Working with two apps, but one always loses focus.

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ni-cad

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I would appreciate any advice you guys might be able to give me on running multiple apps, here's my problem.

I have a video app (Adobe After Effects) that plays video compositions that I am working on, it also sends an audio signal out to my audio mixing app which I use to score my video comps and mix their audio, however running both apps at once causes a problem, as soon as I interact with my audio app, the focus switches away from my video app and playback stops Adobe have been un able to remedy this behaviour, even after days of research I have gotten no further, I guess this is a drawback of my OS?

It's very important to me that I can run and work with both of these apps simultaneously and I'm trying to find ways to do this, I have 8 gig of ram, a fast duel core processor and XP64, what are my options?

Can I somehow force both apps to remain in front and not to switch focus?

Would running two operating systems at once on the same pc allow the two apps to be interacted with, without interfering with each other?

Are there any other options open to me, perhaps using "Virtual machines" on my PC?

If there are any suggestions you guys can think of, that I can chase up, I'd be very grateful.
 
There is no OS out there, be it Windows or Linux based that can have 2 windows as the focus of work. No matter which OS you use this will always happen.

If you are running one in VM at that point you would lose focus from the main OS to go to the hosted OS and it would still be exactly what you are experiencing now.

The only option you have, is to work on the video and audio separately, or find software that can work on both instead of using 2 different apps.
 
I see hmm, I really have no alternative apps , there is no one video app that can compete with a daw in terms of a audio processing, and vice versa there is no daw that can offer anything like the video functions I need.

To what extent could I integrate a new PC in to my current system? could the two PC's for instance share the same mouse? and keyboard? could I run the mouse from one pc screen to the other and back to coordinate the two apps?

The audio signals are easy enough, but other than this I don't know anything on the subject.
 
You would use a KVM switch. That would allow you to share the mouse and keyboard between the systems. But might be troublesome as you would have to hit the switch every time you wanted to work on the other machine and vice versa.

To run between machines like you are thinking you would need software. Multiplicity would be what you would use. I have used it before and it is decent. Still not sure that it would work as fluently as you would like.

Maybe Sony Vegas would be worth checking out? I have heard great things about that.
 
Thanks mak 213, Multiplicity looks very cool.

Would I still need to use a KVM switch, aswell as using multiplicity? and would there be any chance of multiplicity disrupting my video app, when I'm interacting with my audio app?

This looks like a workable solution.
 
You wouldnt need a KVM if you use Multiplicity. That would allow you to just scroll off the side of your monitor on to the other system and control that system as if you were on your own desktop. I used it a few times before to mess with my wife while she was on the PC next to me.

Both machines will need to have the software installed and you will need a monitor on that system. Just not a mouse and keyboard, i think. It has been at least 3 years since i used it last.

It shouldnt disrupt anything as far as i know. I was able to use it to control 1 system without any effect on the other system. So it should work the way you want.
 
That's cool.

The more I think about it the more I can see the advantages of having 2 dedicated PC's'. Presently, I'm getting a lot of windows memory low warnings on this PC and it's running with 8 gig of ram already, video work just eats up ram, some times video files sizes can creep up in to 50-60 gig range when working with uncompressed HD footage. . . it's got to be done.

Thanks Mak213, your advice is well appreciated.
 
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