again...a question of soundcards and setups

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sims531

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I am now in the market for a machine that will allow me to do some good home recording. I have been doing my research in and out of this site and I've been learning a lot but I also have a lot to learn. Someone on here once said, "Buy once, Buy smart" or something to that effect. I'm not the type to go and blow a wad of cash when I don't know what I'm doing so that made a lot of good sense to me and I hoped you wonderful people could help me out as well. I will tell you exactly what I want out of my home studio and what I think thus far and I would really appreciate any help anyone could lend. I've had great results posting here before and I love this site so here goes...

I want a system that will be quality and I'm prepared to spend the money because I take it very seriously, like the rest of you, but like the rest of you, I don't want to go and spend money I don't need to. I will be getting a very knowlegeable friend to build it...he knows everything about computers just nothing about recording...so don't worry, I'm not going to the local computer store. Now, I've come to the conclusion that the most important and hardest desicion is going to be the soundcard. I have many ideas but if I could narrow it down to a select few I would be very happy. I am going to be using this computer solely for my own personal use so I don't need lots of I/O's...and I already have an outboard mixer. So I just want something simple that sounds great. I don't do midi--it's all about audio in for me. Guitar mostly, vocal a little but I won't for the time being be recording more than one track at a time. So that's pretty much it for the soundcard. Simple but quality though I'm not looking for the greatest...please keep in mind this is solely for my own enjoyment and for when I go to school for engineering in about a year. Now, I have also come to believe that RAM, Hard drive, Motherboard and so on are all very important but easier to decide on since they're not as essential. I'm thinking an ASUS motherboard, Intel P3 with as many MHz as I can afford, either 128 or 256 mgs of ram, Maxtor 30+ gig HD
and of course this is all up in the air. I'm not really up on gear so all the specs on this stuff is kinda lost on me. Is it really important or will my computer buddy be able to let me know what should go with what? (I will keep researching) Also, I've heard a lot of talk about having 2 HD's...is this really necessary if I'm just using this for personal gratification? I'm not planning on tons of tracks, effects and so on, I like to do as little computer effect work as possible but that may change as well. WHEW...I've really gone off here haven't I? Well, I guess I'll leave it at that for now and you know I would really appreciate the help. Thanks in advance to any and all who care to help me out. I just see a lot of comp set up questions on here without many answers but I hope this may change that. I just really want a system that is gonna work well for me and like I said, I don't need the absolute latest and greatest...just somethin that's really gonna work for me!

Thanks so much again

Derek
 
I'm thinking an ASUS motherboard, Intel P3 with as many MHz as I can afford, either 128 or 256 mgs of ram, Maxtor 30+ gig HD

Hi Derek,

the above seems to be ok choose the 440BX chipset and try to start with an P3 700.
The next thing would be a digital I/O card with S/PDIF coaxial or optical I/O, RME DIGI 96 or Hammerfall if you can afford it. You said you are playing guitar and wanna do audio recordings. I would recommend using the mindprint diport as an external ADDA converter and mic pre.
Just a pair of good headphones and you can start recording.

Later on when you want to record vocals you can get the envoice.

I am about building the second system for me I am planning the above, but I just have to assemble the computer.
 
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