If you never heard of or tried https://audiogridder.com/
it is definitely interesting.
I run it with the server on a mac sitting next to my main mac connected by an ethernet cable. With the server next to the Mixbus running computer, I can manipulate the served plugins on the server computer’s screen using a separate mouse, so the mixer image and/or editor is not covered with as many plugin guis.
It’s great to be able to offload some work to an otherwise un-used computer, and once the two computers are talking, it’s quite stable, even the beta releases.
Open source and free, it’s really a great way to put spare un-used laptops or whatever you have lying around to good use.
The forum is helpful and it works on windows and mac and the plugin works on linux too, but the server so far only mac and windows-
It’s great for plugins with massive screen requirements like Ozone and big mastering eq things etc. This setup allows me to run four screens, two on the server imac (builtin and external) and two on the “main” imac-so I can have mixer and editor on separate screens, and the screen hog plugins on the server mac’s screens
01-06-2021, 02:17 AM (This post was last modified: 01-06-2021, 02:18 AM by Dingo.)
Thanks Clint, very interesting idea particularly handy for those who have an old CPU lying around that can get a second life.
Like the fact it's TriOS.. your setup looks impressive
Macmini 8,1 | OS X 13.6.3 | 3 GHz i5 32G | Scarlett 18i20 | Mixbus 10 | PT_2024.3.1 ..... Macmini 9,1 | OS X 14.4.1 | M1 2020 | Mixbus 10 | Resolve 18.6.5
Very interesting!! I’ve got a small handful of decent machines that could build a nice computing cluster. Once I finish the walk-in closets in the MB (no, not Mixbus... master bedroom), I’ll have time to experiment!!!
MB, MB32C, V10, Win 7/10, MacOS Catalina and Ventura, MBP & Ryzen platforms, nVidia and Radeon GPU’s, Focusrite Saffire Pro 40, Mackie Onyx 1640, X-Touch, 43” UHD, x2 27” 4K
Here’s a long-winded reply I posted to the Audiogridder forum describing my not-quite-as-intended-by-the-creator method of using Audiogridder so that one can see and manipulate multiple plugin GUIs at once at the expense of having to use a separate mouse for the server computer vs DAW host. The advantage is plugins are not all over your Mixer and editor window getting in the way and the responsiveness of the DAW is dramatically improved. This is a setup
of two l late 2012 imacs, each running an external monitor and the imacs are nerworked together with a thunderbolt cable.
paste:
That Mixbus user is me!
I exploit the fact that the serving machine has the windows of the plugins open, and don’t use screen capture at all, so more the bandwidth between the server and the served rather than the GUI.
Part of my problem (and anyone who has tried Mixbus has likely noticed) is screen space is dominated by the Mixbus Mixer when in mix mode, so having the plugins on a separate screen is almost essential.
The thing to overcome, is on the server computer, one must spawn multiple instances of the server so there can be more than one gui open and active. So say you want to run 8 plugins from the server to the daw, and you’d like to be able to see all those 8 gui open at once and responsive to mouse commands during the session.
As I said, that means there needs to be 8 servers serving, because if you just use one server, then only one GUI at a time on the server machine will be visible.
I was able to get multiple servers going before by simply making 8 copies of the server app and opening all 8 of them, but later versions of AGridder would not work that way because they all try to use the same port. Or so my limited understanding allowed.
By conversing with this forum, I was told that it will work to have multiple server instances, so long as the servers are given the appropriate argument via the command line.
So I wound up writing a script in bash that does just that, and made it into an executable by googling how to do that on a mac.
When I show you my bash command, I warn you that I know there has got to be a much more elegant way of writing what I did, but it does work every time.
Here is my script, which could be way more elegant if I knew what I was doing-
Naturally, your directory location is not going to be the same as mine nor is your computer name etc. And I just know that instead of me repeating the same line 8 times, I could have used a way to increment, but in my case it was easier to paste the initial command 8 times and edit each command to increment.
I used some mac stuff to make that command into an app, so when I boot up to start a session, I fire up the server computer first, then click the app that really just opens the terminal and runs that above pasted command.
Eight audiogridder icons appear in the menu bar of my server mac, and before I turn on the daw computer, I open the server settings window on each of the eight and change if needed the Server ID number to match the Server ID (commandline overide) server ID number.
Also I make sure for my purposes to select Disabled in Screen Capturing Mode. I do this for each of the eight servers, the push the save button at the bottom of each.
Be sure that you don’t have wifi turned on on the server, you need ethernet or better wired connection to the daw computer.
If wifi is on, in the case of my macs, the daw will try to use wifi to connect to the server and it’s a freakin mess.
Wifi being active on the daw computer is fine tho.
After firing up
the daw computer, and adding audiogridder plugins into the session, you’ll hopefully see when you get to the list of servers to connect to, a list of eight servers with the name of your server computer preceding each.
I know it seems like a chore to set up, and if I knew more about what I was doing writing that command, I doubt I’d have to do the steps involving opening the server settings windows.
Now with no screen capture going on, that means I use two mice, one for the daw and one for
the server.
The performance gains are enormous! My imacs are late 2012 models. If I have several plugins open on the daw mac, along with the scrolling editor and 60 channels of the mixer open, the response to changing things on the screen is excruciatingly slow, like half second or more. Mixbus as a daw is wonderful but with all
those channels open, each is a burden with the included, always on, compressors and eq in each channel, along with meters etc.
Taking the graphical load off of the DAW mac for the GUI of all the compressors and plugins that have FFT displays etc, it’s like going from a propellor plane to a jet.
I do hope that this mode of non-screen capture, multi server from the single connected server computer will become a recognized official
mode of operation or at least an option, I’ve tried the screen capture way and it just clutters my daw screen and slows things down.
Having eight compressors open and visible on a separate screen with the meters actually responding and controls
working, it’s just amazing.
Does anyone else have problems displaying an Audiogridder plugin? They display okay when I first create them - but if I close the session and re-open it later, I can never get them past the initial stage. I assumed I'd just need to double-click where it says Harrison_AVA-ME_64bit but all it does is to ignore me. What am I doing wrong
Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit... Wisdom is knowing you don't put tomatoes in a fruit salad !!
(04-08-2021, 10:25 AM)johne53 Wrote: Does anyone else have problems displaying an Audiogridder plugin? They display okay when I first create them - but if I close the session and re-open it later, I can never get them past the initial stage. I assumed I'd just need to double-click where it says Harrison_AVA-ME_64bit but all it does is to ignore me. What am I doing wrong
That was a great hint kmsaudio - many thanks. What I'm needing to do here is click once, then leave it for a second or two, then click a second time and then it opens!
Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit... Wisdom is knowing you don't put tomatoes in a fruit salad !!
