to upgrade or to start fresh ??

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trebles

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Hello

Ive been thinking about recording on my pc for sometime now

Its not exactly how i want to be recording long term as i have myself set on a 24track Mackie set up with a Standalone Hd recorder.

The reality though is it will be a while before i can get my whole studio and while i do have a pc and what i feel is all the programs required for doing computer recording i should at least get my feet wet with this technology.

After reading many posts about what to buy and what not too buy and whats better and whats not ive come to the conclusion of saying well i realise i can approach this from many angles and spend a lot of money and time on something i may be dissapointed with one because the learning curve may be too much for me and i,ll just get fed up with it or two i waste more money on a whole lot of stuff that dont work well together.

Id would like to say what i currently have and maybe have someone explain to me if what i have will do the job or should i just go out and put together a new pc because what i have is not up to the job

ok heres the pc i have

A open ATX CASE
gigabyte bx 2000 440 board will support 1 gig of ram on the board
celeron 400 chip :-( not the chip i will require i know this
128 7nano second ram
10 gig eide hd
sony crx 120e 24x4x4 eide cdrw burner
a LASER Removable cradle to support another hd
diamond data 50x cdrom
1.44 fd
operating sys windows 98
soundcard creativelabs soundblaster live 128
video card old matrox milenium 8meg :-) hey it still works well

Ok i wont kid myself here i realsie the changes i need to make to get this pc correct but the question is do i scrap this machine or just upgrade what i need.

Here are my thoughts on what i think i will require
my board will only support i think up to a p3 intel 650 chip
scsi hd 50 gig 7200 rpm drive which i can place in my laser removable cradle
scsi yamaha cdrw
the controller cards for the scsi drives
delta 10/10 soundcard bundle with supply and breakoutbox 8x8 in out
i can get ram cheap so i guess load the board with 1 gig ram

not sure of the bus speed my pc board is running at i think mine is running 66 or 100 i think 133 would be the go though ?
but with the 400 chip id say 66mhz:-) is what its running at.

Ok i may have missed some stuff but this is what i was thinking i needed to get the above system up to speed at least i can play with this system and learn rather then scraping the whole thing and starting fresh.

I still may need to do this as i also realise there may be conflict probs im guessing the big problem here will be will the Mainboard work ok with the delta10/10 or is it just too old now bx440 boards i know have been pretty reliable old beasts but i do realise i may be in over my head here

i built this pc well over two years ago now, and back then this was a neat lil unit cost me 1200aussie dollars to build it up from parts from the computer markets thats about a lil over 600usd in your currency in the states everything was new as well.

anyway i value any usefull assistance from anyone with knowledge in this subject who can guide me correctly here

can anyone please assist me...........:-))

thanking you


Kind regards

Wayne
Melbourne Australia
 
hmm...

Your cutting it kind of close...
alot of the software coming out nowadays like Sonar needs I think around 400-500 cpu to run it... You deffinitely can do everything if you upgrade, but it's just a matter of how long will it last you.
If I where you I would just get a new computer, I don't know your budget, but that way your guaranteed to be able to take your programs further and it will last you quite a bit longer I'd assume...
Everything else mentioned sounds perfect, basically the peak recomendations for music on PC.
Either way will be good, even with just upgrading your computer your gonna be able to do what you want.
 
Let me get this straight. You want to play arounf with computer recording to see if it's for you, right? If so, your machine is plenty enough. Get a trial version of a program called n-Track and start doing some recording with whatever soundcard you have. You'll soon know if it's for you.

Then if you want to get serious with computer recording, you can start looking for a real soundcard and a new computer. The good thing is that you'll get twice the power for your buck then:)

/Ola
 
thank you all so much for your thoughts re the above

Priz i see the point of buying a new machine long term it may end up this way if computers end up turning me on that much i guess what i was thinking was if i could do it with what i had and a few tweaks here and there then id be pretty happy.

Ola :-) yes i see your point too someone once told me wayne its in how creative you are with what you have not how much you have to create what you want for without the knowledge your space shuttle remains on the launch pad indefinetly.

Gidge that was a dam fine effort for just a celeron wow only a 350mhz wow colour me impressed :-) may i ask you gidge what was your complete set up that you used to achieve the mp3 you left here for me to listen too.

were you using eide drives or were your drives scsi drives
and how much ram and drive space were you working with here did you have outboard processing or just the pc software with the processors used from the programs on your pc.

i mean if you can achieve that kind of recording with slower eide drives then really all i feel i will need for now anyway would be a
little more ram as i have only 128k on one slot i am not sure about soundblaster i really dont think its up to the task so the delta 10/10,s would be fine for me i guess i can keep these when i get a new machine later so nothing really lost there my main concern now do i need scsi drives and burner or do i get by with my eide drive and burner.

Does anyone know if the gigabyte bx2000 440 mainboard would have conflicts with the delta 10/10,s or does this seem a safe mating pair :-)

As for the p3 650 thats the biggest chip my gigabyte bx 2000 440 Mainboard will hold an i think that wont set me back so much right now either.

