Steinberg V-Stack Operation Manual

V-STACKSetting up your system 4 – 41
Activating VST System Link
After setting up the inputs and outputs, you now need to define which 
input/output should carry the actual VST System Link information.
The System Link networking signal is carried on only one bit of one 
channel. This means that if you have an ADAT based system which 
normally carries eight channels of 24-bit audio, once you activate VST 
System Link you will have seven channels of 24-bit audio and one 
channel of 23-bit audio (the least...

V-STACK4 – 42 Setting up your system
3.Use the ASIO Input and ASIO Output pop-up menus to define which 
channel should be the networking channel (and thus become a 23-bit 
audio channel, in our example).
Quite often you will be able to just leave these pop-ups the way they are. 
4.Click the Active checkbox at the top of the panel.
5.Repeat the steps above for every computer on the network. 
As the computers are made active, you should see the small T (Trans-
mit) and R (Receive) lights flashing on each...

V-STACKSetting up your system 4 – 43
Setting up MIDI for VST System Link
VST System Link supplies up to 16 MIDI ports, each with 16 chan-
nels. You set this up as follows:
1.In the VST System Link Setup tab in V-STACK, use the MIDI Ins and 
Outs value boxes to specify the number of MIDI input ports you need.
For V-STACK you don’t need any MIDI output ports.
2.In the other application, specify the same number of MIDI output ports.
3.If you now check the MIDI input pop-up menu for a VST Instrument in...

V-STACK4 – 44 Setting up your system
The “Active ASIO Ports for Data only” setting
If you are sending huge amounts of MIDI data at once, there is a small 
possibility that you might run out of bandwidth on your VST System 
Link network. This will manifest itself by notes “choking” or timing be-
coming erratic. 
If this happens, you can devote more bandwidth to MIDI by selecting 
Active ASIO Ports for Data only in the VST System Link Setup panel. 
When this is active, the VST System Link information will...

V-STACKSetting up your system 4 – 45
Optimizing audio performance
This section of the chapter gives you some hints and tips on how to get 
the most out of your V-STACK system, performance-wise. Some of this 
text refers to hardware properties and can be used as a guide when 
upgrading your system. This text is very brief. Look for details and cur-
rent information at www.steinberg.net!
Two aspects of performance
There are two distinct aspects of performance in respect to V-STACK:
Tracks and effects...

V-STACK4 – 46 Setting up your system
System factors that affect performance
CPU and processor cache
It goes without saying that the faster the computer processor, the bet-
ter. But there are a number of factors that affect the apparent speed of 
a computer: the bus speed and type (PCI is strongly recommended), 
the processor cache size and of course, the processor type and brand.
V-STACK relies heavily on floating point calculations. When shopping 
for a processor, please make sure you get one that is...

V-STACKSetting up your system 4 – 47
Making settings that affect performance
Choosing a driver for your audio hardware
As described on page 30, it is recommended to install and use a stan-
dard ASIO driver if available for your specific hardware. Check the 
manufacturers web site for the latest drivers etc.
Making audio buffer settings
Audio buffers affect how audio is sent to and from the audio hardware. 
The size of the audio buffers affect both the latency and the audio per-
formance. Generally, the...

V-STACK4 – 48 Setting up your system
Optimizing processor scheduling (Windows only)
To get the lowest possible latencies when using ASIO under Windows 
2000 or XP (on a single CPU system), the system performance has to 
be optimized for background tasks: 
Windows 2000
1.Open the Control Panel from the Start menu and select System.
2.Select the Advanced tab and click the Performance Options button.
3.In the dialog that appears, select “Optimize performance for: Back-
ground services”.
4.Click OK to close...

5
Guided tour 

V-STACK5 – 50 Guided tour
The main windows in V-STAC K
The Mixer
The Mixer is where you mix your VST Instrument channels, that is, ad-
just the levels (volume), stereo panning, effect sends, EQ, insert ef-
fects, etc. There are also four group channels, for submixing, etc.