Do you think my computer can handle it?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Zeppelin456
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Zeppelin456

Banana Co
Hi, I just had a question about how much a computer can handle....I have a Dell 550 MHz, 128 RAM, 20 gig hardrive and I've been recording two tracks at a time for a while. I'm close to upgrading my system to be able to record 8 at a time but does anybody think that my computer can run this? It falls within the specs but I wanted to know if it will actually work. If anyone with any knowledge in this area could help, it would be much appreciated. :)
 
A recording buddy of mine has my old PII/400 and runs up to 30 tracks at once with no problems. Not running too many plugs and he usually records no more than 6-7 tracks at once. He's got either 256 meg or 384 meg of memory. He's using Sonar. Might want to beef up your memory/
 
One of the biggest issues with a computer of that vintage wil be the hard drive and the hard drive controller. If it has an ordinary IDE controller, no soup for you (at least not more than a couple of tracks). If it's a UDMA/ATA controller, you should be good to go. If needed, add-on UDMA controller cards are fairly cheap. Get a nice 7200 rpm drive to use with it. More RAM would be a good idea too.
 
I started out with a Gateway PII-450Mhz.

Using N-Track Studio (great on lower powered PCs), 384Mb of RAM and 2 drives... I was able to get up to 30 16bit/44.1kHz tracks running with no problems. You'll probably want to up the RAM if you can and using a secondary 7200rpm drive for your audio tracks will help a lot. If you're going to do MIDI, it'll do fine.

More than enough to at least learn on.....
 
Okay I tried recording 8 tracks at a time with no actual sound coming in right now...it worked alright albeit slowly. Is this test accurate or will it only be accurate when I have 8 tracks of actual data coming in?
 
You should upgrade your ram, especially if you plan to use a lot of plugins.
 
I don't use alot of plugins, I'm a relative newbie to the whole recording thing, although I definately am totally obsessed with it. I've had my Behringer MX1604A for a year now and it really isn't so great, I'm putting some money on the upgrades and I didn't want to get stuff and find out it didn't work.
 
Heh, I use that very same mixer. I'm looking to upgrade as well, I want to mic a full drum kit. I guess you just have to work with what you have...
 
Oh, on a light machine like that don't forget to opitimize your OS for audio.

Hopefully you're running something like Win98SE. They have guides on Tascam.com and other sites to help tweak your system.
 
I recorded 8 at a time at 24/48 on my 433mhz. You should be good as long as you keep your system clean.

Having to do destructive edits to apply effects will be the thing that eventually pisses you off and forces you to upgrade :) (that's what happened to me, anyway).
 
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