Serious Questions (Computer & Studio)

[tzaxo]

I have a few questions I need answered to finish my Studio list that I'm going to be building.

1. What is the best program to monitor ALL of the components of a computer, for temperature? Is Everest a good choice?

2. I was planning on getting 4-5 SSD drives so I would have a lot of speed, I was going to use them on RAID 0. I heard that there is a limit on speed unless I get a RAID controller or something like that. Is this true?

3. Is Windows XP Professional going to lose support anytime soon within the next 5 years or more?

4. Which would be more powerful/better, this or this?

5. I heard some programs don't work, or aren't made to work with Windows 7 64-bit, but will for the 32-bit version. Is this true?

6. This motherboard is listed as "Overclockers Pick", what does this mean, is it already overclocked, or made to be overclocked?

7. I'm going to be building a studio like I said, it will mainly be for composing music and some 3D modeling and animation. Is there really that much of a difference between the 1333 and the 1600 ram speeds? Would I even notice the difference?

8. I'm trying to decide between this and this. I'm not to great with speakers, which one is better? I'm leaning toward the Behinger speakers. Should I go with them?

9. I'm planning on getting 8 speakers and putting them throughout the room (Studio), won't I need a Receiver for them? If so, any recommendations?

10. Has anyone tried any of the fan controllers like this and this. Are they any good? I don't hear great things about them but I'd love to have one if they actually work correctly. Are they any good?

11. I'm in need of some new guitars since I'm going all out on this studio. I need a electric guitar and a electric acoustic guitar. I was going to get this, but then I did some research on it and I hear some bad things about it. Like it loses tuning a lot. But I want the electric guitar to be either a Ibanez (RG) or Gibson (SG), doesn't have to be those though. The price limit is $700USD and I want it to have 24 frets. It will be used for distortion songs. This guys isn't too bad.

The electric acoustic guitar, I have no clue who has good ones. I've never looked into them yet. But I know I defiantly want one. I need one that is about half as wide as a normal one since I'm small person, it digs into my chest when I try and play one. So I need recommendations for one. It has to be an electric acoustic so I can get the acoustic sound and record with my mixer. I'd say the limit is $700USD.

12. Does anyone have any feedback for this or this.

13. What is this that thing that Mike Shinoda is using for the main theme?

14. Does anyone here use Pro Tools, I'm moving on to that in a few months with this studio. From what I know so far it does record MIDI and audio and it's just really good and works great with East West, which I defiantly need.

15. What is better, a headset that is USB or Jack?

If anyone wants to help me build my computer or studio list PM me, I can use all the help I can get. I put a lot into this thread and research, so lets hope I get some replies.

Thanks!

 

[dastrick]

Man............that's a lot of questions.





And welcome to the boards.

 

[M1Fanatic]

Windows XP will be supported until 2014.

 

[Seidy]

1. maybe hardware is better
5. yes
6. i think it's because this motherboard can be easyli overclocked
8. i have pair of Behris and they sound pretty decent, however maybe guy's over here prefer KRK Rokit5 as low budget monitors.
9. if you have active speakers and interface with 8 outputs then you should be fine. (why so many speakers? surround?)
13. Akai MPD 16 maybe?
15. jack

 

[tzaxo]

9. if you have active speakers and interface with 8 outputs then you should be fine. (why so many speakers? surround?)

Yep. I'm building a studio/loft. The bottom part is the studio of course. But I'm putting speakers everywhere.

I believe my motherboard only has 6, not 8. I guess I can look into a receiver. This is going to cost so much. I will post all my Studio specs when I'm done.

If anyone has these questions also, I'm getting a much better reply here, no offense.

