Welcome to the second part of the tutorial!

In the first part HERE, I explained to you how to convert an old Laptop to a Rack-Mountable Computer:

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In this following part, I will explain to you how to create an AudioGridder server. Let’s start!

First of all, what is AudioGridder?

“AudioGridder is a network bridge for audio and MIDI that allows for offloading the DSP processing of audio plugins to remote computers. This can come in handy when mixing complex projects or running CPU intensive instruments.”

Audiogridder is very useful especially with Acustica Audio plugins which are extremely CPU intensive.

What you need in terms of hardware is a direct lan connection between the two computers, avoiding the router. This is extremely important if you want to run plugins smoothly. On my Mac Pro, I have two ethernet ports so the main one is connected to the router for the internet connection, the second one is connected to my audiogridder server with a static IP. If your computer doesn’t have two ethernet ports it is not a problem: simply buy a USB-to-Ethernet adapter (Amazon) and you are done.

Let’s configure our machines!

The correct configuration of the ethernet connection is crucial. My server is based on Windows 10 but you can also use a Mac.

First step: let’s configure the network settings on Windows 10 and configure the network settings as below:

Let’s move to the host (in my case Mac OS), open the network settings and assign another arbitrary IP address:

No router IP address in both cases, simply the IP address and subnet mask. I have also disabled Windows Defender Firewall on Windows 10 for better compatibility since the computer is not connected to the internet.

I also suggest enabling the auto-login on boot avoiding using a password. You can enable the autologin using the netplwiz command (Win+R) and deselect the option related to the password at login. Only in this way you can start using AudioGridder simply by switching on the computer. I also suggest to select “switch off the computer when power button is pressed” under the power setting: in this way you will be able to switch on and off the server without a monitor/vnc:

Anyway, if you need to manage the computer you can use VNC or Teamviewer:

(Teamviewer is more user friendly, I tend to prefer TightVNC as server because is lighter but they both work great!)

Time to install AudioGridder!

Open the official website https://audiogridder.com/ and download the stable version. Personally, I do not recommend beta versions if you are focused on stability but of course, it’s up to you 🙂

Download the server installer on Windows and the plugin installer in your host (in my case Mac OS). Once finished, AudioGridder server will scan all the plugins installed on your Windows computer. Below my settings:

Let’s move to the host (in my case Mac OS with Logic Pro X) and open the audiogridder plugin:

Click on “Add” and select the server IP (in our case 6.6.6.6). Done!

Let’s try a plugin!

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Benchmark time!

Hardware/Software setup:

Host: Mac Pro 5.1 (Intel Xeon 12 Core 3.5ghz, 64Gb of Ram) | Logic Pro X 10.5.1 (44.1, 1024 buffer) on Mac OS 10.14.

Server: Audiogridder Rack Server (Intel i5 480m 2 core, 2.67ghz, 8Gb of Ram) | Windows 10.

AudioGridder: 16 instances of Acustica Audio Coffee with Preamp Emulation Enabled:

Mac Pro: 47 instances of Acustica Audio Coffee with Preamp Emulation Enabled:

Conclusions:

Although the Mac Pro is obviously the winner, audiogridder result is absolutely impressive (It runs on an Intel i5 mobile with only 2 cores!) and it can really help our mixing sessions. Remember that AA plugins are really CPU intensive, probably the heaviest plugins on the market so you will be able to run hundreds on standard plugin on this old machine.

Audiogridder also supports Midi and Virtual Instruments, really impressive. If you like this software, please remember to donate something to the developer HERE, he deserves it! Awesome job Mr. Andreas Pohl! 😀

Enjoy your AudioGridder Server!