What's Your Setup?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Absolutepower
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PC
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (3GHz)
1TB internal + 1tb external HDDs
nVidia GeForce GTX260 (completely irrelevant, but the most expensive part of my rig so I figure I'd mention it :P)
4GB ram
23" Acer monitor

Recording stuff
Cubase4 LE
Lexicon Alpha USB interface
Nady Phantom Power supply
MXL 990 Condenser mic
Sony MDR-V150 crapcans
Logitech Z-5500 speakers (hahaha)

Instruments
Yamaha FX-335 Acoustic/electric guitar
Cort Zenox Z22 electric guitar
Yamaha PSR-S500 Keyboard
Korg SP-500 keyboard
 
humjaba said:
completely irrelevant, but the most expensive part of my rig so I figure I'd mention it
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Heh heh. Understandable.

And I'm not sending this to you specifically. but to the board in general. I'm just using your quote because it reminded me of this....

When it comes to recording/mixing/mastering audio these days, there's really not much of a need to talk about computer specs at all. This is not a video game, where the performance of the PC may give one a slight edge. Audio is a much easier and much smaller bandwidth task, and there's not a PC in existence today that can't handle all but perhaps the most complex of projects handily without even breaking a sweat.

And further, the make/model of PC or OS has zero effect on the sound itself.

I can hear someone out there raising their hand now and saying, "But when I try to run 8 plugins on all thirty tracks at once, I get bogged down." Well, there's absolutely NO reason why you need to be doing that. Between using the track lock/freeze feature, aux bussing for common verbs, off-line rendering, and just plain getting the tracking better first, there is no reason to be piling on the plugs and raping the CPU in such a grotesque manner.

G.
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
Heh heh. Understandable.

And I'm not sending this to you specifically. but to the board in general. I'm just using your quote because it reminded me of this....

When it comes to recording/mixing/mastering audio these days, there's really not much of a need to talk about computer specs at all. This is not a video game, where the performance of the PC may give one a slight edge. Audio is a much easier and much smaller bandwidth task, and there's not a PC in existence today that can't handle all but perhaps the most complex of projects handily without even breaking a sweat.

And further, the make/model of PC or OS has zero effect on the sound itself.

I can hear someone out there raising their hand now and saying, "But when I try to run 8 plugins on all thirty tracks at once, I get bogged down." Well, there's absolutely NO reason why you need to be doing that. Between using the track lock/freeze feature, aux bussing for common verbs, off-line rendering, and just plain getting the tracking better first, there is no reason to be piling on the plugs and raping the CPU in such a grotesque manner.

G.
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I don't know about that... Using Guitar Rig on my laptop, I've seen moments where the CPU usage gets up to 40% with just one track. Add another guitar (using guitar rig) and perhaps a virtual piano of some kind and that could easily max it out. It's not really a slouch either (core 2 duo 2.4GHz).
 
humjaba said:
I don't know about that... Using Guitar Rig on my laptop, I've seen moments where the CPU usage gets up to 40% with just one track. Add another guitar (using guitar rig) and perhaps a virtual piano of some kind and that could easily max it out. It's not really a slouch either (core 2 duo 2.4GHz).
Click to expand...
Wow, there's something goofy there. Or you're running something else on that system that's causing it in combination with your software to bog down.

Back in the early 90s I used to work for a company that made turnkey audio/video multitrack editing systems that worked just fine using a dual Pentium I running at 90Mhz running full D1 broadcast digital video with multitrack audio. Yeah it took a while to render video effects, but otherwise, no problems. I still have a 10-year-old 450MHz Pentium III that can edit and run 25 tracks of audio simultaneously without a hiccup. The only thing that bogs it down is when I try using impulse-based reverbs. And my several-year-old single-CPU 3GHz P4 cuts through all my audio/video applications like a laser through butter.

Get your rig off the internet when you're working with your music, shut off all unnecessary TSRs, make sure your system is free of malware, and make sure Grand Theft Auto is not running ;) :D.

EDIT: Just some very rough numbers. One stream/track of audio data at 44.1k/24bit yields a required data throughput rate of 1058400 bits per second (a little over 1 million BPS). A 2GHz single-core processor can pump approximately 2billion * 32 bits, or 64 billion bits of info through it's brain every second. That's 64,000 times more throughput than a single stream of audio needs on it's own.

Yeah, those are only rough numbers and the CPU is doing some other things as well, but not so much as to significantly change the magnitude of the numbers to where just a handful of audio streams should bog a modern system down all by themselves.

G.
 
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I leave a bunch of shit open, including crap like iTunes, Firefox, some word docs, as well as some PDF viewers, and my machine doesn't bog. Lol. I *have* thought about building a budget machine solely for the purpose of recording though. It's really unnecessary... but from a gear nerd standpoint it would be fun.
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
Wow, there's something goofy there. Or you're running something else on that system that's causing it in combination with your software to bog down.

