i was checking waves soundgrid plugin, which lets people use the unused power on some computers connected via the local network.

many people have an "old" computer, that, even if it's 50% slower than the main computer, well, that's always 50% of power that can be used to run more plugins, like a spectrum analyser (just imagine the cpu needed, on plugins like Dualism, or Flux Pure analyser.), etc.



network distributed calculation will be the future. instead of someone buying an intel extreme edition, for 1200$ for the cpu alone, he could buy 4 cheap enclosures, 4x4gb of ram, 4 500gb hard drives + 4 amd fx8350. and 4 network cables. the guy will have 3 times more power with those 4 computers that with a single expensive extreme edition, or another ultra highend cpu.and the best part, is that he doesn't need ultra silent material. even if these 4 computers were a bit noisy, no problem: he could put them even in the WC.
and whenever he has another 100-150 euros, he can buy another 2nd hand computer, that will give him more and more processing power.
let's see how the situation will evolve, i hope more companies will start doing stuff like soundgrid and vienna ensemble pro(that e-licenser...)


so, are you guys using your networked computers, along your main computer/daw ? which app are you using ? it is complicated to use, and set up inside your computer, or inside your daw ? do you have any latency ? how much % power have you gained, with the networked resources ?

if anyone can share his experience, his setup, etc, it would be cool.

 

yes, it will be the future. but not like you describe it. nobody will buy a bunch of computers and cluster them together. most producers are not the kind of nerd who does such a thing. old rigs are loud, they are ugly, plus it's not eco-friendly. distributed computing may become the future in audio production, but only as a cloud service. maybe like it with streamed games.

 

Established composers, like those who score for film, already do this. There is just no way you can actually work properly doing huge scores without additional computers to share the load. And they aren't just cheap computers like the OP suggested, these computers individually most likely put 'normal composers' computers to shame.

In regards to being IT nerds, they have IT guys handle the setup in most cases. Mind you that many guys who work in cinematic music and sound are quite capable of accomplishing tasks with hardware; they have got their hands dirty in the past with analogue synthesizers, headaches and procedures in the past to get the audio to the listener. They are probably more 'hands on' than most people today growing up with digital technology.

Link: "At the center of Zimmer’s studio sits a steel desk that houses a computer workstation so confoundingly elaborate that I’m not surprised at all when Zimmer tells me he and his team at his company, Remote Control Productions, built the system from scratch themselves."

 

i'm using a 2006 Mac Pro and i was looking at the Digigrid ios witch diverts the CPU Processing Power of the Waves Plugins to the Digigrid ios interface instead of using you computers CPU Power But Looking at the Price of the Digigrid ios witch is $3000 + Dollars add a little more Money and i can Buy a New 6 core Mac Pro that i can upgrade in the feucher to a 10 core rite now i can run all the plugins i need with no problem on my old 4 core Mac Pro so if i get a new Mac Pro i realy don't have to worry abut CPU Power so it dose not make sense for to buy a interface for $3000 Dollars when you can buy a good computer and don't have to worry about CPU if you are thinking of buying a Digigrid interface take the same Money and buy a bad ass computer instead then problem salved Digigrid stuff is Made for pro's that make a lot of Money with there Studios and Live show's not so much for the average home studio

 

Some ppl use computer clusters : orchestral work (since Gigasampler days more than 10 years ago), video encoding, live racks with separate effects...

I even seen someone building racks of hackintoshes for live use, because it is cheaper than real Macs, can put (almost) any hardware upgrade...and Apple don't make racks. Try to rack the new Mac Pro

There are two ways : you got money OR you got time. Do it yourself or buy an all-in-one solution.

About Vienna, yes, they created it for orchestral work because SOME ppl needed it, and for 10 years.But how many ppl REALLY need computer clusters ?
Not so much. Because you need to be paid big bucks to buy/build such solutions.
And that's why, to me, FX teleport and such never grown. Too few real users needing it. And why Vienna still a "niche" market for elitist big bucks orchestral composers.

