Some Newbie Questions

[5xfaster]

Hey everyone,

I've been lurking around the forums as a guest for a few months, and now that I'm almost ready to put this plan in motion, I guess I felt it was time to go ahead and register to start asking questions.

I've been a drummer for 7 years now, playing a wide variety of genres, mainly focusing on some not-so-popular ones that I've grown up with (but that's a whole other thread). I have just recently quit performing with the band that I had been with for a while now, and have gotten the recording bug. I performed on our first CD 2 winters ago, and have been hooked on the intricacies of home studio recording. Our album was done in our bandleader's basement (who has done 9 or 10 solid recordings), and the result was a really nice sounding recording. I know he had sunk alot of money into the studio, and eventually, I would absolutely love to put together something of that magnitude. Anyway, that's my quick background, here are the questions.

I've been looking into a new laptop as of late (for school and whatnot), and I've all but decided on one of the new Macbook Pro's. Here will be the specs on the laptop:

13-inch Macbook Pro: 2.4GHz
Intel Core 2 Duo
8GB Memory (upgraded from 4GB)
320GB hard drive (upgraded from 250GB)
It'll also have one Firewire 800 port on it (which I understand is the way to go as far as audio interface hookups go, correct?)

My first question is...do you think this setup will be efficient enough for me to start recording anywhere from 4-8 tracks simultaneously (ex. my full drumkit)? I'm pretty sure I've read around some places that the standard setup (the 4GB memory and 250GB hard drive) are more than satisfactory, but I just want to make sure. My main concern is that the laptop will be able to handle both taking care of daily activities (school, etc.) as well as recording duties.

My second question is...I have read that you always want to record everything to an external hard drive. I have a portable 320GB hard drive (pretty sure it's a Western Digital) that I just bought for my current laptop, and I'm wondering if that's going to work, or if I'm going to have to go out and invest in something else to record my music and stuff to?

My third question is...what are the reviews on the Mac version of Reaper? I definitely like everything I've read about the PC version so far (which is good, because when I eventually invest on a desktop studio instead of the laptop, I'll probably end up going out and buying a PC strictly for recording purposes), but I know the Mac version is a little behind, development wise. I'm not entirely sure that I want to invest on Logic Express or anything else without at least trying the Mac version of Reaper, so do you think it's worth it?

My fourth and final (for the time being, at least) question is...as far as Firewire-based audio interfaces, what should I be looking at if I want to record anywhere from 4-8 tracks simultaneously? I have been looking on Musician's Friend and Sweetwater, but haven't found anything specific that has caught my interest that has 8 channels like I would like. So really, my question is if there's anything that I should be looking at that's going to take care of what I'd like.

Well, if you've made it this far, thanks for reading, and I hope to hear some good feedback on the stuff I've asked. Thanks guys!

-Mike

 

[mattr]

My first question is...do you think this setup will be efficient enough for me to start recording anywhere from 4-8 tracks simultaneously (ex. my full drumkit)?

Don't worry, 8 tracks is nothing. A decade-old computer can easily manage 8 tracks @ 44.1k/24-bit if its configured ok. A brand new Macbook Pro isn't even gonna notice that kind of load regardless of which spec you go for, though if the budget allows for it then obviously the higher spec would be more desirable.

My second question is...I have read that you always want to record everything to an external hard drive. I have a portable 320GB hard drive (pretty sure it's a Western Digital) that I just bought for my current laptop, and I'm wondering if that's going to work, or if I'm going to have to go out and invest in something else to record my music and stuff to?

Not necessarily an external hard drive - a separate hard drive is the key, but in a laptop that always nearly means external so whatever; I don't know why I even picked up on that. If its a USB hard drive I would forget about it as you'll make yourself way more problems than you solve. Firewire would be preferable, and even better eSATA. To be honest it wouldn't even be worth it if you're only going to be recording a dozen or so tracks; in the past I've done 16-track recording (and over 30 track playback) with an old 5400rpm internal laptop drive with no issues at all.

