What do YOU recommend?

T

Timmy Ford

New member
*disclaimer I don't know too much about computer*

SO I have a HP Pavillion Mediacenter, Pentium D 3.00 ghz 2.00 GIGS OF RAM. My disk says I have something like 400 or so gb's of disk space. My soundcard is a Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS. I am running Windows XP 5.1/ 2002 .

When running my DAW, it times out and I sometimes hear the computer fan turn on when this happens. Even when I am not running any programs at the time. This can happen during playback and during recording sometimes at a ratio of 2-3/5 times. And a handful of times my computer has completely crashed.


So I have a couple questions..is it the software that is the problem? (Presounus Studio one Artist). Or is it my computer? If it's my computer I want you to recommend some very nice additions to get this thing where I want it.

-Faster?

-More memory?

-Soundcard? (does the soundcard matter for recording or just playback?)

-High quality CD burner?

Please list what you have or would want for relatively free computer recording.

Thx
 
My guess is the 'Media Center' part is the culprit. After watching this series; YouTube - Learning how to use Cubase LE I thought about all the old and crappy computers I had and had tossed out. I gave my kids some 'clunkers' thinking newer was better. I then thought about all the Cubase LE4 discs I still have that came with Zoom or Tascam products. My M-Audio stuff came with Ableton Live 5LE. So, just for fun, I took three(!) old Dell PIII laptops I had almost tossed out, and installed Cubase and Ableton. They run just fine. The only trouble I have ever had (stalling, crashing, locking up) came on a desktop running Windows MCE. That's it. That last desktop was a P4 3GHz with 2GB of RAM; very similar to yours. Yet a PIII 1.2GHz with 1GB of RAM hasn't screwed up once. Hell, a PIII 800MHz with 512MB of RAM hasn't screwed up. But I ain't doing all 48 tracks each with four different plug-ins either.
You may need a new computer. And by 'new' I mean 'not necessarily new'.;)
Before you buy any computer, read this; Avoid Windows XP Media Center Edition For Home Recording and save some grief.
 
Thanks for the response!..and I think you are right...it's the computer. So basically Brandon is saying alot of soundcards are not compatible with the Media Center?! WTF
 
I found out the same thing. Keep in mind I could barely spell computer, so I taught myself as I did up my junkers (Thank You, Double O Dude). I actually bought the MCE computer brand new maybe four years ago. Had I known. But then four years ago I didn't give a crap about recording; all my friends were doing it, and if I wanted to record I just went to them. My MCE desktop (and I will say they never made an MCE laptop) came with surround sound speakers, a remote and built in TV tuner, so I could watch TV in bed, record something, and shut it all down from the remote. It was Heaven. But now that I feel like using those Cubase discs, it's Hell. But I took a few old Dell PIII laptops, and now I'm a recording savant. Of course in between I made a million mistakes, learning how to disable the internal soundcard and use interfaces, converting to MP3's, and getting good tones. All to a crappy laptop. So you don't have to spend $$$$ unless you need every track available with a plethora of plug ins. But I record everything with outboard gear, and haven't locked up once (knock wood). Oh, and this is into USB 1.1 to add insult to injury.:p
 
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