Which sound card?

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Lostinopinions

New member
I am building a new computer and need some advice and direction.
I went to www.newegg.com which had been recomended here quite often, and this is what I have so far:

Evercase $23.00
Allied Power Supply - 400W $32.99
Intel 2.4G 533 FSB 478 Socket $162.50
ABIT BH7, Intel 845PE MoBo $92.00
ABIT Siluro GF4 Vidoe Card $74.00
Hard Drive ??
Good Cd Recorder ??

I am getting an alesis HD24 very soon and will be mixing down through an Allen & Heath GL2200 24ch to this computer. I have Wavelab 4.0 for mastering. Most of the music is acoustic guitars and vocals. I believe that I only need to send 2 channels to my computer, but I would definately be open to any suggestions. Otherwise, does this computer setup work?

Thanks

Lostinopinions
 
Uh, I'd go with Creative Labs Soundblaster.



































:eek: Just kidding!

HD24 and A and H console? Nice!!

If your real sure your never going to be recording with more than a couple of inputs you could use an Echo Mia or MAudio 2496. MIA has balanced connections but no MIDI. Both are good cards. I'd do a search here and start reading up on them. This BBS is like the "Library of Recording"...Use it!

Good luck
 
What about the computer, is this setup going to work?
I like the idea of balanced inputs, will I need more inputs down the road or do you think I'll be able to produce good quality mixes by going from :
HD24 ----> A & H ------> 2 ch Audio Card ----> Wavelab

Thanks
 
Lostinopinions said:
What about the computer, is this setup going to work?
I like the idea of balanced inputs, will I need more inputs down the road or do you think I'll be able to produce good quality mixes by going from :
HD24 ----> A & H ------> 2 ch Audio Card ----> Wavelab

Thanks
Click to expand...
I see no problem with the components you listed.
As for hard drives, I like the new WD 120gig with the 8MB buffer, very fast and reliable. I also use a Yamaha CDR internal. Nice drive for about $120
You didn't mention ram, I'd go with a minimum of 512Mb.. crucial or micron PC2700
 
Lostinopinions said:
What about the computer, is this setup going to work?
I like the idea of balanced inputs, will I need more inputs down the road or do you think I'll be able to produce good quality mixes by going from :
HD24 ----> A & H ------> 2 ch Audio Card ----> Wavelab

Thanks
Click to expand...

I've got a suggestion for you...

The HD24 is awesome, no doubt about it but you haven't mentioned anything about preamps. Of course the console has them and will no doubt get you into it but EVERYBODY lust' over Preamps and all kinds of other outboard gear. What about bagging (unless you've got a real big budget) the HD24 for now and get Sonar, Cubase, or any decent software and just use that? You could be running into a Neve going that route. Just something to consider..

And this is very important. What do you plan on doing in the future? Will you ever record a whole band? Will you ever record acoustic drums? I'ts possible that the HD24 may be overkill for you if you don't plan on growing.
 
Right now I am recording live church music and services. I am using 15 channels altogether through the A & H and recording to a cassette deck(ughhh). The church has two really good bands with a variety of instuments acoustic guitar, Stand up bass, banjo, Slide guitar, Trumpet, Harmonica, and probably more I haven't seen yet. I have considered the possibility of mixing in Cubase or something similar, but I really like the analog sound.

However I am concerned about effects like reverb, and compression because I don't have any other way to apply these except through Wavelab on the stereo mix. I may be just confused here but it seems like to apply effects to a specific mono channel I would have to get more rack units(Spendy) or download each track into wavelab then apply effects, than send them back to HD24 and mix down. This seem crazy. Are there any options?

OOps I forgot to mention Drums, Flute, Violin, Piano.
We also have recorded a few CD's for each of the bands which turned out OK. Very good for amatuer recording but I would like to make it the best. As you can imagine micing all the instruments is quite a challenge but I enjoy it.
 
Lostinopinions said:
Right now I am recording live church music and services. I am using 15 channels altogether through the A & H and recording to a cassette deck(ughhh). The church has two really good bands with a variety of instuments acoustic guitar, Stand up bass, banjo, Slide guitar, Trumpet, Harmonica, and probably more I haven't seen yet. I have considered the possibility of mixing in Cubase or something similar, but I really like the analog sound.

However I am concerned about effects like reverb, and compression because I don't have any other way to apply these except through Wavelab on the stereo mix. I may be just confused here but it seems like to apply effects to a specific mono channel I would have to get more rack units(Spendy) or download each track into wavelab then apply effects, than send them back to HD24 and mix down. This seem crazy. Are there any options?

OOps I forgot to mention Drums, Flute, Violin, Piano.
We also have recorded a few CD's for each of the bands which turned out OK. Very good for amatuer recording but I would like to make it the best. As you can imagine micing all the instruments is quite a challenge but I enjoy it.
Click to expand...

OK, so your doing "live" recording. I don't know much about live recording but I would think you really would want some outboard gear. Is everybody performing dry right now?
 
We record all the live meetings, but when we recorded the cd's that was not live. We want to produce better quality mixes on our "studio" recordings. Except for the EQ on the A & H there are no other effects at this point. I would like to have that option, without purchaasing a lot of outboard gear. I don't see how to accomplish this without Cubase, unless the confusing scenario I spoke of earlier would work. Are there any other options for using effects on the computer and still mix down with my board?
 
I'd only suggest springing for a better power supply. Something like an enermax or a sparkle.
 
Have you considered getting something like an event ez8 and pumping audio via lightpipe into Cubase and mixing from there. you preserve sound and signal integrity and give yourself the options of computer mixing. However if your looking for quality sound I would not recommend the Audiophile or the Mia echo. for quality sound on two balanced inputs I would consider something more like a LynxONe.
 