 

[mattr]

1. What is the best program to monitor ALL of the components of a computer, for temperature? Is Everest a good choice?

If you configure your rig properly and well, there should be no need for anal monitoring of every minor detail... if you're having to constantly worry about temperatures then you're doing something wrong! You might need to do a bit of checking when you're first setting everything up (most motherboards come with basic software to do this, i.e. ASUS Probe), but from then on it should be set-and-forget. For a DAW you want stability, so don't go building a system that is always hanging on a knife-edge and requires you to pour liquid nitrogen into a little foil cup on the processor every 5 minutes

My computer is overclocked and has been since I built it, but the only way you could tell that it was overclocked is if you returned it back to the stock clock speed and noticed the performance drop. There's no flashy lights or overt in-your-face bragging flashing whirry water-cooling things... it just works, as it should do.

2. I was planning on getting 4-5 SSD drives so I would have a lot of speed, I was going to use them on RAID 0. I heard that there is a limit on speed unless I get a RAID controller or something like that. Is this true?

What is this, a gaming rig or a DAW?

A single SSD boot and program drive might be an idea (I like mine anyway) if you want improved boot and load speeds, but once you're inside your DAW then this is not going to give you much benefit at all.

And yes, you will run into limitations with your motherboard's onboard storage controllers, so a good PCIe RAID card would probably be needed to get the best performance out of 4 SSDs. The question is, why?

You'd be better off spending the money on decent, large hard drives for storing your audio. Please don't tell me you intend to record to SSDs, because that would just be a complete waste.

3. Is Windows XP Professional going to lose support anytime soon within the next 5 years or more?

Well, support from Microsoft has already more or less been dropped albeit the occasional patch and update, after all it is now two generations old. Its usage is so widespread that compatible programs will continue to be made for it for years though.

4. Which would be more powerful/better, this or this?

The i7 obviously. Why do you even need to ask this?

5. I heard some programs don't work, or aren't made to work with Windows 7 64-bit, but will for the 32-bit version. Is this true?

Yup.

6. This motherboard is listed as "Overclockers Pick", what does this mean, is it already overclocked, or made to be overclocked?

There's no such thing as a 'pre-overclocked' motherboard. Some components (and combinations of) are known to overclock well... certain motherboards, CPU versions/steppings, etc, have been found to be best for squeezing the most performance out of your components. An "overclockers pick" motherboard is probably one that people have found to be an easy and stable motherboard to overclock with.

7. I'm going to be building a studio like I said, it will mainly be for composing music and some 3D modeling and animation. Is there really that much of a difference between the 1333 and the 1600 ram speeds? Would I even notice the difference?

I think this has already been answered for you on the Steam forums, but to expand on what was said... I haven't kept up to optimal config for the new i7 setups, but previously you ideally wanted to run your RAM synchronously (i.e. 1:1) with the FSB so that a memory divider wasn't needed. Keep this in mind when selecting for your rig, but remember that DDR clock figures are doubled (for the double data-rate) and some FSB speeds are quoted as the 'quad-pumped' figures rather than the true clock speed.

8. I'm trying to decide between this and this. I'm not to great with speakers, which one is better? I'm leaning toward the Behinger speakers. Should I go with them?

God, certainly not those Edirol ones... they had loads of those as computer speakers for PCs at my previous school, and they were rubbish

If it absolutely had to be one of the two then go with the Behringers, but to be honest if you're happy spending this much on a computer rig then you should be looking to spend a lot more on monitors. If you are running out of budget at this point, cut some of the unnecessary crap from the computer configuration and put it towards studio gear that actually matters!

9. I'm planning on getting 8 speakers and putting them throughout the room (Studio), won't I need a Receiver for them? If so, any recommendations?

I assume you'll be getting a decent multi-channel interface or soundcard for this studio anyway, so active monitors will plug straight into that.

Why 8 though? You planning on doing 7.1 mixing?

A decent and accurate stereo monitoring setup is a lot easier to set up properly. Unless you have commitments to surround mixing for film scores, etc, then I would put the money towards a better 2 channel setup.

10. Has anyone tried any of the fan controllers like this and this. Are they any good? I don't hear great things about them but I'd love to have one if they actually work correctly. Are they any good?

See my answer for #1.

