computer for a home studio

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ebbandflow

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So I want to get a computer for a home studio. I have about $2000 to spend total. I was wondering what the absolute essentials are (processing speed, how much ram). Any suggestions on a company, or maybe a website that sells computers specifically for home studios (or even a website with clear concise info on this). Thanks.

-ebb
 
2k is more than my uber dual opteron death blaster cost..your in good shape...

I would search the Nuendo hardware forum for reccomendations of working systems at different levels, especially note the opus2000 and brian tannkersley setups
 
Build your own. I built a killer system for $700. and that would leave you 1300 for musical equipment. Seriously, search on building a PC and do it yourself. You will get a better quality machine than if you buy one at Best Buy. And its so easy to do.
 
Hey ebbandflow.. I work at a computer store and on the side build customer computers..

With 2k you can do a lot of stuff..
mainly I would suggest the following if you want to build a really good audio rig..

Chassis: Something with a good amount of space up front in the 3.5' drive bays if you ever need to put stuff there. Case isn't as important as other things, but its always nice to have some room to play around with.

CPU: Core 2 Duo 6600 @ 2.4ghz. I have this cpu overclocked to 3.2ghz without breaking a sweat. It runs Vista and anything else I throw at it in stride.. the prices for all the intel chips are starting to go down. I paid almost 400CDN for my chip and now I can get one for just over $240 :( Great chip though for this sort of work.

Memory: 2gbs Minimum.. if you're making this a straight up audio machine, I would reocmmend 4gbs.. specially if you have a lot of prodcustion programs up. Doesn't have to be the fastest ram ever.. but you wanna have more quantity.

mobo: Anything from Asus or EVGA should suffice. Mobo I find is more important for gamers.

Sound Card: I would grab a really good low latency high functionality PCI audio card, maybe from RME or M-Audio for I/O. I want to grab the rme multiface but I still need a new video card lol

The rest of the money left over, you may need to spend on sample libraries, or better yet, software like NI stuff, and for a host sequencer if you don't already have once. Can't do much without those obviously.

Also, invest in a decent midi controller.. splurge a bit on a nice keyboard, since you don't need to spend an arm and a leg to get a top of the line PC in order to get great sound..

as metioned before though, do NOT waste your time and money grabbing a full unit from best buy or circuit city or anything like that. It's far more rewarding to build your own machine, and you get a much higher value in amassing the parts and doing it yourself.. plus you may learna thing or two ;)

Hope this helped.. if you have any questions just pm me :)
 
thanks for all the advice. building my own computer does sound like the way to go. the thing I'm a little worried about is that there wouldnt be any warrantee coming with the computer.

also, someone mentioned to me the mac pro. they were like, "mac is the way to go for a studio." what do you guys think?
 
ebbandflow said:
also, someone mentioned to me the mac pro. they were like, "mac is the way to go for a studio." what do you guys think?
Click to expand...

Thats tire kicker talk

Mac's fine, PC's fine, it depends what you want to run software wise
 
i still prefer pc over mac since i always build my own machine and like to test new software, mac is nice "one in all" but i like to tweak all the time


real important to me is the CASE of the pc,
i got an ANTEK black quiet edition, built real real solid and its silent (plus looks real good), the built in psu is silent and powerful, good airflow and big fans to get less noise,
my next computer will have fannless watercooling and fannless psu, i just want silence!!

don't go for cheap brands, your pc is important, save up some money and buy good ram/mobo/cpu

buy cheap food, won't ruin your recording :p

harddisk: Western digital
Ram: kingston
Videocard: matrox (g550 for DUAL monitors)
monitors: Philips or LG (hell, anything will work here)
keyboard: apple (macintosh) usb keyboard (yesss on a windows pc!)
mouse: logitec lazermouse
cooling: zalman

soundcard: i love firewire cards, one day you'll be walking around with a laptop dude,,,then what? I'm a Motu fan, my 828 works great and i'd love to have an MK2

printer: fuck that shit, use a pen :p
 
Yep I prefer Antec cases and the black Antec case I have in my studio (not sure what number) is dead quiet. Most manufactures of components carry really good warranties. Often better than store bought PC's
 
ebbandflow said:
thanks for all the advice. building my own computer does sound like the way to go. the thing I'm a little worried about is that there wouldnt be any warrantee coming with the computer.

also, someone mentioned to me the mac pro. they were like, "mac is the way to go for a studio." what do you guys think?
Click to expand...

