How to Network
Your Home Recording DAW
An EZ way to add a second computer to your Rig
by the Tweak
There are many advantages and few
drawbacks to networking additional computers in your project studio. TweakHeadz
Lab has two computers networked and I am planning to add another soon. It's
very easy to do and the benefits are large, especially as we move into the realm
of virtual synths, samplers, soundfonts and software processors. One word sums it
up: productivity. Here are some things you can do with a 2 computer
studio that you cannot do with just one system.
1. You can use one computer as
a multitracking recorder and the other as a mixdown recorder, and quickly shuttle
large files between them. I find my timing is tighter this way with dense
midi tracks and audio tracks in the sequencer. Everything is pumped out of
system 1 to the board and goes into system 2. Once the .wav file is recorded
I copy it back to system 1 for mastering.
2. You can run one machine as a
dedicated virtual synth and the other as your sequencer. It's not always a
great idea to run big virtual programs like gigasampler from the same computer you
are doing your sequence on, especially if you have a full cadre of audio tracks
running in the sequencer.
 3.
You can assign specific uses for the second machine. You can put all your
non-music applications on it, like word processors, graphics programs, internet
software and games so as not to compromise you main music making machine.
The purists out there will tell you that games, internet browsers and other applications
will erode your sequencer's musical performance. I personally do not subscribe
to that view, but I am certain it has some effect.
4. You can effectively double your
hard disk storage by networking another computer. Networking allows you to
"share" hard drives, files, folders among all your computers. For example,
you can keep your sample library on a second computer and load them as needed into
applications on your main system. This is the real joy of networking.
I keep about 4 cds worth of acid loops on my 2nd computer's hard drives. The
load time over the network is still faster than pulling them off cd roms, and acid
is built to be used over networks.
5. You can add more devices
like printers, scanners, video capture, firewire More computers mean more slots
and ports, or more hardware. Lets face it, one computer simply cannot do it
all. I want to have digital cameras, vcrs and TV online. If there's
a hot new song on MTV I want to record it for further study. Networking computers
allows for the true multimedia experience. Your recording studio connected
to all forms of available media, not just the internet.
6. You can run a second audio program
like ACID, another sequencer, a software multitrack or alogrithmic sequencer from
the second computer and sync it to your main machine with MIDI time code.
This does not require a network connection, but a midi connection. But if
you do this you'll end up slappin' files back and forth before you know it.
7. You can use the second computer
as a waveform editor while your main computer runs the sequencer. Don't yawn.
Ever try to add a little compression to a 15 minute song? Ever burn a cdr
and sit for 35 minutes staring dumbly at the screen. You can reclaim that
lost time by offloading the task to the second computer.
8. You can network a Mac to a PC.
It's not as hard as it used to be. You can network via ethernet, firewire,
or even modem using the Mac SMB protocol. I can't get into all the details
here but I managed to do it. All decent Mac sequencers will read .wav as well
as .aif audio files. Cross platform applications can even share songfiles.
9. Some sequencers are made for
setting up networks. The most simple is ACID by Sony Pictures. Acid
can read loops off of a network drive quite well. A more complex example is
Cubase SX. It has a feature called system link which allows you to
chain up different computers to the same project. The idea here is to have
several people working on a song at once.
9. Saved to coolest for last.
Put that old Pentium 200 to work by installing it in the living room next to your
TV/ stereo systems. Yep, play your wave file masters for friends, potential
lovers, your dog, whoever will listen as you entertain them in your living room.
"This is coming direct from my studio's hard drives". Won't they be impressed!
Especially effective with potential lovers. They will be amazed at your technological
expertise, and you will send all the guys with the tired "wanna hear my CD?" line
back to the minors. LOL!
How to set up a Local Area Network (LAN)
It's really very simple. If you
are able to understand how MIDI connects Synths, you will not have a problem understanding
how a LAN works. Don't let the jargon scare you off. A LAN (or Local Area
Network) is a protocol that allows two or more computers to share their hard drives
and the data on them. It's similar to the way a modem can connect two computers,
but its much faster than any modem. You can, for example, transfer a typical
50 meg wav file of a 3 minute song in just a few seconds from computer to computer.
Look for a complete solution at your local computer superstore. The ideal
package will include 1) A Hub 2) At least two NICs (Network Interface Cards)
3) Cables
You can find solutions like this
for under $100. I use the D-Link DE-906 which cost me about $70 bucks and
came with everything. If building from scratch you want to use a 10/ 100 Base-T
system. You don't have to understand what that means, just make sure it says
it on the box. But with the help of visitor Tom Beatty, here's what it means:
The max speed for 100 BaseTX is
100 Mbps (megaBITS per second) This would calculate to 12.5 MegaBYTES
per second respectively (Remember now from those computer science classes
you took, 8bits=1byte). That's max speed. Your speed may vary, but for me,
using 10/100Base TX, I am transferring a typical 50 megabyte song in about 6-9 seconds,
just a little bit longer than getting it off a local hard drive. This is actually
fast enough to load drum loops into a program like ACID "on the fly" while the music
is playing. Just think what you could do with something like GigaSampler.
