Using a laptop for sequencing but external computer as a VST host.

[apoclypse]

Snip

Hans Zimmer, Junkie XL, countless other composers use an external server based setups using VEP. I have a server setup myself (using audio gridder). With all of my large sample libs on a powerful Windows machine. It’s not that uncommon a setup. Most people are using synth VSTS which make more sense to keep on your actual DAW machine but orchestral libraries can be huge and taxing and your processing power is better spent elsewhere. I also don’t have to worry about an OS update breaking something. The server doesn’t get touched. I recently started using it to access my old Kore libraries that I can longer install on my Mac. Works great as I can install Komplete going all the way back to version 4 and still use it on my platform of choice. If I need to travel with my machine I just bounce or transform the track.

[jackoo]

most solutions I've seen use Ethernet, not USB.
Wireless is not reliable for low latency audio streaming, so you'd have to use wired Gbit networking equipment for your local area network.

As another alternative, IF you want something Free and experimental, and use only one "other" computer, you could play with this:
https://netvst.org/wiki/doku.php

Blue Cat Connector also looks very interesting, but as of today the server needs to have a fast (low buffer ASIO) audio interface itself. I tried the demo, mixing my USB interface and asioforall + integrated soundcard but on the same machine. If both are set to 256 samples, I got... decent results (again tested on same machine, separate standalone hosts). But I heard they're working on a sort of virtual ASIO driver so you don't need to do that anymore (I'll be waiting for that one).

[nix808]

most servers has a rootkit or a deadline

or wait- were they only semi-disposable

ah got it now- they must be entirely redundant
hehe

[BONES]

Hans Zimmer, Junkie XL, countless other composers use an external server based setups using VEP.

Probably because that's what they've been doing since they had Pentium 90 powered computers. I doubt they realise it's a waste of time in 2022.

[gaggle of hermits]

I don't need to know what this is about because it's lunacy. I've hung around orchestras enough to know that they don't give each player a unique score to play, that most of the time any differences within a section are simple transpositions of the same notes, things any decent orchestral library will provide or which can be achieved by playing chords.
...
{reams of more WTF material}

well that's made my day: possibly the funniest thing i'm going to read all day. it's like the dunning-kruger graph has a negative axis. do you have some more comedy to share?

[gentleclockdivider]

Hang around orchestras enough to know ..bla ..bla ... what does that even mean ??
You sound like this other dude on the forum who thinks he's a sound engineer because they let hem take a selfie with a live mixing desk .
Comedy gold

[Weasel-Boy]

Hans Zimmer, Junkie XL, countless other composers use an external server based setups using VEP.

Probably because that's what they've been doing since they had Pentium 90 powered computers. I doubt they realise it's a waste of time in 2022.

Comedy gold

Apparently, he’ll be here all week.

[Tj Shredder]

Who? Hans?

[spliffy_mcweed]

Have to agree with BONES here. Despite whatever famous person might do something like this for whatever reasons, it's a bad setup unless you are stuck using the same computers you were in '98. Network latency is not zero, network bandwidth is not infinite. Even moving to dual socket server CPUs might introduce problems, and that has orders of magnitude less latency and higher bandwidth than your Netgear router.

If your laptop isn't fast enough, produce on your desktop. If your desktop isn't fast enough, get a faster one. If you cannot afford a faster one, get creative. If a state of the art dual socket 128 core workstation is not enough power for you, then you are certainly doing it wrong. But producing on a laptop that farms out the real processing to a desktop is not a sane setup for serious music production in the year 2022, unless you just want to do nerdy stuff because you enjoy it more than productive music making.

[elxsound]

Hang around orchestras enough to know ..bla ..bla ... what does that even mean ??
You sound like this other dude on the forum who thinks he's a sound engineer because they let hem take a selfie with a live mixing desk .
Comedy gold

So you’re saying selfies don’t count. There goes my f**king resume.

[magog]

If all your songs use the same template, then I could see how running VEP on a second computer would be useful because it would save you a lot of time opening and switching songs on the primary laptop.

Plus you could hibernate your VST computer instead of shutting it down. I'm guessing waking from hibernation would be faster than re-initializing all the plugins.

[whyterabbyt]

Network latency is not zero

and yet latency compensation is an inherent feature of DAWs

, network bandwidth is not infinite.

And yet gigabit networking is enough to transport more than 400 channels of 96K/24 bit audio

If your laptop isn't fast enough, produce on your desktop. If your desktop isn't fast enough, get a faster one. If you cannot afford a faster one, get creative.

Ah, 'get creative' but dont get creative by use of systems that have had proven utility for some people for years. makes perfect sense.

[BONES]

Hang around orchestras enough to know ..bla ..bla ... what does that even mean ??

My two best friends from school played in a local orchestra (now known as the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra if you want to look it up). One of them is still involved in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra's choir so I've hung around rehearsals and stuff over the years, helped carry and set-up equipment, etc. and listened to them prattle on about it. You tend to pick stuff up by osmosis when you do that.

[machinesworking]

Hang around orchestras enough to know ..bla ..bla ... what does that even mean ??

My two best friends from school played in a local orchestra (now known as the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra if you want to look it up). One of them is still involved in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra's choir so I've hung around rehearsals and stuff over the years, helped carry and set-up equipment, etc. and listened to them prattle on about it. You tend to pick stuff up by osmosis when you do that.

Yeah, none of that has anything to do with people using DAWs to compose orchestral mock ups for film, near zero.

I have VEP and use it to hook up a desktop to a laptop, it's only necessary with large orchestral templates. It's 100% the most common set up I've seen attending hundreds of webinars on film scoring. Like every other thing with DAWs Play, Kontakt, VEP libraries etc. become more CPU and RAM intensive the more CPU and RAM is available. Plus people doing score work do not have the time to load, unload libraries based on use etc. they load multiple entire orchestras etc. especially the people doing work for TV.

Like multiple people have tried to explain, you're just not aware and looking foolish to everyone but yourself with your "knowledge" on the subject. The sad fact is your original point gets diluted, for almost everyone multiple computer setups are more than they need to do, it's large orchestral RAM setups where nobody really wants to be waiting minutes to load every time you change songs etc. where it's useful at all. Somebody occasionally doing orchestral work will hardly be helped by it.

[zerocrossing]

Get a single fast computer with a big fast SSD and lots of RAM and get on with your life. Limit your plugins to only your most used.