Sufficient DAW Set-up???

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SLP

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I am almost ready to make the ultimate purchase, the DAW. I have read tons of technical info pertaining to this new and wonderful at-home bundle of joy (aside from the IRQ issues, etc..) The system I have my eyes on is, a PIII, 833Mhz, 128 megs of ram, Digidesign 001 recording interface, An Alesis Studio 24 mixer, recording console, , Bi-amped monitors, (Roland DS50A)these plug right into the back of the 001. Aside from the additional plug-in and mixing software, is there something I'm missing? Thanks in advance..

SLP
 
Sounds like a good setup. Only suggestion is I would get 256 megs of RAM, its cheap and you can never have too much.
 
I agree - 256 Meg is a must, especially if you are considering Win 2000. The other thing I would suggest is don't go cheap on the monitor - it is very tempting, and an easy way to save a few hundred bucks, but the monitor is probably the only piece of hardware that has a long life relative to the rest of your components. Don't forget you will be spending countless hours in front of it. In additon, you can upgrade any other component fairly cheaply - CDROM, graphics card, memory, etc., but if you decide you don't like the monitor it can be an expensive upgrade. Better to get it right the first time.

I have a 19" Viewsonic perfect flat and I love it. In general, any monitor that uses the flat aperature grill trinitron tube is pretty good.
 
256 megs of ram on

pricewatch.com is like $90 dollars now.

Have you read reviews on the digi001 and the roland monitors?

I read a review on the ds-90 that said it was not very flat, and at $595 list each, I believe that you can get far better monitors.

On the digi001, people have complained that the converters are not good enough, and that the preamps are too edgy and bright. This means that you might eventually have to purchase separate converters or at least a separate preamp.

The sales people at sweetwater all use the digi001. they push it very aggressively, seemingly because they like to work in protools. But if you question them further, they all use apogee converters to get their signal in, and PROBably use outboard preamps. And I know at least one of them that uses logic audio as his front end.

Better altenatives, imo, to the digi001, are THe motu2408 line(no midi in/out or preamps though) and the Delta 1010 with vegas(has midi in/out but no pres) Both have 24 bit/ 96 khz capabilites.

And don't buy it when digi says that the digi001 has 24 bit converters. Even the digi engineers say that the digi001 compares favorably with the 888/20. That means almost as good but not quite as good as their 20 bit box.

And if you spend some extra money getting the motu 2408 or delta 1010 +a preamp, you will be much better off than with a digi001

peace
 
This sounds like a decent setup, but will echo everyone's opinion on RAM..I just bought a DAW with the Digi001 and got 512MB of RAM just for max effect. =) RAM is goooood.

I love my Digi001! (Just to counter the Motu people et al..)

If you want to get a killer system at a reasonable price and have it all set up and done for you, I recommend going through Wave Digital. http://www.wavedigital.com

They were really cool and they set everything up so you don't get driver conflicts and all that other crap that those of us non-techies wouldn't be able to fix. They also op-check the whole thing before they ship it. Within 10 minutes out of the box I was recording.

At least give them a look.

Pete
 
the 001 is 24/ 46.1
the pre's are about the same quality as on a mackie.
the best stuff going is probably rme's soundcards...
 
Thanks to all!

Thanks everyone for your advice. I thought about upping the RAM. I contacted Gil at Wavelabs, very cool guy. I am seriously thinking about having them build my system, they know there shit. I grilled him for about 20 minutes, and all his comments and answers were spot on, 10 years working for Eventide is quite immpressive too.

Peace, SLP
 
SLP: Like I said, for a guy like me who knows very little about all the computer-side stuff that can happen with recording, Wave Digital were PERFECT for me.

And yes, they DEFINITELY "know their shit".

They set it all up and everything...and they are all so COOL over there.

I hope that it works out for you.

Pete
 
hunh

hi AlinMV,

hunh what? did you say that the motu has much better converters than the Delta 1010 and is more flexible?

Sorry, but you could not be more wrong. The delta 1010 is as flexible as ANY card that you can buy out there, and as for the quality of its converters, it is second to none.

If you don't trust me you can check the web for review upon review. I don't think that any card to date has beat its noise levels.

And you can also trust the dude on ..I don't remember where... who said that the delta 1010 has the best converters that he had tested to date.

And it is cheaper than the MOTU 2408.

But I am not knocking the 2408. It is a VERY respectable card.


peace.
 
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