My third question is...what are the reviews on the Mac version of Reaper? I definitely like everything I've read about the PC version so far (which is good, because when I eventually invest on a desktop studio instead of the laptop, I'll probably end up going out and buying a PC strictly for recording purposes), but I know the Mac version is a little behind, development wise. I'm not entirely sure that I want to invest on Logic Express or anything else without at least trying the Mac version of Reaper, so do you think it's worth it?

Don't know... I'll leave that for someone who does. From what I can tell on the Reaper download page though, the OS X version appears to be in line with everything else. What's wrong with trying Reaper first, seeing if you like it, and then deciding if you want to shell out for Logic?

My fourth and final (for the time being, at least) question is...as far as Firewire-based audio interfaces, what should I be looking at if I want to record anywhere from 4-8 tracks simultaneously? I have been looking on Musician's Friend and Sweetwater, but haven't found anything specific that has caught my interest that has 8 channels like I would like. So really, my question is if there's anything that I should be looking at that's going to take care of what I'd like.

Popular choices:

Presonus FP10, Firestudio and Firestudio Project. Motu 8pre, 896, etc.

 

[5xfaster]

So my MacBook Pro should be fine. That's good.

Regarding the hard drive, what were you talking about as far as the eSATA drive? I'd go Firewire, but if I'm going to be running my audio interface through the Firewire port, that's going to take up the only port I have. If you could elaborate on the eSATA drive some more, that'd be great.

The only thing I'm worried about is latency issues if I end up going over that 16-track threshold you were talking about. If I'm calculating this correctly, I'm going to be using up to 8 drum tracks, along with maybe 10 or more tracks laid over it. So we're looking at around 20 tracks per song maybe. Should that be an issue?

Also, I was looking at the audio interfaces you suggested, and also looked at some actual boards that I could run a Firewire cable into the MacBook from instead of buying the rackmount interfaces. Would it be easier to go with the audio interface (like the PreSonus or Motu) or with an actual digital mixer (like the Mackie Onyx 1620 or something like that) that I could plug right into my computer and control through the board? There are just so many options and I'm not entirely sure which one would be the best.

Again, thanks for the help.

 

[guitaristic]

The only thing I'm worried about is latency issues if I end up going over that 16-track threshold you were talking about. If I'm calculating this correctly, I'm going to be using up to 8 drum tracks, along with maybe 10 or more tracks laid over it. So we're looking at around 20 tracks per song maybe. Should that be an issue?

He was referring to recording 16 tracks at one time. Playback tracks are previously recorded tracks merely being "played-back" from your computer. You should be fine even if you've got 20. Good luck with everything!

 

[5xfaster]

So really what you're saying is it's more about the number of tracks you're recording at one time (you're saying I could actually get away with 16-20) rather than the number of tracks I've already recorded?

That being said, I should be able to record 8-10 drum tracks, then the next 5 or 6 instruments (one at a time), along with some vocal tracks (up to like 3) and still be alright, correct?

This is all good to know, especially since I wasn't sure if I was making the right decision for the recording by buying a Mac. Seems like I made the right choice though.

-Mike

 

[mattr]

Drive write speeds are generally significantly slower than their read speeds. That's the reason...

Even so, you're not gonna hit into the limitations of any modern drive with 8 tracks... 16 tracks... 24 tracks... 32 tracks... that's still light work for most setups. I've had projects running with 120+ tracks before.

The hard drive is the main limiting factor in track count. It takes next to no processing power to sum together a few hundred audio tracks. Its when you start editing, moving away from just raw tracks and loading up plugins that processing power starts playing its part.

 

[5xfaster]

Drive write speeds are generally significantly slower than their read speeds. That's the reason...

Even so, you're not gonna hit into the limitations of any modern drive with 8 tracks... 16 tracks... 24 tracks... 32 tracks... that's still light work for most setups. I've had projects running with 120+ tracks before.

The hard drive is the main limiting factor in track count. It takes next to no processing power to sum together a few hundred audio tracks. Its when you start editing, moving away from just raw tracks and loading up plugins that processing power starts playing its part.

That being said, with a 2.4GHz processor and 8GB of RAM to use, do you think there's a chance that mixing down and using plug-ins and stuff is going to end up being an issue at some point? Let's say, if I've got 30 or 35 tracks that need processed and mixed down, do you think with my processor speed and memory, I'm going to encounter issues?

-Mike