Does this device exist? 0.0

[IXITHELEGEND]

Hello everyone! im here to spekenz about something thats been on my mind for some time:
is there a device in existence that could describe as an "external processor?"

(skip this paragraph if you dont like rading )
let me explain where im coming from...neigh, im pretty sure we ALL suffer from this problem:
lack of processing/memory. aka the limit to how man programs and/or automations that a computer can support at once. im new to this sort of thing, but my projects have been getting bigger and bigger. theyve grown to the point that neither my laptop or my desktop can handle my project on Fruity Loops w/o immense latency (ive even gotten a blue screen once while attempting to compensate)
While pondering this dilemma, ive asked a couple experienced musicians who said i should create an audio clip and use that while editing part of my song...I CANT STAND THE IDEA posting.php?mode=post&f=13#

So my brain came up with an idea: "what if there was some sort of server-type-thingy that could share the computer's cpu load?" unfortunately, i stink at google so i can never find anything. Has anyone ever heard of such a device? or at least know of some sort of substitute?

btw is this in the posted in the right section 0_0

[Vedrim]

http://www.fx-max.com/fxt/product.html

That being said, bouncing tracks to audio quickly becomes a necessity with large projects, though the speed at which that occurs varies based on your computer's specs and those of your project itself.

[Navron]

I know there are setups that allow computers to share the load when it comes to CGI rendering, allowing multiple computers to combine their power to render out scenes that would otherwise take too long on a single computer.

Haven't heard of anything like this regarding DAWs though, so that leaves you with 2 options.

1. Upgrade to a better computer.
2. Convert your instrument tracks to audio (see note).

The first one is rather obvious, but the second gets more complicated.

Note: When you export instrument tracks as audio, you run into the issue of attacks and releases. To avoid sudden stops in audio, make sure your exported segment is large enough to encompass the entire duration of the release. You may also have to play around with various crossfades in order to blend different parts together.

[IXITHELEGEND]

oh dear... i just realized i really am a newb o_e
i think i get the gist of your note, NavyBrony...but what are you talking about with attacks and releases? if im convering 80% of a project to a wave file so i can separately work on another part...why would there be drop outs?

[IXITHELEGEND]

I know there are setups that allow computers to share the load when it comes to CGI rendering, allowing multiple computers to combine their power to render out scenes that would otherwise take too long on a single computer.

Haven't heard of anything like this regarding DAWs though, so that leaves you with 2 options.

1. Upgrade to a better computer.
2. Convert your instrument tracks to audio (see note).

The first one is rather obvious, but the second gets more complicated.

Note: When you export instrument tracks as audio, you run into the issue of attacks and releases. To avoid sudden stops in audio, make sure your exported segment is large enough to encompass the entire duration of the release. You may also have to play around with various crossfades in order to blend different parts together.

oh, so this is how you respond...look at what i said before please XD sorry

[Applejinx]

Logic on Macs does this out of the box, but I don't know anybody who's actually using it. It's called Logic Clustering and it also has the 'freezing tracks' (bouncing them in place with all effects etc. and then just reading the audio instead of doing the processing)

I don't know how you'd do the latter in Fruity Loops, but it sounds like that's what you'd be trying to do?

[the4thImpulse]

Logic on Macs does this out of the box, but I don't know anybody who's actually using it. It's called Logic Clustering and it also has the 'freezing tracks' (bouncing them in place with all effects etc. and then just reading the audio instead of doing the processing)

I don't know how you'd do the latter in Fruity Loops, but it sounds like that's what you'd be trying to do?

Ableton also has a freeze track option.

In FL open up a sampler of your choice in a new pattern and record all the audio from one track into it, its not that much work to go back to the orginal sound alter it and record again.

When I used to use just FL (I now use Live and sometimes rewire FL) I would do this with the Edision plugin.

[Navron]

Your release is basically how long an instrument holds a note. For example, you have have a snare hit on the 4th beat of a measure, but with a very high release, it might take an entire measure for the sound of the snare to fade out. Sometimes ambient pads can take upwards of 2-3 measures to fully fade out after the last note, so if you're exporting audio based off an instrument track, you need to make sure you leave enough room at the end of the MIDI track to capture the entire release.

Here's a short audio segment showing no extra space in the export left for the release. The exported segment is exactly the 4 measures of the MIDI part:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/52284231/No%20E ... elease.mp3

Now here's the same audio segment, but with 6 measures total. 4 for the MIDI part, and 2 extra so the audio has time to fade out from the last note:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/52284231/Extra%20Release.mp3

[Lavender_Harmony]

Logic on Macs does this out of the box, but I don't know anybody who's actually using it. It's called Logic Clustering and it also has the 'freezing tracks' (bouncing them in place with all effects etc. and then just reading the audio instead of doing the processing)

I don't know how you'd do the latter in Fruity Loops, but it sounds like that's what you'd be trying to do?

Now you know one. I use Logic Node with my iMac -> Macbook Pro for my larger orchestral projects.

You really shouldn't knock bouncing tracks down to audio. I should think that you would be able to bypass the instrument you have just bounced to audio, so even if later on you needed to make a change, it would just be a simple matter of returning to the instrument track, making your changes and re-recording it. Bear in mind that people who use hardware synths do this all the time, as they might want to have multiple sounds from their synth but only own one. VSTs and such have the advantage of being infinite. You can have as many instances of that synth as you want.

So don't knock that solution entirely, its completely viable.

[Versilaryan]

To answer your question, no such device exists. There might be specialized devices like the Logic one, but no such thing as an external processor. Processors are incredibly complicated to use. Because only one process can be used in any core at any moment, the operating system has to bounce a myriad of processes back and forth, including its own processes. It also handles interrupts, input/output, and everything else you can possibly think about under the hood. That being said, any external processor would need to have access to your computer's inputs and outputs, hard drives, graphics and/or audio cards, depending on what you're processing... In the end, having an external processor would cause so much lag that it wouldn't be worth it. The reason multiple-computer rendering works is because rendering is a CPU-intensive operation that doesn't use anything besides the CPU and probably the hard drive. Running FL uses the CPU, hard drive, keyboard, monitor, sound card... You get the idea.

Tl;dr: It's not economical and you'd just be better off buying a new computer than an external processor, if one exists.

What you can do, though, is close EVERYTHING else when running FL. If you're done with a track, or a bit of one, bounce it to audio like NavyBrony said. Increase FL's process's priority. Find less CPU-intensive plugins to do the same thing your plugins do. Stuff like that.

[Freewave]

I do most of my DAW work and total mastering in Reaper (as Fl Studios is a CPU hog and a bit of a pain in using) as its very forgiving for an older computer system. As others have said when i start having too much stuff playing at once i turn my midi/instrument/vst into an audio wav and then i no longer keep having those issues.