Hello!
 
I have 2 PCs, none of which is very strong in terms of processing power:
- a 2-core Intel i5 (i5-3317U @ 1.70 - 2.60 GHz)
- an older Intel Core 2 Quad (Q8200 @ 2.33 GHz).
 
Each PC has its own audio interface.
 
What would be the most efficient and safe way for me to use both PCs on a single Sonar project, so as to benefit from the power of BOTH processors together, without having to invest in extra hardware/software?
 
Of course using only Sonar I mean. I know about Reaper's ReaMote feature, but don't wanna go that way.
 
The only way it occurred to me is this:
 
- run Sonar as a sequencer on the 1st PC;
- some MIDI tracks from this 1st PC send MIDI data (via MIDI cable) to soft synths on 2nd PC (which also runs Sonar, but only for playing the soft synths and applying effects to them);
- audio output of the 2nd PC is fed back into interface of 1st PC for auditioning via S/PDIF (hence no DAC conversion - hence no latency in 2nd PC) ;
- at the final stage of mixing, I record the output of 2nd PC as a single stereo track into the sequencer (1st PC).
 
Any other suggestions?

I suppose it would work but I have to wonder if in the end any advantages outweigh the potential drawbacks.
 
My first thought was about how much effort I put into getting my current studio computer build to be as silent as possible. I'd hate to imagine what'd be like to try to work in a studio with two computers chugging away at the same time. 
 
My second thought is about how many of the synth plugs I use today sync to host clock for things like LFO's or on board time-based effects. I could see host sync being an issue if the plugin machine is just sitting parked and receiving MIDI notes from the master machine. You might be able to just set the tempo the same on both machines and be fine, but then again you might not. I would depend on the plugin in question I suppose. And either way, projects with any kind of tempo changes would be a challenge.

Then there's the flying everything in to a single two-track mix via spdif. This should work just fine. But you end up with a two track mix of your synths. I know I'm being nit picky here but lets face it, you can pick up a brand spanking new digital 8-track recorder for under $200 and record in pristine digital with twice as many tracks as the Beatles ever needed. But that limits you to 8 individual tracks. There are reasons we use DAW's. And one of those reasons is because you can have as many individual tracks as you need. So why would you want to limit yourself by burning all your synths down to a two-track mix?
 
Now to be fair you could easily get around the two-track mix limit by streaming each synth over spdif one at a time to separate tracks. But doing it that way then presents a very obvious question. If you're going to use a second machine to process your synths and then stream those synths over one at a time to separate tracks, why not just run the synths on the primary machine and freeze them? You're essentially doing the same thing by doing it that way and keeping your setup much simpler.

The thought crossed my mind once.  Couldn't think of any practical application.
I do occasionally use a second computer running Dim Pro as an external synth and feed the audio into Sonar.
 
Glen

As has been said, I can't see that it's really worth all the effort. The freeze button is your best friend with soft synths once processing power starts to become an issue - once frozen it's just audio like anything else. You can even choose to apply fx or not at point of freezing, so you still have the flexibility to tweak them in real time if you like.

Damn... those could be real problems.
 
Well, as to the host sync there's also Midi Time Code and Midi Machine Code. Those might sync the 2 sequencers and the time-based effects and LFO problems would be solved... I guess. I still have to explore that.
 
The idea was to have as many tracks in real time as possible without freezing. I would apply effects on the synths machine as well, and only record the final result in the sequencer. For instance I could have in that machine just drums and bass synths or just keys, etc
 
But you might be right - in the end it could get cumbersome.
 
But still - had this been around for Beatles to use in those days, they would have put out 3 times as many albums :)
 
I am just very frustrated that none of my computers can handle by itself a project from start to finish (without lots of freezing and then unfreezing for more tweaking and so on...). So I thought maybe together they could have done the job...

You can do this... and instead of midi you can connect an ethernet cable and use midioverlan... though it makes the most sense if you're going to load a bunch of ram-intensive orchestral samples that aren't tempo-synced.
 
But if you're going to connect with an ethernet cable why not use VEPro server mode.  This solves all the sync issues and the audio comes back to your main machine via ethernet so you don't have to route any audio.  It was designed to do exactly what you are looking to do.  Plus both computers will open/save as one project.
 
BTW I emailed support about this (I may run Sonar on 4 machines) and they didn't specifically give me the ok to violate the EULA but they implied with a nudge nudge wink wink that as long as I was the sole user they didn't have a problem with it.

Matt why not use VEPro server mode.

It costs 285 Euros... Plus it is not faul-proof. It has some serious problem that they admitted to. I read on their forum...
 
Reaper has a feature called ReaMote that allows effects chains or even soft synths to be processed on e different machine via LAN.

The thought had crossed my mind once, I combatively came up with a good strategy.
I bought an Intel I7

Your license doesn't even officially allow you to run two copies of Sonar simultaneously.

I also see more problems than advantages. I'd recommend freezing religiously until you can afford a computer upgrade.

EDIT: Also, just because you're skipping DA/AD doesn't mean there's no latency, usually the largest part of latency is the audio buffer. Since your main Sonar has no idea what the latency is for the external instrument you'll end up doing a lot of manual corrections.

PopStarWannabe

Matt why not use VEPro server mode.

It costs 285 Euros... Plus it is not faul-proof. It has some serious problem that they admitted to. I read on their forum...
 
Reaper has a feature called ReaMote that allows effects chains or even soft synths to be processed on e different machine via LAN.

 That's an affordable option. I've never used it.  VEPro is awesome though.