Connecting Mac mini to Mac Pro

[zibonst1]

Hello. I recently had to get a new Mac mini for some work projects. My beloved 2009 Mac Pro 5,1 is still my workhorse for music production, which is also part of my work. The MP has about 10 drives connected (internal & external USB - mechanical & SSD - some of these are for backups) and is meticulously configured & organized for my music work. This includes apps and plugins being routed to their assets across these drives both from within the apps/plugins and with symlinks.

So, I wanted to see if I could somehow retain this setup but access everything from my Mac mini and avoid having to reconfigure all of these locations…because this is years of organizing to get things just how I need and also functioning properly and optimally.

For example, installing Logic Pro on the mini would then require the reinstallation of all of my plugins….and then going into each of those and assigning asset locations again (even if I’m pointing to my MP drives say, over the network). Is there a way to just use everything that’s installed on my MP thru the mini? Almost like Remote Desktop I guess is what I’m thinking. Thanks!

MacPro Late 2009 5,1
Last current version of High Sierra

 

[Boyd01]

You can certainly use the built-in screen sharing for that, I use it to connect to a 2012 Mini fileserver and 2014 Mini media server and find it works very well for my needs. I am sharing a machine with one 1080p screen however and not doing anything demanding like Logic. I have gigabit ethernet and see some latency, but it's not too bad. For example, I can watch a video on the media server with screen sharing and initially the resolution is reduced but gets better as it plays. There are still occasional dropped frames however.

Screen sharing doesn't support audio, but if your Mac Pro is right there in the same room with its own speakers that shouldn't be a problem. But if you're editing audio where sync is important then that would be a concern.

 

[carylee2002]

In the old days, many composers used to hookup many dummy pc's and had all their samples loaded on multiple 7200 hd's for quick access using ethernet cables and programs that were virtual instruments for cubase, protools, and even albeton 5. They were all timed up to a master clock for syncing like the midi timepiece.

 

[zibonst1]

You can certainly use the built-in screen sharing for that, I use it to connect to a 2012 Mini fileserver and 2014 Mini media server and find it works very well for my needs. I am sharing a machine with one 1080p screen however and not doing anything demanding like Logic. I have gigabit ethernet and see some latency, but it's not too bad. For example, I can watch a video on the media server with screen sharing and initially the resolution is reduced but gets better as it plays. There are still occasional dropped frames however.

Screen sharing doesn't support audio, but if your Mac Pro is right there in the same room with its own speakers that shouldn't be a problem. But if you're editing audio where sync is important then that would be a concern.

Thanks for the reply. Yes that would be an issue with the audio. I use screen sharing and Remote Desktop often and usually have minor issues with video and audio which normally do not matter for what I’m doing but it would be for my Logic work. Thanks again for the info.