Desktop for recording and nothing else

[Bobbsy]

I haven't got the computer yet, it's on the way in the mail. The info is gone from the used ad, but I seem to remember it was only dual core. Operating system is Windows 7. Is this too slow you think?

Anyway I guess I'll find out.

This worries me just slightly...

To get the best from having a sound-only computer make sure you completely wipe the existing drive(s) and do a clean install on Windows. This is sometimes easier said that done since you rarely get a Windows disk and have to rely on creating a restore disk.

Other than that, the previous advice about using two drives, one SSD for the OS and DAW and the other for your music files is useful, as is having as much RAM as the budget and operating system allow.

A last point that I like to mention is that doing any serious DAW work seems to eat screen real estate faster than I can swill beer. A video card that lets you connect at least two monitors (showing different things) is a worthwhile thing to consider.

 

[DM60]

A last point that I like to mention is that doing any serious DAW work seems to eat screen real estate faster than I can swill beer. A video card that lets you connect at least two monitors (showing different things) is a worthwhile thing to consider.

I just added a second monitor and this statement is so true. Man, the last two years on a single monitor and now two (just an old 15 inch I had) has made a big difference.

 

[garryspicer]

Dream Studio

Looks very cool, but it seems like there is no available Linux drivers for my interface.

Go to the Dream Studio site, burn the image to a DVD, boot from that. At best you'll find out if your interface works, at worst you'll have wasted a blank DVD.

 

[Steenamaroo]

Looks very cool, but it seems like there is no available Linux drivers for my interface.

Get nosey with google. There are no drivers for my interface either, but it's working away with jack/pulseaudio.

 

[JHTorch]

Do you have a Win XP CD around? IMO XP is still the ultimate DAW OS. Win 7 is more of a resource hog. It’s a somewhat improved Vista but still doesn’t fly as well as XP for audio/video. Win 7 can be trimmed down, but not as effectively as XP can. I run XP SP2 for DAWs. I won’t even install SP3, but that’s a long story for another thread.

Beck, I'm curious...I have Win XP SP3 installed on my DAW and plan to upgrade to Win 7 very soon given that Microsoft is ceasing support for XP in April 2014. My studio partner has Win 7 on his lap top that he uses for audio work at home and loves it. I have heard from others that Win 7 is pretty DAW friendly. What are your issues with 7?

 

[ecc83]

"I have heard from others that Win 7 is pretty DAW friendly. What are your issues with 7?"

Well, I certainly have none*. I have not used my HP AMD 2X2.7G PC since christmas but today I fired it up because I wanted to test my NI KA6 on web radio etc because someone elsewhere has found a problem with same.

I turned on the PC about 3 hours ago and then checked in for W7 updates. There were 17 (I think) plus Win SE needed updating. That took about 1/2hr. Reboot and once settled I plugged in the KA6, actually into a USB3.0 PCIe card that was also part of the reported problem.

The computer did not blink so I started Cubase LE6 up (grind, bloody grind...WISH I could afford Samplitude Pro X!) Once up I went into Devices and changed the ASIO driver from M-A 2496 to Ka 6 no problem and a Cubase file played out via headphones. Sorted out a couple of 300mm TRS leads and jacked the KA6 into the wee mixer I use as a monitor controller. Found Radio 3. Bloody talk show! Never mind, clean as... Later some jazz I wasn't keen on but again, very clean sound and after 2 hours not a crackle or glitch from the AI, well, one, 2 sec silence but I WAS uninstalling ***t using Revo' at the time. (CPU peaked to 55% ) but even that could have been the BBC!

Bottom line: Win 7 is lovely for audio but DO get it in 64 bit format so you can have lots of ram. Memory is only going to get more usage in the future.

*W7 is funny about kit with "generic" USB drivers but easily sorted.

Dave.

 

[Bobbsy]

My experiences are pretty much as ecc83 (well, without the Radio 3 and Cubase). If anything, I find it slightly more stable than XP (and XP was damn good). I use it for both recording/mixing in my home studio and for live playback in theatre settings.

