Is my computer good enough?

F

FrizzleFry

New member
I have never recorded anything on computers before but I am looking to start. My brother is shipping a computer to my house next week but I am not sure if it will be good enough. I dont know if it has the memory or whatever and the right sound card or whatever. These are the specs of the computer, can somebody tell me if it is adequate for home recording. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks.

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Pentium II 350 Mhz / 100 Mhz FSB

4.3 GIG HDD

56K int modem

128 MB SDRAM

MED tower case

AC 97 Sound onboard with a set of speakers

INTEL 82810 Video card onboard

32x Gray CD- ROM

1.44 MB floppy drive
 
Don't expect much but it's good enough to do some basic multitracking. You should be able to do a handful of simultaneous tracks. Just start with it and along the way you'll find its limitations but by then you'll have some experience under your belt and will be able to make some judgements about what to upgrade first.
 
Thanks, yeah I don't really want to do anything to elaborarate, so it's ok if my conputer can't handle that much. Basically I want to be able to record 4 tracks (guitar bass drums and vocals) and be able to edit and mix them so it sounds good. I don't even really need to record tracks simultaniously..I like to record them one at a time. I have all the instruments and microphones already, I just want to put some songs on the internet. The main thing I guess im looking to be able to do is record songs and be able to edit them a lot.
 
BTW, ive been looking around on ebay and buying places and computer components seem pretty cheap..so I might just hot it up a little bit. Im thinking of muying a much faster chip. Anyway, if I am to upgrade, what would be the first thing to upgrae (from a recording standpoint); the chip, RAM or Hard drive gb's...
After reading a lot of threads in this forum i'm starting to learn that this machine im getting is a pretty antiquated piece off fluff. Oh, well, nothing an upgrade cannot fix! :D

As, before..any help appreciated.
 
if the hard drive isnt 7200rpm, get one...at least 20mb......

get the fastest Celeron that the motherboard will handle.....

and stay there......


dont put too much $$$ into it......
 
Gidge said:
if the hard drive isnt 7200rpm, get one...at least 20mb......

get the fastest Celeron that the motherboard will handle.....

and stay there......


dont put too much $$$ into it......
Click to expand...

By the 7200rpm..do you mean increase the Gig?
And the celeron..is that a chip?
and (haha) why shouldn't I put too much money into it?

(sorry for stupid questions..im not good at computer geek stuff..that's why I use a producer!)

-S
 
FrizzleFry said:
By the 7200rpm..do you mean increase the Gig?
And the celeron..is that a chip?
and (haha) why shouldn't I put too much money into it?

(sorry for stupid questions..im not good at computer geek stuff..that's why I use a producer!)

-S
Click to expand...

- No, rpm stands for how many rotations per minute the platters in the hard drive turn around. More rpms -> lower access times, more megabytes per second

- The Celeron is a (stripped down) version of the Pentium II/Pentium III. Better price/performance ration than the real thing. Not less stable or anything. It's genuine Intel.

- You shouldn't put too much money into it because it soon becomes cheaper to just replace the whole thing. And you'd get a much faster computer then too.
 
Find out how much a *cheap* new computer in your area would be. You already have a monitor, keyboard and mouse so just look at the tower.

For example, here in the U.S. I can get a really basic box new for only about $350US. Compare that against the price of the upgrade components you are thinking of buying for your PII 350.

I wouldn't sink any money on upgrading that PII for recording since the chances are that any new computer you could by for just a little bit more will include significantly better performance. I'd save a little longer and get something more recent.

There have been a LOT of major hardware improvements since that computer was made and even a very basic computer made in the last 6 months will out-perform it by quite a bit. Faster busses and memory are standards now.

For example, I had a Celeron 400mHz (with a 4200rpm drive and a 66mHz bus) that could squeeze 9 tracks out of n-track with very few effects.

