How powerful does my PC have to be??

[Hegs]

Im wanting to record 2 condensors and 2 dynamic mics...so thats 4 mics simulatneously. I want to buy a USB or Firewire interface to do this, but Im first wanting to know whether our 1.66ghz, 500mb/ram laptop will be up to the task? It runs Win XP Pro.

PS.. does anyone also have any recomendations of an interface which is cheap but good and can record 4 mics simulatenously?


CHEERS

 

[Freddy]

I wouldn't expect you to have a problem with 4 tracks. Some software is more demanding than others of course.

You don't mention the speed of your hard drive, which is where hiccups can happen. A 7200 drive will help.

You will probably be better with Firewire. Most USB devices will only give you 2 summed tracks and most firewire will give you 4 separate tracks.

Maybe the Alesis IO14? I have a Phonic Helix 12FW that would also do the job, but for very little more money I would probably go for the Alesis now if I were to buy again.

 

[christiaan]

1.66ghz, 500mb/ram laptop

Yes, that should be up to the task of recording 4 tracks simultaneously.
Don't believe others who say that you can't. People were already able to record 16 24 bits tracks simultaneously >5 years ago on stock computer hardware.
For better performance you may want to disable the virus scanner software and everything else you don't need running in the background.

And another vote for a firewire interface instead of a USB interface.

 

[Rodrev]

Don't believe others who say that you can't. People were already able to record 16 24 bits tracks simultaneously >5 years ago on stock computer hardware.

I couldnt agree more!

With my first DAW I frequently recorded 4 tracks in Cubase SX1 with a 500Mhz, 380Mb RAM, running the EMU APS interface. In theory, this is also possible with a Soundblaster Live. Dont believe the people who says that nothing is possible with lower specs. They are just trying to justify the horrendous sums of money they have used on HW.