Why do you need some ghastly, cheap low-quality light-up thing filling up a load of your drive bays? Are you planning on doing studio work, or planning at looking at the front of your computer all day? The fan-controllers on the motherboard are usually more than adequate for most purposes... most will monitor temperatures and automatically control fan speed accordingly, without the need for all this extra crap.

11. I'm in need of some new guitars since I'm going all out on this studio. I need a electric guitar and a electric acoustic guitar. I was going to get this, but then I did some research on it and I hear some bad things about it. Like it loses tuning a lot. But I want the electric guitar to be either a Ibanez (RG) or Gibson (SG), doesn't have to be those though. The price limit is $700USD and I want it to have 24 frets. It will be used for distortion songs. This guys isn't too bad.

No good at guitars. Wait for someone else...

The electric acoustic guitar, I have no clue who has good ones. I've never looked into them yet. But I know I defiantly want one. I need one that is about half as wide as a normal one since I'm small person, it digs into my chest when I try and play one. So I need recommendations for one. It has to be an electric acoustic so I can get the acoustic sound and record with my mixer. I'd say the limit is $700USD.

As above.

12. Does anyone have any feedback for this or this.
Rode NT1a is a good buy on a tight budget, though again it might be better to spend a bit more if you have the money available.

As for the interface, I'd suggest getting an 8x8 one at the very least (otherwise where are you going to plug your 8 speakers into? ) for the best flexibility. If you get one with optical ADAT i/o then you can always expand your channel count later on. Take a look at some of the Motu or Presonus offerings.

13. What is this that thing that Mike Shinoda is using for the main theme?

No idea, but on a side-note some of their singing was bloody awful in that video. Remember them being a lot more in key the time I saw them.

14. Does anyone here use Pro Tools, I'm moving on to that in a few months with this studio. From what I know so far it does record MIDI and audio and it's just really good and works great with East West, which I defiantly need.

Lots of people use Pro Tools. Lots of people use other DAWs.

Pretty much any DAW will do everything you want it to do, its just all down to personal preferences about the user-interface and certain aspects of workflow.

Personally I don't think Pro Tools is worth it unless you can do a full-blown HD rig... I've played with PT LE and M-powered and they just don't seem worth it.

15. What is better, a headset that is USB or Jack?

Headset? USB? Huh?

Headphones... well, whilst you won't want to be using them for mixing, a decent pair with a 1/4" TRS jack to plug into your interface or headphone amp would be a good place to start.



From you're questions I get the feeling that the studio side of this computer build is not so high up on your list of priorities. I think you need to do a bit more research into this (signal chain, i.e. interfaces, soundcards, mics, monitors, etc etc etc) and work out the route you're going to take for that side of the setup, then come back to the computer build itself once you have all that sorted out in your head. Reading in that thread on the Steam forums simply supports my concerns - you seem a bit confused about the interfaces, especially the bit about getting both the Eleven rack and the interface/mixer. Please please please post up you're current plans for all the studio gear so we can help you out with this as well...

 

[kcearl]

damn thats exactly what i was going to say...

 

[tzaxo]

If you configure your rig properly and well, there should be no need for anal monitoring of every minor detail... if you're having to constantly worry about temperatures then you're doing something wrong! You might need to do a bit of checking when you're first setting everything up (most motherboards come with basic software to do this, i.e. ASUS Probe), but from then on it should be set-and-forget. For a DAW you want stability, so don't go building a system that is always hanging on a knife-edge and requires you to pour liquid nitrogen into a little foil cup on the processor every 5 minutes

My computer is overclocked and has been since I built it, but the only way you could tell that it was overclocked is if you returned it back to the stock clock speed and noticed the performance drop. There's no flashy lights or overt in-your-face bragging flashing whirry water-cooling things... it just works, as it should do.

As you can see with my Case I will have 4 120mm, and a 230mm fans. So I know the temperature will be low. But when your going to spend as much as I am, I don't want to take any chances at all honestly. I wouldn't mind turning a program on 1-2 times a day to check out the temperatures. Just better safe then sorry.

What is this, a gaming rig or a DAW?

