# Working on the same project from two studios



## Mason (Mar 16, 2022)

I’ve got a studio at home but will for the first time now also have a studio of my own in the city and do work at both places.

I’m gonna work on the same projects at both places so I wonder how to do that effectively and have access to the same files which should be saved and updated dynamically. 

Is there a way to do that from two different machines without having to copy the files? That sounds very old school so I hope there are solutions


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## Dietz (Mar 16, 2022)

If you happen to work in Steinberg's Nuendo, you will like its networking capabilities: 

->https://steinberg.help/nuendo/v11/en/cubase_nuendo/topics/networking/networking_c.html


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## Henu (Mar 16, 2022)

I've done that but it can easily scream problems- starting already with samples located in different drives.
So I'd definitely work with the "old school" way if I was you. I would suggest you just always rename the project files and save each revision just for precaution for each "round". As an example,

_worldsbestproject_mason_1.0 _-> gets sent to friend
friend takes the project, duplicates it as _worldsbestproject_friend_1.1_ and works with that one.
-> friends sends _worldsbestproject_friend_1.1_ to you
you duplicate it as rename the duplicate as _worldsbestproject_mason_1.2_.....

....and so forth. That will save you many possible headaches. It's a bit more work, but a wasted work is even worse. I don't trust those networking and other collaborative things at all. :D


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## Collywobbles (Mar 16, 2022)

I think Dropbox could actually work quite well for your situation. You install the app on both computers and share a folder between the two. This has the added benefit of uploading your work to a cloud as well, so there's an additional backup. You could work in the actual folder and have it update in real time, or just copy n paste it in that folder at the end of the day and wait for it to finish uploading.

I have not used it in this exact capacity myself, but can't really see any reason why it wouldn't work. You can make a free account to test it first, although it has a very small capacity if memory serves.


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## Mason (Mar 16, 2022)

Dropbox sound like the best solution so far indeed. 

One issue is the iLok softwares. Can that be taken care of virtually also now or do I need to bring the key every time? I’m not very updated to be honest.

I know I can have two installations of my DAW and I hope I can use the same Kontakt libraries on two computers, or?


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## Bee_Abney (Mar 16, 2022)

Mason said:


> Dropbox sound like the best solution so far indeed.
> 
> One issue is the iLok softwares. Can that be taken care of virtually also now or do I need to bring the key every time? I’m not very updated to be honest.
> 
> I know I can have two installations of my DAW and I hope I can use the same Kontakt libraries on two computers, or?



I know you can load Native Instruments libraries/synths/Kontakt on more than one computer. Samples, you can duplicate as you please, but the number of computers you can have licensed varies from plugin to plugin. I believe Vienna Symphonic Orchestra have a lower charge for additional licenses for a second iLok.

A backup physical iLok without extra licenses might be a good idea; but I don't use a physical one myself so I'm not sure.


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## 76111 (Jul 20, 2022)

Large portable SSD drives. Don't laugh, hear me out.

My method lets me work from my main desktop most of the time and from laptop as necessary, and might scale across you working from two studios. Because of various other needs, both desktop and laptop run linux as host, with Win10 VM guest, so it requires somewhat beefy-ish hardware and goofy physical midi routing about which I shan't bore you, though you may have an easier time if you don't need to fiddle with VMs:

- Reaper on host
- Opus on guest
- EW libs / media / project files on portable SSD
- physical iLok key (passed thru directly to the guest)
- Notion in guest
- occasionally Reaper in guest

The key here is that all media and project paths are identical on both computers (in my case, that's both in the host and in the guest) - you plug in your iLok key and portable SSD drives, mount the directories appropriately, and everything is right where it should be with no hassle. SSDs are cheap and much quicker than any network solution. I don't have any hard numbers on instrument count when streaming samples from SSD via usb3, but I can say it's lots and lots with no hiccups.

No copying each time you move between computers - just be sure to backup regularly so when you leave a drive on the roof of your car it's not a huge deal.

As for spare iLok dongles - if you lose or mangle one, you should be able to use the iLok license manager to move your licenses to a new dongle without a problem.


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## creativeforge (Jul 21, 2022)

🧐


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## AudioBrewers (Jul 21, 2022)

We do this in dev - and the best way is Synology.

