basic setup

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oz_fenda

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Hi guys, looking to get a new computer and some better recording gear in the coming weeks, (looking to expand into the world of midi and progress from the built in sound card days), and would appreciate some advice on whether the computer I'm looking at getting will do the job.

I'm thinking of getting the mbox2 mini, usb midi keyboard, and will probably be running pro tools and reason. The computer sytem i'm looking at getting has a Pentium Dual-Core E5200 2.5Ghz Processor, and 2gig of ram, would this be adequte?

The kind of stuff i'm looking at doing won't be too hardcore, mainly just recording vocals and guitars, then adding virtual instruments for drums, bass and sometimes strings... probably wouldn't have more than 5-10 (absolute max) virtual instruments on the go plus maybe 5 or less recorded tracks? Is there any rule of thumb when it comes to how much ram each virtual instrument takes up? Oh and I'd only be tracking one track at a time.

any advice would be warmly welcomed,
cheers, matt
 
Tracking one at a time you should be OK. If you have the extra cash though I would think about getting something a bit more then the 5200 though.
 
If you only plan to use 10 virtual instruments, then your computer specs are fine. The problem with virtual instruments is they all come in different shapes and sizes. For example I have a synth sample that is about 5mb - small enough to fit onto the slowest computer. I also have a grand piano instrument thats getting close to 300Mb, which is enough to cause problems.

Also - effects eat up CPU & RAM. If you have delays as inserts, verb, EQ, sends, returns, they all add up.

I would say your setup is ok for what you have described, but if you had the cash, upgrade the processor to a T7 series.
 
cheers guys, i'll probably look at getting a better processor. Also, someone told me cubase is probably a bit better suited to what i'm wanting to do.
Would i be correct in assuming its a bit messy to be re-wire protools with cubase? I'm thinking of ditching the mbox/protools direction and just going with an interface that comes with cubase le, although it says cubase le only supporters '2 virtual instrument slots'. What exactly is a 'slot'? is it the same as a track? meaning i'll only be able to add two virtual instruments or am I getting confused?

(sorry for the ramble here) I guess in the end I'd love something which works like logic or garage band, just click new instrument track, pick and instrument and thats one track. drop down, pick another instrument and have several of those. I'm getting more and more confused when I see demo's of cubase with virtual instruments as part of a bigger synth you've got to open up and tweak and pick an instrument inside the bigger 'instrument' :S ....

Unfortunately logic's out of the question as I can't go down the mac path...

man this is frustrating :(
 
yes cubase le only supports two virtual instruments at a time

i'm with you about cubase support for virtual instruments

no matter what DAW (sequencer) you use all the VST's go to (are stored) in cubase

you might want to look into getting cubase essentials i believe it supports more and is a pretty inexpensive upgrade

i also think that once you get past all the OEM stuff that ships with hardware your opportunities open up considerably

however, that being said, be sure to register you OEM stuff because you can get great deals on upgrades sometimes
 
cool cheers. i'm thinking I might see if I can download a demo of cubase and reaper and see how they compare, as from what I've seen reaper is alot less limiting and probably an easier daw to use...
 
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