Building a PC for Home Recording - have a few questions

jonnyfingers

I'm planning on building a new PC on a pretty tight budget. For the near future it will only be used for basic things, documents, internet and some light recording. But I'd like to make sure it's upgradable if my budget allows some advanced recording in the future.

For a bit of background I currently have an M-Audio Mobilpre USB audio interface that I bought about 3 years ago, a Shure SM58 mic and a Yamaha keyboard that has midi capability but I don't have a midi interface. I did a sound recording course in WIT a good few years ago and was lucky enough to get Cubase SX, Reason 3 and a few other software packages through it.

I record mostly my voice and acoustic guitar, separately at the moment but preferably at the same time in the future so will probably need another mic. But I would also like to record my electric guitar and use the keyboard with Reason at some stage.

The new pc will most likely have an AMD Phenom II X3 processor with 4gb Ram and a 640gb hard drive. I'm not sure what operating system to use yet as I'm worried about compatibility with my recording hardware and software.

With all that in mind is there any capability my new PC should have (hardware, specifications or otherwise) that would allow me to upgrade to better recording hardware and software? Is Vista and Windows 7 compatible with the current software and hardware I have?

Also can anyone recommend what equipment I should buy that would allow me to record guitar and vocals at the same time and use the keyboard as a midi device? Should I want to upgrade from the Mobilepre USB is there any recommendations for a better audio interface? And one last question I need to get a good pair of headphones and/or cheap monitors, any suggestions?

A lot of questions I know but any help you can give me is appreciated!

dav nagle

jonnyfingers wrote: »

I'm planning on building a new PC on a pretty tight budget. For the near future it will only be used for basic things, documents, internet and some light recording. But I'd like to make sure it's upgradable if my budget allows some advanced recording in the future.

For a bit of background I currently have an M-Audio Mobilpre USB audio interface that I bought about 3 years ago, a Shure SM58 mic and a Yamaha keyboard that has midi capability but I don't have a midi interface. I did a sound recording course in WIT a good few years ago and was lucky enough to get Cubase SX, Reason 3 and a few other software packages through it.

I record mostly my voice and acoustic guitar, separately at the moment but preferably at the same time in the future so will probably need another mic. But I would also like to record my electric guitar and use the keyboard with Reason at some stage.

The new pc will most likely have an AMD Phenom II X3 processor with 4gb Ram and a 640gb hard drive. I'm not sure what operating system to use yet as I'm worried about compatibility with my recording hardware and software.

With all that in mind is there any capability my new PC should have (hardware, specifications or otherwise) that would allow me to upgrade to better recording hardware and software? Is Vista and Windows 7 compatible with the current software and hardware I have?

Also can anyone recommend what equipment I should buy that would allow me to record guitar and vocals at the same time and use the keyboard as a midi device? Should I want to upgrade from the Mobilepre USB is there any recommendations for a better audio interface? And one last question I need to get a good pair of headphones and/or cheap monitors, any suggestions?

A lot of questions I know but any help you can give me is appreciated!

'Record' is a new product from the guys who make Reason and if Reason is anything to go by a decent PC should have no issues with 'Record'. I would buy Record when it's unleashed and you should have plenty of power and midi capabilities and audio recording options. Be patient is my guess. PC wise you could get a dual or quad core and around 4 gigs of ram and you will be set. Make sure to use a good audio interface. I think with a modest setup and 'Record' you should be setup for a very creative and yet current sounding time.


Buy very good quality ram and get Intel chips do not cut corners in these areas. Best of luck.

henessjon

dav nagle wrote: »

Buy very good quality ram and get Intel chips do not cut corners in these areas. Best of luck.

this interests me

good quality ram is it not a case with ram if it works it works?

what signs are there with inferrior ram?

old gregg

in most cases RAM is RAM is RAM.
However, for situations where you are trying to cover all bases, the difference between cheap RAM and 'quality' RAM comes down to where the actual memory chips are manufactured.

Large high quality chip manufacturers like Infineon, Micron, Elpida, and Samsung will produce chips to a higher technical standard than some of the unbranded or smaller manufacturing setups. You can spend a little more and buy brand name RAM from the likes of Kingston or Corsair and those will be using the better chips. You can also buy a big name computer such as a Dell which will use the better chips simply because they are buy RAM in such high quantities that they can get the best for almost nothing.

That's the story morning glory. Almost any of the online pooter component stores or high street outfits will stock branded RAM at any time so it's not like years ago when it was more expensive than Gold.

dav nagle

Indeed I remember when 16 Megs of ram was very expensive. A powerful intel processor matched with high grade ram will give you a very good performance while you mix. The difference in branded ram and cheap ram is very little (cost wise) all considered. Give yourself the best start possible. Buy buying cheap ram you save a few bucks but you might eventually start mixing more and more and then one day you realize that if you just had an extra 10 or 20% power you wouldn't need to worry as much about your hungry CPU or system overloading. If this is a music computer then you don't need a fancy graphics card or anything to OTT.

splitrmx

I'd triple the size of your hard drive if I were you.

