small computer?

  • Thread starter Thread starter cantthinkofname
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kcearl said:
forgot to say canthink if you do buy that behriger UCA202 as a cheap interface it comes with a copy of EnergyXT2.5...Ive installed it to have a look and it has everything you need...a pretty good lil' DAW

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thanks again, i have noticed people saying bad things about behringers but i'd have to find out for myself to believe it, and i have no choice but to make do with what i can afford, your songs sound great too and if thats what your using it should be fine. as for the DAW (i'm pretty proud now that i know what DAW means) i am planning on Reaper. i looked into those pretty good i think and Reaper just seems to be the one for me, but thanks, who knows maybe i will try & like the Energy too, thanks again
 
yeah behri makes some crap...and the UCA202 is hardly state of the art but it takes headphones as well as speakers, so you can record in private, and it will get you started with a DAW all for the price of a couple of pizzas...

I use a line6 interface..the UCAs just for when Im travelling
 
Bristol Posse said:
I would say yes it *can* be done but you will need to do your research and really check stuff out first.

Net books are really designed for staying in touch on the go not for running serious applications that require a lot of powerful processing (such as audio/video creation and editing, hardcore gaming etc)

a 1.6 ghz single core processor is like taking a 15 year step back in time in terms of processor performance (again net books are designed for websurfing and staying in touch not heavy duty processing). That's not to say you can't do your audio stuff, but you are going to need to ensure you are running very lean non CPU intensive applications and plugins or you will have problems very quickly

a 80 - 160GB hard drive is adequate for small home recording projects but tracks rack up the MB pretty quickly and for optimal disc performance you want to try and keep the hard drive less than 50% full. Again it can be done but you may find you are having to do frequent data dumpps to external drives and since netbooks generally only have a couple of USB ports and no Firewire or Cardbus this could be slow going. Again not impossible but maybe laborious. Also the fact that there is no optical drive (CD /DVD burner) in all the netbooks I have looked at would be a pain for me.

Combination of USB only, (relatively) Clunky CPU performance, slower hard drive performance, RAM limited to a GIG (generally speaking) and generally poorly executed BIOS in these types of machine will be more prone to Pops, clicks, freeze ups and latency issues and simultaneous track recording will be limited especially if you are looking at using bit/sample rates of over 16/44.1 than you would expect to see on second hand 5-7 year old desktop.

Again it can be done but it may be a little unstable and frustrating. If you look at the minimum requirements for much of the audio software and audio plugins/VSTi, Usb audio interfaces etc, they usually want a pentium 4 running at 3 ghz or better at minimum. you will be running with about half that power, a small L1 L2 cache very slow Front side bus and comparitively slow RAM. (Again not bashing netbooks, they are superb for the purpose they are designed and marketed for but they are not powerhouse workhorses)

IF you are going to go this route pick and choose your software, Plugins, VSTi and outboard gear very carefully to ensure that everything is as lean and resource light as possible or you *MAY* be disappointed.

If it were my dilema I'd look at a second hand/reconditioned desktop over a netbook
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thanks bristol, it might be smart to hold off and look into second hand desktops although i'm not a computer wiz and so i worry about problems with second hand stuff that i can't fix alone, but its something to consider, thanks again
 
cantthinkofname said:
i thought about that, but can viruses and other online crapholes get access to it through the computer? i usually end up having to buy a new computer every year because of stuff like that
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i've been online with my recording computer for 5 years and it's never been an issue.
 
ez_willis said:
i've been online with my recording computer for 5 years and it's never been an issue.
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your lucky then or someone has some particular vengeance against me because i've honestly bought 4 new computers in the last 4 years. the one i have now has given me the least problems and i've actually spent the least money on and purposefully avoided anti-virus software because i've got those guys figured out!

(plus they usually crash around this time of year, just before tax refunds, their not stupid. the stupid one is me who uses my computer during tax season
 
kcearl said:
yeah behri makes some crap...and the UCA202 is hardly state of the art but it takes headphones as well as speakers, so you can record in private, and it will get you started with a DAW all for the price of a couple of pizzas...

I use a line6 interface..the UCAs just for when Im travelling
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i remember the guerilla book you told me to get that i got talking about line 6, and my cube is doing well so far all for the price of good german beer:):D

although something horrible happened last night, i think i might of been enjoying it too much because all of a sudden i noticed a change in sound, it sounded flatter and deader. i told myself to calm down and try it the next day just incase i was just using it too much and becoming immune. i still noticed it today, so i either blew something in the amp or my ears.

i hope its my ears, and i hope its the amp at the same time! hopefully just imagination
 
As far as using a netbook, I wouldn't advise it. While 1.6ghz is a good enough speed to do some recording, speed isnt everything. The "atom" is the architecture. It is not designed to handle any multimedia work (aside from watching a movie or playing a song.) You may be able to do some basic work, but in the long run, a computer like that will limit. Honestly, as someone mentioned, you're better off getting a cheap G4. I've heard many success stories with those macs especially for the price.

