Building personal studio, looking for help, PC user.....

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protonneutronve

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Ok heres what I have to work with:
Dell Dim 2350
Pentium 4 CPU 2 Ghz
1.99 Ghz, 128 MB RAM
Windows XP Home Edit Version 2002 Service Pak 2

Line6 Vetta 1 w Newest Vetta SOftware
Laney TT20 all tube
Marshall 100 Valvestate
Roland Cube
Tons of pedals
Tascam Mk III tape 8track
Maduio Uno usb
Gibson Chet Atkins
Senhieser 22200 and AKG K55
Ibanez Jem DBK and Jem Blue
Fender Strat (single coils)

What are my options and at what cost?

I was looking at the Mbow 2 with the bundle....

Im a Guitarist,Pianist, Vocalist..at this time I need to get my ideas down. It seems with the Mbox 2 and its software bundle i can do this, teak, and burn to CD. Also goto a Pro Studio and continue from there.
I want something that I can build on and have a finale copy I can shoph around to Labels and radio.
Again what are my options and at what cost..

THank you ......E
 
add another 512 MB RAM and a second harddrive (one for OS and second for data)

Mbox is fine... though options can go up to an awful lot of money

I use an Edirol FA-66
 
zekthedeadcow said:
add another 512 MB RAM and a second harddrive (one for OS and second for data)

Mbox is fine... though options can go up to an awful lot of money

I use an Edirol FA-66
Click to expand...

Very true...by getting an Mbox, you would want to get Pro Tools and other sorts of Digidesign hardware...which will eat out couple of grands out of your wallet. Personally, you can get other excellent audio interfaces at that price range of a mbox. What about the Tascam FW1082 or Presonus Firepod. they're both great and offers multiple inputs/outputs. I mean, its totally upto u but there are much better alternatives than a mbox. And yes, as zekthedeadcow considered, get some more RAM. to be honest, 128mb will be ultra pain for audio. Your system will drown. It can handle audio, but it would not be stable at all. Atleast allocate a RAM of 1gb or so for your system. It will pay off.
 
Sweewater is elling the Mbox 2 as a bundle, including Protools Lite, Reason, and a bunch of other plug ins....DO you think that would crank out a decent product???
CAN you guys tell what you use and the cost?
THanks
 
i would do some research on how well protools runs on a pc.
 
for the same results for less money

i would recommend the m-audio cards with m-powered pro tools. they are known for making quality soundcards and can be cheaper than the mbox and still have the same features. and with m-powered you can upgrade to something like the project mix controller/soundcard and use the same software if you ever want to expand.
 
I use a M-Audio Delta 44 and it is a Great Card for only $200 Canadian that has 24Bit A/D Converters and is Compatible with Pro tools (Which I don"t use as I can not afford it) but are also Compatible with most all other Recording programs...It has 4 1/4inch Inputs and 4 1/4inch Outputs and has absolutly no Backround noise and is very easy to Configure, I can even use it and the Integrated Audio in My PC at the Same Time when useing the ASIO4ALL Drivers in 16bit Recording Mode which gives me an extra 2 Inputs if I ever needed them......

The Delta 44 doesn"t have Midi or Digital I/O so if you need those things then maybe the Delta 66 would be a Better Choice as I believe it has Digital I/O(S/PDIF).......

I would also recomend as the Other did that you get More Ram or even do a Full system Upgrade as you can get a Good deal On Motherboard/CPU Combo"s these Days , I just Got a Intel Mobo with a 3.06ghz Chip and 512mb of DDR for my Moms PC for "$99" Canadian......

Cheers
 
I'm using an M-Audio Delta 410 PCI with Sonar Cakewalk Homestudio V4.0 upgraded from V2.0. The Delta 410 has 2 analog ins and 8 analogs outs (I'm a gear slut, so I run the outs to a board, etc) with digital I/O, I picked up this card about 6 months ago for 99 bucks, you can get them for 85 now at www.newegg.com, I primarily record guitars only, so 2 ins works great for me, I'm about to pickup a drum kit though and I think I'm going to pick up another 410 to add to the setup. My first version of Cakewalk Homsestudio was 149.99 and the upgrade was 59.99.
 
I just finished tracking an hour-long score using the MBox 1/ProTools LE system on a PC and it worked fine... one thing about ProTools, as much as it has its problems and as much as you may be able to find better features for less $, it is still the main delivery standard and for the minimal investiment I was able to easily go back and forth between the *real* studio actually mixing the stuff with no problems, so that may be beneficial to you... and the Focusrite preamps in the M-Box are quite decent for the money, better in fact than the ones they put in the Digi002...
One note - if you can, try to get a hold of the original MBox, not the MBox 2 - from what it looks like, they've actually removed some of the features from the original (like balanced outputs, for example)
Oh yes, and as everyone has said more RAM is essential, especially with ProTools - other than that you shouldnt have any trouble on a PC... any more than usual at least!
 
