JBridge is a bit wrapper which enables you to run 64 bit VSTs in a 32 bit host, 32 bit VSTs in a 64 bit host, and 32 bit VSTs in a 32 bit host, breaking the 4GB RAM barrier. Each VST is run as another process outside the host in Windows so uses it's own RAM. Since each VST runs in its own process, if a VST crashes it doesn't take the rest of your project with it.

Why would you want to use it in Mixcraft?

1. There is a VST you want to use which only exists in 64 bits

2. You are running out of RAM with the 4 GB Mixcraft allows as a 32 bit host.

3. You use a lot of badly-written freebie VSTs that crash & burn your project.

4. (Future Application) After Mixcraft goes 64 bit, you will still be able to use your 32 bit VSTs in it.

Installing jBridge:

Installation directions are on this page:http://jstuff.wordpress.com/jbridge/jbridge-troubleshooting/782-2/

Follow them religiously, setting the listed programs and Mixcraft to be 'run as administrator' and turning off UAC.

Using jBridge:

1. Again read & follow the instructions.

2. Keep your VSTs to be wrapped in a separate folder from the rest of your VSTs, copying them from their original locations.

3. If you have another version of the VST running in Mixcraft, rename the VST you are about to wrap. My first experiment was with Kontakt 5. I can run Kontakt 5 as a 32 bit VST in Mixcraft. It is also installed as a 64 bit VST elsewhere, so when I copied the 64 bit dll to the 'to be wrapped' folder I changed the name to Kontakt 5 64 so there wouldn't be conflicts in the Mixcraft file system between the 32 and 64 bit versions. EDIT: It now seems to be necessary to remove the 32 bit version of the VST so Mixcraft can't see it as even a different name still produces a conflict. See EDIT 1 below.

4. It is best to set the .32 and .64 extensions to be off when asked by jBridge. Mixcraft didn't seem to recognize the wrapped VST with that extension AND when I removed it manually Mixcraft went into a cascade, dancing with 100's of instances of auxhost until I shut the computer down.

5. Make sure Mixcraft can see the folder where you had the wrapped VSTs installed.
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So now the wrapped version of Kontakt is up & running in Mixcraft. I so far have loaded 6 tracks and all is running fine. Kontakt takes a little longer to load this way but that is the only difference performance wise I have noticed so far.

In Task Master, Mixcraft and it's 6 Kontakt tracks (listed in TM as Auxhost) use memory like this so far:

Mixcraft: 48229K
Auxhost: 72324K
Auxhost: 123896K
Auxhost: 162448K
Auxhost: 123248K
Auxhost: 171796K
Auxhost: 142628K

I'll gradually keep adding tracks until something happens

If you are interested in using jBridge and pretty much understand what I have posted in this thread, you can get jBridge here: http://jstuff.wordpress.com/jbridge/

It is in Euros, but works out to <> CAN$20.

EDIT 1:
OK I've added some more tracks and moved in & out of Mixcraft and rebooted a couple of times. Very occasionally the instrument disappears from one of the tracks with accompanying error messages about Mixcraft not being able to find the instrument and a dialog to sent data to j. So far the fix has been to isolate the old 32 bit Kontakt VST so Mixcraft can't see it. Then no problems AND Mixcraft automatically replaces Kontakt 5 with Kontakt 5 64 VSTs in existing projects.

At 20 tracks of Kontakt, Task Manager reads 7.18GB of RAM used for both Windows and Mixcraft/Kontakt. Occasionally there still is a loading problem for the wrapped VST but restarting Mixcraft has solved it so far. Only once I had to restart the computer to recover the instrument. I want to get to at least 10GB of RAM use for a proper test.

At 45 tracks of Kontakt I reached 10.2 GB usage with Mixcraft still using its 48229K, all the rest being used by bridged VSTs. For those interested, the 3930K peaked at 20%. At times there is still a failure to load instruments, but after mucking around with it, it seems always to happen after lots of edits & saves in Mixcraft and is almost always cured by restarting Mixcraft or, failing that, restarting the computer. IMO this is a minor issue since there is an easy work-around. This behavior has also been echoed several times in the EWQL forums, but IMO is a jBridge issue, not an issue with the DAWs or VST engines.

EDIT 2:
The test project is over 50 tracks now. Since enabling "use existing auxhost" the RAM usage has dropped but with a few other wrinkles. I've added some unwrapped VSTs inside Mixcraft and a couple multi-channel instances of Kontakt, All running well, EXCEPT when I try to change an instrument in the single instances of wrapped Kontakt, I am unable and Mixcraft crashes. What I found works is to load a different VST then reload Kontakt and the new instrument and all is fine.

To sum up: It works but not perfectly and definitely not for beginners. I intend to keep using it though as the issues are minor.

Idiosyncrasies:

1.[Edited] Tracks containing wrapped versions of Kontakt may appear to lose one or more instruments upon reload. DON'T PANIC. THEY ARE STILL THERE. If this happens:

I exchanged emails with J on this and he suggested enabling "use existing auxhost" in the jBridge banner below the Kontakt GUI, pressing the 'settings' button. This is done on a per plugin basis. It creates one big auxhost rather than a small one for each instance of Kontakt. There has not been one load failure since I enabled this. If this doesn't work:
a. Immediately quit the project as soon as loading is finished. DO NOT EDIT OR SAVE ANYTHING.
b. Restart Mixcraft. If problem is not fixed......
c. Restart Computer.

