{"id":6617,"date":"2012-02-21T13:55:59","date_gmt":"2012-02-21T17:55:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/?p=6617"},"modified":"2012-02-21T13:55:59","modified_gmt":"2012-02-21T17:55:59","slug":"computers-in-the-studio-part-2-going-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/2012\/02\/21\/computers-in-the-studio-part-2-going-online\/","title":{"rendered":"Computers In the Studio (Part 2 – Going Online)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Computers<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a>Going Online<\/strong><\/p>\n

It has long been held that\u00a0connecting\u00a0your DAW to a network, or worse, to\u00a0the\u00a0internet is something you\u00a0should\u00a0never, ever do. But is it really all that dangerous to your security or detrimental to\u00a0performance? What kinds of precautions should be taken? Let’s find out.<\/p>\n

First of all, why would anyone want to connect\u00a0their\u00a0DAW to the internet?<\/p>\n

The Advantages:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1)<\/strong> Maintain system updates with less hassle<\/p>\n

2)<\/strong> Maintain driver updates with less hassle<\/p>\n

3)<\/strong> Perform software authorization with less hassle<\/p>\n

4)<\/strong> Transfer samples, mixes, projects, etc via FTP and file sharing sites for collaboration or delivery<\/p>\n

5)<\/strong> Search the internet for music theory questions like how to play a\u00a0diminished\u00a0chord or engineering questions like how to use a multiband compressor<\/p>\n

In other words, it’s much easier to keep your system updated ,\u00a0authorize\u00a0software and to search and share when your your DAW has internet access. The need to download\u00a0everything\u00a0on another machine and then manully transfer it to your DAW goes away.<\/p>\n

But if it’s so convenient, why do people so often\u00a0recommend\u00a0against it? These are the most common reasons I hear:<\/p>\n

The Concerns:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1)<\/strong> You might get a virus<\/p>\n

2) <\/strong>You have to run software that will bog down your system<\/p>\n

3)<\/strong> Your\u00a0system might become unstable<\/p>\n

4)<\/strong> You might get hacked<\/p>\n

5)<\/strong> Wireless drivers can have a negative effect on DPC\u00a0Latency negatively\u00a0(see Computers In The Studio – Part 1<\/a>)<\/p>\n

The good news is that with the proper\u00a0precautions you can connect a DAW to the internet with a relatively high degree of safety while maintaining performance and\u00a0reliability.<\/p>\n

Now you’re\u00a0probably\u00a0wondering what these “proper\u00a0precautions” are. Let’s go through them one by one.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

1) Keep a secure network: <\/strong>This goes for\u00a0anyone\u00a0with a home network. If you have a wireless network, never\u00a0leave it\u00a0unsecured.\u00a0Configure\u00a0your\u00a0network\u00a0to use proper encryption like WPA2<\/a>, and set a strong password – preferably\u00a0with\u00a0a combination of letters,\u00a0numbers, and special characters. Also, make sure your router’s built-in firewall is enabled. This “hardware firewall” is your first line of defense\u00a0against\u00a0intrusion. This stuff is\u00a0actually\u00a0pretty\u00a0easy to do and it’s worth learning about even if you don’t plan to connect your DAW to the internet. Your network should be secure regardless of whether you are connecting a DAW or not.<\/p>\n

2) Keep a secure computer:<\/strong> Your DAW, and the rest of the\u00a0computers\u00a0on your network, should generally have the latest\u00a0Windows\u00a0upddates as many of these address\u00a0security\u00a0risks. I also recommend enabling the built-in Windows Firewall<\/a> for the extra level of defense it offers in addition to your router’s firewall. On modern computer hardware, you\u00a0shouldn’t\u00a0notice a performance hit, and because it’s built-in, there’s no software to purchase or install.<\/p>\n

3) Run\u00a0virus\u00a0protection (but don’t overdo it):<\/strong> If you aren’t using your DAW for general computing like email and web\u00a0browsing (HINT: Don’t!), you\u00a0probably\u00a0don’t need heavy virus\u00a0protection\u00a0as it can<\/em> be quite intrusive and some packages may indeed hinder\u00a0performance\u00a0due to their background processes and\u00a0scanning\u00a0activities. But some <\/em>protection is\u00a0probably\u00a0not a bad idea. USB drives and locally transferred files can\u00a0potentially\u00a0contain\u00a0viruses and I’ve found sometimes people have a false sense of security simply because their DAW isn’t connected to the internet. So find a happy medium between\u00a0having\u00a0no\u00a0protection\u00a0at all and locking your system down like Fort Knox. Personally I’ve found\u00a0Microsoft Security Essentials<\/a> to be just that. It’s free, unobtrusive and works quite well. Every once in awhile I perform a manual scan using a program called Malwarebytes<\/a>. Malwarebytes is also free and very effective at not only detecting<\/em> malware<\/a>, but removing<\/em> it. A few years back I had a machine infected with a\u00a0particularly\u00a0nasty trojan virus introduced from an infected USB key drive, and Malwarebytes was the only<\/em> thing that would remove it. It’s free, scans quickly, is updated frequently, and only runs when you tell it to.<\/p>\n

