Mike Greene