Elektrocutie saying hi!

[ElektroCutie]

Hi all,

Couldn’t find a specific topic to say hi as a new GP user and present myself So this looked the best topic to do it.

In the past I had some years of experience with synth hardware but after a fire at our neighbor’s house in 2007 that resulted in just about all the hardware in my studio at our rental house got a shower from the fire department, music tinkering has been relegated to the background for me for a fifteen-year period: finishing new house, kids, other work, finding and remodeling new house, … other priorities.

After all these years and with more time on my hands, the microbe started itching again. Knowing the possibilities and limitations of hardware and because of all the developments on the software level, I decided to work “in the box” this time. After some experiments, I am now more or less where I want to be in the near future It did become “outside the boxES” because this allowed me to distribute some computing power

The first version:

My first setup consisted of 1 DAW PC and 3 VST computers. I hooked these devices together over the network with RTPmidi for all midi signals and Dante audio via DVS to route all audio between the devices. On my DAW device I ranLive 11 standard and on each of the VST devices Live 11 intro. To get my audio from the Danté network to the amplifier I used an ESI Danté interface. The interface from the DAW PC was on the large 65" screen. I tcontrol the other VST computers via RDP on the smaller screen at the bottom. I used “external instrument” on my DAW to route midi and audio to and from the VST devices. My main goal was to actually approach my 3 VST devices as if they were racks of (VST) synths.

After a bit of testing it didn’t exactly work as I wanted, and than I discovered GP

This is where I am now:

Schematic:

A little explanation perhaps

I chose to work completely in the box(es). Midi between the machines runs over the network via rtpmidi, audio runs over the network via Danté

My latest additions are the Dell laptop and a 27" touchscreen (the one on my desk). On the laptop is Ableton as DAW. Actually, I only use Ableton for midi. Through the touchscreen I take over my 4 machines in the case using RDP. I set it up so that each of these machines actually works like rack hardware. On these machines Gigperformer runs as a VST host, this was for me THE perfect tool for what I wanted to do. As you can see in the diagram above I worked with color coding, this is also reflected in my DAW and on the Gigperformer machines:

The colors in my DAW:

My boxes, red, blue & yellow:

These are my VSTi machines, as mentioned with Gig performer as VST host. This is super light when it comes to running VSTs. Compared to Ableton, this host handles the vst’s much more resource friendly and the CPU consumption is veeeeeeeery lower. No more pops and clicks, really the max. For each of these hosts I created a custom interface that is super touch-friendly and allows you to immediately see which host you are running:

This is where the virtual instruments run, currently 9 per box which all send their audio to the fourth box via Danté. Controlling the VSTi’s is super fun via the touchscreen

The max of Gig performer is that you can create workspaces per track containing the VSTi instruments and patching as you want per track and that you can attach a program change number to a workspace. If you then insert it in front of your track in Ableton, the right workspace is automatically loaded on all boxes when opening or starting the track so that the right instruments, sounds, … are ready for that track. Goes meeeeega smooth and fast. super!!!

The green box

The fourth computer is my VSTfx and Mixer box. This box receives all Danté channels. On these channels I can then throw VSTfx plugins Again, way more CPU friendly than with Ableton as VST host. Again, I have already created a basic control interface:

The LED VU bars at the top is the level of the incoming signal, the rest is … an ordinary mixer control, intention is to also hook this to a midi channel in Ableton for automation From here the audio then goes out through my esi danté interface. Again a workspace per track so via Program change → correct mixer settings and FX loaded.

/me is happy at the moment, maybe a bit costly having to buy 2 licenses for 4 machines but now I have 2 spare licenses for future projects

[ElektroCutie]

Just a little add-on about my name Elektocutie that’s another story, I can tick off what could be a bucket list of special events

In 2019, on the hottest day of sweltering summer, lightning struck our newest house (not the rental house from the fire, not our new building after it but our silly little renovation project after that). Fortunately, the ball lightning split just before impact and struck at 4 points on our house and 3 more neighbors’ houses. Unfortunately, I was mixing on my Rodec with headphones on my head at the time so I got part of the impact. If you are so into the movie shell shock effects where the picture goes from black with a beep back … well, combine that with the tenfold shock you have when you’re hooked up to 220V and then you can kind of imagine what it was like.

I lost the first 10 seconds, then everything just about came back and the adrenaline kicked in at 400%. First round through the house (rather stumbled ) where the sockets were out of the wall, there was no light or electricity and there was a smell of fire, first put the children at the front door (outside there was a thunderstorm so I didn’t want that, inside I wasn’t sure yet that there was no fire anywhere so I didn’t want them there either). Called fire department, called wife who was having aperitifs at a friend’s house, and then continued a more thorough tour. Fire department was there super fast as they were already at the barracks due to the thunderstorm threat. Walk around with the flir fortunately gave the assurance that there was no fire but there were pipes that were extremely hot. This image … we unfortunately already knew from somewhere

Fire department gone after a while, wife home, kids back calm … and when my adrenaline subsided reality returned and I didn’t really feel so great anymore. Drove myself to ER and admitted there to intensive care after an initial brief check by the emergency physician. Infusion in the arm and hung on the monitor all night. Risk of an overflow on your body is that your blood breaks down so also every x number of hours checking blood values.

Fortunately, I only got the end of the impact in, so it wasn’t too bad. We had the main blast at our house and at our place 90% of all electrical appliances, lights, shutters, heating, … killed, also several electrical circuits had damage.

My Rodec was also ruined but has been inside at Transitel Sabima and is now back to tiptop condition

not many people have such a diagnosis on paper, so yes, that was just inspiration for a name

Considering I was more into elektrohouse as a DJ with a slight adjustment to elektroCUTIE

I hope to leave the rest of the disaster bucket list further unchecked

[npudar]

Hi Elektrocutie!

Thank you for sharing this

[Glen]

Amazing story. I recall a few decades back, being on the old phone attached to AT&T landline. Lightning struck, and I flung the handset of our wall phone to the ground. I was not as unfortunate as you. I do recall when I was 20’ish, my dad modified an old Fender Deluxe 15 watt amp from the 50’s to be 60 watts. Using it without a cabinet at a gig, even though a cabinet had not been built for it, and holding my guitar in hand while touching my mic I got a bit of a shock. So I reached back to my amp and flipped the ground switch. This time, then holding my guitar and touching the mic with my lips (bad idea!) I was dizzy for the next 15 min from the shock. Later dad would be running some tests on the amp, and said, oh here is a problem… I am getting 800v across the chassis. Dad is gone now R.I.P. since 97, but remembered for all the small details. Wish I had half the brains of him though.

[ElektroCutie]

My interfaces keep on evolving thanks to all info I’m getting from these community posts:

On my VST boxes: added a function so that Ableton live links is on on startup, added the BPM so I can double check that the BPM is correct, the Rackspace name to check if the correct rackspace is loaded and a Panic button that I hope I never have to use

For the mixer, On this moment this is where I am:

Input levels from the boxes on top, microphone input level gains + meters and extra routing to the vocoder for mic 2. Color coding to have a fast identification of the box the control are pointing to.