Setting up my computer...

P

Phil

New member
I am in the process of setting up my computer for hard-disk recording and had a few questions I hope some of you pros could shed some light on...

I have an AMD K6-3 400, and was planning on purchasing the Aardvark direct pro 24/96, and according to the tech guys there this card does not need a Pentium chip to run. Does anyone think that I am asking for more problems than it's worth buy not splurging for a new machine or an upgrade? I bought a second dedicated hard-drive for my recording endeavors.

I have had several people offer me various condensed "mega cd's" with a million and one software titles on them. While this is questionably legal, it is tempting. My question is if I can get copies of manuals for Cakewalk or Cubase from anywhere on the web. I am a newbie to all of this and don't want to dive into VST 3.7 or Pro Audio 9 without a manual.
Any insight would be appreciated.
Thanks a bunch,
Phil
 
The K62 and K63 chips absolutely suck in comparison to the Celeron/PII/PIII (or Athalon) processors available. I had a K6-2 400Mhz and it was a pig compared to my Celeron 400Mhz.

However, you're going to want a good soundcard regardless of your processor. So get the card and see what you think! If that AMD setup doesn't work out too well, then upgrade (keeping the soundcard of course)!

Also, you might also know that recording efficiency is dependant on more than just your processor. You'll need a fast hard drive, ample memory, and the ability to run a relatively fresh installation of Windows (NT4 is preferred...by me anyway).

As far as software goes...most of those 1,000 programs on one CD offers will stick you with 1,000 shareware, demo, and freeware titles. I'd recommend downloading n-Track studio from www.fasoft.com - It's a VERY affordable multitrack recording package. $35 to register and the shareware version is very functional. There are several n-Track users like myself on this board who are more than pleased.

In fact I'd even recommend downloading n-Track NOW and then see how many tracks you can get with your current setup. This might shed some more light on your processor dilema.

Slackmaster 2000
 
Now, if only you could get the sound card in order to try it... Aardvark's latest date on its release is December 13, if your lucky, you'll be able to get one from the initial shipments, otherwise, it could be a while before you can get anything from them.

***impatient with Aardvark***

William Underwood
 
I'm looking to build soon and have been looking at the Direct Pro also. I like those 4 mic pre amps and the other specs look impressive, but I also attended the Digi 001 demo and although they only have 2 mic pre's it's the software they bundle with it that impressed me (Pro Tools). If you want audio tracks and seamless midi integration this is it. Also all the software plugins that have been developed for Pro-Tools are avalible. The only problem I have with it is the ship date for PC. Late 1st quarter is all they say, thats March yuk. The Mac version is shipping ( its in at Guitar Center ). Maybe a Mac user out there could give us a review?
 
Hey there..
I'm running an AMD k6 3 @ 400mhz on an a 100mhz mother board with 128meg ram 10gig C: drive and a 20gig D:. Also have an ARK 20/20 interface hooked to a Behringer 2642 mixer. All running on WIN98 and have not had a minutes worth of trouble with it. I do a lot of live recording with it. I have not expierenced track lag or any other problems. Keep in mind that the only job this computer has is RECORDING and mixing.

I hope this helps.

Griz
 
You're right that the processor is not everything, a fast HD is very important. Personnally I use an old P166MMX (with 64mb SDRAM and a fast-IDE Seagate HD) and I can do whatever I want in Cakewalk 9 PA (in 16bit/48khz mode) and the CPU meter never jump to more than 10%, I'm even able to add some real time compression and reverb to the mix (then the CPU meter stays between 80 and 90%, that's very funny :o). This is with an aging P166MMX, but getting a 3-4 times faster CPU isn't a hard task to do. What concerns me most if the HD (when I will buy the Direct Pro 24/96 and use 24bit resolution along with 96KHz sample rate), I don,t want to be stuck with a 700$ sound card and huge computer that only allow me to do 8 tracks because the HD isn't fast enough.
 
Check out the prices and speeds of the SCSI hard drives. Especially the ultra wide systems. If you want to do more than 8 tracks at once you need SCSI, faster is better. But so is wider.
 
heres something coming from someone wanting an scsi hard drive , but cant afford a big one... can you store all you info on a slower ide drive and transfer it over to a faster say 2 gig scsi to work on ? and just keep dragging and dropping between projects ?

- eddie -
 
Eddie
If I were you I would do all of the recording and editing on the SCSI drive. But to answer your question "YES". The software you use will allow you to get and save files to either HD.

Hope this helps
Griz
 
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