If I have any quibbles about Win 7 it's purely down to the control panel menus and options which sometimes try to get a bit TOO "user friendly" to the point of getting between me and what I want to do--but I grew up pre-DOS so have an inbuilt distrust of computers that do things for me automatically.

Bottom line: if I was building a new DAW now I'd be using Windows 7. It can't be long until drivers etc. start to be an issue--I don't see interface manufacturers supporting XP when MS doesn't. The lack of ability to handle RAM is the other issue with XP. You can never have too much RAM.

 

[ecc83]

Day two with KA6 and W7. 06:50

Hmm? Fired the PC up and the KA6 would not lock, USB LED flashing. Unplugged USB, back in, lock.
Found R3 and all the settings were preserved, clear sound.....Now a diversion if I may?

I got a request from Apple to install Quicktime. This I did because I think Cubase needs it for video? Seemed harmlesss...
I was then asked if I wanted iCloud Control Panel and iTunes...Do I? I hasten to say I do not have ANY "i S**t whatsoever and have no interest in iTunes so is there any advantage in having the software? I have had a bad experience with Apple software on a PC in the past and keep it off it at all possible.

So back to the lock issue. I re started to PC and sure nuff no lock, re-plug, lockypoo.
Was this due to my using the USB 3.0 port? Shut down and re configured from a front port. This time the KA6 locked at boot up and a subsequent re start was also trouble free. Shut down, back to the 3.0 port. Boot, all fine this time! Ah well, no great task to re plug a lead now and again. A USB interface is a "portable" device after all!

07:55 now and I have had nearly an hour of clean, click free radio sound.

W7 operationals..Yes Bobbs! Bit of a PITA. I find it hard to find things. W7 is relentlessly alphabetical but I find "last in" is much more useful much of the time and W7 does not seem to do that?

Dave.

 

[Bobbsy]

Frankly, Dave, I think you've just lost all credibility by being up and using Cubase at 0650. No self respecting home recordist should be awake and functional before noon. The only exception I can think of is if you were just getting home from a good party or lock in at the pub!

I've not found a way to change the W7 structure other than the "get used to it" remedy.

 

[ecc83]

Frankly, Dave, I think you've just lost all credibility by being up and using Cubase at 0650. No self respecting home recordist should be awake and functional before noon. The only exception I can think of is if you were just getting home from a good party or lock in at the pub!

I've not found a way to change the W7 structure other than the "get used to it" remedy.

Heh! My carousing days are WELL over! My early start is dictated by factors beyond my control (Google "Tamulosin" !)

Yes, I really do have to get used to W7. While I could use XP for everything I guess I didn't really try.

BTW PC,KA6, R3 still clean. I started DPC latency checker at 08:54 and at 09:41 it shows a max figure of just 0.655mSecs.

Dave.

 

[DM60]

If I have any quibbles about Win 7 it's purely down to the control panel menus and options which sometimes try to get a bit TOO "user friendly" to the point of getting between me and what I want to do--but I grew up pre-DOS so have an inbuilt distrust of computers that do things for me automatically.

That is my only gripe, but I started in the DOS days (probably a mis-type as DOS="disk operating system" so it couldn't be pre-DOS ). But understood your point.

I just wish it would be easier to get behind the covers and just let me do what I need. But it is also probably protecting me from myself. When I could get to things easier I was spending time fixing my screw ups.

 

[ecc83]

That is my only gripe, but I started in the DOS days (probably a mis-type as DOS="disk operating system" so it couldn't be pre-DOS ). But understood your point.

I just wish it would be easier to get behind the covers and just let me do what I need. But it is also probably protecting me from myself. When I could get to things easier I was spending time fixing my screw ups.

EHECTUALLY!!! If you have W7ultimate you can (I am told) make it run exactly like XP. In fact in a computer mag I bought a year or so ago you can do this with the Premium version but you need an XP disc.

