Which software, which computer? Computer impaired, please help!!

sl3shredder

New member
Hello All,

I am a professional musician looking to branch out into the recording world, and as the title of this thread suggests, I am kind of clueless as to what I need in terms of a computer and software.

Let me explain my needs, and plans for recording, and what I was thinking of going with based on my research, and hopefully you guys can steer me in the right direction.

First off, I do have a lot of studio experience, but as a player, not as an engineer. I have a partner that I do production/recording with, and he uses Logic, so for ease of file swapping and familiarity purposes, I was planning on going with Logic Pro X.

Right now, I am looking to record my own music track by track. I will probably sing/play acoustic guitar to a click track for the initial rough tracks, go back and create a drum loop (I was planning on purchasing Superior Drummer for this) and build the songs track by track, never more than two simultaneous tracks, and most likely never more than 10 tracks total on a song (drums, bass, 3 guitars max, 3 vox max, percussion, and the occasional keyboard). I was also planning on purchasing Guitar Rig 5 for amp modeling.

I don't think I will need 5000 plug-in's for what I am looking to do either. If there are a few options for Comp/limiters, delays, reverbs, and EQ's I think I will be fine.

So back to my dilemma. I am on a budget. I can't purchase a $2000 mac computer, which is what some people are telling me I need. All I want to do is record music and surf the occasional internet/facebook on this computer. I was looking at the Mac Mini basic version with the i5 dual core processor that sets me back around $800 (with keyboard, monitor, mouse). Will this computer be enough for what I am trying to do and not have any speed/latency issues? Should I go ahead and upgrade to the quad-core version, or even the basic MacBook Pro at $1000?

I want as cheap as possible, but I don't want something that isn't capable of doing what I need it to do.

Thanks for any help! Cheers
 
Hi there,

Your needs don't seem too awfully demanding for pro work. For what you describe an i5 and 6-8GB RAM is the minimum that should do the trick. Also remember to pick up a 7200HDD or SSD if you are planning on doing lots of monitoring with your sample based VSTi's.

Hurry if you are planning on getting Superior Drummer cuz there is a sale going on until the 31st of July!
 
7200 refers to the speed of the hard drive, i.e. 7200 rpm, as opposed to 5400, which is what you'll find in cheaper machines.

SSD is a Solid State Disk, i.e. instead of spinning platters, it uses non-volatile RAM. SSDs are much faster than platter-based hard drives, use less power and cost much more.

For what it's worth, I don't think you need either for what you're planning to do. And you definitely don't need a Mac.
 
For what it's worth, I don't think you need either for what you're planning to do. And you definitely don't need a Mac.

True, unless you start doing a lot of monitoring with Superior Drummer or CPU intensive VST's. Monitoring in this case is triggering the samples via an external MIDI kit or controller. It doesn't sound like you are needing this, but like I said if you start to get lots of sample based instruments you could easily end up going in that direction.
 
If you are going with Logic, then you are pretty much bound to Apple.

However, just so you know, there are alternatives on being able to collaborate. Most DAWs allow you to export sessions and import. The advantage you have staying with the same is more based on "projects" so you get the full session work with reference to plugins (you would still need to have them to use them). So, I would just say, collaboration is not a good reason to pick a DAW as there are ways to do this that are not software dependent.

Depending on your budget, there are various alternatives but if your partner already knows Logic, then that may be a more compelling reason as you already have help. With any DAW, there will be a learning curve. The mini, from what I have read of the specs has a low end HD of 5200 RPMs, so from a tech spec perspective, looks rather slow. However, might want to wait for a few Mac heads to come on line and see if the that would cause you problems. It definitely is a cheap in, but you still have to get a monitor and keyboard, so another $150-200. That puts you around $750. Plus sound interface.
 
Hi,
I run an early 2012 Macbook Pro i5 (2415m) 2.3ghz.
I upgraded it to 16gb ram and SSD hard drive and definitely saw performance increase across the board, but I do fairly hefty sessions.
The machine was capable before the upgrade, but now it's more capable, you know?

