Building a music recording PC..

[unrealrocks]

Well GFX etc. is irrelivant to sound quality ...

To those who think lower power PCs are just as good for recording - for simply recording, yeah - they are. Although its not as simple as that, if your adding a track based effect on a 196kHz channel with a Duron its going to take quite a while Also if your multitrack recording (although your not it still stands) not only does your hard drive have to be upto it, your CPU also has to be upto it.

Active monitors - these maywell be better for what you want although watch out your buying monitors, and not just monitor looking PC speakers Also spend as much as possible as without a flat response - what may sound good mixed on one pair of speakers could sound nasty on another pair. Also unless your a professional studio who can setup them properly - Subwoofers are a big no As they distort the frequency response.

[schrickvr6]

if you can afford it get some of these ,i know 6 or 7 people who have these and they are superb,a few years ago they were going for £699 and the difference between these and a £1000 pair of mackies is very slight...studiospares are usually good for a bit of haggling over the phone as well...

[schrickvr6]

Why not get a sound recording desk? Jeez :/

because you don't need one any more...

[unrealrocks]

because you don't need one any more...

For home recording, alot of people use there PCs due to the need of only some new software rather than alot of new kit. This is not how professionals do it however.

Often its a digital desk going straight down to DAT or onto hard drives as raw audio data and saved info about the desk positions. There are also hybrid PC/Mixer combinations - eg the Mackie D8B.

[schrickvr6]

probably depends what type of music your making as my brother is a professional and he doesn't use his desk anymore,well very rarely...

[Alex]

Quite tempted by the Alesis M1 monitor idea. The only thing with the soundcard is he wants to plug his instruments in the front, rather than having to go round the back.

http://www.soundslive.co.uk/moreinfo.asp?ID=107

Thought about this, more inputs than he needs but does everything that he needs, I think. Can this take mic inputs, as well as direct in from guitars, acoustic guitars, keyboards etc? I get a little lost in all the terminology...

[schrickvr6]

best bet is to phone around and get some advice although there is newer and better m-audio gear out now such as the usb and firewire audiophile range,next up might be worth looking for a 2nd hand rme multiface,if he gets big time then look at apogee

[schrickvr6]

For home recording, alot of people use there PCs due to the need of only some new software rather than alot of new kit. This is not how professionals do it however.

Often its a digital desk going straight down to DAT or onto hard drives as raw audio data and saved info about the desk positions. There are also hybrid PC/Mixer combinations - eg the Mackie D8B.

just checked and he actually uses a steinberg houston front-end

[unrealrocks]

Quite tempted by the Alesis M1 monitor idea. The only thing with the soundcard is he wants to plug his instruments in the front, rather than having to go round the back.

http://www.soundslive.co.uk/moreinfo.asp?ID=107

Thought about this, more inputs than he needs but does everything that he needs, I think. Can this take mic inputs, as well as direct in from guitars, acoustic guitars, keyboards etc? I get a little lost in all the terminology...

I was going to suggest that card although didn't as you only wanted one input ... and yes, its brill - Ive used one to record a quite sizable gig (I ran 2 channels from a stereo master out on the main desk, then had two numan condersors mounted to the lighting rig *cough*Gaffa tape*cough* to create ambience and crowd noise etc.) I found it worked very well

Running things like guitars and other pickup instruments you would probably want to use a DI box to maximise the quality although you could run it straight in. (I guess you've accounted for DIs anyways as you'll need them for any soundcard really).

[Alex]

Ummm... whats a DI box then? Is it something necessary? I know that previously, he has just run his instruments directly into his (onboard ) soundcard...

[unrealrocks]

probably depends what type of music your making as my brother is a professional and he doesn't use his desk anymore,well very rarely...

What sort of music does he produce, dance and electronic etc. isn't needed true - but you try mixing down a 150 piece orchestra without a desk

[unrealrocks]

Ummm... whats a DI box then? Is it something necessary? I know that previously, he has just run his instruments directly into his (onboard ) soundcard...

OK ... gonna make it simple and not explain all the terms

Basically a DI box takes an unbalanced and 'dirty' signal from a guitar, any pickup (or various other sources inc. speaker level audio) and turns it into a balanced signal which is better for mixer input, long cable runs and various other things. They can also do things like lower signal levels down 20db or 40db (speaker to line etc.). I'm not totally sure what they do electronically as I don't really get the concept of things like Ground lift but I understand enough to get by in a studio environment You can pickup a cheap Phantom powered one for about £20.

