Connecting 2 Music PC s together

criote · Post by **criote** » Sat Sep 04, 2004 2:05 am

Hi
Has anyone tried to connect 2 PC s together For example the first PC with the sequencer programm (not with a Pulsar sound card ) and the second one(with a Pulsar card ) only for use with a sampler( sts 4000 or any synth from Creamware.
For example could I connect the SPDIF OR ADAT out of the first PC sound card to the SPDIF of the second PC soundcard?

Or could I record all sequences in the first PC and do the mastering (LIVE ) on the second PC in real time ?
Any help would be apreciated.

Thanks

criote

Post by **garyb** » Sat Sep 04, 2004 2:58 am

sure....

cleanbluesky · Post by **cleanbluesky** » Sun Sep 05, 2004 3:04 pm

I have a 2 PC setup, using one monitor and mouse etc...
Assuming you have them on a nice fast connection 100Mbit at least, Firewire or Gigabit LAN preferred, you can transfer files between the computers about/almost as fast as copying between two hard-drives on a single computer.
If you wanted to do it so that both machiens were linked and equal, it you would need two soundcards and both would have to be fairly high-spec machines...
An innovative approach can be taken by using FX-Max's "FX Teleport" which will allow you to run VSTs (any VST, not just a selection from FX-MAX or anything) on both machines, therefore using processing power to the max. The latency can vary a little (I get 5-10ms over firewire) but it is a very nice product. Only problem for me is that 2 computers is STILL not enough...
In order to do things the way I would like them I would need 3-4 (I love convolution reverb and effects, which all take a lot of processing power)

If you wanted to use FX-MAX all you would need in slave machines for it to work would be 1) Fast Processor 2) Fast Networking Capacity 3) Moderate, not masses of memory (my master computer has 1.5gig RAM, my slave has 256MB) 4) Soundcard irrelevant

You could also link them using Cubase VST System link which would require slave machines to have
1) Fast Processpr 2) Networking irrelevant) 3) Good memory (512MB at least I would say) 4) Soundcard of equivalent quality to the master machine
With VST systemlink the Least Significant Bit (LSB) of one of you audio channels is also used for control messages, giving meaning that one of your audio channels would be 23bit instead of 24bit or 15bit instead of 16bit.

criote · Post by **criote** » Sun Sep 05, 2004 3:39 pm

Hi cleabluesky
Thanks for the feedback. The one PC I use is a P4 2,4 with 1GB 3200/400 memory and an RME
9632 card with very low latency .
The second pc is a P3 1000 with a Pulsar 1 card, and 256 mem . Do You think thats enough ?

rgds
criote

cleanbluesky · Post by **cleanbluesky** » Sun Sep 05, 2004 4:33 pm

You can link those two machines together and get some good results... You didn't specify what you mean by enough... but you from what I suggested you have three options...

1) VST system link
This would require a soundcard on each machine that had matching digital connections, or connecting digital I/O using a converter. This would also lose a tiny bit of information on one of the channels (LSB)

2) FX-Max FX Transport
As long as you have fast network connections between the two computers I would say this is the way to go. If you use this there will be an extra folder in your VSTplugin selections which has duplicates of your plugins with an extension of (LAN) for example SIR1008 and SIR1008(LAN). That way you can choose which effects run off the main computer and which run off the slave computer. There will be some latency (usually small) when using effects on a second comptuer.
The only negative comment I can make about this system is that Cubase pauses on start if the second computer is not connected...

3) Networking the machines and using them as you see fit...
This isn't much use for audio, and would just involve manualy choosing what you want done on which machine. You can use this best if you use soft-synths... you could use the digital audio output of one computer and insert it into the main coimputer. That way you would have a whole computer to run a soft-synth and an extra computer to control it. Can be hard if you want to use it with MIDI though...

Programs that might help you...

FX-Teleport

http://www.fx-max.com

Radmin (Allows you to control multiple computers from one desktop)

http://www.famatech.com/

Synergy (Allows multiple computers to be controlled from one desktop but requires a monitor for each computer) FREE!!

http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/

MIDIOverLAN (allows midi to be shared between computers with LAN connections)

http://www.musiclab.com/products/rpl_info.htm

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Sun Sep 05, 2004 4:50 pm

On 2004-09-05 16:39, criote wrote:
...The one PC I use is a P4 2,4 with 1GB 3200/400 memory and an RME
9632 card with very low latency .
The second pc is a P3 1000 with a Pulsar 1 card, and 256 mem ...

given these specs and the task you mention in your first post you don't need anything but a midi and adat connection (and for convenience a keyboard/monitor switch) between the 2 machines.

Just treat the P3 as an external sound module with midi and adat IO.

Cleanbluesky describes a much more complex picture, where a native CPU task is distributed over multiple machines - tnx for confirmation that it works, btw

cheers, Tom

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: astroman on 2004-09-05 17:52 ]</font>

cleanbluesky · Post by **cleanbluesky** » Mon Sep 06, 2004 5:01 am

You should check out FX-max.com forums. Some people there claim to have 5+ computers with high-end setups all linked together for high-end track production. That would cost a lot, still probably not Protools money...

Post by **hubird** » Mon Sep 06, 2004 8:08 am

................. 'Hi, I linked 23 computers at 24/96, now I would like to know how to use an effect send'

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: hubird on 2004-09-06 21:47 ]</font>