Nextcloud for synchronizing Bitwig & VSTs between multiple computers

[lunardigs]

Hey all, I've been experimenting with Nextcloud and Bitwig. Basically, I set out to achieve a couple things. 1) Have my desktop and laptop synchronize Bitwig projects. 2) Make my VSTs, presets, etc. consistent upon said machines. So far, I've had great success!

At this point, I've done nearly two months of testing/tinkering and I now have my desktop and laptop synchronized as if they were the same instance with respect to DAW activities. VSTs (including licenses, if file-based), Bitwig projects, presets, favorites, tags, etc., all synchronized.

The way this roughly works is that the newest version of any given file is propagated to every participating machine. It all happens automatically with a desktop/mobile client. The end result, I can grab-n-go my laptop and have everything I was working on at the house. Then, I can come home, place the laptop on my network and I'll have everything I acomplished outside automatically synchronized to my desktop. Its f'n awesome; I've wanted this for a while now.

I think at this point I could a) promote the idea, because it works well and b) offer pointers on how to set it up/troubleshoot it.

Is anyone else interested in this kind of thing? I'd be more than happy to assist.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nextcloud

[telecode]

cool. beats storing data on a mounted network share.

[lunardigs]

Yeah, pretty much. Although it's not network attached storage, at least in the conventional sense; it's http traffic (TCP, port 443 and or 80).

Moreover, it has powerful versioning smarts which prevents conflicts and assures the latest/intended data is propagated. You can set explicit rules for which files to sync/ignore, time frames, etc.

[Tj Shredder]

Is your Nextcloud server on your desktop or on a NAS?

[lunardigs]

It's on my desktop right now and works well.

My next experiment might be to try it out on a Digital Ocean droplet to see how that performs. With two Nextcloud instances, a number of cool things become possible. You can synchronize two or more instances and be very granular about how and what's shared. I could then hand out user accounts, etc. ... Basically, there's loads of sharing options and remote storage attachment means.

It's useful for everything from synchronizing your notepad, media library, to holding all your browser passwords. Plus, turns out you can synchronize Bitwig libraries and VSTs!

My big problem before was losing track of work between multiple devices. This has made my devices consistent now. It's also an effective backup means with versioning.

[digitalfix]

I'm doing this as well. I've dumped my library on to it and it syncs across my machines.

To lunardigs: I'd be a bit careful about giving out setup instructions for this as there's some pretty honking security implications if you want it to see the outside world - not for the average user, I wouldn't think.

Recon this is what the sharing part of Bitwig will do internally at some point, at least as a start.

[lunardigs]

Good points about setup and security. I really couldn't advise beyond basic setup and pointers. Yes, more advanced users might pursue a setup from scratch. Although, there are easier ways to instantiate from images, such as the Docker approach, plus hosted turn-key stuff. I'm pretty sure NAS devices ship with Nextcloud too.

As for external collaboration, I've not tested this. Right now, it's just within my four walls.

digitalfix, would you say your experience thus far has been good? How are you running Nextcloud--desktop, NAS, cloud? Are you using it for VSTs as well?

[Tj Shredder]

This might be an easy way to setup nextcloud at home:
https://ownyourbits.com/nextcloudpi/
I still have an unused raspberry pi. If I give it a fast and big SD card...

[digitalfix]

It works well for me. I set it up for holding audio initially but I backup other software settings and libraries to it now although Bitwig is the only one I run "live".

Presets and clips all save without any issues. All my machines have SSDs - anything slower I think risks locking files.

It's sitting on Ubuntu server in virtualbox on an old machine I've converted to a server. I installed it manually as I wanted to make the files accessible if the VM went down. Docker seemed a bit too locked down to allow this.

[lunardigs]

Wow, nice ... seems like you guys have done a lot with Nextcloud so far.
I'm just get acquainted with it since the beginning of the year. I'm pretty impressed so far.
I run BWS live with my other machines too. I've never had issues with "conflicts". However, when it comes to sqlite databases and the like (U-he databases), the sync frequency becomes too frequent. I've not found a solution to this yet. Any ideas?

[digitalfix]

I don't keep anything that constantly writes on it - recon it's asking for trouble. If you're dead set on it, pause syncing when you're using it. I usually pause when I'm working on projects.

[lunardigs]

Good point. Pausing sync might be the only remedy for the moment.
I'm not sure there's a way around not-syncing sqlite dbs in some instances--like the U-he plugins, because I do want my presets, tags, etc. synced.

[digitalfix]

I don't really like having presets dotted allover the place so I do all my management in Bitwig now. My instrument chains can get quite long so it's handy being able to save all that as one device.

If you drag a Clip to the browser, it'll also take everything on channel with. Bitwig's fantastic for this stuff.