Main DAW in living room...can I access via a laptop in my bedroom?

[Masaaki]

Remote desktop?

[RiF]

If both are Windows machines, you can use Remote Desktop to connect your laptop remotely to your DAW machine via the network (wireless or cable or even internet doesn't matter). By doing that you're virtually working on your DAW machine, your laptop just serves as a display / input device. Everything happens just as if you were sitting on your DAW. The sound comes out of your DAW machine's audio interface as well of course (which might not be what you want, though...).

I have no clue if there's something similar built into OSX.

Another platform-independent tool is VNC, which is freely available for Mac )and even iOS and Windows. It does basically the same as Remote Desktop.

[JLiRD808]

Lol yeah that would be perfect! Except...yeah wow the music would come out of the DAW fml. And yes I am Windows based.

Maybe I can route a 4th set of basic computer speakers to my bedroom...theyre not too far away. Could just crank all the others down and turn the bedroom ones on.

I'll look more into remote desktop. To be honest, its kind of a shab laptop, wondering if high processing power is key to this working.

THANKS!!

[RiF]

Originally Posted by JLiRD808

I'll look more into remote desktop. To be honest, its kind of a shab laptop, wondering if high processing power is key to this working.

Nah... no power needed. Display size can be an issue, but even a very old laptop should do. All the processing is done on your DAW machine.

Just PM me if you need assistance in setting it up.

[shanabit]

Im wondering if there is a way to do this with a PC laptop controlling a MacPro?

[fastlanestoner]

I use remote desktop for this exact purpose that you describe and it works like a dream

[Masaaki]

Originally Posted by RiF

Nah... no power needed. Display size can be an issue, but even a very old laptop should do. All the processing is done on your DAW machine.

I agree, but the speed of the network can affect the comfortable feel of remote desktop. If the network is Wi-Fi and the signal is poor, sometimes the mouse movement isn't smooth, particularly with large desktop size like 1920x1080. So, wired connection via network switch is preferable. If Wi Fi is fast and the screen is small, then no problem.

[JLiRD808]

Thks again...any issues with the laptop bein vista x32 and the daw bein w7 x64?

[JLiRD808]

Originally Posted by fastlanestoner

I use remote desktop for this exact purpose that you describe and it works like a dream

Hey can I ask how u have speakers setup then? Did u run a wire to the other room?

THX!

[shauli]

www.logmein.com

Free account. any location any platform. using it all the time, very stable.

[Masaaki]

Originally Posted by JLiRD808

Hey can I ask how u have speakers setup then? Did u run a wire to the other room?

THX!

Remote desktop allows you to stream audio from the remote DAW to your laptop. Check Local Resources tab in the Option when you connect to the remote machine. There should be "Remote audio" options, and you can enable it. You also need to use Windows direct sound as the sound driver in the DAW. If you are using ASIO driver (I believe you are), change it temporalily to Direct Sound. Then check Sound control panel of the remote DAW, you'll see "Remote Audio" icon, and playing the sound. Then, plug in a headphone to your laptop, or plug in PC speakers.

Of course, you can run another stereo pair from your audio interface if you have more than 2 channels.

[shanabit]

to the OP:

I just setup LogMeIn here and did the following without any issue:
1. Laptop wireless PC controlling MacPro
2. Desktop PC controlling MacPro

* I tried this with: Logic, Cubase 6.5 and StudioOnePro 2.06. Logic had the least amount of ghosting on my PC screen verses Cubase and StudioOne.

They all work fine though. LogMeIn is real easy to do. Remote desktop sounds like an easy peasy solution too. I may try that here with my laptop and PC just to see how it goes

[JLiRD808]

Nice...thx everyone!

Gotta ask, both remote desktop and logmein can pipe audio to the remote laptop?

Thx!

[shanabit]

Originally Posted by JLiRD808

Nice...thx everyone!

Gotta ask, both remote desktop and logmein can pipe audio to the remote laptop?

Thx!

Read Masakkis post.

Yes LogMeIn does that as well, I just checked that

[JLiRD808]

SWEET! >

[shanabit]

Apparently Remote Desktop does NOT work on Windows Home Premium. Oh well.
LogMeIn is fine for me

[JLiRD808]

Originally Posted by Masaaki

...There should be "Remote audio" options, and you can enable it. You also need to use Windows direct sound as the sound driver in the DAW. If you are using ASIO driver (I believe you are), change it temporalily to Direct Sound. .