You guys are convincing me here.
I would consider bypassing the HD24 and going straight to computer, but how would I input 15 - 20 channels into my comp and would the above computer do the job with a Gb of ram? How would I get from the 24 direct outs on my board to the computer to be more specific?
 
Lostinopinions said:
You guys are convincing me here.
I would consider bypassing the HD24 and going straight to computer, but how would I input 15 - 20 channels into my comp and would the above computer do the job with a Gb of ram? How would I get from the 24 direct outs on my board to the computer to be more specific?
Click to expand...

Why would you need 15-20 seperate tracks? Use your mixer to route out lets say 8 channels into a Delta 1010, problem solved. Since you do have a budget I'd consider Sonar over Cubase and with that and the HD24 money saved you can get a couple rack units or whatever.

Your PC will have plenty of power to handle that with a GB of RAM.
 
Would it be possible to run all of my channels into the DAW without grouping them before hand?




Would it be a good option to get the HD24 so I could do both?:

Board --> HD24 --> Board --> DAW --> Wavelab

Board --> HD24 --> Download to DAW --> Cubase or Sonar
 
Lostinopinions said:
Would it be possible to run all of my channels into the DAW without grouping them before hand?




Would it be a good option to get the HD24 so I could do both?:

Board --> HD24 --> Board --> DAW --> Wavelab

Board --> HD24 --> Download to DAW --> Cubase or Sonar
Click to expand...

You won't be able to run 18-24 channel direct outs to something like a Delta 1010.
Obviously you could do that with an HD24. If you have the budget I'd seriously consider an HD24 but since your getting a PC you might as well pony up and get Sonar or Cubase, but even something like N-tracks would work. There are some guys here who use the HD24 and a package like Sonar for edits. If your not going to send out (recommended) to a mastering house then do your mastering in Wavelab.

I guess it's coming down to the fact you want to run all those tracks individually so an HD24 may be the way to go. Sonar and Cubase come with a fair amount of plugins that you can use for effects.

You might start a thread in the Alesis forum and see what the guys there are doing with their HD24's.
 
Lost,

I just posted a reply to your message in the Alesis forum, but now that I've read this post I thought I'd throw in a couple of other options to add to the confusion.

The MOTU 24i/o has 24 channels of input/output and a direct connection to a card in the PC. This would allow you to take everything direct to your PC without going through the HD24. Or you could use the HD24 for your live recording and simultaneously use the ADAT lightpipe outputs to the PC via either a MOTU 2408 or an RME Hammerfall card (there are others, also, but these seem to be favorites of experienced users). This way if your PC craps out in the middle of a live set you still get the recording on the HD24, and you have an automatic backup for that "just in case" scenario. This setup also allows you to have the flexibility to begin mixing with something like Sonar but still retain the option of doing your mixing with your analog board if you so desire.

There are about as many different ways to do this as you can dream up, it's only a matter of personal preference, money, system reliability, and money.

And one other thing you haven't mentioned but I'll throw it out anyway, make sure after you invest in all this that you have a decent set of reference monitor speakers to mix with. It'd be a shame to go to this length then not have good enough quality on the output stage for listening to your mixes.

Good luck with your decisions.

Darryl.....
 
Thank you for all the feedback Daryl

The monitors are definately a concern for me I am thinking about getting a good pair of powered monitors($750 - $1000/pr).

As for the Light pipe issue what would I need to do that? I read a few posts about it but what do I need on the computer to get Firewire input?

As for the 24 input Sound Card, I'm not sure but that sounds pretty expensive, and with the HD24 and firewire it doesn't seem as if I'll need it.

I originally planned on just using the computer for final mastering with Wavelab but the more I get into this it seem like having all the availability of effects on Cubase or Sonar would be very beneficial, and Inexpensive compared to Rack units.
 
What about buying my setup?

Hey Lost,
I realize this is a shameful plug for myself, but I have a computer recording setup that I really need to sell...it is very fast, but I'm moving and don't have room.
The full ad is in the "fee ads for music/recoriding" forum here...
Just lowered the price to $1200 - - it might be what you need.
Please check it out - it's a dually Athlon rig with a Delta 1010. Nearly 200GB of fast HDD, and 512MB ram - if you really need 1GB of ram, you can add 512mb pretty cheap. If you think you need more cpu power (you won't for a while, but may in the future), just pop out the cpus and put in up to 2.8Ghz when they come down in price...
Comes with Sonar 2.2XL, and Sonar will use those Dual cpus.
Maybe it would work for this project? What do you guys think?
thanks,
Jed
 
Re: What about buying my setup?

Jedman said:

Comes with Sonar 2.2XL, and Sonar will use those Dual cpus.
Maybe it would work for this project? What do you guys think?
Click to expand...

I think Sonar will NOT use those two CPU's. While the system may respond a bit better due to the OS using those two cpu's it is incorrect to imply that Sonar is multithreaded.

I may be wrong, but I may be right.

Jim
 
hmmm.

Jim,
I was pretty sure we discussed this in the Cakewalk forum before I bought Sonar and built this rig, but just to be sure, I did a search...
...Sonar (at least from version 2.0 and up) is multithreaded. So, it will take advantage of a dual processor machine. I can tell you it never seems slow on mine, even when running multiple effects. Which is something else dual cpus are good for -- more plug ins (if you like to use them.)
I honestly wasn't trying to push him to buy my machine, just wanted to let him know it was a deal if he's interested. I think he could use that Delta 1010 with a mixer and have a fine setup for what he wants to do. Of course he couldn't run 20 channels, but why record that many seperate channels? In a church you're going to get a lot of "bleed" over into the other tracks...

Hope that helps,
Jed
 
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