Developed solely for Vienna Instruments, the launch of Vienna Ensemble 3 provides a complete MIDI and audio LAN solution that works universally on both Macs and PCs. Just like on MySpace, networking is easy. A sequencer runs on the main computer while a slave computer runs Vienna Ensemble 3. Connect the two with an Ethernet cable and you can route the audio streams of all networked slave computers to the main unit for mixing.

This new methodology in Vienna Ensemble 3 preserves CPU on the main computer. Power Panning works towards the same goal, letting you determine the position of all of your instruments for use with the new routing system. Vienna Ensemble 3 includes three licenses, which means a total of four computers can be networked together for operation.

Of course, if you don't have four computers like I do, you can still run Ensemble 3 in stand-alone mode where it will get along with your sequencer on the same computer.

Fast features:

• Custom-made for hosting Vienna Instruments
• Stand-alone application, ideal for running Vienna Instruments on external Macs and PCs (interchangeably): eight ports with 16 MIDI channels each
• Plug-in formats RTAS (Mac PPC & Intel), AU (Mac PPC & Intel) and VST (PC and Mac PPC & Intel) for use with a host sequencer: 16 MIDI channels per instance
• No audio interfaces, no MIDI interfaces on your additional computers (slaves) -– all you need is Ethernet with a Gigabit connection
• No third party software to send audio and MIDI data between computers
• Launch as many Vienna Ensemble 3 instances on the slave computer as you need (depending on the slave's RAM), each with 16 MIDI tracks to instantiate your Vienna Instruments plug-ins
• Route back a maximum of 16 stereo tracks per Vienna Ensemble 3 instance
• Instant instrument switching gives immediate access to all instruments within the Vienna Ensemble user interface. A click on the desired instrument channel brings up its user interface instantly, no more redundant screen clutter
• Instrument naming –- all Vienna Instruments instances inside Vienna Ensemble 3 can be labeled for a complete, at-a-glance overview
• Total recall –- orchestra setups can be saved with one click
• Definable play ranges for multi-instrument set-ups for studio and live use
• Inserts for AU (Mac) and VST (PC) effect plug-ins
• Panning and Power Panning for precise positioning
• Flexible routing with freely assignable busses
• Separated server solution that utilizes additional free memory, leaving host sequencer memory or memory used by additional Vienna Instruments plug-ins unaddressed
• PC version: Windows XP and Vista (both 32 and 64-bit)
• Mac version: 32-bit for Mac PPC and Intel, 64-bit version under development
• Tested with Cubase, Digital Performer, Logic, Pro Tools, Sibelius, and Sonar