DIY compatible Waves Soundgrid Server

[definter]

https://appuals.com/how-to-use-windows-vsts-in-latest-reaper-5-93-linux-native-builds/

 

[capacitorless]

This might be worth investigating:
https://github.com/robbert-vdh/yabridge
Edit: I'm new to the SoundGrid world. The audio interfaces I've come across all seem pretty expensive, probably because they use a FPGA for low latency.

I, for one, would love to see something like it in open source/DIY land, that supports any old VST on a build-your-own Linux box, with home grown analog I/O.

I don't think you get low (like SoundGrid's ~1ms) latency without something relatively expensive on the I/O front, though...

 

[GreyboxAudio]

Waves have updated LV1 to show DIY Servers as "Unsupported" and you have to accept a warning message when adding one to the inventory. It will still technically work though. As of now this seems to be solely based on the CPU specs, which means as long as you have the correct CPU installed, your DIY server will show up just fine. I've had success with an i7-6700 system, which showed up as a Waves Extreme Server. Motherboard, Memory or Network Interface don't seem to play a role in this for now. From what I could gather through Archive.org this is the list of "officially" supported Desktop CPUs:

Haswell: i3-4150K*, i5-4590K*, i7-4790K
Skylake: i3 unknown**, i5 unknown**, i7-6700
Coffee Lake: i3-9100, i7-9700
Comet Lake: i3-10300, i7-10700, i9-10900k

*as far as I know there were no K skews of those CPUs, so it could be an error on Waves Website
**my guesses would be i3-6100 & i5-6500 but this needs to be tested

 

[Whoops]

Thanks for letting us know

 

[MLC]

Is there a way to add driver functionality for USB or fan control when loading onto a device that the kernel doesn't already have drivers for?

I successfully converted a Asus CN62 Chromebox to boot as a Soundgrid server, but the fan speed stays at a fairly low rate and the USB ports don't function so I am unable to access the terminal to attempt to solve the fan speed issues. Any ideas?

 

[Whoops]

I remember some people having problems in controlling the fan speed, some people just run the fan at full speed all the time.
Maybe there's already a solution for this

there's also a thread in gearslutz:
https://gearspace.com/board/music-computers/1311451-diy-waves-soundgrid-server-2020-edition.html

 

[MLC]

I remember some people having problems in controlling the fan speed, some people just run the fan at full speed all the time.
Maybe there's already a solution for this

there's also a thread in gearslutz:
https://gearspace.com/board/music-computers/1311451-diy-waves-soundgrid-server-2020-edition.html

Unfortunately, I have no way to control the fan speed since I can't access the terminal after boot due to the USB not working after boot

 

[Tubetec]

Should be easy enough to power the fan from an external supply ,
but if you dont have USB functionality you might have other problems making it work right .

 

[GreyboxAudio]

Is there a way to add driver functionality for USB or fan control when loading onto a device that the kernel doesn't already have drivers for?

I successfully converted a Asus CN62 Chromebox to boot as a Soundgrid server, but the fan speed stays at a fairly low rate and the USB ports don't function so I am unable to access the terminal to attempt to solve the fan speed issues. Any ideas?

Do you have any problems with high CPU temps and throttling?

 

[MLC]

Do you have any problems with high CPU temps and throttling?

I'm not sure if it's throttling, but the Temps get out of control. I have seen it get over 100c, which is when I just shut it down.

 

[bassmanjp]

I'm not sure if it's throttling, but the Temps get out of control. I have seen it get over 100c, which is when I just shut it down.

Can you set the fans at full in the bios?

 

[Dylan W]

Slightly off-topic, but for those who don’t need live integration and aren’t tied to the SoundGrid ecosystem, I can recommend AudioGridder. There’s a long thread about it on the purple forum. You load your plugins on a second computer, which basically becomes like a UAD Satellite but for whatever VST/AU plugins you want. I’ve started using it on projects and it’s a lifesaver when I run out of processing power. Even better, it’s free. AudioGridder – DSP servers using general purpose computers and networks

 

[Whoops]

Slightly off-topic, but for those who don’t need live integration and aren’t tied to the SoundGrid ecosystem, I can recommend AudioGridder. There’s a long thread about it on the purple forum. You load your plugins on a second computer, which basically becomes like a UAD Satellite but for whatever VST/AU plugins you want. I’ve started using it on projects and it’s a lifesaver when I run out of processing power. Even better, it’s free. AudioGridder – DSP servers using general purpose computers and networks

That's really interesting for sure, but that's a plugin that you insert into a track in your DAW. That's more for studio.
Soundgrid is diferent, it's geared towards Live Sound, and it's more useful in Live than in the Studio.

