Is there a way I can use my spare computer to host plugins over a network? Does this kind of thing exist?

 

I once read about this in Computer Music magazine.
can't remember the issue though.

Maybe this will help

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/aug05/articles/pcmusician.htm

might be a bit outdated because it's from 05, but it is possible.

 

This might be what you are looking for:
http://www.fx-max.com/fxt/product.html
It's rather old I'm afraid and probably will never be updated for more modern machines as they went out of business. I can't recall how the performance is. But I think this does what you need. They offer a free activation now (on the purchase page)

 

''Sharing the load'' lol sounds like a porn movie name just kidding

 

That's why I originally clicked on the topic

 

@WolwerineBlues

 

Last edited: Aug 12, 2015

Vienna Ensemble Pro (VEP)

https://www.vsl.co.at/en/Vienna_Software_Package/Vienna_Ensemble_PRO

http://www.musicradar.com/reviews/tech/vienna-ensemble-pro-5-526959

Allows you to slave Macs and PCs to other Mac or PCs over a Gigabit network allowing for example,

VSTs running on an PC inside of Logic Pro running on a Mac

or

Multiple Kontakt Libs on a different computer to offload CPU from the Main DAW computer.

VEP is one of the most useful tools to have if you have multiple computers of any type available on the same network.