This is what I have; This is what I need; What am I leaving out; Does this all work?

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f. lai

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I have (some not all) and/or will have the following:

Yamaha p80 piano/keyboard (MIDI capable)
Clavia Nord Electro 73 (MIDI capable)
MacBeth M3X analogue synth module (MIDI capable)
Arp Solina String Ensemble (NOT MIDI capable)
MIDI controller

Monitor Speakers (model undecided)
Sony MDR-7506 Headphones

Sonar XL
FXpansion DR-008 Soft Drum Machine
Windows XP
Norton AntiVirus

Tower Case (model undecided)
Video Card (model undecided)
Audio Card (model undecided)
512 MB RAM
3 GHz Processor (they'll be out soon enough)
80 GB Hard Drive (model undecided)
Adaptable Motherboard (model to be determined)
Monitor (model undecided- probably LCD 17"+)
Plextor 16/10/40A CD Writer (from other PC)
Creative 52X CD Drive (from other PC)
Keyboard (model undecided)
Mouse (model undecided)
Fan (model undecided)
Floppy Drive (model undecided)
56K Modem (model undecided)


Questions:

1. Does everything look in order for a good working system for just Audio and Video?

2. What am I leaving out?

3. What cables do I need?

4. Can I get an audio card that will have the mic pre's in it and will have all the in's and outs to get the job for complete editing and recording (eliminating the need for an external mixer)?

5. What are the advantages/disadvantages of getting 2 processors instead of one in use with Sonar?

6. What are the advantages of having 2 video monitors in use with Sonar, and how great is this advantage?

Thank you in advance.
 
I am fairly new to this myself, too. But, here are some thoughts I came up w/ while reading this post

1) Are you making video for music or the other way around like making movie soundtrack? I am asking cuz I think the video editing is limited in Sonar.
Are you gonna use MIDI "thru" or lots of MIDI ins?

2)how are you gonna get the video files into your computer? If you got a video cam, then you should be set.

3) Lots of MIDI cables, analog cables. Dunno how you gonna connect your video sources to your computer...

4) A lot of people will tell you to get an external preamp. Maybe you can consider little cheap preamps. But, there are soundcards with enough ins/outs that you need tho

this is all I can think of, I will let experts to provide some real help here :)
 
With that many external modules a mixer is going to be almost necessary. I suppose you could get by with a patch bay and repatching as needed...

I also think you'll need at least two, preferably four MIDI ports.

Re two processors, basically whatever a processor has to do can be broken into two separate threads with a dual CPU. SO anything that purley takes CPU time to process will be accpmplished in nearly twice the time. This does not mean that everything happens twice as fast. The bottleneck is more often the speed of the frontside bus, where the data gets moved from RAM to hard disk.

Two monitors give you twice the screen real estate.
 
Well, considering the video, I probably need an additional 100 GB hard drive.

Do you think a Mackie 1402 VLZ Pro mixer would suit the audio recording needs given the equipment?

Thanks.
 
I have the Matrox G450 video card with 2 19" viewsonic G90F monitors.
Trust me on this one...DO IT!
If you plan on working on your music instead of moving stuff around on your screen so you can see what's there, then get 2 monitors. You won't regret it.
There is a reason Sonar has this feature.
Even surfing the web or just about everything you do will be impacted by the two monitors.

I don't (yet) have the dual processor setup, but that's next.
Again, there is a reason Sonar is made for dual cpu's.
Most programs are not written to take advantage of dual cpu's.
So you only get maybe a 10% increase in performance.
(seen it on The Screen Savers tv show on TechTV)
But Sonar CAN take advantage so if its in your budget go for it.
As Alchuck said
"The bottleneck is more often the speed of the frontside bus, where the data gets moved from RAM to hard disk."
so get lots of Rambus Ram and a couple of 10,000 rpm hard drives! Again, if it's in the budget.

You will want to get Win XP Pro to take advantage of dual cpu's.
I would just get it anyway. I did.

You might want to get a 4x4 or 8x8 midisport from Midiman also.
I have the 4x4 but with your setup I would go for the 8x8.

Make sure you turn off the anti-virus software (and all background programs) when using Sonar.

Of course, if you can get it, ditch the 56k modem and get a dsl or cable modem, wow what a difference! It's like listening to am radio or watching digital TV.

One reason the Delta 1010 soundcard does not have mic pre's in it is so they nor the soundcard will corrupt each other's signal.
The Delta 1010 is placed outside of the computer for the same reason, with a separate pci card in the computer. As is the power supply, it is not built into the soundcard, but is the 'lump in the line' kind.
Great soundcard by the way.
I bought a Mackie mixer 1202 vlz pro just for the mic pre's and now I have the mixer to!
You might consider that option.

Also, I didn't see a mic in your wish list.
Mine is the Nuemann TLM 103. Great mic, but expensive!
$159.00 just for the shock mount!

One of the most Important items is your monitors.
These will affect your mix alot, so get some good one's.
Might I suggest the Mackie HR824's.
These are so sweet! What I mix on them comes out that way on whatever else I listen to the mix on. Quite expensive, but worth it.
They have a smaller version now, HR624 or something like that.
Might be the way to go.

I went crazy and bought a bunch of Monster cables. Some people say they are not worth the money, but I like them. Sounds great to me.
$100.00 for a guitar cable?!? Well at least now when my song sucks I can't blame it on my gear!

I have the Sony MDR-7509 Headphones. Don't know what the difference is though. Mine were $199.00. Sounds good.

Keyboard: get the microsoft Natural or something similar. the one split in half. Your wrists will thank you for it.
Mouse:I tried the microsoft wireless optical mouse and...
Boy what a piece of crap! Took it back after 10 minutes. It feels light and cheap and it didn't work very well to boot. I was very disappointed. So I still your my 3 button intellimouse, but it's been acting up lately.

Get a tower case with a big power supply and get a VERY QUIET fan.

Just to round out my setup:
Yamaha S80 keyboard.
Roland D-20 keyboard.
Line 6 POD 2.0
StudioMix control surface. (Very Cool with Sonar, recomended)
Furman AR 1215 power conditioning A.C line voltage regulator.
1984 Fender strat made in USA.
1967 Fender jazz bass.
Washburn acoustic guitar with electric pickup.

Well, good luck with everything.
Now it's off to work so I can pay off all my credit cards that I used to buy all this stuff!

A1MixMan
 
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