Large Orchestral/Hybrid Templates - Questions

Cubase
1

Hi there,

I’m looking at rebuilding my template and making a larger version with hundreds of tracks - largely orchestral and some hybrid stuff. I’m considering getting VE Pro and enlisting a slave computer and working the somewhat standard method of offloading the samples to that system. I’ve seen lots of videos and have no problem putting it together and setting up nestled groups, and I understand a lot of it is personal preference, but I have a few questions:

  1. I have two PCs, one a modern beast, the other a pretty decent system a few years old. More memory on the beast, but generally would I use the more powerful system on the VEPro slave? I’d prefer to use FX in Cubase itself, so would still need some processing power and not just playing back MIDI. I dont use Vienna Instruments but largely Kontakt, among other things. I’d have to refit the older system with SSDs methinks.

  2. If using a single system, how is your experience using a template with preloaded disabled instrument tracks? Seems you can load as much as you want and simply map a shortcut to enable tracks as needed. Does Cubase still have the glitches I’ve heard about regarding disconnected MIDI inputs upon re-enabling, losing expression maps etc? Do you find this way annoying or really useful?

  3. Do you work with modular templates, saving track archives of groups of instruments and importing as needed? Only thing here is you’d have to set up your routing again to desired subgroups, which would defeat the purporse of saving time.

I just want to minimise faffing around. Personally, I’ve never much liked rack instruments, and prefer the methodology of instrument tracks.

Some pros and cons I can see:

VE PRO TEMPLATE

PROS:
-Pretty much leaving the main system super fast and stable. All my issues with cubase have generally come with third party plugins.
-Switching between projects/cues is super fast.

CONS:

  • More complexity. Template aside, I still like to tweak and look for sounds. Also using Kontakt patches that have multiple snapshots in them. I’d prefer to tweak on the main system. Also means I need project management on another system as well as the main one, if I’m changing stuff.

  • New program to learn!

  • I like to sometimes render MIDI stuff down and work with the audio. More hoops to jump thru here of realtime recording parts first.

CUBASE DISABLED INSTRUMENT TRACK TEMPLATE

PROS:

  • Self contained. One less series of steps to take.
  • No extra purchase needed!
  • Easier to setup

CONS:

  • I take it project load times are going to be long with lots of disabled tracks?

  • Potential bugs with re-enabling

  • Easy access to offline rendering of parts and other cubase stuff.

  • If the track gets really big, then still going to have potential high CPU usage?

Any tips appreciated!

Thanks