I know you admit you don't know a lot about computers-and that's fine! We all start somewhere!:cool: But do some research outside of the forums. Learn a little bit more about computers. It'll help you with more than just recording!
 
Ive seen sonar 7 run on an Atom 1.6 on the Cakewalk forum...he even used a softtsynths but you have to bounce it to audio immediately

I do agree with what your saying though...and for the price of these notebooks there are laptops with far superior CPU let alone used PCs

One of mine is an HP..dual 2.8 with 3g ram, with monitor, 7200rpm 250g HD, keyboard, XP and even logic speakers and woofer....all for $275 used
 
ez_willis said:
i've been online with my recording computer for 5 years and it's never been an issue.
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Same here. I built a computer about 2 years ago and have had zero problems. I use it for my everyday computing, lots of internet, paying bills, making purchases, and recording. I think that the key is to make sure you get or build a computer with high quality components and get yourself some good anti-virus software. I run a full scan at least monthly.
 
cantthinkofname said:
i thought about that, but can viruses and other online crapholes get access to it through the computer? i usually end up having to buy a new computer every year because of stuff like that
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Buying a new computer because of a virus is akin to buying a new car because of a flat tire. It's great if you can afford it, but... jeez!

Just wipe the hard drive.
 
You could just set up a dual boot on your pc, with a second install of windows specifically for recording. Disable all network hardware to keep it off the internet, disable anything else you don't need for it aswell, and get a seperate hard drive to save your projects to.
 
kcearl said:
Ive seen sonar 7 run on an Atom 1.6 on the Cakewalk forum...he even used a softtsynths but you have to bounce it to audio immediately

I do agree with what your saying though...and for the price of these notebooks there are laptops with far superior CPU let alone used PCs

One of mine is an HP..dual 2.8 with 3g ram, with monitor, 7200rpm 250g HD, keyboard, XP and even logic speakers and woofer....all for $275 used
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Just for grins, I installed Reaper on one last night. Then, installed the drivers for my interface. Imported a largish project from Sonar and subbed the native plugs from Reaper. It was 9 tracks. I then added 6 additional tracks simultaneously from my G6 and JV2080....no midi or soft synths, just straight tracking. The performance of the netbook was pretty stinkin' good. The mix down did take longer due to the much less capable processor, but I didn't run into any glitches at all while tracking and editing. I think a Netbook would do ok with a fairly low impact project. I only paid $149 ea for the 3 I picked up (Hell of a sale at Penny's)so in a bang for the buck world, I'd say they aren't too bad. Now if you have to pony up $300 for one, forget it and go the used lappy route.:cool:
 
they're you go....pretty surprising those little things...
 
IMHO the primary concern is HD speed and after that it's the general computer configuration of processor and RAM. The versions of Pro Tools and Guitar Tracks I used both required a certain HD speed and size to accomodate record and playback. An adequate sound card helps and interface too, but those are a generality. Guitar Tracks has an updated version that comes with a USB interface. Most HD in devices today should be adequate, but some of the older ones, 3 or 4 years ago, may not be.
 
wheelema said:
Buying a new computer because of a virus is akin to buying a new car because of a flat tire. It's great if you can afford it, but... jeez!

Just wipe the hard drive.
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i don't know how to wipe the hard drive wheelie. are you saying when a computer completely blacks out for good all you have to do is wipe the hard drive?
 
legionserial said:
You could just set up a dual boot on your pc, with a second install of windows specifically for recording. Disable all network hardware to keep it off the internet, disable anything else you don't need for it aswell, and get a seperate hard drive to save your projects to.
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:confused:

thanks somehow i might try to do that, i don't completely understand it but it seems to make sense. i must be a fool but sometimes i don't mind paying for lack of complexity, but since i don't always have the money i should try to learn what your talking about thanks
 
cantthinkofname said:
i don't know how to wipe the hard drive wheelie. are you saying when a computer completely blacks out for good all you have to do is wipe the hard drive?
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So long as you have the windows disk (either full version that you buy yourself or the recovery version that the computer maker send with the package of discks when you buy it) then yes

Something like killdisk will completely remove everything when you boot from it (more effective than trying to format) and you're ready to go.
It's worth removing the RAM and leaving it out of the machine for a while as a few viruses can sit in the RAM

Better still periodically take a disk image to an external drive so if you do have a catastrophic crash or HD faliure you can just recover the entire system to a recent state in just a few minutes

AND...
quite frankly get some good antivirus (not Norton or McAfee which are full of junkware function that are completely useless and kill system performance) and get better web browsing habbits. There is no good reason at all to have to replace an entire computer system or even just the HDD every year because of viruses caused by foolish online habbits
 
Bristol Posse said:
AND...
quite frankly get some good antivirus (not Norton or McAfee which are full of junkware function that are completely useless and kill system performance)
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Any specific recommendations regarding AV software for a home recording PC? I agree with your statement about Norton and McAfee, and I'm looking for a good alternative. I really hate the way that these AV programs take over your computer, to the point where they can't even be turned off temporarily when I would like to do so on occasion.

Thanks...
 
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