steppin up

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punkin

punkin

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I've had it with my extingy...a complete waste of money. I'm considering the Midiman Delta66 or the Delta 44. I'm running a very small operation but looking for a quality result. Anyone using this card with SONAR and what do you think of it?

BTW...I'm stepping up my PC at the same time. Looking at a Gateway 700 Series with dual 80 gig (7200 rpm) drives, 1 meg ram and a 3.06 MHz processor. Does this look like a liveable package when packed with one of the Delta cards?

I'll look forward to the comments.

sjl
 
punkin said:
BTW...I'm stepping up my PC at the same time. Looking at a Gateway 700 Series with dual 80 gig (7200 rpm) drives, 1 meg ram and a 3.06 MHz processor. Does this look like a liveable package when packed with one of the Delta cards?
Click to expand...

That's the fastest P4 that's available => a total waste of money.
The best performance comes at a price. Go one or two steps down, like 2.6 or 2.8GHz. The price/performance ratio is way way better on those chips and will still give you more than enough processing power for happy recording.
For the money you'll save on a slightly slower cpu, you should be able to buy a Delta 1010 instead of a 44 or 66.
If I had the choice, I'd know what I would pick.
 
Completely agreed. Although I am new to recording, I'm not new to the PC scene...never buy the exact fastest chip if you can help it. Get a 2.6 if you want value, and then O/C a little, and you'll have a faster machine than if you payed the big bucks for the top chip! :) (Increasing the FSB a little will give you that edge)
Check www.pricewatch.com for latest prices if you don't already use it.

Jed
 
so,..

i take it the advice here is i'm shooting a bit high with the pc and a little low with the audio card?

not so sure i need 10/10 card but glad to hear i don't need quite so much pc.

I've heard much about having two drives (one for the OS and the other for recording). I've read that drives should have a minimum RPM of 7200 rpm and max memory as possible. is this still the idea or has the pc industry surpassed our usual recommended specs.?

I ask ths cuz, i currently have a 333 mhz, 256 machine with an on board, low end audio card...it totally sucks. Locks up...bad audio quality and the latency jitters up the wazzooo.

bottom line really bad recordings, and multi-tracking is out of the question. I'm going to put an end to all my recording frustrations now!

sjl
 
That's painful. upgrade!

Yea you don't need top of the line, just get a price list of all of the different components, say, all of the new intel line of chips, and look from the top down.

You'll see there is a HUGE price gap between the top of the line and the second one down, and a little bit of a smaller gap to the third one down, etc... It increases exponentially as you go down the list, so just find a healthy medium between the price drops and performance. You'll see a level where the chip above it is quite a significant ammount higher for not much more power, and the one below it isn't much less than the one you're selecting.
 
Thanks All

I appreciate the insight on bang for buck...I'll take that to heart when shopping.

So, what about the Midiman 44 and/or the 66? I heard a vote for the 1010.
 
I'll just tell you what everyone told me: :) If you'll never record more than 4 tracks simultaneously, get the Delta 44/66. Same card, just 66 has SPDIF. If you want 8 in/out on a budget, get the Delta 1010LT. ($250). If you want a rack w/ balanced 8 in/out, get a Delta 1010 ($450 used off Ebay), or a C-port ($399 new).
If you need 4 preamps built in, Ego-systems has a nice WaMi Rack 192L, but it's only 4in and 8 out, and Aardvark makes a nice 4in card w/ the Direct Pro 24/96, but cost is higher than some. The C-port and the Delta 1010LT both have 2 preamps built in.

Hope that helps...there are others that will get recommended to you, but I really researched the price/performance, and those seem to be your best bets. For what it's worth, I ended up deciding on a Delta 1010.

For major price/performance on your CPU, go with a P4 2.53GHz -- that's the sweet spot for Intel, only $186. For AMD, go with Athlon XP 2500 ($175) or Athlon XP 2400 at $125.

Jed
 
Is it just me or is AMD not rediculously cheaper than intel anymore? They used to be SO MUCH CHEAPER that i was no contest, the top of the line AMD chip was literally half the price of the intel, or less. Are they raising prices to fill the gap between Intel a little?
 
thanks Jedman, that was the kind of input I was hoping for. I'm like you...thinking towards the 1010LT.

I also see the "sweet spot" your talking about where returns diminish when approaching the latest and greatest technology (talking bang for buck).

Thinking I'll assemble a 2.5 or 2.6 gig machine with max ram, 10,000 rpm scsi drive and a 120 gig 7200 rpm ide drive.

What are your thoughts on ram...is there a point where too much is simply wasted money?
 
I would go with about 1 GB of RAM for your comp punkin. You MAY be able to get by with less, but 1 GB will give you some room to grow.
 
You seem to be spending a lot on your pc and very little on your soundcard. Maybe you should reassess your priorities.
 
Alfalfa has a good point -- how much time will you spend on projects with the sound card, and how much time just doing other stuff on the PC? That might help you decide cost wise, how much to throw at both components. You might want more than the 1010LT...maybe a full blown 1010 or a C-port...that's your call.
As far as RAM, I'm running 512MB right now, and I wouldn't get less than that for XP. It's a hog of an O/S, but better than other Microsoft offerings. (Yes, I've tried Linux, but couldn't do much with video editing there, so XP is my choice O/S at the moment.)
If you can, 1GB would be the max I'd spring for right now. Definatly diminishing returns on your money after 512MB. Unless you're constantly running tons of tracks at a time or a server! :)

Jed
 
Jedman said:
If you want a rack w/ balanced 8 in/out, get a Delta 1010 ($450 used off Ebay), or a C-port ($399 new).
Click to expand...

Just for the record: The C-port is not fully balanced
2 x balanced (XLR) inputs with built in pre-amps (-24dB to +50dB) & switchable phantom power (48V)
2 x balanced (XLR) outputs
8 x 1/4" unbalanced inputs
8 x 1/4" unbalanced outputs
(http://www.staudio.com/products/dsp2000/index.html)
 
Re: Thanks All

punkin said:
So, what about the Midiman 44 and/or the 66? I heard a vote for the 1010.
Click to expand...
I guess that was my vote.
Like Jedman said: If you won't be tracking more than 4 channels at once, you should be perfectly happy with a 44 or 66. It was just that I think that a 1010 is a better investment than a P4 3.06. Keeping the saved money in your pocket is a fine choice too.
 
Thanks everyone...some good advice.

This machine will do mostly multi-tracking and recording. Not much else. My intent was again to get a machine I won't soon be looking to replace. I realize a major dumping of bucks was inevitable but I figured do it right and do it soon.

I'm settled on the 1010. With maybe a bit less machine. A 2.6 GHz, 1 Gb Ram, a smallish scsi and a jumbo sized ide drive and a couple opto drives.

Thanks again.
 
Good call, Punkin. That's what I decided too... it's funny, because it seems we're doing the same upgrade - I bought an Audigy 2 Platinum a few months back... and I now see it was completely a waste as far as recording goes.
I'm just waiting for the 1010 to get here on the UPS truck! :)
I'd honestly spend the extra on the sound card and 1GB of Ram, and settle for the P4 2.53GHz and O/C it.
Enjoy the new speed and sound!
Jed
 
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