Some days I might have 40/50 tracks going with a few plugs on each and maybe four or five virtual instruments.
I'm certainly not looking to upgrade.

When I bought it, it was just under £800. I would hope you'd get one for a lot less than that now.

If you do go down that road, I wouldn't worry about the hard drive for now. Just get yourself a nice external drive for all your sessions/samples etc and see how you go.
If you do think you need a faster system drive later down the road, it's very easy to clone your current system over to a new drive and install it yourself.
It doesn't void your warranty, should you have one.

I can totally accept the argument that you could build or buy an equivalent spec windows machine for cheaper, but I have found apple to be the most 'peaceful' computer I've ever owned.
 
For what you neeed, any computer will do the trick, really.
A nice audio interface with a computer will do the trick. A friend of mine bought last week a Mac mini for his studio and it's working pretty well.

PG
pgaudio.com.br
 
The computer element is not as important as the Audio Interface component now days. Any pc that is pretty fast should be fine, especially for what you described. I would not recommend a mac at all, as you can get a pc with the equivalent specs for a much lower price. And in the recording world, there is no software that you would really need that is made only for mac.

I use Cubase Elements 6 and I would recommend it as its simple to use, and for what you described is more than enough. It is also a lot cheaper than many other options available. There is a program called Reaper, which is sorta free, but Cubase has a much simpler workflow and User Interface, so if you dont want to have to spend too long figuring out the software, I would go with Cubase.

As for Audio Interfaces, I would suggest the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2, because it has probably the best bang for the buck at the price it sells for. Check it out, and if you consider it not powerful enough for your needs, perhaps look at the higher range Scarlett interfaces?

Last thing, a good pair of monitors is essential to create good sounding recordings. I won't pretend to know enough about that area to make suggestions. Just dont forget about that as they are usually a large part of the expense to get set up.
 
For around $550.00 you can go to Walmarts and pick up a HP computer with a 23 inch flat screen monitor, an AMD Phenom Processor 3.4 GHz, 8 RAM, a 7200 1TB hard drive that will do everything you're looking for and more. I own Apple and PC and one isn't any better than the other. As for a DAW, you need to download REAPER, pay the $60.00 licensing fee and find out if you're going to stick with this or not, because no matter what the various manufacturers of the many DAW's would have you believe, there is a definite learning curve to this and unless you're highly motivated with a good work ethic, you will not learn learn this. I can't tell you how many people I've seen go out and spend a lot of money on this, only to give up. I'm not trying to discourage you, I'm just giving you the facts. This way you'll be out very little money and if you don't stick with it the computer is still something you could use for other things. Good luck to you.
 
Yes I read his post. The new version of Logic was just released. If I knew for a fact that he was going to stick with this I might have suggested that he go with it since his friend is already familiar with it, but unless his friend is going to pay for it, since Logic isn't cheap, then REAPER is probably the way for him to go for now. And if he sticks with REAPER long enough to learn it, he'll learn that Logic isn't any better or any worse than REAPER, only different.
 
..or you can buy a cheap mac pro for 3000$

joking.
What you have to care about is having a fast hard disk (SSD) , a nice sound card, and a "ok" mac. They re pretty stable.
go with macbook pro if you want the portability, imac will do the job if dont need to take the pc somewhere.

soundcard... i have a focusrite but i kind of hate it.. Just check the latency anyway, the less, the better :) 10ms and below are good!
 
you would get more bang-for-the buck with a 2006 mac pro tower. they go for $600 on ebay.
I would recommend installing a second drive to work off of. externals can induce drive noise.
I've had good and bad expirences with the other apples based on the quality of the power. one place would be fine, but others places (like recording at gigs or at the bass guitarist house) I record power noise. most firewire and usb interfaces are really bad at it when you hook up monitors to them.

for your applications of tracking two tracks at a time, I would recommend a Lexicon Lambda. that a way you have all the i/o types (including a di input) plus inserts (to add limiting or other processing),
plus a stereo/mono switch when you mix or position mics.
 
Back
Top