a bunch of questions in one for a musician...

  • Thread starter Thread starter DorMouse
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DorMouse

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so im still kind of a newbie, but i figure most of you are pretty kind...and if not then ill get made fun of like i deserve haha

anywho, i am building a computer to do amateur work with my band(s)...just so we can have demos to play local gigs....

one of my questions is if i decide to get a pentium4 would it make any difference whatsoever if i decide to go with a 1.8ghz over a 2.4??

if there is a difference then ill go with the faster but i dont really wanna sacrifice quality over a few measly dollars...

also: im planning on using an echo mia 24/96 with it...(stupid question alert) would that replace the sound card that came with the computer? like if i bought a computer with a soundblaster live in it would i have to take it out to put in the mia?

ok then my final question...

ive been looking at mixers lately and ive noticed that the mackie vlz-1402 is tiny and extremely expensive for the reviews ive been getting on it...are there any other mixers out there that are less expensive but good?

ok thanks for lsitening
 
Faster is better but I'd buy the slower processor and put the extra money towards other gear. RAM is where it's at plus hard drive and buss speed but I'd imagine that damn near any new machine is gonna be a 133 at least.
The Mackie mixers are dandies for sure. Personally, there about as low on the food chain as I'll go but that's just me. Someone's going to bring it up sooner than later so I will. Behringer makes cheap mixers that are pretty much a direct ripoff of the Mackies (to a point, some don't match their features) at about half or less price.
 
go with the slower speed if it's a big price difference. 1.8 is pretty fast anyway.

you can run two sound cards in one computer. the SB will be good for games and other non-recording applications. it will suck for recording. you will not need to take it out. some manufactures will let you customize the computer. maybe you can save a few buck and get one without a sound card.

mackies=good + expensive
berhinger=pretty good + cheap
stick with the $400+ berhinger boards. they'll serve you fine and for the money you'll get more than mackie offers (except for a slight quality difference). for me starting out i'd go with a slightly bigger (24 channel) berhinger. the mx2442 is about $550 and i like it.
 
1.8ghz over a 2.4
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The 1.8 would work. Ram should be at least 512.

replace the sound card
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No. Just keep them both on their own Irqs and not shared with anything else.



less expensive but good?
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If you want Quakity then your Pre-amps are the main concern. I like my Mackie 1604.
You may even want to think about just getting a Pre-amp unless you really need the Mixer for now.
 
I find that most people spend too much on the computer and not enough on the rest of their studio gear. A celeron will be fine for the vast majority of home recording applications so a 1.8 p4 is fast enough.

Save the cash and get decent instruments, mics, preamps, monitoring setup, acoustic treatment and soundcards (echo mia is good).

A behringer ub series mixer will be adequate (as will a mackie) but instead of a mixer consider getting a dedicated preamp (for mic preamplification) and use an integrated amp with passive monitors (to handle headphone and volume control). 2 quality channels is better than 8 average ones.
 
thanks for all of your help, i think ive decided on a p4 1.7ghz, 512meg ddr ram, and a 60 gig hard drive for now....

also, i think im just going to stick with jsut the echo mia...since this computer is going to be for only recording

god... now for raising enough money for the friggen computer...=p
 
DorMouse said:
i think im just going to stick with jsut the echo mia...
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Excellent choice. The Echo MiaMIDI is the card you should aim for. The only difference between the Mia & the MiaMIDI is the MIDI connector. The Mia is very good audiocard with excellent S/N ratio..

--
BluesMeister
And no, I don't own a Mia - but I sure wish I did!
 
Word to the wise...

Get a second HD for your computer. Use one to hold your recording programs, and the second one exclusively for your audio.
 
Bass Master "K" said:
Word to the wise...

Get a second HD for your computer. Use one to hold your recording programs, and the second one exclusively for your audio.
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Absolutely.
 
i have a big hard drive and i just partition it into smaller drives. i do that just because i don't want to lose all my audio if my computer crashes. that way i can just reformat the program side and leave the audio alone. is there any other reason to have a second hard drive?
 
A second harddrive will allow you to record and playback more tracks simultaneously. However most home recordists will rarely trouble a single current 7200 rpm drive.
 
Celerons have a bad rep for recording - but at higher speeds it might not matter.

If it's a small price diff between 1.8 and 2.4, go for the 2.4 - it could extend your PC's useful life 6 months to a year. Software tends to suffer from processor dependency creep - each upgrade requires higher and higher minimum speeds, or drops support for older operating systems (forcing you to upgrade to a new OS that requires higher processing speeds).

You are likely to have some applications that just don't know how to handle a second sound card. I wound up having to disable my SBLive before all my apps would work through my Delta 66 - but I think it was only the consumer apps that were having trouble. Plus maybe Gigasampler - I don't use that one much anyhow.

A partitioned hard drive will not get you what a second hard drive will: two independent heads. It'll make all the difference in the world... that's why big servers and mainframes put their database index files and data files on separate disks. Same concept.

Mackies have a sweet warm sound that Behringers don't seem to match, in my experience. But bang for the buck, Behringers are a great buy. Wish my 1002 had an off switch, though.

Good luck,

Daf
 
have a big hard drive and i just partition it into smaller drives. i do that just because i don't want to lose all my audio if my computer crashes
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Thats fine as long as the HD doesnt permanently go bad. With a second hard drive just for data, it cant crash because of an OS. (other than the HD wearing out.) For really long term storage you should save to a Data Cd or some other form of Data back up.
:cool:
 
thanks for all your help again heh

im thinking about shelling out the extra dough for scsi...smart? or should i stick with ata100 since im still a newbie?

sorry if im getting annoying with questions, im just really into this recording business
 
scsi is way to expensive. Don't go there, you won't benefit from it. You only do if you're like running a gazillion drives at the same time. ATA100/133 will do just fine.

If budget allows, invest in a second HDD like the guys mention. There's been some voodoo about HDD's with 8Mb cache as well...


Herwig
(info: DAW running +30tracks - Athlon 2,200+, 1Gb DDR266 RAM, 2 7200rpm HDDs with 2Mb cache)
 
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