A single SSD boot and program drive might be an idea (I like mine anyway) if you want improved boot and load speeds, but once you're inside your DAW then this is not going to give you much benefit at all.

And yes, you will run into limitations with your motherboard's onboard storage controllers, so a good PCIe RAID card would probably be needed to get the best performance out of 4 SSDs. The question is, why?

You'd be better off spending the money on decent, large hard drives for storing your audio. Please don't tell me you intend to record to SSDs, because that would just be a complete waste.

I plan on using this PC for Music Composing and normal random things. No gaming. Well, I wanted good performance since I've been using the same computer since I was 12, it so horrible. I'm sick of waiting for everything and being limited on everything. I wanted to combined all 4 SSD's on RAID 0 so then it would boost up my read and write speeds.

I wanted to do this, but not, so much.

What do you mean by intending to record?
Like use Pro Tools and save/render my audio data on them?

Well, support from Microsoft has already more or less been dropped albeit the occasional patch and update, after all it is now two generations old. Its usage is so widespread that compatible programs will continue to be made for it for years though.

I believe I will keep using XP for a lot longer before I switch to a new Windows. Just with my tweaks and themes and getting it down to 15-17 running processes, its fast.

The i7 obviously. Why do you even need to ask this?

I misread the title when I made this question.

God, certainly not those Edirol ones... they had loads of those as computer speakers for PCs at my previous school, and they were rubbish

If it absolutely had to be one of the two then go with the Behringers, but to be honest if you're happy spending this much on a computer rig then you should be looking to spend a lot more on monitors. If you are running out of budget at this point, cut some of the unnecessary crap from the computer configuration and put it towards studio gear that actually matters!

What would you recommend?

I assume you'll be getting a decent multi-channel interface or soundcard for this studio anyway, so active monitors will plug straight into that.

Why 8 though? You planning on doing 7.1 mixing?

A decent and accurate stereo monitoring setup is a lot easier to set up properly. Unless you have commitments to surround mixing for film scores, etc, then I would put the money towards a better 2 channel setup.

I was going to be getting a M-Audio sound card, but I have no clue which one yet.

See my answer for #1.

Why do you need some ghastly, cheap low-quality light-up thing filling up a load of your drive bays? Are you planning on doing studio work, or planning at looking at the front of your computer all day? The fan-controllers on the motherboard are usually more than adequate for most purposes... most will monitor temperatures and automatically control fan speed accordingly, without the need for all this extra crap.

I have nothing else to put in the bays anyways.

From you're questions I get the feeling that the studio side of this computer build is not so high up on your list of priorities. I think you need to do a bit more research into this (signal chain, i.e. interfaces, soundcards, mics, monitors, etc etc etc) and work out the route you're going to take for that side of the setup, then come back to the computer build itself once you have all that sorted out in your head. Reading in that thread on the Steam forums simply supports my concerns - you seem a bit confused about the interfaces, especially the bit about getting both the Eleven rack and the interface/mixer. Please please please post up you're current plans for all the studio gear so we can help you out with this as well...

Well, I'm trying but I don't have much help. I'm just trying to find out if the mixer has amp models I guess their called?

If you have AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and if you'd like to help me finish this stuff then PM me your details. It's just much faster that way.

 

[mattr]

As you can see with my Case I will have 4 120mm, and a 230mm fans. So I know the temperature will be low. But when your going to spend as much as I am, I don't want to take any chances at all honestly. I wouldn't mind turning a program on 1-2 times a day to check out the temperatures. Just better safe then sorry.

I would argue that if you're spending a large amount of money on a computer, you shouldn't need to be checking it twice a day.

Check the temperatures when you first set it up, but after that you can sit back and relax. Most motherboards can be set up to automatically shut down if the temperatures rise above a set threshold, but with good airflow and decent fans it should never come to this.

I spent a large amount on my computer about 3 years ago and as I said its been overclocked since I day I built it, but it sits silently under the desk in a modest plain case and I never have to worry about it... exactly as it should be! When I do my i7 build in a few months I hope to achieve exactly the same kind of system.

