Virtual studio versus external equipement

B

bcnx

New member
Hi guys 'n girls,


I hope you can help me out on this one. I'm currently building my own home-studio and I'm facing a big dilemma. I just read a review on the Creamware Pulsar II card in Future Music - I quote: "This may sound rather dramatic, but if you own a Pulsar II you should seriously consider ditching the majority of your outboard gear."

I was just about to get me some synths and possibly a hardware sampler, I already own an extensive effect-box, but if I read this review, all seems to included in this little baby.

What do yo think about a system that's completely PC-based? Pros are, I think, the flexibility and the price. The biggest cons to me are the fact that you don't have knobs to turn and the possible instability in live situations (the Pulsar runs on Windows 98).

All comments welcome.

Cheerz!
 
well i think pc based recording is great , so long as your machines up to it!! From my experience , for what i use it for , i need a G4 or 1gig pc to safely take advantage of all the plugins available. But i think it all depends on what your needs are as to how much its going to cost. I would totally throw away your outboard gear until u have the stability of a kick ass pc or mac.. I still use two dual channel compressors and an alesis quadraverb... but until i have a perfectly stable environment i wont totally depend on the pc .. Dont get me wrong , its easy to equip a pc to handle quite a large number of tracks and several plugins , its the plugins that i find drain the computer.. but i would say go for it , cos the advantages far outway the cons... editing is so easy , i couldnt even imagine working with tape, but then again never tried...well best of luck , hey try to get something that runs on NT or 2000 , supose to be heaps more stable than 98....
 
In my humble opinion, outboard effects don't sound as good as plug ins. I've had the Pulsar and I'm using several different platforms now including the Digi001 on a Mac and Cakewalk and Vegas on a PC. If I want a lush reverb I break that track out and send it to the Lexicon.
 
Hi Spider,

thx for your reply!

The Pulsar is designed in such a way it won't burden your processor a great deal. It obviously can handle VST-plugins, but if you use it's generic software, it talks directly to it's DSP's so it doens't put a lot of strain on your CPU.


My question is mainly about how fluent the creative process is when using a purely PC-based system. Doesn't the lack of knobs and sliders set you back?

For recording I agree that nothing can beat a graphical representation of a recorded wave: such a joy to edit!

What do you recon'?
 
i know what your getting at , and i spose as long as you stay focused on why you want to turn all those knobs then actually i think it can be benificial not having all the knobs in from of u ... kind of a restraint issue for all those knob happy (huh!) people out there.. But ive seen a few hardware based interfaces for pc's , mainly pro tools ($$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$) , but i always thought that would be quite good having the best of both worlds...
hey track rat , how does the mac go for recording ?? ive heard they kick some ass!! What are you using ? and do u have a rediculous amount of ram as with a lot of macs?? ive seen like 1.5gig of ram in them before ....WOW!!! some hefty memory there !! But i really dont mind plugins , eliminates any noise issues on mixdown through external decks , but like bcnx said , its always good to have the knobs at hand .. thats why i think two or three monitors would be good as u could have the mixer window , effects windows .... etc ... open all at once and be able to see them all.. well im all for the plugin world but i just want to be able to use like 100 effects at once , haahaa , why i hear u ask , cos there there !!!! haahaa , just kidding , biggest mistake ive found with people using plugins is cos of the abundance of them then they sometimes over do it..
well thats my few word for the day , ill get back in my box till tomorrow... bye all....
spider
 
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