celeron or pentium?

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Fab4ever

Fab4ever

Getting better
I have a Celeron 400, 288 meg of RAM, and I'm trying to run Pro Audio 9 at 24/96. I cannot get more than two tracks to play simultaneously. When I record audio at 16/44, I have few problems. But I'd like the higher audio quality. I have tried most of the tweaks recommended by Cakewalk, to no avail. So.... I have concluded it's time for a new processor.

The goal: to run about a dozen tracks of audio at 24/96, with a few effects, without dropouts.

The question: Can I get away with a Celeron 700 or 800, or do I really need to purchase a PIII at that kind of speed.

PS: I only have one hard drive right now, a paltry 20 gigs, but it does the job for now.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
 
I know the celerons are tempting for the price, but P-III 800 is down to $150. With the difference in cache size, I think it's worth it.

Twist
 
It seems like your HDD is the problem rather than the CPU. Unless you run very many plug-ins.

Have you enabled DMA on your HDD? What does diskbench say about the situation?
 
Also, I agree with Twist. PIII are getting cheap so there's very litte need for the Celerons these days.
 
Ask yourself

First, ask yourself, can YOU hear a difference between 16 and 24 bit? Most can not. And since there are no commercial 24bit CD's you are going to have to DITHER back down to 16 bit anyway. You were planning on dithering right, not just TRUNCATING? There is a HUGE difference. You must DITHER. Also, can you hear the diff at 96KHz? Again, most can not. If you record symphonies and very tasteful acoustic music you might be able to hear it if you have really good monitors.

On the other hand, processors and RAM are so cheap now that it might be a good idea to ditc hthat Celeron and get something more powerfull. Avoid the P4, it is a waste of money. And actually, for audio, at least in my purposes, (i run PARIS), and Athlon is better. I used to not think so but after getting over 18 Renaissance Comp's on a 32 track mix.....i was sold. (Yes i know that PARIS' DSP helped out a llot but still, the FPU is superior to Intel)

Just things to think about. If you decide to go with 24bit, remember to DITHER, get a program that does it....they arent hard to find.

-gen
www.digitaledgestudio.com
 
Thanks all for the excellent (and fast) advice.

Gener1c, I sure can't hear the difference on my cheapo consumer stereo "monitors" I do tend to prefer acoustic instruments in my music, but I can't say I can hear the difference yet.

One thing I haven't tried is going to 24 bit but staying at 44Khz.

Dithering - yes, I do intend to dither at some point. I thought PA9 included dithering. If it doesn't, then I'll have to get a program. Do you have suggestions for programs that do this?
 
For me, the issue isn"t really weather or not I can hear the difference between 16 and 24 bit. I want the greater bit depth during processing and recording so the resolution will be as hi as possible before dithering. Theoretically, this would provide the highest quality recording after dithering.

Twist
 
It looks like I can get a Pentium III 700 for $130. I will probably do that.

Can you be a bit more specific, Ola, on the DMA setting? (computer newbie here). I have changed the DMA setting in Cakewalk, but I don't remember exactly what I did. (I was following the advice as to how to tune your pc for audio performance)

What should I be doing to the DMA?
 
I'm running Win98 second edition. fairly new 20 gig hard drive.
 
BTW - The reason for recording and mixing @ 24/96 is not that you hear the difference in the raw material but rather that your precious tracks are treated better by the effects plug-ins at the higher resolution.

Win98, let me get back to you on that one. (I'm on W2000 at the moment). If memory serves me right, the setting is in the:

control panel -> system -> hardware (or device manager) -> hard drives.

There should be a checkbox for DMA. Make sure it's checked.
 
Thanks, Ola, for helping a newbie!! I will find the setting and check it as soon as I get home. But I still think I'm gonna upgrade to the Pentium III (assuming the wife approves of yet another home recording related purchase!)
 
My 2 cents is that an overclocked Celeron is fine......also 24 bit over 16 bit is a substantial difference, but 96khz sampling isnt worth the extra space and hard drive strain over 48 or 44.1.....
 
GOLDEN EARS

Yeah a substantial difference......get off the hype and use your own ears. Then come back and tell me about substantial. QUit fillin the newb's head with crap like that.

Not Glenn Meadows,

aaron s.
www.digitaledgestudio.com
 
If you're upgrading from a Celeron 400, you'll have to change the motherboard as well if you want to switch for a PIII...So why not go for an Athlon CPU and motherboard? You can get a 1GHz Athlon T-bird for the price of a 700MHz PIII!!! If you're looking for the most processing power for your money, you should definitely go with the T-birds...
Do some research...
 
OK my two bits- I use Cakewalk 9 with a Gadget Labs 824 card (24 bit, 44.1 or 48). I have been using 24 bit/ 44.1 from the start, I use Cakewalks built-in 24 to 16 converter when creating my final stereo mix. I started out using a Celeron 333, 128 meg of RAM, and no plug ins. I had no problems unless I tried recording 8 tracks at once in which case it would gag (no problems playing back 10 tracks though).

I then upgraded to a PIIIEB-533 and 256 megs RAM. I have had no problems since then. I started using a few plugins (reverb mostly) but am still not going overboard with them. From what I have heard using multiple plugins saps a lot of CPU power.

Incidently I tried swaping out the processor with a PIII-450 for awhile, just to see if there was a difference, and there did not seem to be. Haven't made much use of the system in the last few weeks though.

Hope this helps...
 
Ive recorded at 24 bit and 16 bit and there is a substantail difference.....wheres the problem?.....
 
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