Ive been experimenting with Mac minis as sound modules.
It works like this.
The Mac minis are set to autologin. The au host ‘Au Lab’ (Hosting AU - whatever) is started automatically via it’s saved document (like a Cantible ‘song’) An RTP Ethernet midi port is set up. (Part of OSX)
Three of them are mounted in a box with a power board and a gigabit switch. The box has a handle on top
The host can be a PC running Cantabile and Tobias Erichsen’s rtpMIDI.
(Or if the mac port comes off, a mac running Cantible and native RTP)
rtpMIDI sets up midi ports that go to the macs (via single Ethernet)
You now have virtual sound modules running Diva or some really large sample plugin.
You can lighten the load on cantabile.
Of course each Mac can run multiple instruments on different channels.
You could use mini PCs but you can get i3 and i5 mac minis off ebay cheap and the OS is free.
I’m working on the audio from the Macs back into cantabile via jack for central effects processing.
OT One of the off-shoots of this general R&D has been to run my personal music at home from iTunes through AU Lab with what ever plugins you like and then out to my Sony Surround Sound via wireless.
Nice trick!
You could also like heavy orchestral mockup users, give Vienna Ensemble Pro a try.
It wont need a virtual midi LAN cable and audio would return into Cantabile to be mixed using the same audio interface, all carried (midi, audio in/out) via a single Ethernet cable.
All slave computer configuration (ie Kontakt huge samples) could be recalled by Cantabile. The only issue is the extra buffer (latency) the LAN is inducing.
Never tried with Cantabile or Forte but latency is manageable at home, between my DAW (cubase) and my slave computer.