Live sound digital mixers are still very limited in terms of internal Tools/plugins/processors when compared to all the plugins we can have in the studio. The Soundgrid protocol and MultiRack allow you to extend the capabilities of Live Sound digital mixers.

 

[iomegaman]

I just picked up a Digigrid DLI on the cheap as a way to resurrect my three dust collecting Avid 192's...

When we moved to the Apogee Symphony MKII we ended up losing 24 inputs because $$$$ for the MKII cards...and we sold off the MKI with the 32 channels...wasn't a big deal since we wanted to be Atmos ready and Apogee was the cheapest "not cheap" route...but we dropped our analog channel count to 8 on the Symphony MKII and either AES or a bunch of ADAT...ADAT limits the sample rate below what we want to use so I started looking around the shop for ways to increase channel count.

So I started shopping for ways to resurrect the older Avid 192's we had in storage, but was NOT paying Avid prices for their damn Native cards/Thunderbolt/whatever...but the AtoD wasn't terrible and there was lots of AES channels available.

Then I discovered that a Digigrid DLI (Or DLS) will act as a connection bridge to pretty much ANY of of the Avid devices and since I already built a Soundgrid Server a few years ago I dug it out this week to see if anything had fallen apart or maybe gotten better...

The Digigrid DLI is way cheaper than the DLS which has the built in server, but I built a server for about $80 out of a HP Prodesk thing...it works fine (but I might upgrade to some super server version if the cards are right)...we probably have close to $3k in Waves plugins...but have not been using the Server...booted it up everything worked better than I remember.

Much to my surprise Waves has been working to get this system functioning well in that limbo land between live sound and a studio...and so I also just picked up Superrack Performer (its on sale for $69 right now) which is a live host that runs the Soundgrid server stuff and it now INCLUDES 3rd party VST's that are not Waves!

So we can now connect our older Avis 192's to our Macbook Pro M2 via ethernet AND the Soundgrid server to boot all via the Digigrid DLI...we got his one for a steal...less than $400 from a church guy...thats the place to shop for Digigrid stuff the church used gear places...

Anyway, between the Digigrid DLI, Soundgrid Server and Superrack Performer we can use a LOT (not all) of our Waves plugins in real time (less the 8ms latency) as well as most of our VST plugins...

These days its starting to be dumb to pay for DSP...unfortunately we have a lot of $ invested in in that depreciating market as well...oh well.

 

[GreyboxAudio]

Using Superrack performer with this system will negate most of the benefits of Soundgrid. First you're not using the server at all because Superrack Performer only processes DSP on the host PC. Second the Latencies of the Asio/Core Audio Soundgrid Driver are much higher.

The DLI is a nice solution to get into Soundgrid for cheap and I have one with 2x Digi 96 as well. Only downsides imo are the heavy weight and no remote controllable mic pres. Which is not an issue in the studio but my back did thank me once I got an X32 + WSG Card for Live

 

[iomegaman]

Yea I did figure out the Superrack is host cpu...which is kinda lame...but we'll toss it on another work station or laptop if we want to treat it like a live performance in the studio...actually not a bad way for singers to hear what they want without a routing headache depending on how we dump it into DAW...all those Waves plugins have another license to load might as well.

I think the DLI will stay in the rack with the Soundgrid server plugged into it, mainly was a way to get those Avid boat anchors out of the closet...and it gives us 16 channels of AES which will probably patch all the outboard hardware into and use as Aux channels...making it mostly a digital patchbay via AES into the Symphony...plus the SG stuff...I tracked a guitarist yesterday using SGS and the Waves API 550 via SGS and there was no noticeable latency...but it was just a couple of channels and a few plugins...

With AudioMovers Omnibus 3 we can pretty much patch any interface in the studio to any other interface and set the latency to what we need...but man Dante and the other Cat 5 connection protocols are kludgy as crap...