R
ringr
New member
Just FYI to anyone considering a new PC-based recording system, from someone who just did a bunch of research on putting together a reasonably-priced home setup. I'm making the switch from analog 4-track to digital audio.
This rig has been working great so far with no dropouts or crackles on recording or playback. It's been fairly easy to do projects with vocals, guitar and bass coupled with computer drum patterns & MIDI soft-synth. Latency is not a problem -- I can playback drums & guitar while recording another guitar or bass track and the timing lines up perfectly, just like with tape (only you have way more editing power, of course.)
I've done projects with a dozen tracks & haven't begun to max out this machine. I'm also using the computer for word processing & internet and have had no conflicts so far.
Cost was $1,200 for the machine, $250 for the soundcard and $130 for Home Studio XL.
Motherboard: Asus P4PE-RL
Chipset: Intel 845PE
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz 533 front-side bus
Ram: Samsung 512MB PC2700 DDR-SDRAM
Case: Lian-Li PC50 Mini-Tower 300W.
Hard Drive: Western Digital 80 gb with 8mb cache
Video Card: ATI Radeon 9000 Pro (64mb)
Sound Card: Terratec 6Fire 24/96
CD drive: Teac 40/12/48 CDRW
Operating System: Windows XP Home
Recording Software: Home Studio XL
The Terratec sound card, which installs via a PCI slot, has a nice front panel module that goes in a CD-drive-size bay and allows easy access to all the inputs & outputs. Like the Soundblaster Audigy 2, only this card is better for audio projects.
I bought from a custom-assembly shop called Puget Sound Systems in Seattle. They have a website at pugetsystems.com. Pick your parts, they put it together and ship it to you.
Upgrades if I had the money:
* another hard drive (just for audio)
* a 128 mb video card
* possibly a Plextor CD drive, perhaps a DVD drive
* XP Pro, although no problem so far with Home
* you could always add another 512 RAM
Hope this helps anyone looking to make the big switch.
This rig has been working great so far with no dropouts or crackles on recording or playback. It's been fairly easy to do projects with vocals, guitar and bass coupled with computer drum patterns & MIDI soft-synth. Latency is not a problem -- I can playback drums & guitar while recording another guitar or bass track and the timing lines up perfectly, just like with tape (only you have way more editing power, of course.)
I've done projects with a dozen tracks & haven't begun to max out this machine. I'm also using the computer for word processing & internet and have had no conflicts so far.
Cost was $1,200 for the machine, $250 for the soundcard and $130 for Home Studio XL.
Motherboard: Asus P4PE-RL
Chipset: Intel 845PE
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz 533 front-side bus
Ram: Samsung 512MB PC2700 DDR-SDRAM
Case: Lian-Li PC50 Mini-Tower 300W.
Hard Drive: Western Digital 80 gb with 8mb cache
Video Card: ATI Radeon 9000 Pro (64mb)
Sound Card: Terratec 6Fire 24/96
CD drive: Teac 40/12/48 CDRW
Operating System: Windows XP Home
Recording Software: Home Studio XL
The Terratec sound card, which installs via a PCI slot, has a nice front panel module that goes in a CD-drive-size bay and allows easy access to all the inputs & outputs. Like the Soundblaster Audigy 2, only this card is better for audio projects.
I bought from a custom-assembly shop called Puget Sound Systems in Seattle. They have a website at pugetsystems.com. Pick your parts, they put it together and ship it to you.
Upgrades if I had the money:
* another hard drive (just for audio)
* a 128 mb video card
* possibly a Plextor CD drive, perhaps a DVD drive
* XP Pro, although no problem so far with Home
* you could always add another 512 RAM
Hope this helps anyone looking to make the big switch.