Sorry, one more thing... just as a warning, the "lite" version of Reason that ships with ProTools is REALLY 'lite'.... almost useless, except to get aquainted with Reason, or to add a couple synth tracks...
 
Mbox2/Bundle vs others

What probelms have people been having with Mbox 2 and the protools software/PC????
Dr. Biscuits.....Thanks for the info on Reason...Ill ask my guy at SXweetwater if he can upgrade it....
Once again thanks everyone...Wish there was a real community in Hawaii of Musicians concerned with music....Im originally from NY, so it seems to be the same verywhere...
AGain thanks....
If anyone else has info to share please do.
 
I'm a Protools user and here is my 2 cents.

Go with an M-Audio interface (Firewire 410 for example) and get Protools M-Powered. You'll spend about the same amount of money on it and you get a faster connection to your PC. If you had the extra cash, I'd look at the M-Audio Project Mix. It costs about $500 more, but you get 8xlr in's, a control surface, and the expandability of ADAT in. Plus, going this route, you don't have to use strictly protools. You can use the M-Audio stuff with Virtually any PC application.

If you do decide on the M-Box, you don't have to buy Protools and other Digi hardware as mentioned above. That's all wrapped up in the M-Box. Just understand, the M-Box is not expandable.

Another selling point to me with the M-Audio stuff, once you buy it, you can download a demo of M-Powered Protools to see if you like it. You may not. Alot of us do.

6
 
Sixways whats the difference....???

Thanks for the info...Ok, Whats the difference in Protools LE and Protools Mpowered??? Cant I Get the Mbox2 and upgrade to Protools MPowered???What do you mean Mbox isnt expandable???
Also I have the Tascam MKIII 8track/tape...Cant I use that as I control surface...Run the Tascam into the Mbox2 and Mbox2 into the Comp??? Also use the Tascams Ins and outs?????

Thanks again for your time and help......
 
protonneutronve said:
Thanks for the info...Ok, Whats the difference in Protools LE and Protools Mpowered??? Cant I Get the Mbox2 and upgrade to Protools MPowered???What do you mean Mbox isnt expandable???
Also I have the Tascam MKIII 8track/tape...Cant I use that as I control surface...Run the Tascam into the Mbox2 and Mbox2 into the Comp??? Also use the Tascams Ins and outs?????

Thanks again for your time and help......
Click to expand...

M-powered doens't have Digidesign DVToolkit and DigiTranslator... LE does.. go a google or forum search for more info on that...

You could get an m-box2/mbox (comes with LE) and then buy m-audio hardware when you're ready to go to m-powered (doesn't come with the hardwawre)... but two things on this...

1) LE is more powerful than MP..
2) LE is for use with CERTAIN Digidesign hardware... MP is for use with CERTAIN M-Audio hardware...
3)If you have MP and your friend has LE, you can share files (FOR THE MOST PART.. that googling should help describe what i mean)...
 
Find out if the prostudio you go to has Samplitude. If so, Samplitude is right up there with protools and you don't need special hardware.
 
http://ardour.org/ might be a good piece of software for you to use as another alternative.. IT'S FREE.. but you gotta use linux... I'm not sure about compatibility with big studios...

For a soundcard...
"For high-end use, the RME Hammerfall series and the M-Audio Delta series are both recommended choices." -from their site...
 
peritus said:
1) LE is more powerful than MP..
QUOTE]


I don't know that I would totally agree with that statement. When I say the MBox isn't expandable, I mean 2 ins is all you've got period. You can't add another interface and gain more, you'll have to buy a Digi 002 or 002r to upgrade. Their cost is a good bit more.

If you go the M-Powered route, you can get any compatible M-Audio device and buy add-on's later as needed. You can chain 2 or more of them together. To me, you just have more options with M-Powered. Again, perhaps the biggest selling point to a protools newbie, you can get an M-Audio device and download a demo of M-Powered. If you don't like Protools, it'll work with just about anything else.

6
Click to expand...
 
I agree with that logic.. I have the Firewire 410 with MP...
 
Thanks everyone who spent time answering my questions...I think Im going to go with the Mbox2 Factory bundle....to lay down gutar and vocal tracks, and in the meantime save for addons---FIrewire410 maybe...etc....
 
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