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Tech/Computer experts: help needed (shared music studio files)

Controller_7Controller_7 4,052 Posts
edited September 2013 in Strut Central
So awhile back I posted about winning some money to start a music program at my library. Now we're expanding it so that we'll also have a dedicated physical studio space for people to reserve. I'm going to make a simple studio set up and patrons will be able to reserve two hours of time in the media lab. I wasn't planning on this at first and I've got a few concerns about logistics.

Does anyone know a simple way to protect shared files? I don't want to have to create accounts for each person that uses the room. I am wondering if there's some sort of automated way to password protect files on a shared computer. I just bdon't want someone working on a song and then have another person delete it or mess it up.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

  Comments

  • JectWonJectWon (@_@) 1,654 Posts
    How many users do you think will be involved? What OS are you using?

    Unless you have an ungodly amount of users, it's probably going to be easier to create individual profiles for people.

    I can show you how to do it and it's probably going to be easier than creating a bunch of passwords for each file.
  • BeatsoupBeatsoup 511 Posts
    This sounds like a good service to the community, get some people making music for the first time exploring sounds. I wish I had this coming up, I used to use goldwave and the mic my computer came with to experiment. I thought up some ideas

    1. Insist people save to USB drives if they want to keep there stuff
    2. Try this http://www.newsoftwares.net/folderlock/
    3. Make people zip there session files and password protect it.

    USB might be best as the system could get used and abused, if so then you could wipe it clean easily.
  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    Yes...more Afterschool Hip Hop!!!
  • Controller_7Controller_7 4,052 Posts
    I was thinking more afterschool edm and house. Or polka.
    I actually don't care what the hell they make.

    Thanks for the helpful input.
  • SPlDEYSPlDEY Vegas 3,375 Posts
    You rule T**my!!

    I agree with Beatsoup. Don't allow them to save there files to the PC. All the projects and Stems should be saved on a USB flash drive. Think back to the old APPLE II days. When we used to carry those big FLOPPY DISKS around. Password protect the Admin login.. and then create a SCHOOL regular user that everyone else will use sharing the same programs and plugins.

    Now you can get a 64 gb usb thumb drive for like 20 bucks. It only makes since, and for the kids not smart enough. Tough cookies.

    - spidey
  • jaysusjaysus 787 Posts
    Write 25 thumb drives into the budget.
  • ppadilhappadilha 2,244 Posts
    yeah, USB storage is the way to go. Set up a school user on the computer (with no admin capacities) and make each kid responsible for their own project. People will still keep saving to the computer, so you'll probably need a policy of clearing out the computer every six months or so, maybe give a heads up when you do it.
  • BrianBrian 7,618 Posts
    yeah kids holding onto thumb drives and not losing them is feasible
  • JimsterJimster Cruffiton.etsy.com 6,960 Posts
    Implement Active Directory if you are going Windows. W7 & 8 won't let you access the files of other users on the same PC. Have them write their work up to the server, then nothing is stored locally. Machine gets stolen/goes pop? No drama.
    Keep the server somewhere secure (offsite if poss), natch.

    Not sure of the Apple tech model, I've never worked with it over here.
  • 4YearGraduate4YearGraduate 2,945 Posts
    Not to be senor buzzkill here but USB sticks aren't going to work, and you are just setting yourself up for all sorts of issues. Most DAWs have very strict needs from external drives, not the least of which are non SSD 7200 rpm drives minimum. The daws are constantly rewriting, erasing, caching and rewriting data and this has been shown to fail time and again on ssd, I can only assume it would be way worse on USB sticks. Plus the read/write speeds just wont work. You would be better off with a stack of cheap 7200 rpm usb drives.

    my 2c
  • DORDOR Two Ron Toe 9,905 Posts
    PatrickCrazy said:
    yeah kids holding onto thumb drives and not losing them is feasible

    Agreed. The amount of USB keys I come across is pretty astounding. Everything from 1st year to grad students to PhD professors loose their keys on the regular.

    Like someone mentioned above, what OS is being used? Apps? How many users are we talking?

    Myself personally. I would probably setup up the system exactly how I would want it with all the apps and settings done. Then make a clone of the drive. Giving you the ability to just wipe the system whenever you feel the need and then being able to drop that clone right back easily and have a fresh system at any time.

    If the applications you're using can be used with individual profiles, I would go that route like JectWon suggested. If you have someone that knows what they are doing, it's pretty easy to admin once things are up and running.

    It's a great thing you are doing. Good stuff!
  • BeatChemistBeatChemist 1,465 Posts
    4YearGraduate said:
    Not to be senor buzzkill here but USB sticks aren't going to work, and you are just setting yourself up for all sorts of issues. Most DAWs have very strict needs from external drives, not the least of which are non SSD 7200 rpm drives minimum. The daws are constantly rewriting, erasing, caching and rewriting data and this has been shown to fail time and again on ssd, I can only assume it would be way worse on USB sticks. Plus the read/write speeds just wont work. You would be better off with a stack of cheap 7200 rpm usb drives.

    my 2c

    Hey Thes do you have personal experience with DAW + SSD issues?? This is the first I've really heard of it - gonna go do some googling now...

    I assumed that the idea was to use the local drive for all work, then backup to the USB sticks? That seems to be the easiest way from an administrative perspective. How old are these kids? I mean, real world lesson kids - "Protect your data!" Depending on the setup of the studio, I would imagine people have to sign in/out, and possibly do the same with equipment (mics, cables, etc). People could sign in / out their USB stick as well?

    Multiple users seems like a hassle because then someone will have to create a new user for each group that comes in, no?