G.
Click to expand...

The 40% was just playing live through NI's Guitar Rig 3 application (it monitors CPU usage). Guitar Rig is a digital amp/modeler for guitar, so the more effects you pile on, the more bogged down the system gets.
Having just audio in there is no problem; using effects is what bogs the system down.
 
My bad. I saw "Guitar Rig" and thought I read "Garage Band" :P I apparently picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue. :rolleyes:

Well, yeah, a digital modeler like that will take up CPU power, just like reverb impulse modelers. I'm still a little surprised it takes up quite that much on your system, but I can buy that.

But when it comes to actual mixing/mastering with DAW software, that takes up very little CPU power...unless one piles on multiple plugs and modelers in real time, which there's no reason to do.

G.
 
mixsit said:
And welcome to the journey!
Do you play those wind and string things as well? (Nice to see alts' to the guitars and such
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I am most proficient in the saxophone, but not far behind with the guitar, piano, violin, and flute, as I have been playing all of them for a few years now.
 
This is my setup for now, early next year I'll get some EQ's for the lunchbox and a couple more 512's plus a few new mics and 3 more 160A's:
Planeta C
 
I'm thinking about getting a new PC with a Presonus interface and UAD-2 bundle eventually, but here's what I'm working with right now.

Casio VZ-8M
Casio RZ-1
Casio FZ-1
Casio HT-6000
Casio HT-700
Casio CZ-3000
Casio CZ-101
Casio MT-35
Casio MT-41
Casio MT-45
Casio MT-68
Casio MT-70
Casio MT-205
Casio MT-220
Casio MT-410V
Casio MT-500
Casio MT-540
Casio CT-400V
(11x) Casio SK-1
Casio SK-2
Casio SK-5
Casio SK-200
(13x) Casio DP-1 drum pads
Casio PT-82
Casio PT-1
Korg Monotron
Korg Electribe ER-1
Korg Electribe ES-1
Korg Electribe EA-1
Alesis Trigger IO
Alesis MMT-8 sequencer
Electrix Warp Factory vocoder
Oberheim Strummer
(3x) Fostex MR-8 digital multitrack recorder
Fostex MR-8 Mk II digital multitrack recorder
(2x) Behringer Eurorack UB1202 mixer
(2x) Behringer Eurorack UB802 mixer
Technics SU-V7 integrated DC amplifier
(2 pairs) KEF C-20 speakers
Behringer BCR-2000 control surface
(2x) M-Audio MidiSport 4 in / 4 out USB MIDI interface
M-Audio Audiophile 2496 PCI audio card
MOTU Micro Lite 5 in / 5 out USB MIDI interface
DigiTech RP90 multi-effects pedal
Ibanez TS-9 Tube Screamer overdrive pedal
DOD FX747 Supersonic Flange pedal
DOD FX25 Envelope Filter pedal
DOD FX51 Juice Box overdrive pedal
DOD FX85 Harmonic Enhancer pedal
DOD FX87 Edge harmonic exciter pedal
DOD FX90 analog delay pedal
Boss AW-3 Dynamic Wah pedal
Guitar Fuel AV-1 Angular Velocity pedal
Artec SE-NGT Noise Gate pedal
SHS OM-500 microphone
AKG K 240 Mk II headphones
AKG K 66 headphones
dbx 166A compressor/limiter/gate
Symetrix SE-400 parametric equalizer
Alesis QuadraVerb
ProCo patchbay
 
diggy_dude said:
I'm thinking about getting a new PC with a Presonus interface and UAD-2 bundle eventually, but here's what I'm working with right now.

Casio VZ-8M
Casio RZ-1
Casio FZ-1
Casio HT-6000
Casio HT-700
Casio CZ-3000
Casio CZ-101
Casio MT-35
Casio MT-41
Casio MT-45
Casio MT-68
Casio MT-70
Casio MT-205
Casio MT-220
Casio MT-410V
Casio MT-500
Casio MT-540
Casio CT-400V
(11x) Casio SK-1
Casio SK-2
Casio SK-5
Casio SK-200
(13x) Casio DP-1 drum pads
Casio PT-82
Casio PT-1
Korg Monotron
Korg Electribe ER-1
Korg Electribe ES-1
Korg Electribe EA-1
Alesis Trigger IO
Alesis MMT-8 sequencer
Electrix Warp Factory vocoder
Oberheim Strummer
(3x) Fostex MR-8 digital multitrack recorder
Fostex MR-8 Mk II digital multitrack recorder
(2x) Behringer Eurorack UB1202 mixer
(2x) Behringer Eurorack UB802 mixer
Technics SU-V7 integrated DC amplifier
(2 pairs) KEF C-20 speakers
Behringer BCR-2000 control surface
(2x) M-Audio MidiSport 4 in / 4 out USB MIDI interface
M-Audio Audiophile 2496 PCI audio card
MOTU Micro Lite 5 in / 5 out USB MIDI interface
DigiTech RP90 multi-effects pedal
Ibanez TS-9 Tube Screamer overdrive pedal
DOD FX747 Supersonic Flange pedal
DOD FX25 Envelope Filter pedal
DOD FX51 Juice Box overdrive pedal
DOD FX85 Harmonic Enhancer pedal
DOD FX87 Edge harmonic exciter pedal
DOD FX90 analog delay pedal
Boss AW-3 Dynamic Wah pedal
Guitar Fuel AV-1 Angular Velocity pedal
Artec SE-NGT Noise Gate pedal
SHS OM-500 microphone
AKG K 240 Mk II headphones
AKG K 66 headphones
dbx 166A compressor/limiter/gate
Symetrix SE-400 parametric equalizer
Alesis QuadraVerb
ProCo patchbay
Click to expand...

