comp recording?!!!i want to...

[ESTO]

going to comp recording?!!!
ok so i am going towards computer recording to make descent demos for radio play and promoters...my system is a p4 1.6 60g 512 ram,,this i use for gaming and other stuff but have 75% of my hard drive free. was thinking of sonar xl or home studio xl and getting one of those usb ad convertor connectors for audio and midi and monitoring...my question is will it work smoothly with my computer,,i have tried demo software and i always get lacency,,granted its through my sound card which is not a pro sound card,,,but i have heard of delays and stuff,,,should i buy a cheap emachine for a couple hundred and use it solely for rec,,,and any recommendations on hardware or software would be great,,,i really want to go computer recording but i would have to sell my other rec equipment and want to make sure that i hear my rec in real time and am making the right decision,,,thx ernest

[michaelhoddy]

If you want cheap, you'll probably get cheap results, but you can do it. I'd put a dedicated audio interface and a second ATA drive dedicated to audio storage at the top of the list. Your computer is plenty fast, and as long as the registry isn't too mucked up with other stuff, it'll work. Win98 or WinXP will have to be the OS.

I'm typing this message on a PIII-933 which used to run all my day-to-day stuff, plus a Digi 001, and it was fine with no hiccups under Win98 recording 16 tracks simultaneously. I now use a dedicated Mac for audio.

[ESTO]

thx for the replay,,,dedicated audio interface , would that be like an maudio usb interface and if so or not what would be a good device,,i want to make sure that i get no delay when i rec,,,i run xp and when i have a song complete ill prob put it to a cdrw so im not to worried about storage since i have 40+gb left on my harddrive,,all this is new to me,, so tell me more or have any recommendations for a setup,,,very much appreciated..thx ernest

ps,added,,,,i would rather go pc then get a console rec and then have to get a new one in a few yrs,,but when you say if you spend cheap youll get cheap results, what do you mean? would using the comp for day to day + rec be a big compromise? would the audio quality be better / worse then something like a korgd1600 or something on that line

[Justin]

When you do audio on a computer, you really want to treat that machine like that is it's only purpose. There are lots of tweaks and whatnot you can do to help make it run better for audio. Having games and office software installed tends to lead to fragmented drives, and a muddled registry. (which is bad)
To do multitrack audio you'll need an interface, software to record into, and a dedicated recording drive. (to avoid bandwith issues, and fragmentation problems)

When he says cheap, he means that lower end office computers tend to cut corners with lower quality hard drives, lower speed hard drive controllers, slower ram, and less efficient processors. Many will have problems running high end audio programs.

[jeharris]

ESTO:

First of all, I agree with the others. Cheap does what cheap gets. If you really want to have a stable computer based DAW, then do the following:

- DO NOT, use Windows 98/98SE as your OS. Most of the new sequencer upgrades that I've seen are only supporting Windows 2000 Pro and Windows XP home or Pro.
- DO NOT buy ANYTHING from eMachines!!!!! They should add a lineitem in the Websters dictionary under "cheap" describing that brand and how horrible a machine it is.
DO Dedicate your DAW to only audio recording/MIDI recording. If you must have gaming, get another machine, such as a compaq with an ATX Form factor board and put it on that machine, or better yet, put your audio there.
-DO: If you're not afraid of getting your hands dirty, go to www.iwill.net and purchase one of their barebones machines. The board it comes with is an excellent one and you'll simply have to add the drives, and the CPU, PC-133 memory, etc..
DO get a pro audio card. The M-Audio Audiophile 2496 and the M-Audio Dio2496 are excellent cards with a street price of around $199 and worth every penny, as they sound as good as pro cards costing ten times as much. Also M-Audio regularly updates their drivers and they cover all of the goodies: ASIO1,2,3; Directsound (DirectX), GSIF (GigaSampler/GigaStudio), etc. Besides, both cards have MIDI /O on the card, though I'd recomend that you get a MIDISPORT for that connetion and a reasonable mixer to connect the soundcard. Then you can monitor the mix from the mixer.
-DO get Sonar XL. It's cheaper than Cubase, Nuendo, DP, etc., but it's sound is pristine. However, being on a $1,000 budget, you could also try n-tracks studio. You can purchase the 24BIT version fo $64.00. I know it sounds "Cheap" and I know what I said eariler about cheap, but n-tracks sounds as good as any sequencer I own and I own that one, along with Cubase VST Score, Cubase SX, Reason 2, Sonar XL 2.1, and Acid Pro 4.

:D

[ctillman]

The "Iwill" barebones models I see ar min systems. Is there enough room for the second drives and soundcards and CD-RW's ?

I would really love an outline of the best (read inexpensive) bare bones setup for editing, mastering, and burning to CD.

[jeharris]

ctillman:

I have two machines based on the IWill KK266-R Plus motherboard. They each have 1.5GB of RAM, Athlon Processors, CD burners, pro audio cards and they work just fine. One is a dedicated Gigastudio160 workstation and IT HAD BETTER BE POWERFUL to run Gigastudio160.

The other one runs Cubase VST Score and some other music software. If you'd like to know all of the details, check the "introduce yoursef" forum. I've described most of what's on my machines. there.

You can get anything that you want. Just make sure that whatever you do decide on is something that is upgradable. That is, make sure that the motherboard is an ATX form factor board. Get as much RAM as you can afford and as powerful a processor as you can afford.

Install your OS and tweak it by removing services that are not required for audio workstations. Install your software ad get going! Also, get a pro sound card!

:D

[Justin]

If you're still looking to purchase a new computer for audio, give your Sweetwater Sales Engineer a call. We now have a few different models of DAW-ready computers in stock. We can customize them and add the audio interfaces and software you choose and ship them as a turnkey solution. Just take it out of the box, plug it in and you're ready to go.

[jeharris]

ctillman:

Unless you are a computer pro, arbiter's suggestion is a great one. Probably the greatest advangage of this approach is technical support.

I've worked with computers for years, and I've been involved with music even longer. Even with that, the task of tweaking some audio software can be pretty daunting, even for me!

My problem is clear. Tons of business computer expertise, not nearly that level when it comes to DAWs. I did get it done, but I believe the job would have gone a lot smoother had it been done by someone who builds turnkey DAWs for a living.

:D