New DAW advice

M

mcmd

New member
Time to upgrade my DAW!
I haven't recorded anything for a year or two. I have been using my Boss looper pedal to
capture ideas, but it's time to make good on some of the material. I play guitar and sing
a little. Like many here, I am a solo operator - so never needed more that two inputs
for recording. Standard rock - blues music, guitars, bass and canned drum.

I am coming off of a old Dell P4 and Sonar 8.5 with a M-Audio audiophile 192 card.

I am moving to Sonar X2.

I don't need a mobile DAW, so unless someone makes a good case for a laptop, I will only be considering a desktop.

I have Yamaha MP3 monitors.
I have 2 LCD monitors, VGA and DVI which I intend to re-use. However, if a single larger monitor is now the preferred setup, then I might consider that in the future.

I only record occasionally, maybe every month, but when I do, I want everything up and running with the minimum ammount of fuss. I would like to improve on the quality of my recordings.

I think that biggest issue I seem to have had has been latency. I don't remember what my current setup achieves, but I felt that there was enough of a delay that affected my timimg/sync (guitar), which made the process less satisfying.

A typical session would be: basic drum click track-->scratch guitar track-->Bass guitar--> rhythm guitars--> lead guitars.
Basic FX's: compression, eq, reverb, delay.
Track count is typically 5-10.

Interfaces:

USB seems to be the most commonly supported interface - giving my needs it would appear to be a reasonable choice.
Any recommendations here - I am thinking Focusrite.

PC:
I will be buying a Dell or HP or equivalent.
I prefer intel chipsets. Any reason why I might need more than a quad core i5?
RAM - I will get 8-12GB
HD - 1TB @7200rpm
Video card? just a basic card or on board video will do just fine for a DAW?

I don't want to spend more that $800 on the PC and interface at this time.

thanks for any input.
 
mcmd said:
Time to upgrade my DAW!
I haven't recorded anything for a year or two. I have been using my Boss looper pedal to
capture ideas, but it's time to make good on some of the material. I play guitar and sing
a little. Like many here, I am a solo operator - so never needed more that two inputs
for recording. Standard rock - blues music, guitars, bass and canned drum.

I am coming off of a old Dell P4 and Sonar 8.5 with a M-Audio audiophile 192 card.

I am moving to Sonar X2.

I don't need a mobile DAW, so unless someone makes a good case for a laptop, I will only be considering a desktop.

I have Yamaha MP3 monitors.
I have 2 LCD monitors, VGA and DVI which I intend to re-use. However, if a single larger monitor is now the preferred setup, then I might consider that in the future.

I only record occasionally, maybe every month, but when I do, I want everything up and running with the minimum ammount of fuss. I would like to improve on the quality of my recordings.

I think that biggest issue I seem to have had has been latency. I don't remember what my current setup achieves, but I felt that there was enough of a delay that affected my timimg/sync (guitar), which made the process less satisfying.

A typical session would be: basic drum click track-->scratch guitar track-->Bass guitar--> rhythm guitars--> lead guitars.
Basic FX's: compression, eq, reverb, delay.
Track count is typically 5-10.

Interfaces:

USB seems to be the most commonly supported interface - giving my needs it would appear to be a reasonable choice.
Any recommendations here - I am thinking Focusrite.

PC:
I will be buying a Dell or HP or equivalent.
I prefer intel chipsets. Any reason why I might need more than a quad core i5?
RAM - I will get 8-12GB
HD - 1TB @7200rpm
Video card? just a basic card or on board video will do just fine for a DAW?

I don't want to spend more that $800 on the PC and interface at this time.

thanks for any input.
Click to expand...

I use the 192 and have no issues with latency. As a matter of fact, I have the Presonus USB and switched to the 192 to reduce latency. The buffers are set to 256 and use the plugins when I record with near 0 latency. So, I haven't had an issue so far.

On the i5 chip, I have not seen the performance on these third generation chips, I usually use AMD chips. But, with that said, I think i5 and above, third generation, should serve you well. Based on a quick check, a desktop with i5 will run about $500-600 up. Plus the cost for more RAM. Most come with 4Gb.

You might try the new computer and see if your 192 performs better before getting a new interface. Make sure you are using the latest ASIO drivers for the card and the new desktop has the slot for the 192 if you want to check before getting a new one.

Hope this helps.
 
mjbphotos said:
If you use an interface that lets you select direct monitoring, latency does not enter the equation.
Click to expand...

Correct me if I am wrong, but direct monitoring is just the dry input? With the correct interface, you can have "wet" monitoring with near 0 latency. I find this needful as many times, the effects I use controls what and how I play as many times they are bound together.
 
DM60 said:
Correct me if I am wrong, but direct monitoring is just the dry input? With the correct interface, you can have "wet" monitoring with near 0 latency. I find this needful as many times, the effects I use controls what and how I play as many times they are bound together.
Click to expand...

I have to agree here. The full "feedback" of a wet track always gives me more to work with and can affect my input.....whether it's vocal or otherwise. I get the point of the advice given. Just doesn't work well for me. My two cents worth.
 
Everyone's different. I can see needing wet monitoring if you are using guitar amp sims, not so much if you are doing vocals (although I guess some vocalists really need to hear reverb on their voice when singing).
Latency is a function of the buffer settings in the software as well as the device and the computer's processing power.
 
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