    Is anyone else really fucking stoked to hear some of the music coming out of this setup?? I love when kids are given artistic freedom and tools / space to create!!
  • skelskel You can't cheat karma 5,033 Posts
    It would be tad to have a shared track that everyone contributes to, separately.
    So dude one puts down some drums, a few days later dude 2 adds some synth pad, Dude like Duderonomy comes in and puts a donk on it, and so on. I can pop in and scream "ANARCHYYYYY" over it, what's not to like?

    End up with a fucking abstract Prodigy mess, 200 writing credits and post sound files or your (sic) soft.
  • BrianBrian 7,618 Posts
    ssd you want to install your OS and programs on but have a separate drive(s) for recording/samples
  • 4YearGraduate4YearGraduate 2,945 Posts
    BeatChemist said:
    4YearGraduate said:
    Not to be senor buzzkill here but USB sticks aren't going to work, and you are just setting yourself up for all sorts of issues. Most DAWs have very strict needs from external drives, not the least of which are non SSD 7200 rpm drives minimum. The daws are constantly rewriting, erasing, caching and rewriting data and this has been shown to fail time and again on ssd, I can only assume it would be way worse on USB sticks. Plus the read/write speeds just wont work. You would be better off with a stack of cheap 7200 rpm usb drives.

    my 2c

    Hey Thes do you have personal experience with DAW + SSD issues?? This is the first I've really heard of it - gonna go do some googling now...

    I assumed that the idea was to use the local drive for all work, then backup to the USB sticks? That seems to be the easiest way from an administrative perspective. How old are these kids? I mean, real world lesson kids - "Protect your data!" Depending on the setup of the studio, I would imagine people have to sign in/out, and possibly do the same with equipment (mics, cables, etc). People could sign in / out their USB stick as well?

    Multiple users seems like a hassle because then someone will have to create a new user for each group that comes in, no?

    Is anyone else really fucking stoked to hear some of the music coming out of this setup?? I love when kids are given artistic freedom and tools / space to create!!

    Yeah, I bought an all SSD Mac Mini a few months ago to hold me over until the new MacPro drops. I read up extensively on running sessions off SSD and as a result I have the SSD hosting the OS and Programs and the audio data coming from a traditional 7200 drive. The SSD boots super quick but honestly I have been having weird core audio issues here and there, I dont know what to contribute it to but, yeah. I cant WAIT to get a real computer in here again in the form of a new MacPro. It's starting to bug the shit out of me. Sometimes pro tools takes 10 minutes to load up, other times 10 seconds. System Prefs keeps crashing. I'm pretty sure its drive related. I think the Fusion drive is the way to go.

    As far as the topic at hand, if you want to go with USB's what I would do is have 3 drives in effect:
    1) The main drive, locked and with all applications running on it
    2) An external 7200 usb3 or equivalent drive with the Session on it
    3) At the end of each session, copy the folder to USB and wipe the Session drive, so it starts clean every time. When people want to work on a session, copy it from USB back to session drive
  • Controller_7Controller_7 4,052 Posts
    Thanks again. It'll be a Mac. I think I'll go with something of a "save your stuff" policy and just set up a student user account where I periodically clear the drive. It's a public library and there could potentially be 100s of different people using it over time. USBs as part of the budget is a no go. People would sign up for the room just to snag a free USB.

    I'm actually doing two things. One is the physical studio space that anyone with a library card can reserve and use. The second part, which was my original proposal, is a set up that I bring out for teen programs and work with them to program beats and record songs. It will be a collaborative effort, along the lines of Skel's idea.

    If any of you would ever be in the area and want to be a guest artist/lecturer, that would be great. Feel free to come by and put a donk on it. I want to get them to think about all types of music but also give them a chance to learn how all of it works, using a projector to display on a large screen everything that we do. I'm kind of jumping into it all blindly, but I think something cool will come out of it. I'm not expecting hot Cheetos and Takis. I'll just be happy if even one kid comes away wanting to continue with music.

    Chicago has a similar thing, youmedia, which Chance the Rapper came up from. And for Batmon, it doesn't have to be rap, as I can already guess that most of these kids would be cringeworthy, but maybe they'll create some wild new shit. Maybe the next Chad Hugo is a tween at my library. Where is Chad? The next whoever.
  • BrianBrian 7,618 Posts
    forgot to say this is great btw. love it
  • 4YearGraduate4YearGraduate 2,945 Posts
    Controller_7 said:
    Thanks again. It'll be a Mac. I think I'll go with something of a "save your stuff" policy and just set up a student user account where I periodically clear the drive. It's a public library and there could potentially be 100s of different people using it over time. USBs as part of the budget is a no go. People would sign up for the room just to snag a free USB.

    I'm actually doing two things. One is the physical studio space that anyone with a library card can reserve and use. The second part, which was my original proposal, is a set up that I bring out for teen programs and work with them to program beats and record songs. It will be a collaborative effort, along the lines of Skel's idea.

    If any of you would ever be in the area and want to be a guest artist/lecturer, that would be great. Feel free to come by and put a donk on it. I want to get them to think about all types of music but also give them a chance to learn how all of it works, using a projector to display on a large screen everything that we do. I'm kind of jumping into it all blindly, but I think something cool will come out of it. I'm not expecting hot Cheetos and Takis. I'll just be happy if even one kid comes away wanting to continue with music.

    Chicago has a similar thing, youmedia, which Chance the Rapper came up from. And for Batmon, it doesn't have to be rap, as I can already guess that most of these kids would be cringeworthy, but maybe they'll create some wild new shit. Maybe the next Chad Hugo is a tween at my library. Where is Chad? The next whoever.

    MAYBE teh rael CHAD HUGO IS IN YOUR LIBRARY RIGHT NOW
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