When I was Setting Up, I bought a new recording computer and following Brandon’s suggestion at the time, kept it offline and streamlined it for audio. It’s been a great work horse… no issues with the capacity still, it does everything I want it to. But increasingly I’m finding it to be an issue having it offline.
Every new software/hardware audio thing I buy, is a bit of a hassle because things have never been updated.
I can work with it… just installed a new great drumkit that I’m keen to try out, but once again… offline registration had its challenges - toontrack are not really keen on consumers managing to operate offline because, hey, I could have as many offline computer copies of the kit as I liked…
Anyway… I’m not going to put the computer online… as long as I’m able to work with it… but I’m thinking when I’m due to replace it, I’ll be online again. I seem to remember that Brandon was quite born-again-zealous about offline until he gradually became online again… hah… is it a mysterious cult?
Just wondering how you guys operate??
My DAW computer is online although I rarely use it for anything else than updates/registration and (not that often) check a few pages online when I render a mix.
I have no emails/skype/whatever installed on it, just Chrome because I’m not a fan of IE. And I have disabled the automatic windows update (you can actually do that on Win 7).
I think it’s safe to have it online as long as you don’t do too much browsing in dodgy places, and it makes life a lot easier with registrations and downloads of software updates
this has a lot to do with mac vs pc too, since these systems handle things different. windows updates can be a huge problem and even with settings off they seem to slip some in there… in my opinion that’s the real issue with being online, unless you are going to sites that some consider shady… I only go online when I have to, for software updates, downloading plugins, things completely referencing the studio computer only. I use onedrive to transfer important files from computer to computer as well, but that’s not really going online you just need to be connected, so I don’t have to use a jumpstick to transfer files from one computer to another. I regularly mess with projects on my work computer and onedrive makes it easy to access files I need and also works as a short term backup for me. toontrack is not bad, but if you use any software that requires an ilok it can get really tricky.
I’ve almost always had my recording computer online, Mac & PC. As mentioned above, as long as you’re staying away from dodgy sites, you’re most likely safe. Most importantly, backup your recording projects to an external hard drive!
My recording computer is the same computer I use for everything. I’ve never experienced (at least not that I can remember) any issue at all having my recording machine online. Actually, not true. The one thing I hate is when windows decides it’s time to install an update and requires a reboot, and gives no choice whether I can reboot or not.
I think if I ever was on trial for murder, and my excuse was “I came back from lunch and my computer rebooted automatically” the jury would probably sympathize with my and let me off the hook.
On win 7 at least you can disable the update service (wuauserv) in the services panel.
Note that stopping it/setting it to manual is not enough.
You actually have to set it to “disabled”.
Then you will see some “Action center” notifications from time to time telling you that it’s not safe but you can ignore that…
Online for me. I finally charged the thing up the other day to turn it on. Surprising enough, after about 7 months not being used, there were no update messages flashing.
I leave mine online as well. I built it specifically as the music computer so it’s got pretty much zero bloatware. Just the OS, Firefox browser, and the music software. No issues at all from doing so, but then again I am a very cautious web user, I just don’t go anywhere using the music machine that isn’t completely legit (I do all my sketchy stuff on another rig ) No machine under my control has ever been affected by a malware infestation (knock on wood).
It’s just way too convenient to be able to update plugins and DAW components, upload for bashing, etc.
Mine tends to be offline simply because it’s in a studio/rehearsal complex that doesn’t have internet connectivity in most of the rooms. When I take it home it’s usually to get new software installed and authorized, so I go online to do that.
Mine is online, but very tweaked for performance. I also use a low presence anti-virus and an direct ethernet connection as wireless adapters are known to cause cpu spikes that can interfere with recording.
offline for me.
i set it up precisely for music production and dissabled everything else i didnt need.
as a result i have a quad core dell that runs fast and reliably . 3 years in and it still boots up within 20 seconds and shuts down even quicker.
it is organised and tweaked.
if i took it online now i know i would have all manor of problems!
i`m only running cubase 6 and have enough plugings for now and am happy.
my other pc is to the left of me at my desk and has all my online, cad and work stuff on. this for me works well.
if i need anything like registrations or what not for my offline i just usb it from left to right without even leaving my chair rock on…
I just have the one computer it does everything i need it to do or i don’t do it. I mix and master, create book layouts, book covers, play candy crush, create videos, create websites, browse the interweb, … so far i have been alright. actually it has been better since i upgraded it to windows 10.
Sounds like we have a very similar setup @LazyE … I first ran into trouble when I had to buy a new interface and then ran into quite annoying driver issues… the troubleshooting was much trickier with it being offline… new gear expects to have certain more modern stuff… and identifying that stuff was time consuming and annoying…
[grimace smiley]
) No machine under my control has ever been affected by a malware infestation (knock on wood).
rock on…