How many ppl you know use only a "not-so-over the top" laptop to compose, mix ? A bunch more than ppl with clusters ;)

About ethernet, i understand your question
As computer tech, let me give you some hints :
serial port > PS2 > USB
ethernet > firewire (that's why you can create network with firewire) > and probably Thunderbolt too.

So why the f*ck Apple/Intel still push useless digital formats, whereas they could use a f*kin ethernet cable ?
Money...may be

There is no money to make on ethernet Gigabit. Technology is so old you can get a gigabyte card for less than 10 bucks :
10 bucks card

Now try to buy a Thunderbolt cable (just cable, not card) : 39$
Apple f*cked me

Money is the key, as always in any business.

PS : Focusrite already sell ethernet mixing solution

 

I really doubt clustered supercomputers will be widely available for the mass of producers at a price range of 100-150 € 2nd hand.
Actually, I don't get how you come to the conclusion hans zimmer uses distributed computing. All your link says is that his guys build his rig from scratch. Guess what: so do I. lol.

I think the reason is DRM.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-bandwidth_Digital_Content_Protection
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_Computing

 

People are crazy about hardware vs. ITB, many say that Waves MaxxBC or PuigChild compressor/limiter hardware boxes sound much better than the same company's very own soft plugins. However their boxes are basically a DSP emulation of a software plugins. For $3680 (SRMP for the any of the above boxes) one could buy 4 x i7-4770 3.4GHz CPU, 8GB DDR3, 1TB HDD, 1GB AMD Radeon HD 8350, Windows 7/8.1 PCs, load them with soft plugins and have a processing farm which in theory could support hundreds of instances of memory hungry processes. Long tale Nebula 3 Convolution Reverb will completely suck any high-end PC. So giving it a dedicated PC might be a good idea.
Another thing is a noise issue. You buy/build a dream audio workstation only to find out that it produces not only dozens of GFLOPs, but tens of DBs of a very noticeable and annoying noise. All the solutions to kill this noise are costly, though with the networked stations one could have a main fan-less DAW and bunch of networked PCs in the other room far from your main location where u can properly cool it with even nosier A/C unit.
Moreover there is a trend to use GPU as a specialized DSP, see GPU Impulse Reverb VST and Nebula 3. But how many video cards can you put into a single computer? Eh.. two. Obviously any computer on your network could have a video card, making your configuration very flexible and scalable.

IMHO any serious composer/engineer would benefit from an audio network.
As for the modern solutions, beside FX Teleport and Vienna Ensemble Pro, my best bet would be Dante-Via available later this year. Unfortunately no price has been announced yet, but a similar Dante Virtual Soundcard driver license (requires at least one Dante physical card) is $30, so I expect it to be cheap.

 

i watched the dante-via video, but don't understand what is will do exactly. looks like a way for grabbing or sending audio signals to-from different locations, using the ethernet cable.

i think the guy on the video must have repeated 'dante-via' like 30 times, in just about 3 minutes of video

 

Multichannel audio over Ethernet cable with a fixed 4ms latency.

 

BTW Audinate has just started an open beta testing - https://www.audinate.com/forms/dante-via-beta-app-f

 

but is guess with PDC, that latency disappears. most plugins in our daw have tons of latency.

and Ethernet cables don't need to be 2m long max. they can be 100m long. and i imagine someone or a studio really serious about ethernet, they will go full CAT7 : each one of the twisted pairs is shielded, separately. which can increase bandwidths, cable lengths, etc.
i wouldn't be surprised if those 4ms latency were shorter, when using CAT7 cables.

and i can imagine, in 4 or 5 years, all the new buildings, all our ethernet cables, etc, it will all be about FIBER. all routers, switches, etc, are peaking at 1000mb. next big step will be the 10GB

it's already incredible, only 4ms over a cable and a tech several decades old.