charles kasler 7 Posted January 29 i use a 17 inch PC laptop & it's pretty small. Are there any posts or advice on buying & adding a 2nd monitor? I have no experience with 2 monitors. Can you put channel strips on one & tracks on the other? thanks! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
User 905133 1,620 Posted January 29 (edited) I use two monitors on my PCs. Some (not all) of my personal Workspaces are set up specifically for two monitors. Some include the Track View on one monitor and the Console / MultiDock on a second monitor. There is a thread where someone wanted the main Cakewalk window to be contiguous across two monitors. My two-monitor Workspaces use floating windows. I'm guessing that with a small laptop and a larger second monitor, you do not want the displays to be contiguous. Note: the thread (one of several) also addresses using a second monitor. However, I have seen that sometimes having different resolution/scaling settings on two displays can cause issues. On my PCs, I have resolved these by adjusting settings. Edited January 29 by User 905133 (2) to add a link to the referenced thread; (1) edits 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bitflipper 3,020 Posted January 30 I've gone from one screen to two screens, then to two larger screens, to three screens and finally two large screens. At no point was there ever "enough" screen real estate. I suppose you could reach a point where there's too much on screen to take in all at once, but I think by then you'd have no room for speakers. The point being that you can utilize every square inch of display space and still not have everything shown that you'd like. The trick is setting up separate scenarios for each stage of the process, and only putting the most important things up as you need them. So if I'm composing MIDI tracks, the PRV gets an entire 34" monitor for itself. While editing vocals, Melodyne fills that screen. For mixing, that monitor becomes dedicated to plugin UIs. The other monitor is always dedicated to the Track View. I decided years ago that I don't need the Console View at all. (I can commiserate with the claustrophobic confines of a 17" screen. I started this journey with a 13" display. I spent $1500 on my first 17" monitor and it was such a luxury at the time!) I'd suggest getting a large display and using that as your main monitor, and a separate keyboard. Set your laptop to one side and use its display for things like plugins. Yes, Windows lets you use multiple displays as if they were one contiguous screen. However, dragging components from one screen to another can get weird if the two monitors are of different size and resolution. Best to dedicate your smaller display to things that won't need to be moved to the other monitor, such as plugin UIs, browser and step sequencer. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
charles kasler 7 Posted January 31 Very helpful thanks so much! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
msmcleod 3,925 Posted January 31 Ironically, I went from a 2 screen setup to a single screen setup. This was mainly due to me travelling a lot at the time, so I adjusted my workflow to use a single 1080P display, using screensets in my projects for the various views. I also means I can have a fairly large single monitor in my studio for my aging eyes... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rfssongs 201 Posted January 31 Two screens are great. I use one for lyrics when I am singing. At one point while I was still working I had three. But most of the time, one large one works for me. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
John Vere 1,779 Posted January 31 4 hours ago, msmcleod said: Ironically, I went from a 2 screen setup to a single screen setup. I find myself using only one screen as my office computer and Laptops are as such. But even my main DAW with two 28' monitors I often only use one screen because I need the second monitor for word documents, screen capture etc. What you actually realize is it's only the Multi dock that gets put there and using the "D" key solves that problem. I just released a video on how to optimize your workflow using one screen. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
charles kasler 7 Posted February 1 Thanks, I just ordered a new large monitor but will probably not be able to use two due to space limitations. Still the much larger monitor will be a big boost. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Russell 55 Posted February 2 On 1/30/2023 at 10:22 AM, bitflipper said: At no point was there ever "enough" screen real estate. This exactly!! I currently have 3 'decent' sized screens and have been pricing a bigger one to see if that helps And for the record - I run Cake across two screens and use the other for plug ins, lyrics etc. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
