Rain Recording

Many people who come to Rain are looking for a second system, something that will bring them better performance and newer technology than what they've been working with for the last few years. Once their new Rain computer is plumbed in the old one can quickly become obsolete and finds itself sitting sad and silent in the corner. Just the other day it was running your whole studio and so to let go of all that power seems strange and unfortunate. Why not harness that power alongside your new system? With a couple of bits of software, a network cable and little bit of know-how you can breath new life into its dusty circuits and have it running as an effects processor and sound module.

In this article i'll show you how to use FX Teleport to run plug-ins on a slave computer all controlled from your nice shiny new master computer. This is also ideal for people who are moving to Vista on their new system and still have software that's not yet compatible. I have a TC Electronic Powercore PCI and at the time of writing it has no Vista drivers. FX Teleport allows me to run a brand new Vista based DAW while accessing the Powercore plug-ins on my old XP machine - which doesn't even have a soundcard

Intrigued? Read on.

FX Teleport

When this software was released in 2003 it really answered the question on how you can run two or more computers side by side but working on the same project. Steinberg's System Link had a go at this using the digital I/O of soundcards to flow audio from one machine to another. The drawback was that each machine needed a soundcard with the right digital interface as well as host software. What FX Teleport was able to do was utilise the high speed network capability that already existed on computers to move the audio from one computer to another - this meant that the slave computers didn't need a soundcard at all. Each slave computer runs a piece of FX Teleport client software which awaits connection from the master computer and points it to the installed plug-ins. The Master computer then scans the slave plug-in folders and detects whatever effects and instruments it can find. The plug-ins are then directly available on the master computer in the DAW software you're using. Insert a slaved plug-in and it loads and runs on the slave computer, the audio being routed out and back over the network. The only thing missing is the ability to move the controls as the GUI appears on the slave computer, not the master - with Windows Remote Desktop this is easily resolved.

FX Teleport isn't freeware but they do allow you to try out a fully working demo version to make sure that your system is up to the task. Download it here - http://www.fxteleport.com/

Hardware Setup

All the computers need is to be on the same network. If you are using just two machines then you can use a crossover network cable and specify an IP address on each machine. Much easier if you are already going into a router for the internet then the old computer just needs to plug into a spare socket. The router will supply IP addresses so you are up and running automatically. Wireless networking speeds are not really up to the task. Ideally you need to be using Gigabit LAN but you can get away with 10/100. If you've got a handful of machines then get a hub and connect them all up that way. You don't need to share any folders or anything (although this is probably helpful) just as long as each computer can "see" the others when you explore the network.

Setting up Remote Desktop

It's helpful to do this before you install FX Teleport so you can start using the two machines with the one screen, keyboard and mouse. On your old XP machine right-click on the My Computer icon and select "Properties" (or choose "System" from the Control Panel). Click the "Remote" tab and tick the "Allow users to connect remotely to this computer" box.

Figure 1 - Click to englarge