good computer for recording

[FullMoon]

whats a good comp. for recording with a budget of about 500-700 dollars

[cadencethefire]

get a mac mini or a used ibook g4

[Aus_rock_god]

Can't go past a Mac

[pitchfork]

Get the best one you can on ebay for the money.
is that $700 budget including the soundcard or...

if it isn't leave some money to get a decent m audio soundcard.

[stevenkeith]

www.dabs.com <- have a look there, good value

[stevenkeith]

^ appears that didn't work, hmm

[pitchfork]

computer science students :rolleyes:

http://www.dabs.com

[stevenkeith]

:upset:

so close, yet so far... i blame firefox (damn auto complete)

[The Haitian]

I'd build one.

[cadencethefire]

I'd build one.

i'd love to see that man, but i doubt you could build a good recording machine with 500-600, i mean GOOD as in enough ram, at LEAST a HT processor and either a raid hdd setup or an ide with an external firewire drive :)

[The Haitian]

i'd love to see that man, but i doubt you could build a good recording machine with 500-600, i mean GOOD as in enough ram, at LEAST a HT processor and either a raid hdd setup or an ide with an external firewire drive :)

It's really not as hard as people think. It's all about knowing exactly what they need and not paying for stuff they don't want/need.

Case + Power supply
$25
APEX PC-115
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811154017

Motherboard (integrated graphics)
$70
Biostar TForce6100-939
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813138264

CPU
$183
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103547

RAM
$118
CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2x512MB) (Run in dual channel)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145440

Hard drive
$78
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144701

Sound Card
$129 (Mail in rebate)
Creative Sound Blaster X-FI Platinum 7.1
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102190

CD Burner
$19
SONY CRX230EE/10S
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827106829

That's 622 and none of this stuff is the cheapest of the cheap. If you need to buy a monitor + speakers, keyboard, mouse and Windows then you can choose some less expensive parts and still get under 700. Mainly just get a cheaper CPU. Linux is also an option. If you already have the monitor and stuff then you can always add a hard drive just for the OS and programs and use the 250 gig as your second h/d at about $45 more.

Bear in mind I just quickly scanned through newegg and listed their prices. There are numerous other online retailers that constantly have great deals so shop around to find the lowest prices.

This site will search through several retailers and give you each of their prices.
http://stores.tomshardware.com/

[the_only_singer]

i'd love to see that man, but i doubt you could build a good recording machine with 500-600, i mean GOOD as in enough ram, at LEAST a HT processor and either a raid hdd setup or an ide with an external firewire drive :)


The machine I use to record is in that price range (I built it about a year ago and prices on some components have since come down and you can build an even better machine with the money now).


Case + Power supply
$25
APEX PC-115
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811154017

Motherboard (integrated graphics)
$70
Biostar TForce6100-939
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813138264

CPU
$183
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103547

RAM
$118
CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2x512MB) (Run in dual channel)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145440

Hard drive
$78
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144701

Sound Card
$129 (Mail in rebate)
Creative Sound Blaster X-FI Platinum 7.1
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102190

CD Burner
$19
SONY CRX230EE/10S
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827106829

That's 622 and none of this stuff is the cheapest of the cheap. If you need to buy a monitor + speakers, keyboard, mouse and Windows then you can choose some less expensive parts and still get under 700. Mainly just get a cheaper CPU. Linux is also an option. If you already have the monitor and stuff then you can always add a hard drive just for the OS and programs and use the 250 gig as your second h/d at about $45 more.

Bear in mind I just quickly scanned through newegg and listed their prices. There are numerous other online retailers that constantly have great deals so shop around to find the lowest prices.

This site will search through several retailers and give you each of their prices.
http://stores.tomshardware.com/

I would say spend a little more money of case/psu because that case is cheap as hell and that PSU will certainly not be efficient and I just don't trust cheap PSUs after seeing too many motherboards (including my own) go out due to voltage spikes in cheap PSUs.
Spend a little less money on the CPU to bring the price back down to the budget.
I also don't suggest Biostar because I almost always run into problems with them. You get what you pay for.
As far as sound cards go for recording I don't suggest the X-FI, I would suggest an m-audio.