I plan on using this PC for Music Composing and normal random things. No gaming. Well, I wanted good performance since I've been using the same computer since I was 12, it so horrible. I'm sick of waiting for everything and being limited on everything. I wanted to combined all 4 SSD's on RAID 0 so then it would boost up my read and write speeds.

With one SSD (a Samsung rated at 220MB/s read, 120MB/s write, and I get close to that from it) I get really impressive boot times and almost instantaneous program loads. Setting your heart on four SSDs seems like an insane overkill when you haven't even tried one. Heck, if you're running a fairly old computer at the moment then even a standard 7200rpm drive would probably blow your socks off compared to your current system.

What do you mean by intending to record?
Like use Pro Tools and save/render my audio data on them?

I was worried you were planning on using them as audio drives as well, which would have been a complete waste. If you're doing any decent amount of multitrack recording then you ideally want seperate system and audio drives.

What would you recommend?

In very approximate ascending order of price, check out offerings from... M-Audio, KRK, Mackie, Dynaudio and Adam. In particular thinking the M-audio BX5 and BX8 (and I believe they have some newer ones out now), the KRK Rokits, the Mackie MR and HR series, Adam A7s and Dynaudio BM5a. There are many others that I haven't mentioned, but those are the kind of 'prosumer' to 'mid-pro' range of nearfields that most home recordists go for. Obviously you could go a lot more expensive, but without a decent room to put them in then they wouldn't be worth it.

I was going to be getting a M-Audio sound card, but I have no clue which one yet.

What happened to the Eleven Rack? Or the Mackie interface? Which one? You don't need all three!

I have nothing else to put in the bays anyways.

Don't put anything in them then No point having stuff for the sake of it.

Well, I'm trying but I don't have much help. I'm just trying to find out if the mixer has amp models I guess their called?

The mixer itself won't have any kind of amp simulation processing built into it... apart from dedicated hardware units (and the Eleven rack, which IIRC offliads the processing on internal DSP), amp modelling is a software thing that happens on the computer independantly of your hardware.

You need to make sure that your audio setup can happily handle low-latency operation otherwise you'll find playing through the effects a bloody nightmare. The input signal has to go through AD conversion, into the software and be processed by the amp sim, then back out through a DA converter... with anything but the smallest of buffers, this will introduce a nasty and very noticeable round-trip latency (delay) that will throw you off when playing. All the more reason to make sure you chose a decent soundard or interface.

As for the actual software, take a look at Guitar Rig, Amplitude, Overloud and Revalver, just to name a few. Obviously there's also the Eleven plugin for Pro Tools, and a few other proprietary ones like the amp sim in Logic. Many people also like to use the amp sims to model the amplifier section, then impulses of real cab/mic combos to simulate the cab.

Check out this website for more details...

http://www.guitarampmodeling.com/


That aside, most people resort to the tried-and-tested method of mic'ing a real cab. If you've got decent amps at your disposal, its the best way to get a good tone.

 

[Re-tox_stl]

For speakers.... KRK RP8G2 Rokit G2. There about $500 a pair and amazing in all aspects

 

[tzaxo]

Anyway we could talk on a messenger or a chat room, mattr?

PM me your details please.

 

[tzaxo]

Can we Matt? If so, post your messenger details please.

 

[axeman_ukl]

after reading through this post what is your available to spend budget a home studio build is normally a slow prossess of buying gear learning to use the new item and then buying the next (its a steep learning curve)

what kind of music are you going to record and what are you trying to achive ?

do you have any instruments you could use to put more money back into the studio build ?

you are going for a powerfull machine do you need all that power alot of people on this board are using machines with a lot less power.

pro tools not a lover of this limits your hard ware choices ,m-audio maybe not the best choice last i heard they were having problems with win 7 drivers they may have sorted this now (dont want you to buy a sound card now with xp machine to find you cannot upgrade to win 7 later)

 

[tzaxo]

Mainly, I'm trying to get the best of everything I need. Since I won't be updating after this. I've been using the same computer for 10 years. It's so badly outdated. But I just want to buy this stuff and go all out therefor I won't have to upgrade for a long time, unless something breaks.

