yet another newbie computer recording question

Mdk

New member
Hi, I've just started recording with my vaio and its stock yamaha sound card and I'm glad I took the time to download recording software. I would like to build a "purpuse built" recording computer. I'm thinking of using NT4.0 and cakewalk. I think I can get away with a soundcard with few inputs because its basically just for me( atleast now :) ). I also plan on an external cd-r/cd-rw of 1x or 2x. Well first with the sound card, lets say I want to mic an 8 pc acc. drum set with 8 mics, is there any problem with using a (analog)mixer and then sending it through the soundcard? The only drawback I can think of is anything on the mixer I could'nt go back and individualy pan without recording again. Then with the pc itself, is EMI a major concern? Should i insulate the hardrives, soundcard, etc? Also what about preamping, how is that normaly accomplished in computer-based recording systems? right now I've just connected my crate amp.

Thanks in Advance,
Matthew
 
What's a vaio?

I'm not sure whether you plan to upgrade your soundcard or not.. anyway.

You could send all 8 mic's to the mixer and then take the stereo submix of the drums to the 2 inputs of your soundcard. The only trick here is you would have to get the sound right off the bat, not impossible just more time consuming and inflexible.

Or, you could get an 8 input sound card and send these to the mixer, and then to each of the 8 inputs on the soundcard. This would give you control over each track for panning, EQ etc (via the software).

EMI - Not a concern, assume that EMI has already been addressed at the design stage - the guys that built everything inside the case. But acoustic noise eminating from the machine itself is a problem - fans, hard drives grinding away. Especially a problem for quiet acoustic guitars, vocal tracks - for drums not quite as much. The hard drive noise is evident on a few things I've recorded, annoying. I've been throwing a blanket over the tower - cuts back on some of the noise, but not all of it. Ideally, getting the computer totally isolated from the room your recording in.

Preamping - I'd say most people with DAW's run their mic's into a preamp, either a mixer or a standalone preamp(s) like the ART dual mp, DBX stuff etc. There is one soundcard that has preamps built into it - Aark direct. This bypasses the need for any other type of preamp. All depends on your needs and budget.
 
thanks for the reply, a vaio is a sony computer, I'm going to build another computer just for recording though. This ones just to hold me until I build a new one :).
 
Ok, didn't know you were building another from scratch - some quick points to consider.

- don't get a motherboard based on VIA chipsets (particularily the VIA apollo pro), they are a nightmare for compatability with pro-sumer audio cards. (and even other standard components). Intel BX is the route to go if your planning on buying soon. The athlon systems based on the VIA KX133 chipset is another story. Many people have them working successfully with "certain" audio cards.

- 7200 RPM drive's , Quantum.

- Good motherboard - ASUS CUBX, ABIT BX boards. No built in audio or video - again BX chipset, not I810,815.

- 128MB RAM

- Intel Celeron 600 or PIII 650 and up.

Just another 2 cents.
 
wow!, thanks again. I've been looking into either cakewalk or cubase vst for software, what sound card would YOU recomend. I would like alot of inputs but quality is way more important.
 
If your going to shell out money for one of the more expensive multitrackers (maybe check out n-track initially, cheap enough and works great from what i've heard), go for Cubase over Calkwalk.

As for recommending a soundcard. Can't really say, lots of products out there, all have there pro's and con's. Do some research, lots of cards to choose from - find out what other people are having good luck with. I've been using the aardvark 20/20 for almost 2 years now, so it's way outdated, but no major complaints with it. Their new card is probably quite good, but again - research it. The M-Audio stuff looks interesting to me as well as the digi product. Do a web search and find some reviews.

also, go to deja.com and type in a search on the particuliar card that interests you. These are real people who have used the product in question (usually), so you might get a more unbiased answer than online review sites paying their bills.
 
Sorry, can't sit this one out. Try the expensive audio recorders/sequencers and see which you like. Lots of people, like Cakewalk better. If you can, download demos and see what works for the way you make music.
 
Emeric -
While you are on the topic . . .

I think the quantum drive has superior audio characteristics compared to my fugitsu, and am considering upgrading to a dedicated audio drive - 7200 rpm. Would you recommend scsi or ide ?
 
bball jones:


I think 7200 RPM IDE is sufficient for multitrack. Combined with a fast enough processor (650+) and sufficient memory - 16 - 24 tracks with effects can easily be expected. Now, it's possible to get more tracks than this, as well possible to get this many on a slower system spec. What I find is that although you can play all the tracks/fx etc - the system bogs down to the point where the sound begin to change. Not meaning dropouts(although these can happen to). , the quality seems to get grainy and maybe collapsed sounding - too much load on the CPU.

The IDE Vs SCSI thing has been discussed to death on this site, a quick search should bring some more opinions.
 
Emeric + bball jones, do you think it would be worth my time to go with the MAC platform instead of pc? If I go pc it'll be NT of Windows 98. probably 98 though.

Thanks for reading,
Matthew
 
Mac's play bits just as well as PC's. I'm sure it'd be worth the time, if you want to go the Mac route. You'll be a little more limited with the sound-card selection, and you'll pay some more over a PC with similar performance (at least, last time I checked). But for most people, it's a matter of what you're familiar/comfortable with.

NT is probably a better choice than 98 for most audio stuff, but it depends. I understand that MIDI timing latency is worse under NT than 98. That might be a small factor if you plan to use a lot of MIDI. Again, you'll limit your sound-card selection since NT drivers are not usually 1st priority for most card manufacturers. Win98 lite gets good reviews for DAW usage.
 
thanks for the reply pglewis, I'll probably just go pc with 98, I think I'll use the lynx one card and cubase VST, thanks again!
 
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