how many tracks do you think i will be able to run with this set up?

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enemyofthesun

New member
how many channels should I be able to get with this computer?



Intel PIII 500Mhz w/ 512 mb ram

Motu 2408 mkII



I will only be adding compression and reverb fx to the channels. nothing too fancy
 
Your hard drive will be a factor in this issue also....if you have a dedicated 7200rpm drive for your audio files, you should get 24+ easy......
 
Your hard drive will be a factor in this issue also....if you have a dedicated 7200rpm drive for your audio files, you should get 24+ easy......now if you mean adding compression and reverb to every track, your CPU may be a problem......jump up to a PIII 800 or even a Celeron 800-1000 will help, as certain plugins are CPU hogs......

so, actual track counts depends on hard drive/motherboard performance and # of plugins used are CPU dependant......
 
How many tracks do you need?

What is the most tracks you have used previously in a mix?

Hmm.... benchmarking...... so subjective....

Queue
 
There are a zillion factors ....16 bit or 24 bit, is it a dedicated box, which recording package will you use, which reverb & compression plugins (some are very CPU intensive), SCSI or IDE hard drive, 7200 or 10000 RPM, drink beer or coffee, etc...

I think the only way to know for sure is to try it, but it sounds like you'll do fairly well with it. If worst comes to worst and you need a load-o-tracks (I'd be shocked if you couldn't get 24 24-bit tracks), you can always cut corners (back up your tracks and apply effects destructively, do the occasional bounce just to add more tracks, etc...).

I use a Celeron 450mhz with 192 mb of ram, and I've gotten 32 16 bit tracks with modest effects using Cakewalk PA9.
 
thanks for the help so far.

I record 24 tracks currently using 3 adats. I will need the same amount I assume in the future. I record alot of bands so I never really know.

I bought a secondary 60 gig IBM 7200rpm IDE drive for data and will be using cubase svt 5 for now with that motu. probably Logic once I get more PC recording experience. I already bought it all but have yet to install it.

I figure I will likely need to get a cpu/mb upgrade here soon.
 
I think on playback with no plugs (just print your effects to sep tracks) you should be able to get well into the 30's, at least. YOu may need to see about overclocking you bus of its a 66mhz, if possible. 2 or 3 plugs will rip you straight down to about 6 tracks, huge difference.
 
so compression and a little verb on some of the 24 individual tracks is not going to be possible??

How can anyone use these systems I wonder?
 
Ive never recorded with a PIII....my 500mhz celeron gets 16+ tracks with 2-3 reverbs and 2-3 compressions and 1 or 2 misc effects....this pushes it hard...i have to have the buffers cranked to max.....

it will help if you combine effects with busses....you may want to send the snare and all the rest of the drums thru one reverb, all the guitars thru another, and all the vocals thru yet another.....same with compression....you can set up a light, a medium, and a heavy then send each track thru whatever one you want....so in essence, you could have all 24 tracks going thru reverb and compression, but only use 6 plugins which will reduce the load........

are u gonna continue to record with the ADATs and do the mixing on PC?.......
 
looks like I need an upgrade then. I will try it first though.

I want to eventually entirely track to the PC but I would need another Motu interface added to the ASIO card. I typically set about 6-8 tracks for drums and then have a bass and a guitar scratch track recording at the same time. Then I go back and over dub the guitars and bass.
 
My current setup (untill the end of this week anyway), is almost identical: PIII500 Mhz, Abit Be6, 256 Megs Micron Reg Ram, 7200 Rpm IBM Hard drive only dedicated for Audio. Right now, I am streaming 24 tracks with several native plug-ins and some Waves delays. The CPU at certain times my playback hits right at 100 percent but the hard drive stays around 60 to 80%.
 
thanks good info.

I got this thing running last night and it works great! I have 18 tracks running with alittle verb on each one no problem and will probably add more later for a total of 24.

Ive heard some plug-ins use more cpu power but at least the native SVT ones are doing great.

this whole pc based recording is pretty exciting after running adats for so long!
 
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