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How and why I use two computers for live spectrum and waveform analysis
By popular demand, here is my method of using two computers to live spectrum analysis and waveform analysis.
Its easy. Here goes...
Keep in mind, this is how I have it setup, YMMV, but the concepts remain the same. I'm always available for questions.
2 computers:
One, is my main DAW which is a Mac Pro running Logic 8 using a MOTU 24 I/O. So I have 24 analog in and 24 analog out.
Two, is a Dell PC running Ableton Live using an M-Audio Delta 66 4 in 4 out audio interface.
On the Mac, I set up Logic to output everything to TWO stereo outputs on the 24 I/O. One stereo out goes to my monitors, the second stereo out goes to the inputs on the M-Audio card.
You will also need some type of Spectrum Analyser plugin (Voxengo SPAN, RND Inspector, Izotope Ozone, etc.) and s(M)exoscope from smartelectronix (get it here).
There will be installed on the Secondary PC for use by Ableton.
First, make the physical connections.
1. Connect the output 1 & 2 of the MOTU to your monitors like normal.
2. Connect the output of the MOTU 24 I/O 3 & 4 to the Input 1 & 2 on the M-Audio card, which is the audio interface for the secondary PC.
Then set it up in Logic. In order to set this up in Logic 8, do the following:
1. Create an AUX bus and label it Main Out. This is the output that sends a signal to your monitors.
2. Set the input to Bus 60
3. Set the Output to Output 1-2
4. Create another AUX bus and label it Monitor Out. This is the output that sends a signal to the second computer.
5. Set the input to Bus 60
6. Set the Output to Output 3-4
Once this is done, Bus 60 becomes your primary output. Ant track you want send to both the monitors and the secondary PC must be routed to output Bus 60.
Next, set up Ableton on the secondary PC.
1. Open Ableton and create an audio track with the inputs being 1 & 2 on the M-Audio card.
2. Turn on Input Monitoring on that audio track.
3. Add your Spectrum Analyzer plugin on that track (I use Ozone for this purpose)
4. Add the s(M)exoscope plugin to analyze the waveform in real time.
At that point, the 24 I/O is outputting to both 1-2 and 3-4. 3-4 goes into M-Audio 1-2 where Ableton reads the audio data and the plugins apply their processing (spectrum analysis and real-time waveform analysis).
That's pretty much about it. You may want to set up a template, as I have, so you don't have to wire all this up each time you start a new song. I have this all incorporated into my default EDM template which has a number of other things set up the way I like them (sends, default plugins ,etc).
If you look at my studio picture at the bottom of this post, you can see the two 23 inch Apple Cinema Displays are being used for Logic, and the off to the right is a smaller Dell monitor that has the Ozone Plugin and s(M)exoscope running on it.
Now, I have taken it one step further, where I actually have a pair of the outputs on the M-Audio card going back into one of the inputs on my MOTU 24 I/O. I then use MIDI Time Code to sync the two sequencers. This way, I can actually use Ableton as an outboard sampler. This allows me to use Live's superior audio editing capabilities, but still work in the Logic Environment without the overhead of Rewire and running two DAW packages on the same system.
Obviously, this is not limited to my two particular Audio Interfaces or my two DAW Packages. You can you this with any two DAW packages or Audio Interfaces.
Let me know if you have questions.
Here is the picture of the studio as I have it set up:
Last edited by Eric J on Feb-19-2009 at 05:40
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