Carillon PC's... I am about to order one as my DAW, anyone know anything about them?

  • Thread starter Thread starter pisces7378
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Gah you guys post fast...

There were three posts in the time it took me to type my last post. Respect for your typing skilz.

As fas as the transport and jog shuttle controls on the front panel. You caught me right between the cross hairs on that one. I just wanted them because they look cool. I never saw how much they cost extra to have there. I imagine that they cost quite a chunk.

And you are 100% right about having the PC as far away from "ear level" as possible. I would never use the transport controls or jog shuttle controls in reality. Only to look cool. So piss on that idea. I have heard that their customer service is absolutely shit. I work in CS myself for Texas Instruments and although I am consulting electical engineers into DSP selection and application support all day... I still have a good grasp on what "serving the customer as a person" means. And when they tell lies like: "You'll receive an e-mail confirmation." or "We'll call you back." and these things do not happen... that kind of shit is unforgivable in a competative market.

But I will not be buying my machine for at least 6-8 months so I have a bit more time to watch the market and hear more horror storries (or nice things) about the CS dept. at Carillon.
The main reason I went with them in the first place is because I already have Logic Audio Platinum 5 and I know exactly which sound card/interface i want (MOTU 2408mkII). And so the "Barebones" systems seemed ideal. Does soundchaser offer some bareboned systems? I could not find on on their website.

Thanks,

Mike
 
The DAWs on soundchaser.com look more expensive to me than the ones on Carillon and a lot less easy to choose which is for me. I don't know what is a better processor, a Pent IV 2.0 GHz or and AMD Thunderbird. I just know that Pent IV is the easiest name to recognize.

The Cheapest "acceptable" DAW on the soundchaser website costs $1,700 (The MultiTracker) and it's specs are quite less than the "Barebones Three" system from Carillon. Plus from what I see, soundchaser also sells a lot of accessories (sound card etc...) and they seem to want to put together the DAW package for you, including a Delta 1010 interface.

I want a MOTU2408mkII... and I have no idea which version of Windows is best as most stable for recording audio. I though Windows 2000 was but everyone seems to want to sell me Windows 98 Second Edition for the DAW.

It is just so confusing. That is why Carillon looked so sweet to me, because they do all of the thinking for ya. PCs are great because they are so flexable for whatever you are doing. For example, my mother can spend $750 and have a DAMN GOOD home PC for sending E-mails and writting letters etc. But when you get into demanding applications like audio and synching video to audio for films and commercials... you have to be a damn PC Guru. Which as you can see... I am not.

Does Soundchaser have any "barebones" systems like Carillon, for those that already have Logic Audio Platinum and do not want some "full package" system?

Mike
 
re: Carillon

I hope you realize "barebones" means you have to put it together. If you're not into building computers, then look at another option.

Dells are over priced too. I was looking into a notebook for recording, until I saw how expensive they are.
 
re: Carillon

I'd also recommend staying away from Athlon processors for DAWs.

While they are arguably faster than Intels, the compatibility issues with them simply are not worth it.
 
More Carillon Stuff

Polaris20, You do not have to put it together. When I got mine last week, All I had to do was hook up a monitor and turn it on.

I will point out that I did get a barebones system without a soundcard to which I had to install myself. But the computer was ready to go out of the box.

As stated above, I got the barebones system 2 and bumped the memory up to 1 gb and got win2k. Including shipping, I paid 1600 for my system. I did a lot of shopping around including the sites listed above. I felt that soundchaser was more expensive for the same equiped computer than Carillon. I was originally going to go with Dawbox, but when I was ready to make my purchase, I sent an email to ask a couple of questions and never got a response. I then tried to call them and I don't remeber if the number was inactive or there was no answer. That concerned me greatly, so I steered away from them.

One more thing to point out is the barebones systems do not come with the transport buttons on them. I do not know what they charge for them because I purchased an Event EZBus as a control surface and did not need the buttons on the computer.

Peace
Joe
 
re: Carillon

Well, the term "barebones" must mean different things to different companies.

When I purchased my barebones kits (so far 20 of them between work and home) they all came in pieces, with not even the CPU installed.
 
When Carillon speaks of barebones, it is their system without any soundcard or recording software. If you look at their website or the ads they have in the mags, you will see that they have all kinds of systems that include the soundcard and software.

I chose not to go that route due to them charging full msrp for both soundcards and software. I probably saved myself 500 to 600 dollars by getting them elsewhere.
 