2. Duplicate track command doesn't work consistently when trying to duplicate tracks using (wrapped) Kontakt.

3. To change instruments in a single instance of wrapped Kontakt you must first replace Kontakt with any other VST then reload Kontakt with the new instrument. This behavior does not occur in a multi-channel instrument, only single instances of Kontakt.

My next acquisition is EWQL CCC. I intend to use wrapped 64 bit Play and will run the same test & post results on this thread.

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Nice information. Tagging this for future reference. Thanks man!

_________________
All the best,
Sam

SoundClound
Mixcraft Live
YouTube

Very helpful! Thanks for posting this.

Very good work
Thanks I will take care.

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I would like to see them on this site.Show us photos for real appreciation.

So I have begun the same routine with EWQL play, so far using samples from EWQLSO Platinum, Voices of passion, Goliath, Storm Drum.

To maximize memory use I have turned off "Stream from disk" on all the samples so all samples are loaded into RAM. Furthermore I have used the Master Keyswitches wherever they are available and have loaded 2 mic positions in EWQLSO. So far with 11 tracks of bridged Play I am using <> 15 GB of RAM for Mixcraft and the various incarnations of wrapped play. Mixcraft is taking up 64856k and the rest is eaten by the various auxhosts provided by jBridge. At this point no problems whatsoever.

I also included, edited and copied a multi-timbral instance and multi-channel instance without problems.

At 13 tracks Task Manager said I'm using 35 GB of RAM without incident (CPU is in the 6-7% range). I'll call this part of the test a success other than it takes forever to load a project since everything is going into RAM.
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For the second part I'll run MANY tracks of Play (like a normal person with disk streaming on) to see how Mixcraft handles the multiple auxhost that are produced.

At 25 tracks (Task Manager = <> 7 gb used by Mixcraft +25 auxhosts) I have had no issues at all with copying, changing instruments, or loading the project. At this point Play is a lot better behaved wrapped than Kontakt was. I have tried to use as many of the EWQL libraries as I can manage. All SO Platinum tracks are using 3 mics and I have used quite a few tracks of Symphonic Choirs to maximize RAM use.

Edit 1: At 35 tracks Task Manager reads <> 15GB with nothing to report.

Edit 2: At 45 tracks Task Manager reads 18.4 GB CPU peaks at 10%. Load time is almost 5 min Otherwise nothing to report as far as idiosyncrasies.

Edit 3: At 55 tracks Task Manager reads 20.7 GB with the 3930k peaking at 25%. No issues. My orchestrations tend to be thick but I cannot conceive of a project this large OR using the number if mics I did. I'll call this test an entire success and can confidently be using wrapped Play in my projects.

Edit 4: After about a month of constant use and abuse, I have had 3 instances of tracks not loading their instruments properly, fixed by quitting (without saving) Mixcraft and restarting it and reloding the project. Once Symphonic Choirs crashed(only the wrapped VST not the project), but changing the instrument and changing back to Play Symphonic Choirs seems to have fixed that (I also have moved Choirs to a SSD).

A few final thoughts:
1. The CPU % at the bottom of Mixcraft has to be read differently when using jBridge as the 'Mixcraft' readout only gives you the CPU used by the Mixcraft program and the various auxhosts are included in the 'system' readout.

2. When projects this large are shutting down, Windows states that Mixcraft is not responding where in fact it is shutting down all the auxhosts.

3. I have some samples missing from a couple of my libraries. This brings an error dialog up. It is most important that you do nothing else as a large project loads (like email or browsing) otherwise you lose the dialog underneath and Mixcraft appears to have frozen.

_________________
Intel 3930K, Gigabyte Ga-X79-UP4, Corsair AX860i PSU, 64GB gSkill RAM, 4 X 120 GB Intel 520 SSD, 1T WD & 2T WD caviar black 7200 RPM, EVGA nVidea 560
My Stuff:
http://mixcraftlive.com/members/1455/albums.php
http://soundcloud.com/clyde-lindman

Great info.

One question, are you creating a Play host per instrument i.e. opening say 32 instances of play for 32 instruments, or are you opening 2 instances of Play for 32 instruments?

I have run 24 instances of Play (one per instrument running in Midi Omni) with a CPU usage of around 25-30% and no errors.

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Hi Louis,

I used both in the test. Most of the tracks were single instances of Play. I also ran a few multi-timbrals and a few multi channel. The most instruments I put into a multi was 5. I also duplicated and edited the instruments in all the multi tracks as well as some of the singles just to make sure after my experinces with Kontakt noted above.

_________________
Intel 3930K, Gigabyte Ga-X79-UP4, Corsair AX860i PSU, 64GB gSkill RAM, 4 X 120 GB Intel 520 SSD, 1T WD & 2T WD caviar black 7200 RPM, EVGA nVidea 560
My Stuff:
http://mixcraftlive.com/members/1455/albums.php
http://soundcloud.com/clyde-lindman