[stevenkeith]

i'd love to see that man, but i doubt you could build a good recording machine with 500-600, i mean GOOD as in enough ram, at LEAST a HT processor and either a raid hdd setup or an ide with an external firewire drive :)

For around £300 i got most of my components. Not a lot you need really for music recording. My components are in ()

A decent soundcard (came onboard with my motherboard)
some high performance RAM, (512 DDR 400)
a decent processor (Athlon 64 3200+)
some disk space (i only have 20 GB, i'd recommend a fair bit more though)

The other components can be fairly sh*t, some nice speakers are desirable though unless you are forking out for monitors.

http://www.dabs.com for prices

[stevenkeith]

^ cd burner if you want

[stevenkeith]

i'd love to see that man, but i doubt you could build a good recording machine with 500-600, i mean GOOD as in enough ram, at LEAST a HT processor and either a raid hdd setup or an ide with an external firewire drive :)

Why would he need at least a HT processor. Adobe auditions requirements are only a pentium 3

[pitchfork]

Creative Sound Blaster X-FI Platinum 7.1
Thats awful for recording.

Just get a low end maudio with a couple of rca inputs to plug a mixer in.

[cadencethefire]

Thats awful for recording.

Just get a low end maudio with a couple of rca inputs to plug a mixer in.

yeah, i'm talking about a pc that's to digidesign specs... as good as the sound blaster is of a card, the inputs aren't balanced. And RCA cables would be a BAD idea if you want a quality recording... I'm talking about a machine that can process lots of info at the same time. I'm eventually getting a digi002 which has 8 xlr inputs, meaning the computer has to handle 8 different audio threads at the same time, hence why i said at least a ht processor.

You can record with anything really, i mean i could build a computer to run audacity or any of the other low bit recording suites for almost nothing...

[pitchfork]

I always go RCA in, I don't like using converters and RCA has always given me good quality stuff.

I really hate interfaces, always have probably always will.
Its more work with a mixer into a soundcard but its the way I have always done it and thats what i'm used to.

[10571z]

Build your own Pc is cheep. But wow looking at American Prices Compared to Australia's is freeky. Everything is so cheap in America. I hate you!

[Aus_rock_god]

Not really, double everything, that's approxomantly the Australian price

[pitchfork]

Yeah british prices suck too, americans got it good.

[Seafroggys]

whats a good comp. for recording with a budget of about 500-700 dollars

A custom one.

Every computer that my family, my friends, or I have ever had in the past 5 years has been custom built. The world of pre-built computers is completely foreign to me.

"Oh, what type of computer do you have?"

"Errrr, it has an Athlon 64, with a GeForce 6600 PCI-E...."

"Is that a Dell?"

:angry:

[cadencethefire]

I always go RCA in, I don't like using converters and RCA has always given me good quality stuff.

I really hate interfaces, always have probably always will.
Its more work with a mixer into a soundcard but its the way I have always done it and thats what i'm used to.

then you're never going to get a professional sound. Rca's nice but it's no where near the quality of a balanced in... OR spdif running a digital signal from an analogue pre amp may be what you should look into. You still have the feel for the analogue gear you use but you can track like they used to in the 80's :)

[the_only_singer]

You can record with anything really, i mean i could build a computer to run audacity or any of the other low bit recording suites for almost nothing...

It doesn't really take a super computer to run Cubase either. My computer running the Sempron processor does just fine. I built that PC pretty cheap too.

[cadencethefire]

It doesn't really take a super computer to run Cubase either. My computer running the Sempron processor does just fine. I built that PC pretty cheap too.

not at all, but it also depends on the quality of audio you're recording the use of plugins and editing etc. i think pro tools is the best if you have a really nice plugin pack...

[the_only_singer]

I actually like Cubase as much if not more than Pro tools. It is going to produce the same quality of music and there is a plethora of available plugins that will do just the same as any plugin in pro tools.

[Moseph]

It's a toss-up as to what wins on solid features alone between the two. It's really about what's important to you. Keep in mind that this doesn't even consider competition from Logic, Sonar, Digital Performer, Acid, or any of the Linux Audio DAW apps.

