nearly there for home studio...check me someone

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lickylik

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hi .....i am in two minds about which set up to get....

#1 a G4 twin processor MAC with digi001-protools and alesis monitors.........or

#2 P4 1.4MHz 512ram windowsME with wavelab (an interface of some kind) and alesis monitoring.....

the pc system is cheaper by a longshot but stability is my question really.......my other computer which is a 733 128 ram p111 crashes so often i hate it......is mac truely more stable....

problem with New Zealand is bugger all people stock the products mentioned in forums or know how to use them???


any input is appreciated.....ta
 
I would be leary of going with the WinME thing. One of my PCs has WinME and it's forever hanging, and screwing-up, and crashing. It seems that WinMe brings out the worst in any application (especially Phewdora and NetScrape). I thought I was the only one who hated this piece of dog-dung from The Great Satan of Redmond, but apparently everyone else (at least, those I've talked with) just roll their eyes, make the sign of the cross, and sigh. If you end up going the MicroSloth route, at least go with 2000 - it's their most reliable o/s to date (although I suppose that doesn't really say much, considering TGSR's record...)

- Wil

BTW: Back in 1995, I spent a couple of months in Auckland and was mightily impressed. Last November, one of my nieces emigrated from Guernsey to your fair country, and really loves NZ - I think they're in Auckland.
 
I've found Win2k to be extremely stable. If you go with the PC I'd use that, making sure you go with an audio interface that has good Win2k drivers. If you want to save some more money, I don't think a P4 is the way to go at the moment. They're overpriced for a negligable performance gain over higher-end P3s and use overpriced RDRAM that's not going to be the standard in the future (DDR almost certainly will win that war). I'd go with a P3 and the highly praised Asus CUSL2-C motherboard (don't skimp on the motherboard if you want a solid, reliable system).
 
mmm interesting

thanks for your replies guys and yeah NZ is a nice place just a little quiet "musically".....

anyway.....i am absorbing as much as i can here and thanx....

soooo.......A windows 2000 o/s...is best and p3 rather than p4

i guess everything will be debugged in time which is what my itch is at the moment.."i can't wait"

what about digi001 / protools......the video looked awesome altho i have been tinkering with wavelab...my mate says cool edit pro is cool and he has rebirth as well .......i want to record drum tracks then bass ...play a guitar and then sing and add other bits...sooo what my list so far includes is...

win2ooo o/s

mega ram.......good processor (P3)

cd burner.....liteon / nero.....16x10x40

digi001 / protools

shure sm57 / 58

and monitors.......powered(not sure that unpowered are much different) good speakers anyway

headphones....

fruity loops and live drummers...digi001 can do this

keyboard....full/midi etc

how does that sound......i have been researching this stuff from the tingling of the first brain inkling......how am i doing so far

money is not too much of a hassle as loans are my forte???

cheers again dudes.......kiwi
 
I'm also putting a system together, and running Win2k. You'll find your selections for hardware and softare are limited using W2k because many companies don't have drivers ready. For instance, you won't be able to use the digi001.

To save some time, you might want to take a look at the research I've done so far at:
http://home1.gte.net/opunwide/DigitalRecording.htm
 
That's right about limited options under Win2k. MOTU finally has some good drivers for their whole line of I/O units and I can tell you that Cool Edit Pro and Logic Audio both work great under Win2k.

I can give you a few comments about Cool Edit Pro, since you mentioned it. I started with it and it's definitely the easiest to use of all the recording software I've tried. It seemed to crash a lot on me but it could've improved by now. My biggest problem with it is the lack of realtime effects. I couldn't deal with it any more so I switched to Logic.

I can't give you a high enough recommendation of MOTU's audio interfaces. I have a 1224 and I love it. The expandability is nice - you can plug three of 'em (2408 or 1224, probably others too) into a single PCI card.

Also, though I wanted to find a unit with all XLR mic inputs when I first shopped for equipment, I must say that having a mixer is very nice because of the flexability it offers for monitoring while recording. I use an Alesis Studio 32, which is a nice mixer and the least expensive I could find with seperate line out for each channel (actually, the Studio 24 is even cheaper but I wanted more channels).
 
My understanding of the P4 is that you're not going to see a lot of performance gains from it immediately. Almost like the MMX chips, it took a while for software companies to write new code to exploit the potential. In fact the higher end P3s still beat out the P4 in performance comparisons.

WIN2K is very stable, but I've had problem with drivers for some of my gear. My MOTU Midi Express has no w2k drivers (although from the other posts I'll be checking back there as soon as I post here). I also picked up a SeaSound SOLO EX recently. The company went under before they finished their w2k drivers so obviously they aren't available. I'm currently running a dual boot with W2K & W98SE (A little bit of both worlds).

Those are good starter mics but you might want to consider a large diaphragm condenser mic for vocals. There's a lot of good info in the Microphone forum.

Like the C1 (There I said it before anyone else could) No seriously, lots of good info over there.

Steve
 
ta

thanks again....tis so complexly varied in flavours isn't it

The biggest problem i think i will have is buying the gear..

NZ is so small and isolated that the range is small also.....

I am a little more informed now tho of a few things once again thanks..........lick
 
My thoughts and system.

I am running windows 98, Pro suite 9.0, 1Mhz p3, 256 of ram and a Echo Layla 24/96. I have had very good luck with stability. It took me running 11 track with pan and volume envelopes, about 10 real time effects and recording 8 tracks at once to have a problem. To me this is something that would rarely happen. It just happened that I had a finished song with looped drums that I was putting real drums to. Still pulled it off no problem.

The system you are looking at is better than what I have the only thing I would say is I have heard bad things about some of the newer windows versions. I am sticking with fat32 98.

Oh I have a friend who has a pro studio. He is running a G4 (not sure of the processor but he's really pro so I am sure it is good). He is using CuBasic and is using a MOTU interface. He records adat and transfers to the mac. He says that crashing is a daily thing for him. Grant it he is on the thing all the time but still it does not sound anymore stable than my PC system.

Not ranking but the mac show this year was said to be a bust. Nothing special coming out soon. PC is moving very fast still.

Have a good one

F S

www.mp3.com/freudian_slip1
 
thanks dude

thanx....the more i look at it the more i am understanding.....

these forums rock....
yeah

lickster
 
WATCH OUT

I would be leary of a company whose new product, can't outperform there last one. No matter what you have to do with it, I.E.(optimize code,etc.) They should have done it. It just smells fishy to me. ;)

GoodLuck,
T.J.Hooker:cool:
 
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