New Xserv G5 as host for East West Symphonic Orchestra??

[Dan South]

Apple just announced the Xserv G5 rackmount server. The East West folks recommend that you run Symphonic Orchestra on multiple machines for best results. Would the Xserv G5 be a suitable platform for adding more voices of Symphonic Orchestra and other high-demand sample libraries?

 

Symphonic Orchestra configures as four stand-alone audio instruments - Strings, Brass, Woodwinds, Percussion. These are modified versions of NI's Kompakt. You could run, say, Brass and Woodwinds on your sequencing machine and Strings and Percussion on a second machine (the Xserv??) for better performance than running everything on a single computer. The Xserv would need its own streaming disk and audio interface. I don't know whether Xserv's allow installation of a PCI card, though, so you might have to use a Firewire interface.

 

Anyway, just a thought...

[zeronyne]

I don't think that there is any practical advantage (apart from the form factor) to using an XServe instead of the equivalent speed G5, and there are a few disadvantages (have to buy Panther, less PCI slots, etc)

 

I think it will also be $1000.00 more for the same speed, and once the fibre channel is available, you're going to need the extra PCI slot.

 

This has been discussed on other boards, and I think the conclusion has always been that it's a better idea to just buy the rackmount kit for the tower, all things being equal.

 

But the 2 PCI slots would definitely be an issue for me, but YMMV.

[burningbusch]

I believe the fan noise would make it challenging unless you had it in another room or an ISO. These things are designed to be placed an a server room where cooling, not noise, is a priority. Also, no audio/MIDI interface manufacturer is going to test with these, so if you have a compatibility issue they're going to point to the Xserv as being the problem.

 

Busch.