Help with DAW Farm

So I`m building my first decent Virtual Instruments/Kontakt setup.

I`m buying a MacMini that will be my main computer, and my actual computer, an i5 Quad PC will be stuffed with 32 Gb of RAM to host all the instruments with Vienna Ensemble Pro.

My questions are the following:



- Midi change: I`m going to buy an Alesis Vl61 as a main controller, which I'm guessing has some kind of switch for changing midi channels. However with VE Pro I will be using many instances of Kontakt, each with their own midi tracks.

So for example, if I have cinematic strings on Kontakt 1, violins 1 will be on channel 1, cellos on channel 4, and I can change back and forth, but what happens for example with my trumpets that will be on channel 1 on another kontakt instance?



- Footpedals: I`m considering buying a Behringer 1010 foot controller to use its two expression pedals for CC commands while I play, and also being able to use the other footswitches, which I`m guessing could be used as a sustain pedal or to change sound banks right?



- Turning secondary computer on/off:

I will have most of the 32 Gb of RAM occupied, so that means that every time I have to start my computer, I have to load nearly 30 Gb of samples right?

How do you people handle it? Do you turn it on 15 mins before you want to work? Do you keep it always on? Do you keep it in sleep or something when you aren`t using it?



Thanks in advance!

Help with DAW Farm