4) Wired or wireless?: <\/strong>Depending on the location of your studio, using a wireless connection\u00a0to your network might be the most convenient solution, or it might be the only <\/em>solution – but it has some\u00a0potential\u00a0pitfalls. The biggest\u00a0potential\u00a0problem is the wireless hardware adapter and its drivers. Many\u00a0wireless\u00a0adapters cause DPC spikes and this can\u00a0interfere\u00a0with your DAW’s low-latency operation (see Computers In The Studio – Part 1<\/a>). It might manifest\u00a0itself\u00a0as clicks, pops, dropouts or other\u00a0anomalies. These will be\u00a0especially\u00a0apparent at low\u00a0latencies. And some wireless adapters don’t perform very well when it comes to transfer speeds. So the best<\/em> solution is to use an Ethernet cable directly into your router. But what if your router is far away from your studio? Thankfully there’s a good solution available \u00a0– and it’s called a wireless bridge<\/a>. Basically it’s a little box that handles the wireless connection to your router while offering wired, Ethernet ports for all\u00a0your\u00a0studio computers. As far as your DAW is concerned, it thinks it’s just connected to a good old fashioned wired\u00a0Ethernet\u00a0port – and it is. No extra software to install and no wireless\u00a0hardware\u00a0polling the network and potentially\u00a0hurting\u00a0performance. The bridge handles all the wireless connectivity and security itself. I use a D-Link DAP-1522<\/a> in exactly this way and it works great.\u00a0Connecting\u00a0the DAP-1522 to my router via wireless N, I get wired performance with wireless convenience, and all\u00a0without\u00a0adding any hardware or drivers to my DAW. If you have a dual-band router, you can reserve the 5GHz band for your studio and keep the 2.4 GHz band for all your other devices (laptops, tablets, phones, etc). This way you keep a dedicated high performance\u00a0network\u00a0just for your studio without any interference from other devices in your home. I’ve been using this kind of setup for a few years now and it works like a charm!<\/p>\n

5) Use it judiciously:<\/strong> Don’t go trawling the backwaters of the internet or go opening random email attachments. A DAW connected to\u00a0the\u00a0internet is best used for visiting reputable sites, downloading driver and software updates, performing\u00a0authorizations, FTP transfers, and the\u00a0occasional\u00a0Google search or email check. It’s highly recommended to have another computer for general web browsing, email, office work, etc.<\/p>\n

In my opinion and in my experience, putting a DAW online isn’t the “no-no” it once was. I’ve been running a DAW connected to the internet for years now\u00a0without\u00a0incident\u00a0and I’d find it very hard to give up the convenience and go back to no internet connectivity. One might also argue that keeping your DAW up-to-date via the web is a\u00a0great\u00a0contributor\u00a0to\u00a0having\u00a0a stable DAW. If the hassle of manually downloading updates and\u00a0moving\u00a0them from one machine to another is keeping your from\u00a0updating\u00a0regularly, then having the DAW offline might be\u00a0causing\u00a0more harm than good. I’m not\u00a0necessarily\u00a0saying \u00a0to run out right now and put your DAW on the internet as some folks get along just fine staying disconnected. But it’s something to consider, and personally I feel it comes\u00a0with\u00a0its own distinct advantages. Frankly I don’t believe it poses the inherent danger it used to – as long as you carefully consider the precautions I’ve outlined above.<\/p>\n

While you’re online, why not take a moment to check out the premiere DAW for the Windows platform –\u00a0\u00a0SONAR X1 Production Suite<\/a>. Take advantage of our\u00a0limited time Crossgrade<\/a> offer\u00a0or\u00a0find a dealer<\/a> near you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Going Online It has long been held that\u00a0connecting\u00a0your DAW to a network, or worse, to\u00a0the\u00a0internet is something you\u00a0should\u00a0never, ever do. But is it really all that dangerous to your security or detrimental to\u00a0performance? What kinds of precautions should be taken? Let’s find out. First of all, why would anyone want to connect\u00a0their\u00a0DAW to the internet? … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Computers In the Studio (Part 2 – Going Online)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1562,49],"tags":[1582,64,445,170,94,127,1440],"class_list":["post-6617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-educational-resources","category-sonar","tag-connect-to-internet","tag-daw","tag-online","tag-pc","tag-recording","tag-software","tag-sonar-x1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6617\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}