My limits are 5 thousand for the PC, then 5 thousand for the studio hardware.

I will be making music for shows/movies, that are mainly instrumental. Then maybe some normal and soft singing songs.

I'm going to buy 2 guitars, electric and a electric acoustic, also I'm going to get a keyboard. I'm looking at a m-audio sound card now. I would make sure it is upgradable to windows 7, as I will be using XP Pro most likely.

I rather talk on a messenger like I keep telling everyone, its just much faster and more easy to hold a solid conversation. So give me your messenger details if you have any. PMing won't work. Have to post them here or add my MSN. I'd like to show you my updated list and such also.

Broth3rz@Hotmail.com

Thanks.

 

[axeman_ukl]

sent you an invite on msm if you want to chat

 

[chugheshc]

Hey Tzaxo -
slow down man.
You're talking about spending 10K and you really don't seem to have a lot of knowledge about what to spend it on.
1) Your computer plans - (don't take this the wrong way) are kind of ridiculous.
Buy something reasonably fast/modern (Intel Core I7), and run Windows 7, with a reasonable amount of RAM (4-6GB), and a reasonable graphics card (256-512mb ram), in a non-overclocked onfiguration.
You might want a nice RAID array to keep downtime to a minimum. If you are assembling this yourself, you should be able to come in under $2100.
Trying to run XP (which is older, kludgey, and support will eventually expire sooner than later) is silly at this stage of its life - and you don't seem to be tied to anything that would force you to use it, so why not take advantage of the improvements since it was introduced almost a decade ago?
You don't own any musical instruments? sheesh guy, go to some stores and play some guitars, find the ones you like and buy them. If you can't trust your ears and fingers then maybe music is not a hobby you should endeavor to succeed in.

Are you intent on recording only yourself, or a 5 piece rock band or a 16 piece jazz band?
Do you have a space available? Is it properly acoustically treated?

imho, your budget should look like this - (not knowing what you actually want to record)

$1500 - computer w/qty (2) lcd monitors
$399 - Sonar Producer as your DAW
$1000 - microphones - start with sm57, sm58, and some AT models,
$1000 - $2000 - A/D - Presonus, or Motu will fit in this budget level, you could get something nicer if you only need a couple of channels.
$400 - $1000 - Studio monitor system (either actives, or an amp and two passives)
$100 - $500 - headphones
$1000 - $3000 - used console for preamps and headphone mixes
$400 - headphone amp if you have to do multiple headphone mixes
$1500 - cables/mic stands/misc
$400 - $2000 - acoustic treatment for your space

 

[tzaxo]

I have a guitar and 2 keyboards at the moment. The Yamaha YPG 635 is what I use now for 2 years. I know more then I'm leading on. The only thing I'm really confused on is the mixer. I'm just trying to see what people think on things.

Music is where I am going to go in my life. Of course I have space, 20ft by 20ft.

The reason I'm going all out is because after this I won't be upgrading, unless something breaks. I've been using the same PC for 10 years and the PSU is the only thing that has died, so I'm sure I won't be upgrading much. And again, I won't be buying a new PC unless I go pro.

I make all kinds of music, so I do know what I'm doing. Like I said, I know more then I'm leading on.
My music is mainly instrumental and maybe some normal/soft singing. Only I will be using this studio.

Here is my latest song I've made. It's quite simple and I'm just having a hard time because I cant use the tools I want to use. Pro Tools and East West. So I have a hard time finding a good piano and string sound. The ending is best. Read the video description.

Blah.

I have better. Just look for anything that is titled demo or beta.
I have a lot not on youtube.

 

[dastrick]

Dude, that's a lot of tags for that video.

 

[tzaxo]

Just trying to get some feedback for it.

 

[miroslav]

It made me feel lost, sad and confused....