Need setup advice for customer wanting to do home recording

J

JNavy89GT

New member
I build pc's for friends and family and have a friend considering a Gateway computer b/c the rep stated he could record music on pc and then burn to cd. Well I am sure I could build him a better system for the $ but need to know the components to get and software to use.
His use for this will be to record very amateur guitar and vocals, and he has some friends that like to come over and pretend they are a band.
They would want to record, guitar, bass, harmonica, and vocals.

System specs proposed by me
AMD AthlonXP 1500+
Epox 8KHA+ motherboard
Geforce2MX 400 video
SoundBlaster Live Platinum or Audigy Platinum
Windows XP professional
512mb Crucail PC2 100
16x10x40x CDRW
etc.....

let me know what you think and any changes you would make etc...
Also, with the proposed soundcards are these overkill. I thought the breakout boxes would work well, but maybe I don't know anything. Can he record more than one track at a time with a PC or do you need dedicated equiptment for this.
 
You can "record" music and "burn" it to a CD using Windows 95, a PII, a built-in MOBO sound card, Windows Sound Recorder and the $5 mic that came with the computer. The question is what quality are you looking for? What are the expectations?

The SB Live may or may not be overkill. Generally for semi-professional work, it is not quite up to the task. It can only do 16 bit recording, the A/D converters are just OK, and you will only get two simultaneous inputs (1 left and 1 right from the stereo input connection). That may be acceptable, or it might not. Again, much depends on what the expectations are.

For not a lot more money than the Live Platinum you might be better off with one of the Delta sound cards, and then maybe using a second (cheap) card for midi and games (I assume this computer will be multi-use).

You'll also want to be sure to use 7200 RPM hard drives. Preferably two (i.e., go with 2 30Gb rather than 1 60Gb) and set one up for the recorded .wav files, and the other for the system software and programs.

You can record more than one track at a time with a computer. The limit here is primarily the number of inputs the sound card provides (as stated previously, you can only do two max. with a single stereo line input connection). You'll also need some multi-tracking software such as Sonar or Cubase (or N-Tracks if on a budget).

The computer, while an important and essential part of home-recording, is just one of the components that you need to be looking at. Mics, pre-amps, a decent pro-sumer sound card, software, etc., are also key elements.

Your list looks OK to me as a start, except possibly for the sound card. And you didn't mention the HDD's.
 
sorry I didn't mention sound card
I generally use 40GB WD or Maxtor ATA100 7200rpm drives

Now I am sure this guy is on a budget probably about $1000 total w/monitor. so anything over the SBLive Platinum is probably a no go, or at least for me to build it within budget.
I could do a striped Raid but then again $ comes into play.

He got all excited with a rep from gateway started telling him about a box(external audio recorder I assume) that he could hook up to his guitar and then port it to the gateway computer then mix and burn onto cd
Of course they don't tell you everything they sell is crap or close to it. I am sure they would probably give him a SBLive value at best sound card and I am not sure what they were going to do about the External audio recorder. Again I am new at this aspect of computer building. I am just trying to help him out and get him a better system for the same $ or less.
 
and furthermore, I am sure when he was talking to the sales rep. What started out as talking about simple recording, got embelished in his mind into a full blown studio experience with his friends on other instruments adding music. Quite often that has been my experience, is that people take the little information that is given to then and extrapolate that into their aspirations and imagination.
 
The Audigy is not even worth your time. As far as DAW systems go, it provides no additional benefits. It supports 24bit audio PLAYBACK ONLY - no recording. You have to read the fine print and specs on the Creative website. It may have ASIO support, but if your friend is not looking to use Cubase or soft-synths there is no point to consider it.

If you think your friend would be content with 16bit audio, just get the SB Live. If you want 24bit audio, look at something like the Midiman Audiophile 2496 ($149 retail)
 
It sounds like your friend is probably not gonna be happy with whatever he gets. In that case I suggest that you let him be unhappy with Gateway, rather than you. It's not worth risking a friendship over.

I am sure you can build him a better system than he could get from GW; however, for $1000, neither system is gonna do much in the way of recording.

AND, as I said earlier, the computer is only one link in the overall chain. It starts with a computer purchase and builds from there.

Another thing to consider is that computer recording is still not quite ready for prime time. By that I mean you need to be a combination computer-geek and musician. The demands that audio place on a computer really tax the system. To keep everything running and relatively stable requires quite a bit of ongoing tweaking (driver updates, registry edits, disabling USB or APCI, etc. etc.). It doesn't sound like your friend has the background for this. You will find yourself in a lifetime of tech support if you build this system.
 
I dosn't have to be all that complex. If your just looking for an upgrade from a four track a SB card will do fine.

When gateway said that you can record with the computer they mean it comes with a $10 mic and any old soundcard and it has windows recorder on it. Tell your friend this.

If he still wants to record he is going to spend atleast $80 on a mic and buy a preamp or a mixer to go with it. An SBlive can be ok for recording as long as you use an external preamp and you don't use one of those useless $10 mics.
 
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