Our samplers used to be limited to 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 or 128 meg, currently maxing
out on an Akai s6000 with 256 meg. With GS you could toss a series of
systems in the garage and have hundreds of gigabytes accessible, in theory at least.
Load the ones you want into your local computer's workspace and you are off.
No hunting for cd-roms....which by the way, load WAY slower than do files over a
network.
The "hub" is the center
of the network. It's just a little box that routes the data to and from the
computers on the network reliably. With a typical consumer hub you can connect
5 computers or more. Plenty for a studio and you can even run a line upstairs
to the bedroom if you want so you can play audio files as you sweet-talk the significant
other. You can network all the computers in your house if you want and access
all of them from any one of them.
Step one: Install
the NIC Cards. These fit into the PCI slots inside your computers. No
brainer. Just like any other PCI card you ever inserted.
Step two: Connect the cables
from the NIC Card to the Hub. The cable ends look like telephone plugs but
are slightly larger. Plug 'em in just like you would a telephone. Even
guitarists will not have trouble here.
Step Three: Install
the software. Its typically all plug 'N Play hardware, so Windows will automatically
sense it and ask for disks. Of course, this is not supposed to be hard, though
as we know, sometimes PNP does not work as advertised. It's easier than installing
a soundcard, and way easier than SCSI. Recently there are new USB systems
which are bound to be easier.
Step Four: Designate
which folders (or drives) are to be shared between computers. Simple as any
file operation. Just right click the folder, look for the menu called "sharing"
and click it on. See the notes on security below.
Step Five: Get an
audio switchbox so you can route audio from the soundcard on each machine to your
recording devices like DATs, cassette decks, an your mixing board. Youi do
want to be able to record your audio into other machines in your studio.
Step Six: Use the Soundcard's MIDI Out on the second machine
and route it to the MIDI IN of your main Machine. This will allow you to run
midi programs on both machines and keep them in sync with your main computer.
This allows you to use MIDI TIME Code (MTC) or MIDI Clock Sync to keep the systems
playing to the same beat.
A Note on Security of your Files
Ok, as I said above, once a folder
is designated as shared, any computer on the network can access it's contents. Here's
the security problem. If you use a cable modem or DSL to access the
internet, you need to take caution. by connecting to these services you are actually
part of a much bigger network, and particularly in the case of cable modems, your
neighbors are on the network with you. You don't want to give read write
access to the entire internet. Under sharing you can, it's true, restrict
access to specific users that know the password, can make the folder "read only"
or make it globally accessible. But this is not enough protection.
Its a grand idea for anyone with an 'always on' net connection to invest in firewall
software or hardware. (There are some shareware and freeware firewalls out there
for download). This is like installing an alarm system to your studio as well
as locking the doors when you leave.
So, by keeping your shared directories
on your side of the firewall, you can access your personal network, but others on
the larger network will be thwarted from reading your files. Of course, a
seasoned hack may still be able to get in. So after your third album goes
platinum, you might want to disconnect your music making machine from the net.
Networks. They are happening big time and are not going away soon.
OK, we're done, and the process
of setting up a LAN was painless, and required little technical know-how.
Give yourself a couple of hours to do the job and your studio will become dramatically
more productive as a result.
Q) Can you network a Mac and PC? How?
Things have come a long way since
the introduction of Win XP and Mac OS X. Both computers strive to make networking
as easy as possible and it's a simple as connecting them up with a router, setting
permissions and sharing, and using the right network protocols. Make sure
when you buy, the router says, specifically, that it is compatible with your
operating systems. Fortunately, buying a router is not as bad as buying a soundcard,
but don't get too sloppy in your thinking. Firewalls can be set to allow communication
between all computers on the network but with no computers from the outside.
Some firewalls like Norton's will even assist you in this process if you read the
documentation carefully. The good thing is that most music files are common
to both Mac and PC. .WAV, .AIF, .MP3 can be shuttled back and forth with no
loss and without the need for file converters or file compression tools. Of
course, .TXT, .PDF and .HTML files and .JPG, .GIF, .TIFF and many other graphic
files crossover just as well. We have come a long way to iron out the
excesses of proprietary thinking and this is a great thing for all computer users.
Best of Luck in your Music Making
Rich the TweakMeister
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Cool Quote:
If mass communications blend together harmoniously, and
often unnoticeably, art, politics, religion, and philosophy with commercials,
they bring these realms of culture to their common denominator—the commodity
form. The music of the soul is also the music of salesmanship. Exchange
value, not truth value, counts.
Herbert Marcuse (1898–1979), U.S. political philosopher.
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