I upgraded to a PIII 800 (with a 5400rpm drive and a 100mHz bus) and my track count jumped to 24. Faster drive and faster bus.

Now I have a P4 2gHz (with a slow 4200 rpm drive and a "533"mHz bus) that screams away at 32 tracks with all the effects I need. Even with the slow drive the faster bus makes a lot more possible.

In any case, the computer as you have it now should give you 8-10 tracks with a program like n-track. If you can hold out on that for a while, upgrading to a newer computer- even a low end one- will mostly likely give you the most bang for the buck.

Take care,
Chris
 
you should be able to get a Celeron CPU for about $40.....

a 30gb 7200 rpm drive should run $60.....

for $100, youll be in serious business.....and if you ever do look into a new system, the hard drive can go with you and youll only be out the $40 for the CPU.....

btw, im still running a 500mhz Celeron and easily getting 16-24 tracks...its the effects that will bog you down but there are ways around that.......
 
FrizzleFry said:
Thanks, yeah I don't really want to do anything to elaborarate, so it's ok if my conputer can't handle that much.
Click to expand...
I don't know, man. Once the bug bites you it's hard not to crave more, more, more, faster, faster, faster!
 
Posted by Gidge
btw, im still running a 500mhz Celeron and easily getting 16-24 tracks...its the effects that will bog you down but there are ways around that.......
Click to expand...
Reverb is the most used effect and also the most Processeor Intesive effect. It'll suck your system down in a heartbeat if used too much.

CR ><>
 
Rather than using effects "real time" (as the track is playing back) you can apply them "off-line" (have the computer apply the effect, then listen to it and change it, reapply if necessary.
Takes longer but saves processing power.
 
Yeah Frizzle, if you are new to computers still, I don't recommend cracking the case for anything, much less a processor upgrade. Then you have to worry about grounding yourself ($10 for a wristband), and then you need some arctic silver (another $8). there are "hidden" costs to upgrading too. Of course, you could pay somebody to do it for you, but then, that kind of defeats the purpose of saving money for something better.

Unless you are going to be broke for awhile, and you have a friend that can do the upgrade for you, I would simply not mess with it. Chris is right on.......
 
Software does matter as well

If I were you I would also pay a bit of attention to the software you choose. I would pick up a program that has some processor saving features. For example Logic Audio Platinum have come out with version 6 (will be available this month) and it has a ton of special processor saving features.

It has track freeze. What this means, is that you can use the effects plug ins on track one (for example) and just load that track down with whatever you want... compressor, EQ, reverb, etc. Get it sounding just the way you want it... and then you can "freeze the track." meaning that Logic will create a fully rendored version of the origianl recording with all the effects on it and can play it back as one audio file. Otherwise the processor has to be adding the effects in real time to each track... this is really processor hungry. Then you can move on to track two and EQ it, compress it, do whatever, then freeze it. And so on and so on.

With the processor you have 350mHz, you will definitely get your 4 tracks (although i am sure you will want more soon) but as soon as you add a reverb effect and an EQ to the first two tracks your processor will choke down. This way you can extend the functionality and with a lot of creative techniques and a hell of a lot of tedious time spent freezing, listening, unfreezing, correcting and tweeking, then freezing again, listening blah blah... it will take a while to get used to, but in theory you could work out some good mixes with very little CPU resources.

Also Logic audio has the new feature of Off-line bounce down. That means that when you bounce down the final mix after you have everything right and you think the song is finished and you want to burn to CD to have it mastered (or just release it as it is) then Logic will bounce down all the trakcs with all the plug in effects and automation passes faster than real time. (meaning you don't have to sit through your whole song playing through). You can just click on bounce down and it will mathematically add up the tracks and put the plug in on. This way you can push your computer to the absolute limit of CPU power and the WAY WAY WAY beyond what it could normally handle and then during the downmix it will not choke down, because it is not in real time.

I hope you understand what I am talking about.

Do you already have a software program in mind?
 
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