Sounds like you might be a little light in the keybaord department. Please rectify this situation immediately!
 
Sonic Core Scope 5 (18 DSPs)
Creamware 2496 IO
Soundtrax Topaz 24
KRK Rockit 6
Reaper
Behringer V-Verb Pro
Behringer ADA8000
Lexicon MX400
TL Audio 5050
DBX 166A
Presonus Firebox
Motu 96
AT 4033 pair
Neuman TLM103
Neuman KM184
AKG C414 TLII
AKG C1000
Shure Beta 52
Shure SM57 bunch of
SE Ribbon R1 pair
Sennheizer e604 bunch of
Muzic Man Stingray 4
Fender Jazz Fretless 1974 USA
Mexi Strat with a a buckethead kill switch
DiArmond C75 in champagne sparcle (cheezy)
Hammond Organ L102, Lesley 145
Hohner Pianet
Double Bass
A bunch of old dutch mono valve amps I keep seeming to buy for 30E each
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
Get your rig off the internet when you're working with your music, shut off all unnecessary TSRs, make sure your system is free of malware, and make sure Grand Theft Auto is not running ;) :D.
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Additionally, run a registry cleaner every so often. Eusing Free Registry Cleaner is freeware.

More importantly, you need both a good defragger/compactor (e.g., MyDefrag) and the Sysinternals PageDefrag from Microsoft's site. A regular defragger cannot defrag the pagefile while Windows is running, so it has to be defragged during the boot sequence. That's what PageDefrag is for. It helps the regular defragger/compactor free up the largest possible contiguous free disk space. When your tracks are laid down on the hard drive in contiguous sectors, you'll have zero recording or playback glitches. Further, your DAW, plugins, and project files will load quicker because the drive won't have to hunt all over the disk for file fragments.
 
Slightly different from many of you because I still like having a mixer:

Computer: Toshiba laptop running Adobe Audition 3.01 (and an older version of Sonar for when I need MIDI). I have a second "no name" 20 inch monitor as well.

Mixer: Yamaha DM1000 with 2 MY 16 AT Adat cards

Interface: M-Audio Profire Lightbridge

Monitors: Rogers Studio 1 plus a pair of AKG near field cubes

Microphones:

Se2200A x 2
Rode NT1 x 1
Rode NT3 x 1
AKG C451EB/CK1 x 5
AKG C391 x 2
Se1A x 2
Shure SM58 x 2
Audix OM6 x 2
Audix OM7 x 1
Audio Technica Pro63 x 2
Sennheiser MKH416 x 1
Rode NTG2 x 1

Plus 8 channels of headphone splitter/amp to provide monitoring

Bob
 
diggy_dude said:
Intriguing. Tell us more about them. :D
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There is a site called Marktplaats.nl here in the Netherlands, its like craigslist but better, you need to speak dutch to take full advantage of it but you can find almost anything on there so try a translation service and give it a look. About a year ago I started looking for old valve amps to convert to guitar use. You can find a bunch of old PA amps fom 1940-60's that folks just dont want. Mainly coz they are distro line type things without low impedance outputs.

My best buy yet is a 12 watt (2xEL84) from the 1960's, it came out of Harlem railway station and therfore had a good service history and a proper 3 pin power supply, its a PTP wired balanced amp with a lovely peice of iron in it, sounds way better than an AC15. This one even has an 8Ohm output on it. Ever since I busted my mates Boogy Maveric (dont ask) he has been using it plugged into the speaker from his beloved (shit man I'm sorry). And it rocks, havent modified it yet either, the old ceramic phono input is high z. Cant get an overly distorted sound out of it on its own but thats what a fuzz pedal is for. You can really drive the output tubes without shaking the windows out of thier frames though.

I have another 2 from the same company from 1940's sitting waiting for me to fiddle with, like I said, I have a 30 euro limit on things like that, you never know if its going to be a lemon after all.
 
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