The Ultimate Remote Control

[RodC]

I have been using my notebook PC (Wireless) to remote desktop into my DAW. A while back I tried this with VNC but it had a few issues. I recently upgraded my DAW to XP so I thought I would give the remote desktop a try.

This is awsome. I can take my laptop anywhere without any wires and its just like Im on my DAW. I can mix on my surround sound in my living room or my boom box in the bedroom. I have a small FM transmitter so I can also go out to my cars.

Its great during recording because I can be next to the artist to show them where they need to start/stop for overdubs ect.

Its great because you have access to 2 pcs, I can have a track mixing down on my DAW while I'm working on some other project on the notebook pc.

The Client for remote desktop is pretty small and will run on most windows versions. You can have a pretty slow PC for the laptop.

[exit2studios]

very interesting. would you mind posting a little more specifics on how to accomplish this, or perhaps a link?

[dither]

I have been using my notebook PC (Wireless) to remote desktop into my DAW. A while back I tried this with VNC but it had a few issues. I recently upgraded my DAW to XP so I thought I would give the remote desktop a try.

This is awsome. I can take my laptop anywhere without any wires and its just like Im on my DAW. I can mix on my surround sound in my living room or my boom box in the bedroom. I have a small FM transmitter so I can also go out to my cars.

Its great during recording because I can be next to the artist to show them where they need to start/stop for overdubs ect.

Its great because you have access to 2 pcs, I can have a track mixing down on my DAW while I'm working on some other project on the notebook pc.

The Client for remote desktop is pretty small and will run on most windows versions. You can have a pretty slow PC for the laptop.

Yep, this is what I've been doing...forget that Transport. I use tight vnc:
http://www.tightvnc.com/

[dither]

very interesting. would you mind posting a little more specifics on how to accomplish this, or perhaps a link?

Essentially you download the software which comes with a server and client program. You install the client on your server PC and the client on your laptop. You then give an IP address for each machine on your local network. The client will query the server and a window will pop-up displaying your PC's desktop on your laptop within an application window! This program has been around for many years now and it was developed for unix systems. There are a few flavors of this program I believe, but tight VNC is free.

The cool part is that if you have a wireless card for your laptpo + hub on your PC, you can accomplish the same thing as the Transport. Of course, if you don't have a laptop or any of these things, the Transport is more economical.

I've actually written an article on this for magazine submission...

[joel hamilton]

I used remote desktop client with Airport and a laptop for this, but it always felt really, really slow to me at the laptop end???!?!? for some reason...

Anyway, I got tranzport and now I am happy.

[RodC]

Here is a link for remote desktop, I have used VNC for years at the office. Remote desktop seems to work a bit better/smoother with Cakewalk.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/down ... entdl.mspx

There is a link on that page to get you started.

Also with remote desktop you can choose where the audio out is routed to. I leave mine on the DAW because I have my FM transmitter, my living room S. Sound system and my monitors hooked to it. This also means no wires to the laptop and the audio data does not have to be transfered across the network.

In the remote desktop setup:

Options - Local Resouces - Remote Computer sound - Leave At Remote Computer.


joel when you used it at the airport you were at the mercy of every network between you and your pc, if you use it on your local lan you will see speeds much much faster.

The Tranzport is nice but no where near as nice as having "everything" at your fingertips.

[joel hamilton]

Not AT the airport !!!

VIA airport, the mac 802.11b wireless base station/router...

Awesome. I just lol'd about me doing some session... like I am just so on the go that I had to do an overdub at the airport!!! awesome... I should try that!

It was a local network, and it felt like the remote "screen" didnt redraw fast enough to show clean, or smooth edit window functions.

I didnt explore it to the point that I got everything maximized, but I did ,ake some attempts. Like setting the remote "screen" to black and white, and a few other tricks. I use it to grab files even from my computer at home! I love remote desktop, but it is just too slow for real time events on the screen redraw, but otherwise worked fine for me.

Awesome that you are getting it to work well for you. That is seriously cool as hell. publish the article on it!!!! I think a lot of people would totally be into this idea. I just never got it working good enough to make a big deal over it, if you have: tell the world!

[RodC]

I just did a LOL, I read your quote "with Airport" and thought "at Airport".

Im sure someone here has done something more insane!

I'm not the one that was doing the article, but Im sure there are a lot of ppl who would love this.

Artists new to the studio can really invision a punch in or where to start playing, or how Im going to overdub something if I can sit next to them and show them.

Plus when I record my son(s) band(s) they know the drill and we can pretty much use the notebook pc without playing guitar or dubbing behind the DAW.

[marc]

One thing of note is your 802.11b router; I have one, and I don't know about your setup, but I bought a wireless card for my desktop to cut down on cables, and I've been regretting it. When transferring files in the house between my laptop and desktop, the highest speed I've seen has been around 60kB/s. Remote Desktop works well enough for most things, but I can't imagine using it to record.