I don't have an option in Cubse to switch to "Direct Sound", the closest I see is ASIO DirectX Full Duplex Driver or Generic Low-Latency ASIO Driver. E-MU ASIO is my normal driver so I know its not that.

I cant get sound to come thru the laptop. I thought maybe I disable my Windows audio or something (since I route thru the EMU card) but I just checked and it seems to be enabled.

Is there something else that I'm missing? I wonder why my choice of drivers is limited and doesn't have that Windows Direct Sound.

Any help?? THANKS!!

[Masaaki]

Originally Posted by JLiRD808

I don't have an option in Cubse to switch to "Direct Sound", the closest I see is ASIO DirectX Full Duplex Driver or Generic Low-Latency ASIO Driver. E-MU ASIO is my normal driver so I know its not that.

I cant get sound to come thru the laptop. I thought maybe I disable my Windows audio or something (since I route thru the EMU card) but I just checked and it seems to be enabled.

Is there something else that I'm missing? I wonder why my choice of drivers is limited and doesn't have that Windows Direct Sound.

Any help?? THANKS!!

That's right. You have to use some sorts of ASIO driver with Cubase, b/c ASIO is basically the standard Steinberg initiated.

Try Reaper, and you'll find it allows you to use Windows Direct Sound as sound driver. But, it's limited to 16bit, and not so great. I know, it's not what you want, but....

Audio quality of the Direct Sound to remote desktop isn't that great anyway. Sometimes, the sound is glitchy.

I believe running balanced cables to your bedroom from your audio interface is the best solution to maintein audio quality, if you really want to operate the DAW in the living room from bedroom.

[JLiRD808]

Originally Posted by Masaaki

That's right. You have to use some sorts of ASIO driver with Cubase, b/c ASIO is basically the standard Steinberg initiated.

Try Reaper, and you'll find it allows you to use Windows Direct Sound as sound driver. But, it's limited to 16bit, and not so great. I know, it's not what you want, but....

Audio quality of the Direct Sound to remote desktop isn't that great anyway. Sometimes, the sound is glitchy.

I believe running balanced cables to your bedroom from your audio interface is the best solution to maintein audio quality, if you really want to operate the DAW in the living room from bedroom.

Haha I got it....I set it to Generic ASIO Driver and played with some of the options. Not sure if its one of the reasons why, but I read on another forum that u need actual speakers or headphones plugged into the main mobo audio outputs so that Windows recognizes the output.

But u're right, its glitchy...wonder if I hardwire em together, if it'll improve.

[shanabit]

Use the Remote Desktop for your video. I would personally use a set of headphones connected to my EMu I/O box and run an extension cable on the headphones, easy and will sound ten times better

[JLiRD808]

Originally Posted by shanabit

Use the Remote Desktop for your video. I would personally use a set of headphones connected to my EMu I/O box and run an extension cable on the headphones, easy and will sound ten times better

Thanks....ironically though I want it to sound kinda lousy lol. I'm using the laptop as a ref system, to hear how my projects sound coming thru laptop speakers. Of course I could always export tracks, upload or email them to myself and then check via the laptop. This is actually faster though. I could even edit in real-time to taste, though I think that's kinda sketchy to mix on laptop speakers.

I currently have sh*t desktop speakers, Bose bookshelf speakers, and was thinking of getting Avantone or Behritone's to help with this...but honestly, none of those are as shitty (or as small) as laptop speakers.I'm pitching to get some jingles picked up...and those numbskulls listen to EVERYTHING on laptops and make their decisions based on that

Thanks everyone!!

[Masaaki]

If you have another nearfield in your bed room, then hard wire from the interface of the DAW is the best. Your interface has multiple stereo out, right?

By the way, I don't use the remote audio for my purpose anyway. I use remote desktop to operate several machines in different rooms, some of them are doing HD video renderinging while I'm editing audio tracks for the video in DAW machine. When I go to the video rig, and realize I forgot one thing with the audio track, like exporting WAV file, then I don't need to go to that room. I just use remote desktop login to the DAW and export, and save in the NAS server. This makes me extremly lazy, though......