Yeah, Polaris, Carillon's barebones is a designation that simply indicates that it doesn't have any of the recording software or soundcard included. That's why I've been considering buying one myself, since I already own Sonar XL and a Delta 66. Gonna have to do some serious thinking after reading this thread. . . .
 
Hey Beav,

Honestly, If you can get beyond the amount of time to get it and the poor customer support, I think you would like the system. It was very frustrating for me at first, but now that I have it, I am realy glad that I got it.

Peace
Joe
 
If you're interested in Soundchaser's current offerings, call them up and talk to them. The system I bought was not from their web site- it was a complete piece-by-piece custom spec unit. If you want barebones, they'll do that.

Anyway, that's my entire input here: it certainly never hurts to ask. They will do far more for you than they list there. A major fraction of their business is in custom units, I believe.
 
JC Lives

Thanks for your posts everyone,

And "JC Lives" thanks for clearing a lot of things up. I almost had a fit when Polaris said that I would have to put this thing together. Glad you cleared that one up. I just wanted to ask you, since you have delt with Carillon... some of their systems include 3rd Party sound card/interfaces, for ex. the Delta 1010 seems to be a popular sound card system to build into a Pre-Built DAW PC. But as I have said, I want a MOTU 2408mkII card/interface built into mine. I could install the card myself, but like you are having now, I have already had my share of IRQ interupt shit, and configuration headaches with my Delta-66 a year and a half ago. I would prefere to have Carillon install and configure as well as test out the MOTU 2408mkII. Do you know if they offer that kind of service?

If they do NOT offer that kind of service, then do you know if I do it myself again... is my guarantee/warranty void as soon as I open the PC case? Also, if I do run into some IRQ interupt problems or whatsoever, will Carillon help me, or send me to MOTU who will probably also not help me much?

Thanks man,

Mike
 
I beleive that they will put the soundcard in if you buy it from them. If you do not want to mess with it and you just want to start using it when you get it, to some the extra money that you pay when buying the soundcard and/or software might be woirth it.

As far as warrenty, I don't beleive that that is an issue. I just got off the phone with tech support and the guy I talked to seemed to be willing to help. When you think about it logically, if you buy one of their barebones systems (a computer that is built for audio), they have got to realize that you will be putting a sound card in it.

I hope this helps.

Peace
Joe
 
Skippy interested in your input

Skippy:
I noticed from your threads that you have a setup that is close to what I am putting together and was curious if you might have some input.
I recently purchased a soundcraft ghost (which should arrive Friday), I am looking to put together a DAW system through soundchaser (have not ordered yet).
Did you customize anything on the soundchaser unit because you have the ghost?
You mentioned controlling your DAW from the Ghost. Do I need anything particular to be setup to do this? ie; software, hardware for the soundchaser unit? or Will this all work fine with Nuendo?
What kind of patchbay do you use? I don't need much because my outboard gear is limited but, the DAW will have 16 I/O's and was planning on going from the board to the patchbay from the patchbay to the DAW, so I could easily change which channel on the board is going to the DAW. BTW I hate soldering, anyway around this and still have a great patchbay?

Thanks
JimJoe
 
I didn't need to customize anything on the DAW when I got the Ghost to replace my original board. The Ghost's machine control section can be set up to send out a number of different Midi MMC and Sony 9-pin messaging protocols, and can control just about anything. I currently have it set up to control my Fostex D1624 through the 9-pin, read SMPTE timecode back from it, and then I have Cubase VST32 set up to slave to the DAW via MTC/MMC. It would be much simpler to just control the DAW directly via MMC, but I do the vast majority of my work on the D1624- so that's the reason for the slight added complexity.

It'll work just fine with Nuendo.

As for patchbays: I have a very large and flexible patching system (288 points) built up to make all this work, and there are a lot of hours of soldering in there. You could do similar things with the current run of "plug front-and-back" bays from Neutrik, Rean, and others- but once you get to this level of complexity in a rig, doing a custom patchbay with properly terminated and bundled cables is just about the only way to stay sane. There are pictures on the site here, but I don't recall the location- and the search function is still down...

The Ghost does support some pretty sophisticated internal routing, allowing submixes to be routed to direct outs with no repatching- so you might well be able to make use of that. However, the best advice I can give you is "learn to love solder"... (;-)
 
WOW!
the common theme here is that these things work right out of the box...if I would have known about this a year ago I would'nt have bought this turd I'm using right now.
Pisces and whomever else that decides to buy one of these could you do me a favor and keep us posted on how it works out.
In the meantime I'll be saving my money.
I 'D RATHER RECORD THAN TWEAK!
 