I was going to suggest it, but the bottom model is $2,200, a little over your price point. If that $2k is flexible, though, it should be solid hardware, IMHO.

You might also consider the iMac. They start at $999, have a built in flat panel, and if you ever find yourself needing to record in the field for any reason, are about a million times easier to move around than the Mac Pro. Apart from adding another internal drive, I doubt you'll ever add any hardware into the inside of a recording machine (graphics card notwithstanding), so the slots in the Mac Pro probably don't buy you much. (Okay, so my studio has a FireWire card just so I can use a ridiculous number of interfaces, but I'm weird that way. :D)

The MacBook Pro also starts right at two grand, and is similarly easier to move around. Disk performance would be slower because of the laptop hard drive, but still faster than desktop drives from just a couple of years ago. Plus, you can use it outside the studio.

Of course, if you already have a flat panel, you can always use it as a second monitor. My studio is a quad G5 with a pair of panels. Makes for a nice work environment---one screen for tracks, one for faders. :D

Just my $0.02.
 
+1 on the iMac!

Just picked up a Mac Mini myself last month. I've been a PC guy for the last 19 years and I think those days are counted.

OS X is a great OS and all my audio software/hardware runs trouble free so far (except for Cubase SE3 which isn't Universal Binary yet).

I particularly love how OS X already comes with drivers for my Mackie Onyx 1220 w/ Firewire card. All I had to do was plug it in and go!

Once my current Gateway laptop kicks the bucket, I will most likely switch over to the Mac completely.
 
is the iMac upgradeable like the mac pro? How about the macbook pro?
 
ebbandflow said:
is the iMac upgradeable like the mac pro? How about the macbook pro?
Click to expand...

RAM and HD, yes. They also come with USB 2.0 and Firewire ports. The MacBookPro also has a ExpressCard slot (replacement for PC-Card). No PCIe slots and you're stuck with the graphics card they come with.

PCI slots are a non issue for me - been working exclusively on a laptop for two years and my audio interface and external HDs are Firewire.
 
Shopping carefully on about $600 I put together what I consider a really nice recording computer, though a few parts from previous computers went into it too. You can see it at:

Pictures;
http://forums.2cpu.com/showpost.php?p=690312&postcount=917
Description;
http://forums.2cpu.com/showpost.php?p=690356&postcount=918

It's not the newest technology, but it works GREAT for sound work. I don't think I'll ever go to a laptop myself, as I'm too much of a tweaker and besides there are too many cool PCI interfaces out there (of which I still have room for one more - been looking at the EMU 1212 or the Gina 3G).
 
As an update, I finally got around to installing Boot Camp and XP Pro this pasts weekend. This is freakin' awesome!!! XP runs faster on my 1.66 CoreDuo Mini than it does on my Gateway Athlon-64 M 4000+ laptop!

Basically its a win-win situation for me using Macs at this point.

I see either a MacBook or MacBookPro in my future once the Gateway dies...
 
if you are like me and not totally comfortable building your own machine, but dont want to buy one from a store, take a look around your town for places that will build one for you, customized to your specs.

my bro built my last one for me for about $650, but its over 4 years old now - its definitely time for a new one. id get him to build me another, but he lives in a different city. i just got one w/ my tax refund thru these dudes here in austin -

www.laboratorycomputers.com

im sure you could find a place in your town that is similar.

i got a core 2 duo processor - 6400 2.1ghz, 2 gigs of ram and a 250 gig harddrive. avoiding vista and sticking w/ xp pro.
 
Or you could choose one of the companies who build computers specificly for Pro Audio and not only know what they're doing, but can also answer your audio questions.
 
You can get a pretty solid Turn Key with an interface in that $2000 range. Check out ADK or Sonica, as they both can probably get you a good set up in that price range. Doing it yourself is cheaper, but you can run into any number of problems and won't have their support for help. That is a tradeoff you would have to make the call on.
 
You know. I've been coming to this bbs since 2002 and the same question has been asked in those years too.
Back then people already used the M-Audio Delta 1010 and were usually very satisfied with the results. My point is that even a computer from 2002 was pretty much good enough for multitracking.
It's 2007 now and computer power has increased a lot in these five years. You'll do fine with basically anything you'll find on today's market.

I have to add that now we have Windows Vista and that itself will eat up a lot of resources. If you stick to XP (and for now there isn't a reason why you shouldn't), you're in good shape. Even 1GB RAM will take you a loooong way then.

All in all, don't spend all your $2000,- on a PC. That's not worth it.
 
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