Neurojazz

Most audio apps are stuck in winxp or vista in a 32bit environment - the support for win7 will take sometime to come through.

The biggest pain in the butt is finding the right motherboard that doesn't have a history of problems, fail rates or issues with music gear - they are rare, but some models fail more than others.

The choice of motherboard is the focus for 'upgrades and future proofing' - aim to get a decent FSB (front side buss) that will give you processor power if you plan on making music 'in the box'

The reason for this is that you'd be able to get cheaper ram/processor and then upgrade those as they drop in price. I spend most my cash on really nice motherboards and cheaper components and then upgrade a year or 2 later - the front side buss yields better results for a studio 'in the box'... for example, lets reverse this logic and buy a small FSB mother board and stick faster components in it

I'd aim for that Reason record software also - looking like a godsend to guitarist/vocals at home.

Then stick with winxp32 and you'd get no hardware issues.

The money you save doing that can be kept for picking up some cheapo high end processor and max 3/4gig ram (the most xp can see/use) - that would give you a lot of headroom (as Reason is very CPU friendly!)

In the original Reason you could have thousands on instruments on a simple 1.1ghtz centrino cpu.

Hope that helps.

Neurojazz

Stay away from 64bit OS on windows. There is a huge problem with the communication between 32bit plugins and the 64bit OS. Some plugins cause massive cpu usage as the system converts from 64bit > 32 and then back to 64bit.

I have tried both OS with masses of plugins and only a few are supported within a 64bit environment. There are 3rd party fixes, but not great! - there's no benefit (unless you like headaches) of moving into a 64bit platform for music application at this moment.

I have winxp32, vista64ultimate and win7 and experiment with all of them to see if they work with different apps.

Winxp is still the standard for music apps.

PaulBrewer

henessjon wrote: »

this interests me

good quality ram is it not a case with ram if it works it works?

what signs are there with inferrior ram?

I think it's the speed of the memory that defines it's 'quality'.

jonnyfingers

Thanks for the info guys. Especially on the OS. Think I'll stick with XP 32-bit.

Neurojazz

You could get away with sticking some cheapo sticks of ram in while you save up (and the price drops) of the more expensive sticks - some motherboards will let you put in lower speed memory and the front side buss will clock down to it.

It's a real cheap upgrade path


One of my music boxes has had the lowest processor in it possible for over 2 years and i just maxed it out for 65e - the processor was about 300e+ 2 years ago.

splitrmx

The maximum amount of memory WinXP (32bit) can use is 3 gigs. Anything bigger than that will not be used.

Apart from the various manufacturers, memory comes in various speeds too, but you'll need to make sure your motherboard can handle these various speeds. Some of the newer faster ram come with heatsinks too!

Neurojazz

splitrmx wrote: »

The maximum amount of memory WinXP (32bit) can use is 3 gigs. Anything bigger than that will not be used.

Apart from the various manufacturers, memory comes in various speeds too, but you'll need to make sure your motherboard can handle these various speeds. Some of the newer faster ram come with heatsinks too!

Looks like sp2 it was addressed - it's possible to get the system to report the full 4gig (the max for winxp) - there's another switch that can be added if an app uses more than 2gig for one instance.

11811

splitrmx wrote: »

I'd triple the size of your hard drive if I were you.

Isn't it recommended to use a separate external hard drive for Daws?
(I'm only going on my experience with Pro Tools and Logic on macs)

Anima

I think it's the speed of the memory that defines it's 'quality'.

Paul is exactly right there, the faster your RAM the faster you will notice applications performing. Especially in time critical applications such as a DAW.

The maximum amount of memory WinXP (32bit) can use is 3 gigs.

This is true, with a 32 bit processor, it can only address 2^32 bytes of memory, which is 4,294,967,296 bytes. ~4 gigs of memory, but other parts of your system require this memory so the actual usage is around 3.25gigs for most people. There are mechanisms for increasing this however, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Address_Extension. But obviously it is slower than having proper >32 bit addressing.

good quality ram is it not a case with ram if it works it works?

No, the CPU uses data from RAM, this data is loaded from the harddrive most of the time. The faster this transaction occurs, the faster your CPU will be able to process the data loaded into RAM. If your CPU is waiting for data from your RAM most of the time then its not being used efficiently and will slow down the overall performance. So good RAM speed is important as well as good harddrive speed.

dav nagle

Also an external Firewire 800 connection is superior in terms of transfer rate compared to a firewire 400 connection type.