Do You Use More Than One Computer For Editing?
 

I know most of us are not steeped in endless cash, but I'm curious if anyone here has perhaps two computers for editing purposes, either as an auxilliary or a way of spreading out different projects. How do you deal with multiple projects on one computer?

I don't have two (I have three).

What problems do you have with multiple projects on one computer?

Gary

None really, except I never seem to have enough hard drive space (which is why I use an external drive too). Interesting to hear about three computers in use--does each have a specialized use or just needed to accomodate alot of projects?

By the way, your Vegas editing DVDs are a mantra to me--great stuff!!!!

>I use an external drive too<

I have about 10 of those :-0

All the gear doesn't mean I am cooler than anyone else, just that I do this for a living and I have a lot of projects (almost all long form) plus an assitant editor.

Sometimes different parts of a project are on different computers, sometimes they have different projects going. Sometimes one is capturing while another is editing.
Then, there's network rendering :-)

Gary

I guess it just depends on what you're doing.

I use two - a PowerMac (I do the majority of my cutting in FCP) and PC that I do other things in.

And then there's our other editor, and she's got her own set up. And plenty of external drives between us. I'd never planned on doing it that way, it just sort of ended up that way.

Been eyeing one of those terabyte Lacie drives recently.

Wow, external drives seem to be the way to go, which is what I had hoped. Yes, it's a matter of having several projects in development simultaneously, and I just can't have one drive being bottlenecked with competing projects, much less having the hard drive space. So, rather than litter the place with a phalanx of computers (hardly economical!) I can see drives are far more expedient. By the way, how many external drives can be attached to a computer?

There are limits, but these are usually limitations of the bus speed
in a computer etc.

However if you need lots of space (for lots of projects) you usually
want to go with disk arrays where you string multiple harddisks
together for more space and/or reliability. There are various
solutions available for USB/firewire/SCSI/SATA (a couple of terabytes)
to terabytes upon terabytes with SAN or NAS equipment (= very
expensive) which runs on gigabit or fibre optic networks etc.

The latter has the added advantage that you can add many
client/desktop computers to work on and have central backup etc.
as well.

It is fairly easy to build a SAN/NAS like system yourself. Have one
dedicated file server (I would advice with SATA) to where you can
attach some large 250 GB disks (either internal and/or external
=> both connected through SATA!!) in one or more RAID striped
and/or mirrored volumes and get a gigabit switched (!) network
(not too expensive).

Hook up a few client PC's (or one if you want to start out low) with
gigabit ethernet as well and make sure you map the same drive
letter(s) to the same remote drive(s)/share(s) on each client PC
so you can work the exact same way on each computer.

Then you can add central backup tools if needed/wanted to the
central server and perhaps a DVD burner or DV deck (could also
add those to any or all client PC's since gigabit is fast enough)
and you should be ready to rock and roll.

If you have a seperate studio/blue or greenscreen area you could
put a small PC there pre-configured and you could just hook up
a camera and the whole system will capture directly onto your
central file system, ready to be used. Can even do this with an
attached audio studio.

Get wild! <g>

My head is spinning.


:D

How's this for an idea. I do most of my editing on a laptop and do all my tape transfers to the desktop. While I'm editing, I can pull the dv clips I need for the project off the desktop and use them on the laptop via a broadband router.

When the laptop is rendering one piece...say, the wedding, I can jump on the desktop and start clipping together the reception.

>When the laptop is rendering one piece...say, the wedding, I can jump on the desktop and start clipping together the reception.<

That's fine if you have two registered copies of Vegas. Otherwise it's not legal.

You CAN however, render one piece, and simultaneously open another instance of Vegas and continue editing.

You could also distribute the render to another computer and continue editing.

Gary

"You could also distribute the render to another computer and continue editing."

Gary, this can be done without running a second liscensed version of Vegas?

Your reply sounds like this is possible.

Your purchased copy of Vegas may be installed on up to three machines for the purpose of network rendering. Legally, they can each be rendering - you just can't legally edit on more than one at the same time.

Hope you don't mind me re-opening this thread.

Assuming I own two copies of Vegas (which I don't, by the way, so this is theoretical - see comment below) and I wanted to use my laptop (which is on order) in the field to capture, sort through media, do a rough assembly etc then return to the office to complete the edit and render, what should I be considering in terms of copying the project and media from the laptop to the desktop?

I'm wondering if there is anything I should avoid on the laptop, like creating bins or trimming media, which might not be carried across to the desktop. Or is it a simple case of copying the veg across, then the media, then pointing the copied veg to the copied media?

Other possible pitfalls: I guess both copies of Vegas would need to have the same third party plug-ins if they were used on the capture machine. Also, would there be any problem with audio that has been captured on one soundcard and possibly assigned to certain busses then transferred (in my case) to a PC with a Delta 1010 with different assignations?

Cakewalk (and I'm sure others) has a great facility which allows you to create a 'bundle' file which contains the project, all audio clips etc to allow you to share the whole file with others. Any utilities that work with Vegas that might achieve the same thing? Or is this unnecessary?

Back to the point about not currently owning two copies of Vegas, I've just seen a response to another thread which, of course, says that installing on two machines is OK as long as only one is used for editing at any one time. That would be the case in my situation. I've removed a paragraph from this reply which was based on a misunderstanding of this point.

Interested to hear how any other dual machine users of Vegas have handled this.

Thanks . . . Ian . . .

Probably an external firewire drive would be your best answer. Just capture the footage and save the veg file on the external drive. Plug the drive into the other computer, open the VEG file, and it will probably ask where the files are located (assuming the firewire drive gets assigned a different drive letter) but you can point the first one to the correct place and the rest will be updated as well. At that point you should be fine.

Both machines will need the same plugins, fonts, and presets. Anything in the project will need to be on both machines. Audio shouldn't be a huge problem but you may have to reassign the busses appropriately.

Thanks Edward.

I wonder if it's possible to force the same drive letter to be assigned to an external drive each time. That would remove one (minor) issue.

My primary concern about an external drive (which of course makes great sense as a solution) is that my XM2 (GL2) doesn't co-exist happily on the same firewire bus as other devices, causing the latter to bomb out. I mentioned in another thread that I propose to try a PCMCIA firewire card in addition to the firewire ports on the laptop to see if having the devices on separate adaptors will work. Fingers crossed.

Would I be right in believing that the throughput of USB2 wouldn't be sufficient to cope with direct to disk recording, ie with DV Rack? I know it works fine with video capture on my desktop.

Ian . . .