Hi y’all-- I got myself into a situation where I need to replace my Cantabile PC setup immediately with a band-aid solution until I can get a long-term solution in place. I’m trying to figure out if either of these (admittedly laughable) solutions would get me through the next few weeks of gigging. My VST load isn’t huge, but I run VB3, Xpand!2, Velvet, Pianoteq 5, and Kontakt.
Option 1: A 2012 Mac mini running Bootcamp. 2.5 GHz i5, 16 GB RAM.
Option 2: A 5th gen (Rock Canyon) NUC, 1.6 GHz i5, 16 GB RAM.
I haven’t tested Cantabile in Bootcamp, but I know that a few people are running it live. The NUC seems… light. Obviously neither of these are a full-time solution, but in terms of getting me through the next few weeks, either of these gonna be functional, or am I trying to squeeze rock juice from a rock?
Generally speaking, the higher frequency the better. My 2012 MacBook (i5 2.5GHz) works fine with bootcamp and Win7 (as far I know, Win10 is not supported).
Vb3 should be fine. 20% cpu sorta thing. I can’t speak for pianoteq etc but I know my i5 of similar speed, also 16g, won’t play Keyscape without processor spike clicks, with any decent latency setting. Kontakt 5 should be ok too, as long as your samples fit in RAM. NI Rhodes & Clav have been ok for me on that machine. Hth
Pianoteq takes about 12% on the 2012 i5. Kontakt is very instrument-affected. Say 5 to 15% playing a sampled piano (Noire) with a bit of reverb. Just avoid heavily processed synth sounds. Values are Time Load
That’s my understanding as well-- haven’t loaded Win 10 on the Mac mini yet to confirm, but that’s my next step tonight. Had to get through a 2-wedding weekend, but now I need to get the replacement unit up by Saturday. I’ll update with experience once I get it running!