Mind you, I have three books about W7 (kids, crimble 2 yrs ago) and I bet if I were to really study them I could get the OS to do pretty much what I want but like many old farts I just swear at it and 'itit!

Dave.

 

[Bobbsy]

That is my only gripe, but I started in the DOS days (probably a mis-type as DOS="disk operating system" so it couldn't be pre-DOS ). But understood your point.

I just wish it would be easier to get behind the covers and just let me do what I need. But it is also probably protecting me from myself. When I could get to things easier I was spending time fixing my screw ups.

Nope. I really AM that old. My first computer didn't have a disk and I used a cassette recorder to Save and Load files. FYI, it was a BBC MODEL B MICRO, made by Acorn and purchased by me in 1982. I had a few commercial programmes (mainly games) but spent most of my time attempting my own programming, usually in BBC Basic but, once or twice, machine code. The pinnacle of my programming was a utility for the place I worked the let us remote control the routing switcher at ITN, allowing us to select what we were feeding down the land lines from there at any given time. (It sounds more complicated that it was--the Utah Scientific switcher at ITN was already set up for remote control so all I had to do was fire off the right control commands and design a simple interface screen.)

Over the years I added a modem so I could access bulletin boards (this was pre internet) and, eventually, a 5 1/4 inch floppy disk drive. Oooh, the luxury!

A few years later we got some MS-DOS desk tops at work so I had to learn a bit about that--my first venture into Windows was with 3.1 in (I think) 1991. I finally traded in my beloved BBC B in, I think, 1993 or 94 when Pentium processors came out and never looked back (other than a flirtation with a Mac around the same time as my Pentium--my wife was doing a degree course and her uni was all Mac at that stage. I loved the Mac at first but then found it a bit limiting since--at least then--I couldn't run the same software as I had at my work, nor could I run Cool Edit 96 which was my first DAW.

Sorry for the trip down memory lane! I also walked 20 miles barefoot through the snow to get to school...

 

[DM60]

Sorry for the trip down memory lane! I also walked 20 miles barefoot through the snow to get to school...

Up hill both ways

But, yes, I now know what you're saying. I was thinking home computers, which might have been in your home, but was very rare.

 

[BroKen_H]

Bobsy: my first computer wasn't even actually mine. We would sit for hours in science class in 1974-5 when I was in the 6th grade and write out sheets of code, then travel 90 miles to the nearest computer, type out one line at a time onto keypunch cards, and then feed them into the computer to get a printout of our programs output. No mouse, no keyboard, no monitor. Card reader to computer to printer. I had a T100 for a while (great computer, BTW). Then went through the VIC20 to C=64 to Amiga route before finally falling into the PC realm.
I agree. I liked the days when you could look and compare file sizes and dates and SEE that your files were authentic. Now everything is hidden, and half the program is in your "Registry". I guess if I had gone into C and Pascal from Fortran and Cobol I might get along with Java and the new programming languages better and be just as snug and comfy with Windows as Black Viper...but for now, I trust his work, so who's arguing?

 

[Bobbsy]

Bobsy: my first computer wasn't even actually mine. We would sit for hours in science class in 1974-5 when I was in the 6th grade and write out sheets of code, then travel 90 miles to the nearest computer, type out one line at a time onto keypunch cards, and then feed them into the computer to get a printout of our programs output.

Almost a ditto here. I finished high school in 1970 and, for my last two years, I was in the Computer Club. Our Principal managed to negotiate with the university about 20 miles from us that we could each try out 2 programmes a year and, like you, it was type them line by line onto punched cards then wait a day or two until the print out came back. I recall it was an IBM 360/50 about the size of a basketball court and the programming language was PL-1.

Even then I became a fan of computers--one of my programmes was a certain formula from our physics text book. I got the computer to solve all the problems at the back of the book I knew we'd be getting as homework soon...something about gravitational attraction if I recall correctly!