DAW computer offline or not?
Most home recordists have multi purpose recording computers. Not only do we have all of our recording software and hardware installed on the computer, but we also pay bills, browse the internet and play video games on the same computer. In the past, many home recordists would scoff at the idea of connecting your DAW on the internet. They would sight two main reasons:
-Limited CPU resources to handle the workload of audio mixing and recording while other tasks were going on.
-The risk of getting a virus
Most newer computers can handle what most home recordists are throwing at it, while also being able to run social media, YouTube and virus protection in the background. The era of 'not enough computing power” is over for 80% of the home recordists. There will obviously be the 20% of users who have very large and complex projects which will require high end computers and possibly dedicated CPU to just audio processing, but that is not the majority of users.
The risk of getting a virus or the dreaded ransomware is still very real, but with virus protection, as well as common sense practices (don't open attachments from email address you don't know) most users are perfectly fine. Online AND offline backups are key to getting back up and going again if you should happen to fall victim of a game changing virus. Just a tip – there are viruses which can seek out and infect files in all of your connected hard drives. To get around this I suggest a cloud backup solution and/or a hard drive which you only connect to backup, the disconnect it when finished.
The benefits of having your computer online, especially if you do not have multiple computers in your home, are huge. First, updating, installing and authorizing software is much much faster when connected to the internet. Second, sharing your project files with others is much faster and more conveint. Third, outside of music, you can play on the internet, respond to emails, post funny Facebook memes, rant on your favorite political thread or watch tutorial videos while your project is mixing down. I have personally always had my DAW computers online and in fact often played video games on them while taking a break from recording. It's my opinion, with the proper precautions and common sense practices listed above, the benefits outweigh the risks of connecting your recording computer to the internet.
Mike Lizotte