Using two computers

[Hiddenstory]

Greetings Fellow Techno-Lust Victims,
I will be getting Ocean Way Drums. One thing that drives me batty
is when you're into a large project at 1024 and u want to play virtual
drums. I know I can bounce the project and play at 126. My question is
can I run my drums on a separate computer at 126 and sync it to my main
computer at 1024? I have now a G5 2.5 w/ 4.5 gigs ram.
How do u sync two computers? Is there another answer out there?

Brian Thomas lambert

[Mr_Clifford]

Yep, you can definitely do it. I do exactly that for programming in BFD. You don't even need 'sync'. Just run MIDI from your main computer to the 'slave' (the one hosting your drums), then run audio from that back to your main rig. If you want to be extra pedantic about the tiny amount of latency you'll get at the 128 buffer, you can even put the time-shift plug-in on your MIDI track to make it hit right on the beat.

[kwiz]

What I do is MIDI the two computers together using a Miditimepiece AV and a Fastlane MIDI interface. The MTP is on computer A, and the Fastlane is on B. I connect the fastlane MIDI out to a MIDI in on the MTP

You'll also need a second audio interface if you want to record multiple outs into your first machine. I use a FW interface from my DM-4800 console to computer 2 giving me up to 24 channels of I/O with inaudible latency which I then buss to DP.

Create a mock synth in Motu's MIDI setup (comp A) and call it G5 2.
Assign a MIDI track to G5 2 and the appropriate MIDI channel.

Use Ocean Way Drums in Standalone mode (on computer 2) and assign the MIDI to the fastlane. Select a channel and play away and record the MIDI performance. Then edit or whatever and record the audio if desired.

Hope this helps.

[Hiddenstory]

Thanks guys, I'll give it a go

B

[José Herring]

Does DP have a "constrain latency delay" button?

I use to be a DP user then switched to Cubase, but I'm looking to switch back. Cubase has a button that you can hit when tracking MIDI that enables you to hear everything in real time. So if it's compensating for delay at say 1024 when you hit this button it turns this compensation off and I can track MIDI accurately even if monitoring at high latency levels.

Does DP have something similar?

best,

Jose

[Frodo]

There are different ways of using two computers. By far the easiest is to have the second computer just sitting as a host to your VIs as standalone or inside DP (on the second computer). The main computer would simply accept audio and MIDI from the second computer, and send MIDI info including control data to the second computer.

There really is no "extra" latency to speak of with this method. The second computer responds just like any other outboard MIDI module would. Any latency to deal with would be universal-- so higher buffers would have pretty much the same impact on both machines concurrently.

Some have said that using a crossover cable with MusicLab's MIDI Over Lan is more responsive, but I have no complaints with my two machines connected via two external USB MIDI interfaces-- output to input, input to output. Likewise, the two audio interfaces are connected similarly-- output to input, input to output

The other way some have found it necessary to run two computers is to sync the timelines to run them concurrently-- ie: to actually slave the clock from the second machine to the first machine via MTC, SMPTE, etc. This would pose problems for MIDI projects, imho. For one thing, you'd more likely be recording MIDI data on both machines and trying to get the two to lock. That's a pain all around. I have all of my MIDI data and soundbites on one machine with the second just sitting there obediently as a VI host.

I have delay comp on all the time and haven't found a reason to disable it so far.

Check this thread for more info. There's a setup walkthrough for the interface connections, and a link or two with even more info about MIDI over a network.

http://www.motunation.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2640

It's no secret, though, that Apple's built-in MIDI Networking can be a headache to set up and get going. The solution for software-based networking via crossover (ethernet) cable would be the MIDI Over Lan utility:

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