Thanks for the reply skippy. Very interesting, ability to route the submix internally to a direct out.
I've been using a mackie until now and noticed that for recording out of a submix it always sounds worse than directly out of a channel after the preamp.
Anyone else have this issue and know why? Anyways, I'm hoping with the ghost, the submix sounds as good as the channel itself.
Thanks
JimJoe
 
That's the nature of a mixer: the more stages you go through, the more abuse your signal absorbs. I like to go direct-out to track-in, and seldom use the mix busses except for the final mixdown to 2. The Ghost is better in this respect than many affordable boards, but it isn't perfect, either. It is always best, in some measure of the word, to run the signal through as few stages as possible.

However, if you _do_ want to minimize the amount of patchbay-building you need to do, it provides an option...
 
While they are arguably faster than Intels
Click to expand...

Arguably??! At the same "frequency" XPs have a faster FPU than PIVs which makes them a more powerful alternative for a DAW (ie more plugins and more tracks).
For the same amount of money...I'm not even gonna get into that, the PIV's get slaughtered by the XP's.
Nothing to argue about.

But then if money is not an issue, and you're not concerned about having the most powerful CPU on the market, a PIV is a viable alternative, as a PIV 2Ghz should get you a fair amount of tracks (though not as many as an XP2000+).

the compatibility issues with them simply are not worth it
Click to expand...

Huh?? There aren't any "compatibility issues", sompetimes shit happens, but the same goes for the PIV...You have to do some research before you buy!
 
I just got off the phone with Carillon and the guy that answered the phone was fucking awesome cool. He was honest and upfront about everything. he told me flat out that at the moment they are looking at a back up in orders and that they are saying 5-7 weeks for a delivery from the day the order is placed, but to pretty much expect the 7 weeks rather than the 5 weeks.

They will install whatever you want as far as a sound card goes. I asked about the "barebones three" system. It is a $2,199 computer that kicks ass from every angle, from studio noise to dual head graphic card for 2 monitors (should I ever get that arrogant), to dual high performance 7200 rpm quiet HDDs one for apps, the other for Audio, with a Pent IV 2.0GHZ 512Mb 400MHz RDRAM. GAWD!!!!
Now the MOTU 2408mkII sound card/ 24 input interface costs $900 from them. I could buy it myself for at least $30 cheaper at www.americanmusical.com (American Musical Supply)... and I just might do this... but they will install the MOTU 2408mkII plus install Logic Audio Platinum version 5 for me. I already have the software because I bought it a year and a half ago and have been using it here in Germany. But he will just call E-maigc, verify that I do have a licence for the software, then install the software, install the sound card, and then fine tune to whole thing. Then all I have to do is pull the thing out of the box, stick MY e-magic dongle on the serial port, plug in the monitor, and will be recording audio in about 3 and a half minutes through a BAD ASS FUCKING machine. All for $3,150.

No headaches... no IRQ problems... a support line, warranty, and nothing but myself and shitty music to fuck anything up. It makes me weak in the knees to think about it. ;o)

Anyway... again... thanks a lot and take care.

Mike
 
re: Carillon

db51 said:


Arguably??! At the same "frequency" XPs have a faster FPU than PIVs which makes them a more powerful alternative for a DAW (ie more plugins and more tracks).
For the same amount of money...I'm not even gonna get into that, the PIV's get slaughtered by the XP's.
Nothing to argue about.

But then if money is not an issue, and you're not concerned about having the most powerful CPU on the market, a PIV is a viable alternative, as a PIV 2Ghz should get you a fair amount of tracks (though not as many as an XP2000+).



Huh?? There aren't any "compatibility issues", sompetimes shit happens, but the same goes for the PIV...You have to do some research before you buy!
Click to expand...

Dude, have you had a look around on manufacturer's sites? NO ONE recommends getting an Athlon chip. Pro Tools, Aardvark, Echo, MOTU.....No one. I have done my research. I like AMD, I really do. I'm in computers myself and I know the value. And it's really not the chip itself that is the problem; it's the VIA chipset. Any motherboard with a VIA chipset, even if it's an Intel CPU, has problems at times with audio devices.

This is pretty well-known, I'm surprised it's coming as a shock to you.

If you like, I can post some links for you to check it out.
 
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