[hussbob]

If your mates is only starting and messing around then this stuff is very high level but at

least you'll have a good core. Don't worry about getting the worlds best speakers as these

can be got at a later date. Invest in the main parts that are important. Sound card,

motherboard, processors etc mics instruments etc. Speakers come last. No point in having

the worlds greatest speakers if you aren't recording high enough quality to make use of

them.

That Delta 44 card would do more than enough and you don't need to DI as it will take balanced and unbalanced inputs. If your friend wants to use more than a few basic effects per channel then you may be better looking at a more powerful porcessor. Otherwise don't worry.

You may like to look at the specs on the card you buy though. Most only list 98 NT etc.

This is because some pro audio applications don't run on XP so check the cards will be fully usable on your OS choice. ASIO drivers are important so make sure the card will use them. Latency is more of a problem if you want to hear what is being recorded from the PC audio output at teh same time as recording. If he doesn't need to hear the recording while playing then latency wont be as important.

This is the delay between input and output. ie high latency means a lag between playing the instrument and then hearing it from the PC output.

Seperate drives for software and recording are a good idea. maybe a 60Gb or so for software and OS and then a 160Gb storage drive. Get ones with silent bearing such as those from Maxtor with liquid bearings. This also means you won't risk losing your recordings and stuff if the OS fails and you can't recover it.

Don't waste money on a high spec GFX card if he doesn't need it for games etc. Just get a cheap 32 or 64mb card that doesn't have a fan on the VPU. You will find that a basic card is also more realiable as that ATI card can throw problems up espeacially on a VIA motherboard like the one you are looking at.

You could use 2700 RAM instead (it matches the processor front side bus of 333) (May save a few quid if the price diffence isn't great then you'd be better with the 3200.)

If your mate has room then a dual 15" monitor set up may be better than one 17". This way he can open the mixing software in one and other software in the other. ( belive me this is really really handy.) But this is only a suggestion and can alway be done at a later date.

As said before get one good writer and don't worry about the second DVD drive. For your mate the NEC will be fine. All this stuff about increasing quality by chaging pits is fine when you are using several thousands of pounds worth of recording equipment to create the master but as long as your mate works with at least 48Khz 24 bit recordings then most writers will do. Even if you use a good writer the likley hood of someone listening to it on a sound system that shows the difference is low. More important to choose a good quality disc (minimise disc damage on poorly made disc) that is compatible with more cd players.

Get a good solid basic case. The less fancy add ons the less there is to rattle. The chieftec will do the job but if he can afford it then something a bit heavier may be better. Try coolermaster cases.


Remember all your hard work is pointless if your mate is using cheap mics or instruments etc. He wont need top level mic or guitar (these would be too senstive anyway) but using a cheap mic and instuments then you may aswell just get a crap system. No matter how good the sound card and speakers it is all a waste of time if the input is crap.

I have managed to squeeze adequate demo recordings from a £12 sound card and was able to record 4 channels at once.

He should think of what he really wants to do with his recordings before he ends up buying a £1500 word processor.

Oh one other thing may be to create a dual boot system so that there are 2 seperate operating systems. one for recording with only the required software installed and then one for everyday stuff like word processing etc. This way you get less slow down being caused by pointless programs at start-up etc. Only install the sound software in the recording one. Don't put on ASUS probe etc and if you can be sure it won't get infected then don't even bother with an anti-virus. Don't let the recording operating system connect to the net either as this will stop spy ware etc unless it really needs to get updates and there is no other way. He can surf on the everyday install. Oh and one more thing. Install the blaster and sasser patches from microsoft before connecting to the net if using XP or 2000.

Hope ths helps a little,

Bob

[Alex]

Thanks for that

In the end, went for A7N8X-X, Athlon XP-M 2500+ (runs cooler so quieter fans), !GB Geil value RAM, Rad 9600 pro with VGA silencer, 200GB Maxtor DM +9, thermaltake silent PSU, 19" Relysis CRT, NEC DVDRW, no other optical drives, chieftec BG-01 case, E-MU 1820 Soundcard and wharfedale diamond 8.1 active monitors.

Just waiting for bits to arrive now.

[hussbob]

hehe was just about to correct my post about monitors. Too late though.

Was going to say that going to a TFT if he can afford it would be much better than CRT as this would reduce the hum cause by the CRT. or do as most of us do and turn it off when recording


Good luck with the system.

[ikonia]

I have a friend who owns a professional studio, and he uses PC for demo's and digital stuff - most bands don't like it going through a PC (????) the one thing he swears buy is using SCSI disks and using as many SCSI busses as possible, something to do with clearer sound and less of the machine is used in processing.