I'd be interested in knowing how exactly the Tranzport works (i.e. does it use HUI to control the DAW, etc), it obviously fills a nice niche; but if one had already had a laptop and a wireless network, a piece of software to do the same thing remotely would be fairly simple (and obviously would use much, much less bandwidth than Remote Desktop, as it doesn't need to draw anything, just send control data back and forth).

[John Jeffers]

remote desktop

If you're using Windows XP Pro, this is the one and only correct answer. Problem is, it's only for XP Pro. XP Home doesn't support it. Remote Desktop (sometimes called RDP or Terminal Services) is the best performing option for remotely accessing a Windows computer. VNC, pcAnywhere, etc. don't even come close.

There are some problems with RDP that you should be aware of, though. First off, if you're using your desktop remotely, your local computer is not accessible. If you try to use your local desktop while someone is logged on remotely, it will terminate the remote connection. In other words, Remote Desktop doesn't allow two people to use the computer at the same time (unless you're using a Server version of Windows 2000/2003, which works a little differently and does allow concurrent use).

Also, some applications don't like RDP. They might behave strangely or not work at all. Not too many have this problem, but it's something to be aware of.

Here's a quick overview of how to use RDP:

1. Enable it on the computer you want to connect to. Really easy--just right-click on My Computer and select Properties. Select the Remote tab, and check the box that says "Allow users to connect remotely to this computer". Naturally, there are a few gotchas...

- Make sure the account you're connecting with has a password. Windows won't let you connect to a computer using an account with no password.

- Make sure you are allowing Remote Desktop traffic to pass thru the Windows Firewall (if it's enabled). This *should* happen automatically, but if you're having a problem connecting, check it out.

2. On the other computer, go to the Start Menu and look under All Programs -> Accessories -> Communications -> Remote Desktop Connection. Or, just go to the Start menu, click Run, and enter "mstsc". Enter the name or IP address of the computer you're connecting to, and click Connect. Log on, and start using programs as if you were sitting in front of the remote computer.

There are some options in the Remote Desktop application you should set to get the best performance. Some have already been mentioned, but I'll recap here so it's all in one place. Click the Options button to display the settings.

- On the Display tab, choose the resolution you'd like to use. Full Screen is probably going to be your best option. You'll probably also want to reduce the color depth to 16-bit.

- On the Local Resources tab, change the Remote Computer Sound setting to "Leave at remote computer". Probably best to uncheck all of the Local Devices options as well.

- On the Experience tab, uncheck everything except Bitmap Caching.

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That's all I can think of right now. Hope it's helpful.

[John Jeffers]

One quick thing I forgot. Even though the "server" piece is for XP Pro only, there are Remote Desktop clients for most versions of Windows, Mac, and Linux. So as long as your DAW that you want to control remotely is running Win XP Pro, your laptop or other remote computer can be running pretty much anything else.

[John Jeffers]

One thing of note is your 802.11b router; I have one, and I don't know about your setup, but I bought a wireless card for my desktop to cut down on cables, and I've been regretting it. When transferring files in the house between my laptop and desktop, the highest speed I've seen has been around 60kB/s. Remote Desktop works well enough for most things, but I can't imagine using it to record.

Why not? It's only sending and receiving key/mouse and video. It's not like audio is passing back and forth. Should be OK even on somewhat limited bandwidth. I wouldn't want to use it over dialup, but 802.11b/g should be fine.

I'd be interested in knowing how exactly the Tranzport works (i.e. does it use HUI to control the DAW, etc)

Tranzport can emulate HUI, or it can work natively in a couple different DAW's (like Cubase/Nuendo, which is how I use it).

[marc]

- On the Experience tab, uncheck everything except Bitmap Caching.

That's actually a really good point, this will alleviate a lot of speed issues, though they still may crop up, depending on the connection.

[marc]

One thing of note is your 802.11b router; I have one, and I don't know about your setup, but I bought a wireless card for my desktop to cut down on cables, and I've been regretting it. When transferring files in the house between my laptop and desktop, the highest speed I've seen has been around 60kB/s. Remote Desktop works well enough for most things, but I can't imagine using it to record.

Why not? It's only sending and receiving key/mouse and video. It's not like audio is passing back and forth. Should be OK even on somewhat limited bandwidth. I wouldn't want to use it over dialup, but 802.11b/g should be fine.

That was mostly me getting on the soapbox about my newfound aversion toward 802.11b; to be fair, I usually use RD for 'normal' tasks as if I were physically sitting at the computer, and there's more graphic data being sent back and forth in that scenario vs. running a DAW, where there are only a few things going on graphically while you're working.

[John Jeffers]

That was mostly me getting on the soapbox about my newfound aversion toward 802.11b; to be fair, I usually use RD for 'normal' tasks as if I were physically sitting at the computer, and there's more graphic data being sent back and forth in that scenario vs. running a DAW, where there are only a few things going on graphically while you're working.

Gotcha. Yeah, B sucks for transferring files, no doubt. G's little better, and costs about the same.