running 2 computers

WaveLab
1

Hey everyone?

Soon i will have available a second computer that i would like to run in tendem for more processing power.
How do i go about doing this??

thanks

Billow

2

is it possible? or does anyone do it?

3

I have no experience with this. You can use VST System Link, which is part of Cubase. I think that requires both computers to have an audio interface.
The other solution is Vienna Ensemble Pro, which does a similar thing but over the network so you don’t need multiple audio interfaces.

4

ahh, ok.
So my main computer, is Windows 8 with Cubase Elements 8 and second computer is windows 7 with cubase 5 would the VST system link still work?

5

Yes, different OS’s shouldn’t make a difference for VST system link.

Read up on how to set it up though, as I’m sure there are some catches I don’t know about. VSL is quite old already, it’s been part of Cubase for longer than I can remember. AFAIK it’s not had any updates in recent years either, which I assume means it works fine, but the documentation on it online might be quite old too.!

6

There are several ways to do this.

  1. with VST system link you can indeed run two separate instances of cubase together. You will need two licences and you will need a digital output/input on both soundcards/machines for syncing. The computers link together through the digital interface of both soundcards.

  2. You can use a VST hosting program and run it together with a single cubase and and the host will act as a “slave” on the other computer. Example = Vienna Ensemble Pro. As extra: You can use a program like SYNERGY to control both computers with a single monitor and a single mouse. You will need a fast ethernet connection on both computers, since the syncing is being done over the LAN network. In this configuration you only need one soundcard, since the slave is sending everything through the LAN to the "masteré, which is solely responsible for the conversion proces.

  3. There are other options even with other DAW’s, and mainly the syncing could be done in this case over MIDI or any other type of clock that is present on both machines too. Most of the time you are talking about a configuration with multiple soundcards.This isn’t allways very accurate though, but it is possible.

So the question is easy, but the answer isn’t. It depends a lot on the configuration you are going to build. A good preparation is important here, since bying a system without thinking about the basics (how am i going to synchronise) often leads to low performance and dissapointments.

A good idea to start is to go for a demo of the programs and find a cheap or borrowed second machine to test/play with, so you understand and feel first what you are going to build afterwards.
ALso, important: READ the info online of the programs BEFORE buying stuff ! This is important if you want to start working with several machines.
And TRY before BUY. :slight_smile:

As with the cubase versions. I guess all of the above works indeed with cubase 5 or higher.

Some references:

https://www.steinberg.net/nc/nl/support/knowledgebase_new/show_details/kb_show/vst-system-link-vsl.html

good luck and merry christmas,
kind regards,
R.