Workstation version? Host OS? Guest OS?

Using the VMware Shared Folders feature, or standard network file sharing?

Do you have a lot of other processes running at the same time? The virtual network traffic is ALL handled by the CPU, so if the CPU resources are busy with other things, the networking to your guest will be affected.

I'd first recommend updating to the latest, 6.5.2, in case any bugfixes/tweaks may help your issue.

Other than that, nothing I can really recommend. Other than upgrading your host to XP for better performance that that bloated Vista.

I would suspect that you are limited by the local Hard disk and the Operating system calls.

It needs to pass the data from the windows OS, into the VMware API which then translates it into a VMDK file. Must more overhead then doing a file copy from one folder to another.

Try doing a file copy in the host OS and see how fast it can copy the 600 Meg file/files.

you want to use Giga Studio 3 in a VM ? - that is a joke - isn't it ?
Get a real XP-machine for this kind of work

System Requirements for Giga Studio 3

For Windows XP with Service Pack 1 & 2

Minimum System Requirements for GigaStudio 3.0 and Above

• Pentium 4 1.7GHz processor
• AMD 2100 XP processor
• 512MB RAM
• 1024 x 768 monitor resolution
• 1000MB application hard drive space
• Midi interface
• GSIF-compatible sound card (for stand-a-lone operation)
• ReWire-compatible host application

Recommended System Requirements for GigaStudio 3.0 and Above

• Pentium 4 2.8GHz processor
• AMD 3200 XP processor
• 2GB RAM
• 1024 x 768 monitor resolution
• 1GB application hard drive space
• Dedicated Sample Drive 7200 RPM w/8MB cache, 8.9 ms seek time
• Midi interface
• GSIF-compatible sound card (for stand-a-lone operation)
• ReWire-compatible host application

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VMX-parameters- VMware-liveCD - VM-Sickbay

What do you mean "unhelpful" ? - the sampler you want to use is a Hi-end sound app - you can not run it on lowest end computers. And as far as sound-processing is concerned a VM is lowest end.
Get a real box for maybe 100 bucks at ebay.

Even if you get your network issues fixed ... to run a sampler you need a very low latency. And you simply don't get that in a VM. No way

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VMX-parameters- VMware-liveCD - VM-Sickbay

its all about scheduling tasks - a single CPU running XP on a box dedicated to the sampler does this so much better than a 64bit CPU - probably with several cores...
To Vista the process running the VM is just another process - if it decides so it first printes the screen of the other VMsrunning and then does the sound processing ...

I am a musician my self and I tried to run simple comparably simple stuff like old Halion-sampler and Cubase inside a VM ... it just sucks
If a VM is a little bit late with displaying a picture or print a screen - nobody will notice.
if a VM is a little bit late while processing piano-samples YOU will hear that as flanging ...

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VMX-parameters- VMware-liveCD - VM-Sickbay