If you have 1 Synology, you can install it in one studio (the one you use the most, or has better internet) and then sync to it with any computer you want- sort of like a private Dropbox, every time you turn a computer on, sync happens.

Better yet:
Get 2 Synologies one for each studio, then sync them with your 'Projects' folder, and that's it, they will sync every time you make a change, regardless of the computers being on or off, like that you have duplicated your files in both studios (much faster, and safer!), and they are always ready. Because they sync with each other, you can simply set your network path to the synology and work without ever using your Laptop's drive, BUT you can also sync them to your drive, up to you!

Additionally, with Synology you can set things like versioning, so you have an always-going 'time machine' of your projects.


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## colony nofi (Aug 4, 2022)

AudioBrewers said:


> We do this in dev - and the best way is Synology.
> 
> If you have 1 Synology, you can install it in one studio (the one you use the most, or has better internet) and then sync to it with any computer you want- sort of like a private Dropbox, every time you turn a computer on, sync happens.
> 
> ...


Yes - we do the same thing but with QNAP servers. One for the studio, and one at home for me (which also serves as a hardware backup should the studios server go down.) This is only for project files for us. I use two complete copies of samples - one at each location. I bring the ilok with me between locations - I just prefer it and have been used to that behaviour for many many years.

I also use DynDNS to give me a way to log into our server wherever I am in the world. Very useful if I just want to grab a project. I use a careful check in / check out system (using tags). It isn't fool proof. It's good enough.

Dropbox also works surprisingly well. At one point 5 years ago our studios did post production on 5 episodes of TV between UK and AUS all out of dropbox. Care was needed, but it worked. How you choose to backup (and what is backed up) is a massive part of making sure this doesn't bite you on the bum.

I have not tried Nuendo's / steinbergs network tools in years. I had many problems when I first tried them.

A note regarding the post by @76111 
I just wrote a little rant about this earlier today.
I used to do something very similar but for slightly different reasons. I had two computers that would share the one large external SSD sample drive (and indeed I had a second sample drive which was just a backup)

But unfortunately there are now issues with various software and working this way. So while it works great with Kontakt libraries, you will have massive problems with the spitfire sampler @Spitfire Team libraries. Its a total nightmare and means one needs to generally have two complete sets of hardware with them at all times just in case when working remotely. Phobos. Eric Whitaker Choir. BBCSO etc. Its a huge waste of resources and money. 

And spitfire isn't the only software I've recently had issues with - but am working through the other one as there might be a solution - I won't call it out until I'm certain.


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## samphony (Aug 7, 2022)

AudioBrewers said:


> We do this in dev - and the best way is Synology.
> 
> If you have 1 Synology, you can install it in one studio (the one you use the most, or has better internet) and then sync to it with any computer you want- sort of like a private Dropbox, every time you turn a computer on, sync happens.
> 
> ...


What type of synology hardware do you suggest?

I’m interested to put at least 2x4tb ssds into it.


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## AudioBrewers (Aug 8, 2022)

samphony said:


> What type of synology hardware do you suggest?
> 
> I’m interested to put at least 2x4tb ssds into it.


We use a 4-bay one (DS418), which works wonders. We have our own server there + sync all OneDrives and Amazon S3 + have our IP cameras connected there + a small music/video server for leisure.

For the first year or so, we had it with 2x4TB drives (Ironwolf 4TB), and then we added two more.

The cool thing about this model is that *it's tiny* (so we have it pretty much forgotten inside a storage room), it's got 2 ethernet ports so it optimises tranference speeds, it's got a couple of USB ports in case you need to connect an external HDD. So far, we've had 0 issues.

I WOULD suggest you get a 4-bay one, you will eventually need to upgrade/add drives, and having 4-bay gives you much much easier ways to combine and upgrade.

Also, if disk speed is not really required, you can run it with HDDs, otherwise, SSD is fine, too!


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## samphony (Aug 8, 2022)

AudioBrewers said:


> We use a 4-bay one (DS418), which works wonders. We have our own server there + sync all OneDrives and Amazon S3 + have our IP cameras connected there + a small music/video server for leisure.
> 
> For the first year or so, we had it with 2x4TB drives (Ironwolf 4TB), and then we added two more.
> 
> ...


Thanks


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