There are many ways to connect computers and Thunderbolt Direct is the latest. It's also sublimely simple as the only requirement is a Thunderbolt cable plugged from one computer to the other. The results are significantly faster than a GigE Internet connection and neither computer has to be slaved to the other to do it. Thunderbolt Direct provides a simple and easy way to provide file sharing and this is not the Target Disk setup used for migration, etc in which one computer is slaved to the other.
There isn't money for the cable right now but that will change next week. It's forty bucks for a two meter cable so please do feel free to write your own editorial on the outrageous price of cables. Don't bother telling the story to any musicos, tho, as we've paid ridiculous money for ridiculous cables all our lives.
This reads like geekery from the Infernal Computer Swamp but the reality is that it's a very easy way to share a disk drive between computers without a lot of hassle to do it. For example, I would use WiFi to at least get the two machines connected but no-one knows the password to the damn router. That will get resolved but it's still not much of a solution because WiFi is so slow. With Thunderbolt Direct, I don't need any Mickey Mouse password, just plug the machines together and start up the interface. Plus it's much faster.
Forty bucks is a fine deal for this and it will definitely happen next week.
The other two bits are the USB disk drive and one more camera. It's not at all clear how those will happen but the cable is definite and will have immediate effect. I'll write a report on whether it really delivers after I have had time to play with it. One of the considerations is that you can't simply drag a GarageBand file to another disk and expect it to continue working. Tip: it usually won't. That means using a thumb drive may not work. However, with Thunderbolt Direct I will have file sharing and I can save directly to the other computer. Its function is then to serve up the files to the mixer as back tracks and then all this is ready for live.
Update:
The password to the router was located and the computers are now connected over WiFi. It's not the ideal but it's functional and functional means live. Maybe I can skip the forty bucks as I only need to write files to the laptop every so often. It's not fast enough for the heavy processing so faster I/O may not even be important to serve what I need. The laptop won't fetch anything from the other computer during the course of a set, it's only to build the tracks that access is needed. Maybe I can save the forty bucks.
There isn't money for the cable right now but that will change next week. It's forty bucks for a two meter cable so please do feel free to write your own editorial on the outrageous price of cables. Don't bother telling the story to any musicos, tho, as we've paid ridiculous money for ridiculous cables all our lives.
This reads like geekery from the Infernal Computer Swamp but the reality is that it's a very easy way to share a disk drive between computers without a lot of hassle to do it. For example, I would use WiFi to at least get the two machines connected but no-one knows the password to the damn router. That will get resolved but it's still not much of a solution because WiFi is so slow. With Thunderbolt Direct, I don't need any Mickey Mouse password, just plug the machines together and start up the interface. Plus it's much faster.
Forty bucks is a fine deal for this and it will definitely happen next week.
The other two bits are the USB disk drive and one more camera. It's not at all clear how those will happen but the cable is definite and will have immediate effect. I'll write a report on whether it really delivers after I have had time to play with it. One of the considerations is that you can't simply drag a GarageBand file to another disk and expect it to continue working. Tip: it usually won't. That means using a thumb drive may not work. However, with Thunderbolt Direct I will have file sharing and I can save directly to the other computer. Its function is then to serve up the files to the mixer as back tracks and then all this is ready for live.
Update:
The password to the router was located and the computers are now connected over WiFi. It's not the ideal but it's functional and functional means live. Maybe I can skip the forty bucks as I only need to write files to the laptop every so often. It's not fast enough for the heavy processing so faster I/O may not even be important to serve what I need. The laptop won't fetch anything from the other computer during the course of a set, it's only to build the tracks that access is needed. Maybe I can save the forty bucks.
No comments:
Post a Comment