What kind of gear does everyone have??

[mcolling]

I'd like to buy a new computer in order that i can record multiple tracks at a time to cubase. how fast are everyones' PCs? what sound cards do you used?

[Bass Master "K"]

The number of tracks you can simultaniously record has more to do with your soundcard than your computer, whereas the total number of tracks you can playback has more to do with your computer.

I have a 2 ghz P4 w/1 gig of RAM
Soundcard is an Aardvark Q10 which records 10 inputs, 8 analog, 2 digital.
I have 4 ms latency.

The last tune I did ran around 35 audio tracks with some effects and EQ's and my system was running about 50% CPU usage.

Certain VSTi's that are CPU hogs make it so I have to do workarounds by exporting them and reinporting them as audio tracks to save CPU usage. I am thinking about upgrading the computer in the next 6 months, but this should give you an idea of what you can expect.

[crankz1]

3gHz Prescott (800mHz FSB & 1 meg cache) P4 on a Abit IC7-G board (Intel 875P chipset) with 1gig dual channel DDR400 RAM
2 120gig Samsung ATA133 7200 RPM drives and a Sony CD burner.
ATI Radeon 9600 Pro w/256megs VRAM

MOTU 828mkII
20 IN-
10 analog (2 of which are preamped)
8 ADAT
2 SPDIF

22 OUT-
12 analog
8 ADAT
2 SPDIF

All of the I/O can be utilized simultaneously with the use of the ASIO drivers.

Largest project to date is 26 tracks with moderate amount of effects. No MIDI or virtual instruments ... all the real deal. Demo work for local bands.
Have yet to go over 30% CPU usage.

[xstatic]

Athlon xp3000+ 64 bit processor, MSI K8T motherboard, 512 megs RAM
ATI dual head 256 meg video card
RME Hammerfall 96/52 (26 simulataneous ins and outs)
120 gig program drive, 120 removable backup drive, 2 160 gig drives in mirrored raid array
Pioneer DVD +-RW, Teac CD-RW, Mackie UAD-1

I constantly run mixdowns at 24 bit 44.1 khz with probably 32 mono audio tracks, 4 busses, 6 aux sends, and 3 or 4 vsti's with EQ's enabled on most, and likely about 30 channel strips and/or comps (on average about 6-10 of those comps would be from a UAD card). Typically on my aux sends I will run 2 waves IR high quality sampled reverbs in FULL mode (definately a CPU hog there), 1 UAD Dreamverb, a waves multitap delay, and sometimes either some other modulation type effect or vocal doubler etc...

On average, a mix like that will run about 50 -60% in Nuendo's performance meter. i should also note that antivirus programs, video card programs, and other backround apps ARE running in the backround as well as a Real Time Analyzer in my second monitor. Video Card is at high resolution as well.

My point is that the new Athlon 64 bit processors absolutely ROCK!

[LemonTree]

3Ghz P4
ASus P4P800 -E Deluxe
1Gig Dual Chanel DDR 400
40 Gig Maxtor ATA133/7200 system drive
160 Gig Maxtor ATA133/7200 recording drive
Matrox G450 Dual head Graphics
NEC x8/x32 DVD/CDRW combo >>

Delta 1010 pci
Delta 410 pci
Delta 410 pci >>

12in/24out >>

Allen & Heath Saber 24/16/16/2

I record to cubase SX at 24/48 with zero latency. I try to keep my mixes to under 24 tracks but more often than not find myself submixing within cubase and sending that buss back to the desk as a stereo pair.

Most of my gear is outboard so I don't use many plugins. Never hit over 35% with CPU usage. It's a good hand picked and handbuilt system for my needs.

Think about what you want your computer to be able to do and read these boards

[mcolling]

that's beauty, thanks for those replies so far.

here's where i'm at: i saw a 1.2 ghz athlon up at school for $150 (canadian)- but based on what y'all have, it doesn't sound like that would be fast enough. i guess i'll save up my pennies and buy a new p4, then drop some MORE coin on a nice soundcard (but i would have had to do that anyway).

just out of curiousity, do many people here record several tracks at the same time? see, i would like to record the whole band at once- so, like 10 or so tracks going at once. does anyone here do that using cubase? one guy said he uses all real instruments, so i guess he probably does.

[xstatic]

I haven't tried more than 24 tracks simulataneously recording, but even that was on a 1.5 ghz Athlon machine. You will be surprised at what you can get from a 1.2 ghz athlon with 1 gig of RAM and 2 decent harddrives.

[mcolling]

hmmm. you could record 24 tracks simultaneously with a 1.5 ghz athlon? are we talking, like 15 mics set up recording at once or a bunch of midi stuff? not much latency? if not, i guess the 1.2 ghz would be okay for my purposes.

somebody mentioned that the sound card is more important in determining this sort of thing. is this so?

one other thing (maybe this should be a different thread, tho- we'll see). when i have recorded with cubase it has roughly a half second of latency. when i go to play back, the freshly recorded track lags by a half second. in the past i have corrected this by editing the track to make it fit on a trial and error basis, which is really annoying. is there a better way?

[xstatic]

Get a soundcard with good ASIO drivers. That will take care of tracks not lining up. As far as latency goes, I don't know because I have a large inline studio console so everything is monitored for real. The 24 track dumps were from ADAT machines so were actually 16 bit 48k files, but I have, with no problems recorded 18 tracks simulataneously at 24 bit 44.1Khz on my old 1.5 ghz athlon. Really track count will first be dependant on the amount of I/O your soundcard offers, and then by the sustained throughput of your audio storage device (bus speed as well). Tracking in and of itself is not very CPU intensive at all. Its all the EQ's, comps, automates, busses, FX etc... that we put on them during mixdown that will eat your CPU for lunch. Not to mention any poor windows installs, backround programs etc...

[bigwillz24]

Swiftech Water-cooled to keep it quiet
Athlon XP 3200+ on DFI NforceII mainboard
250 Gig Western Digitial at 7200 rpm
1gig DDR Kingston Hyper X Ram
Nvidia 5200 graphics card (broke the 5900
no soundcard in there I use the Tascam US-428 for that
Cubase SX

Korg Triton LE
Mpc 1000
E-mu Mo`phatt

Runs fast and quiet got tired of hearing those fans in my old system
I do rap music and i've never had a need to record more than one track at a time though. Anyway I use Alot of plugins and the setup hasn't failed me yet.

[Bass Jas]

Athlon XP3200+ (64 bit does really rock!)
Asus K8V Deluxe
1 gig ram
No soundcard, I use the S/PDIF out of the mobo then go to my DAT and then to my Mackie 32x8 2-TK input.
I track to an ALesis HD24XR, and dump the songs into Cubase SX.
I mix with 24 tracks, 4 buses, 3 effects channels and tons of compression, eq and automation, the Athlon jumped out of the case and yelled "is that all you got, punk?" It is a very powerful CPU, and you gotta think alot of new software will support 64 bit and use more of it's potential.