In the mixer department i was either going to purchase the Mackie 1604vlz pro or the alesis Studio 32 I feel i can at least hold onto these mixers once ive got my 24trk 8 buss console they both are very nice little mixers with a lot of power to boot as for monitoring i cant go past the mackie hr824,s they seem pretty dam accurate to my old rock n roll ears :-)

the only other thing i thought was a good buy thanks to reading another post that was rather long but intresting was the lucid ad 96/24 24 bit stereo 96khz a/d convertor pair very nice little units nice spes as well anyway if i am now headed in the right direction for starters with what ive said in this post then applying all this should not be so hard and my upgrade when iam ready not as painfull as first thought.

feedback here would be greatly valued thank you in advance to all who assist me. :-)))))) ;)
 
sorry typo gidge a 300mhz clocked to 450 hmmmmm even better more from less you will notice my error 350mhz i think not :-) silly me :o
 
That was recorded by Rip Rowan from Prorec.com.....that second link shows a few details about his setup.....he has since upgraded his processor to a 533mhz celeron overclocked to 800mhz......
 
Thank you Gidge for the urls both were great you have convinced me completly about the less is more theory.


i may even overclock this celeron 400 to safe spec and have a go first with it and to think you get away with eide drives id never have guessed this could be done the article i read instilled a new found confidence within me and the gear i already have;)

You know that recording i heard the mp3 you linked above was the very first computer based recording ive ever heard the only other one ive listened too was a finished cd made on a roland vs1680 it sounded good but again because the mic pres on the roland vs systems have had so much said about them in an average light i dont really want to get stuck with these systems i was all for them a few months ago i wanted a vs2480 because it was a solution in a box and it was portable but because of the price and the dramas with these mic pres ive sort of drifted away from this idea other then that they seem a nice unit for that reason i went and looked at pc,s again i felt the roland unit produced an overall warm sound i like warmth in sound but i more like warmth with sparkling clarity were a mix of warmth and clarity across the recording seems to make the ears sit up its like you have different levels of sound to listen to this seems to create some sort of depth within the recording i may be wrong thats just what i hear. i guess alot of that is in good mic pres and correct selection of mic coupled with enviroment and overall recording skill :-)

I also personly prefer people playing real instrument rather then samples and other devices sure there is skill in timing in all that but its not my cup of tea give me real drums and guitars just like it always was:-)

Ok after i overclock my celeron how much more ram should i add to my 128k i allready have i mean i realise what you have done allready with less but i get this stuff pretty cheap so it gives me some room to move when i purchase which allows me to buy a little more then average when i do make purchases i seem to get it cheaper this way.

also what eide drive would you sugest i get i know it has to be 7200 rpm but what brand should i look at i was thinking maybe a seagate and considering if they are cheap i may as well purchase a monster at that or would it be better to buy a few smaller drives?


And is there any chance if i buy one large drive i can run all my music duties on this and simply slide it out when not in use and use the rest of my pc for all my other needs disabling all the glitchy devices which seem to get in the way of good recording?

where the sound card is concerned can i get a bigger breakout box with the delta 10/10s then the standard 8in 8 out that comes with it or am i wasting money on this?

with my mixer choices narrowed down between the mackie 1604 vlz pro and the alesis studio 32 i feel i cant go too far wrong with either choice the mackies xdr pres are a nice piece of work on a budget and they do have alot of ins and outs on that mixer which mixer would be your pick out of the two i have chosen?


In closing these lucid ad convertor pair look the goods would this be a nice addition to maybe overide the deltas convertors or should i just use the deltas onboard convertors?

ok thats it for me thanks again guys


Wayne

Melbourne Australia :-)))))
 
128mb more will be fine...dont know how much improvements it will make, but at the price, it cant hurt....just make sure you get the good stuff and at least PC133 so when you do upgrade it can come with you....

Maxtor Diamond Max 7200 hard drive.....everyone has personal preferences, here is mine.....Western Digital is a sore spot for me so stay away from them.....again this will come with you when you upgrade.......

You will want this second hard drives for audio files only (not apllications, programs, etc., just the .wav files or whatever file type your music software has....to do what you are wanting, Id suggest dual booting that main drive with one set up as the audio portion and the other setup for everything else....If you want more info on this, I believe Emeric has some experience with doing it and even has a tutorial to guide you through it......

Probably a waste of money.......unless you have a need for more?....

Mackie all the way.......

The Delta 1010's pres are very nice...they done compare to the Lucids, but neither does the price....Unless you are doing pro work, I wouldnt even worry about it.....

Also, it will depend on your motherboard or not whether you can overclock...find out if the motherboard can overclock, and whats the fasted Celeron you can put it....you may just wanna pick up a new Celeron.....

http://www.ars-technica.com/paedia/celeron_oc_faq.html
article on overclocking

http://www.googlegear.com/ggweb/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=80517-A
a 700mhz celeron for 56.00...will go alot further than the RAM.....
 
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