New DAW Coming! Need some advice

[D K]

Hey guys/Gals,

Scott @ ADK is building my new DAW right now and I am very excited. I do have some questions for some of you experts out there. i know there are many who say you should never put your DAW on the net so i would like some advice on the following two things.

1) Do you believe that a daw should not be on the net and if so what are the major problem areas you see with that?

2) Assuming I use my current daw as an internet/office computer now - How do I handle the product registration and driver updating? I know most of the updates I can put on a USB drive but some of my software (Battery for one) requires the product key verification take place on the machine it is installed on - Of course requiring me to connect.

3) The operating system hardrive that is coming with the machine is identical to the one I have now - Could I just install that hardive in the new DAW or would i be better of starting completely fresh on the new hd?

Lot of questions but i appreciate the help

PS . This site is just awesome! - i came here about three weeks ago and have been welcomed and participating in collabs from day 1 - Great place Nick and Happy B-day to MCS - I'm in 

[BassPlayer]

I personally run my DAW on the net. I think with the older slower machines people were worried about overhead from AV scanners and general net traffic. So updates are OK with me. My current DAW is a Core Duo laptop and I've yet to max it out. 

If you do decide to put your DAW on the net, DO NOT CONNECT IT DIRECTLY TO THE NET. Put it behind a NAT/Firewall box so you will not have to run a "personal" firewall on your DAW which will suck resources but having to constantly examine packets. Personal or application based firewalls like the one built into windoze and zonealarm are very inefficient because they run at the user level not the system/kernel level. Better to have a separate box doing that.  Most DSL/Cable modems already have this feature. The NAT feature will also aid you by keeping people from directly accessing your box from the outside.

[dogbizkits]

Good advice there from BP.

For me, the ideal solution is to have 2 PC's --- One that connects to the internet for doing all the browsing and downloading etc, etc, and a second PC that is STRICTLTY for "DAW" work and nothing else. This PC has to be kept "clean" and hasn't to be prevented from operating at optimal performance. 

Personally, I'd never allow my main Cubase box (DAW) to connect to the internet. For those who use XP, I'd recommend a "one-time" connection to the internet for O/S licence validation after your "perfect" build is complete. Don't do this until all your audio software is tested and operating to your satisfaction. After validating your XP, take it away from the internet and don't let it anyware near it again 

Everything that reaches my main Cubase box (from the internet) has been downloaded first from a "general" PC (which has both hardware and software firewall protection). The downloaded files are virus scanned before transferring over to the main Cubase box. There is no network connection between the "general" PC and the Cubase box. Downloaded files are transferred using a USB2 external drive.

If you're not happy with XP and the O/S validation / licence internet connection "process", then Windows 2000 is a very stable platform for multitrack recording. Currently, I'm usng Windows 2000 because it's not full of all the "baggage" that comes with XP. That's something we can all do well without on our DAW's (IMHO). Windows 2000 does the digital multitracking job admirably and is WAY faster on my gear than XP.

There is another solution if you want more stability...  Get a MAC !!!

Hope this helps,

Rab 

[sergio]

Hmmm..

My DAW is on the net and I use ZoneAlarm - I think I will setup a second hardware profile with my LAN connection disabled - so i'll boot to the 'DAW' profile when I'm going to record ---
or will ZoneAlarm still be polling in the background ?

edit: yes - ZoneAlarm still runs in background - so i suppose i can start 'Daw' profile and manually shutdown Zone Alarm..

Any thoughts on that approach?

sergio

[Davidinoz]

My current PC runs internet and recording quite happily. It's a 2.8gig core duo with 1gig of Ram. I have Trend Micro antivirus and firewall installed and it doesn't bother it at all.
Having said all that I do plan to separate them when my antivirus runs out.
For live (multitrack) recording I use a Mac powerbook which doesn't connect to the net. I transfer tracks with a usb stick.

[digitaldrummer]

while I realize that there are those that don't have the luxury of multiple computers (I probably have too many), I will NEVER connect my DAW to the internet.  I did it once after I first installed the OS, got it current on patches (for a few minutes at least) and then disconnected it forever.

some antivirus behave better than others but there is always CPU overhead when using one as every I/O you read/write to disk goes through their filter driver (that's how they all scan in realtime).

I use USB sticks (1Gb and 2GB are found for $20-30 or less now) or if I have to --CD/DVD's.  mostly I either burn a Cd for myself to listen to, or I bounce a mp3/wma to post or email somewhere and these easily fit on the usb stick.

and make sure you get another USB/firewire external hard disk for backup.  dead hard drives and viruses (virii ?) are your worst enemies.

Mike

[Letizia]

...but some of my software (Battery for one) requires the product key verification take place on the machine it is installed on - Of course requiring me to connect.

3) The operating system hardrive that is coming with the machine is identical to the one I have now - Could I just install that hardive in the new DAW or would i be better of starting completely fresh on the new hd?

if you have two computers, there's no need to connect your DAW to the net.

most, if not all, product key verifications now have alternative methods for those computers not connected to the internet. other NI programs do, so i bet Battery also has that option. essentially, you install the product, it gives you a system ID, you email or phone in that system ID, and they send your unlock code. 

probably better off starting completely fresh on the new hard drive. a major hardware change like that, (switching os hd), will likely require you to get new product key verification for most apps... and probably for Windows too... if that's your os.

[BassPlayer]

f you're not happy with XP and the O/S validation / licence internet connection "process", then Windows 2000 is a very stable platform for multitrack recording. Currently, I'm usng Windows 2000 because it's not full of all the "baggage" that comes with XP. That's something we can all do well without on our DAW's (IMHO). Windows 2000 does the digital multitracking job admirably and is WAY faster on my gear than XP.

yeah I was a real big fan of 2K but like the net code better on XP. I turn off all the extra crap by reg cmds.

I for the longest time did not run any malware or virus checker because I had my linux box that ran iptables/snort/base/mod_security and autoblocked intruders. Now I have a measly linksys firewall and I don't trust anything I don't compile myself so I run malware and av checkers.  My DAW is also my laptop so when I'm not behind my FW I still need some protection. 

Seriously though I'm not sure I'd ever keep a box I have off the net becasue network qa is my job.  I think some of the reluctance of putting DAWs on the net is due to people using older machines and hitting performance limits or getting bitten my worms and such. I've heard a lot of this talk on the cakewalk forums. The newer machines can easilly handle the load and if you set you network up correctly there should not be much of a problem. just my opinion.

[D K]

Good replies here all,

Kind of what I thought - fairly split opinions

I tend to agree with Bassplayer - with newer machines (this one is a core duo 6600) there is probably no need to worry about cpu overhead. However - Having said that - I will probably end up keeping this machine clean and only connecting to validate the O/S - I have two computers - I can probably do any transfers via a USB stick - That way I dont have to worry about A/V software or any of that stuff.

More peace of mind than anything else - Good stuff - Thanks!

[sergio]

I'd like to re-emphasize what was already said about using an external USB drive to move files from computer to computer - gives you great flexibility.

I have purchased HD enclosures for 19.95 us and 200 gig drives for 39.95 (after rebate) - works great!

sergio

[BassPlayer]

Good luck with whatever path you choose. BTW I heard your cut on AZ's tune. Great stuff!

[luisma1972]

I have purchased HD enclosures for 19.95 us and 200 gig drives for 39.95 (after rebate) - works great!

sergio

Yes, that's a very nice solution.

[D K]

Good luck with whatever path you choose. BTW I heard your cut on AZ's tune. Great stuff!

Thanks Bassplayer - which cut did you hear? - I listened to your "70's funk" tune - smokin!!

Those are some pretty big chops your workin with there fella