Building a computer for $1000?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Shepherd
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Shepherd

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I suppose this is a newbie question...

PREAMBLE:

I'm looking to produce one-hour radio shows in the style of a broadcaster named Joe Frank.
The shows would consist largely of interviews and pre-recorded background music, much of the information gathered in the field on a Sony R900 MD Recorder.
I've looked at various options, and it seems that the simplest (and quite adequate) solution is to set up a computer system to put this together. I already have an external CD burner (USB) for my laptop, but I don't want to gut all the neat stuff on my laptop (a Pentium II 233) to make room for audio software and HD storage. I'm also given to understand that I'll need a kick-ass sound card, which would be best on a desktop.

QUESTION:

What sort of computer system would be adequate for producing a one-hour radio show in broadcast quality? Processor speed, memory, hard drive space, suggested software (and yes, I'm willing to pay for a real, licensed copy of my software).
I'm hoping to spend less than $1000 for the whole kit and caboodle.
Please remember that I already have a great mobile recording MD unit and a perfectly adequate external USB CD burner.
At the moment, I'm only really familiar with Windows platforms, but would be willing to learn a little about Linux if it's far superior.
 
This might help.

http://www.exhardware.com/reviews.php?Id=53

If not, try a google search for something like "building an audio workstation". I'm not trying to be "unresponsive", but there are so many choices out there that this question is kind of like asking, "What's your favorite color?".

Basically it's the same for a DAW as many other app's. A fast computer will work fine. A faster one will work even better. You'll need lots of memory, a big hard drive (I believe stereo audio uses up approx. 10M/min. at 44.1khz/16bit) , a resonably fast processor, fast hard drives (especially if your recording and playing at the same time), and a decent sound card. The sound card you need will depend on what specific features you are looking for. How many tracks do you want to record at one time, etc? If you're only recording 2 tracks stereo mixes, A simple wave editor like Sound Forge would be fine. If your going to do multiple tracks, you'll obviously need something more. Blah, blah, blah... Ok, I'll shut up now.



:D :D :D :D :D :D
 
You mentioned Linux as an option to learn - at the moment there is unfortunatly little hard disk recording software availble.

I am a Linux developer and writer and I have been keeping track on software for Linux, and although it is limited now, I feel it willno doubt improve in the future.

Linux is a powerfull system that is very extendable and software development is fast - when a decent hard disk recording program with VST and MIDI support comes out for Linux I will be dumping the only Windows machine in my house. :)

At the moment use something like Magix or N-Track for Windows, but keep an eye on Linux... ;)
 
MONTE said:
If not, try a google search for something like "building an audio workstation". I'm not trying to be "unresponsive", but there are so many choices out there that this question is kind of like asking, "What's your favorite color?".
Click to expand...

I know it's kind of goofy -- and thanks for the link -- but if there were a "model" response, it would be something like "the minimum you should use is a Pentium III 333 with 56K of RAM and 20G of HD space." I'm trying to do this on a budget, but at the same time know I'll be dealing with huge sound files. The last time I used computers for sound stuff -- I normally work in the hosting/writing end of radio, and my production skills are limited to analog four-track recording and MD editing -- was in 1994, when the 386 was God's gift to computing and Turtle Beach was the king of the world. I don't even know how MIDI works, really.

What I'm hoping for is a system that can process an hour of four-track audio fairly easily (two tracks voice, one track music, one track spare). The idea is to prep a one-hour show from source material on the computer, then burn it onto a CD.

I'm getting some neat responses over at the Computing forum, too, so no pressure :-)
 
I hate to turn the subject, but I too am a faithful linux user, and have found one odd little excuse for hard disc recording software
I cant remember what it was called, but it was command line multitrack recording software, with real time effects...

Not protools by any stretch of the imagination, but it worked.

(A search of freshmeat for recording software will find it)
 
Well Linux is slowly creeping up...I am the UK Rep and core developer for the KDE project - and part of KDE is the aRts multimedia server. This is slowly getting better and better so time will tell.

Let us stay faithfull to the penguin. :)
 
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