Pro Tools offers much better routing (for stereo, anyway) options and workflow, as well as having the benefit of greater compatibility with high-end studios.

Cubase offers better MIDI capabilities, as well as being cheaper and featuring better licensing (I still say not being hardware dependent and allowing for 3rd party plugins is a big deal).

Though I still wish the audio routing workflow was improved (maybe it will be in 4), I'm sticking with Cubase because I really hate the idea of being tied to a piece of (more expensive) hardware, and also love the freeware 3rd party VST plugins available.

[the_only_singer]

It's a toss-up as to what wins on solid features alone between the two. It's really about what's important to you. Keep in mind that this doesn't even consider competition from Logic, Sonar, Digital Performer, Acid, or any of the Linux Audio DAW apps.

Pro Tools offers much better routing (for stereo, anyway) options and workflow, as well as having the benefit of greater compatibility with high-end studios.

Cubase offers better MIDI capabilities, as well as being cheaper and featuring better licensing (I still say not being hardware dependent and allowing for 3rd party plugins is a big deal).

Though I still wish the audio routing workflow was improved (maybe it will be in 4), I'm sticking with Cubase because I really hate the idea of being tied to a piece of (more expensive) hardware, and also love the freeware 3rd party VST plugins available.



Couldn't agree more. By the way, speaking of Linux, what ARE some good apps for recording? I haven't even really looked into it. Additionally, is there a certain distribution that is recommended for DAW? Thanks.

[Seafroggys]

If someone has released third party Linux drivers for the Firepod (or that newer one, the FireStudio or whatever) then yeah, I'd like to know some Linux DAWs.

[Moseph]

Couldn't agree more. By the way, speaking of Linux, what ARE some good apps for recording? I haven't even really looked into it. Additionally, is there a certain distribution that is recommended for DAW? Thanks.

I know Ardour is a relatively big name in Linux audio. Rosegarden is a pretty big MIDI thing.

I'm a Windows user. I was considering Linux awhile back when I found out about the audio apps, but was turned off by the fact that there's virtually no compatibility with the Windows freeware plugins.

[pitchfork]

then you're never going to get a professional sound. Rca's nice but it's no where near the quality of a balanced in... OR spdif running a digital signal from an analogue pre amp may be what you should look into. You still have the feel for the analogue gear you use but you can track like they used to in the 80's :)

I'll look into it I guess, but i don't have the first clue about spdif.
Am I right in thinking i would need one of those analog to digital converters?

[Seafroggys]

So, today in between classes I went online and devised a complete list of everything I'll need to start my home studio. Turns out it'll cost me around $2500, so I'll probably have it by April (assuming I get a job within the next month).

Anyway, this is the computer I was looking at getting, tell me what you think.

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 939 pin
Asus A8n-VM Motherboard (I'll have to check if it has onboard firewire though, if not I'll have to find another one)
2 gigs of PC3200 RAM
Maxtor 250 gb 7200 RPM Hardrive
Pioneer 16x DVD Burner

Plus a Firepod

At a local computer shop, that'll cost me $541 (minus the Firepod and a monitor, as well as cables and fans, which are minimal anyways) which is quite good I'll say, considering it'll be pretty powerful.

I can easily find a monitor, we have two spare ones in the garage and I could probably scrounge one from my friends.

Would this be good?

[pitchfork]

$541? I didn't realise america was that cheap, jesus.
Yeah it should be fine.

[Seafroggys]

well I forgot the price of the case, so maybe adding the case, a couple of cables, the power strip, and a silent fan or two, probably $650....

[pitchfork]

Still quite good though.

[cadencethefire]

I'll look into it I guess, but i don't have the first clue about spdif.
Am I right in thinking i would need one of those analog to digital converters?

there's a whole bunch of stuff that converts analog to digital. There are even mixers that plug into usb and you can use a lot of different programs like cubase or audacity to mix and edit them. but i really think anything by digidesign is going to be better at it. You don't have to get a digi002 or digi desk... if you're just recording a demo it would be pointless to get those, get an mbox or mbox 2 and you'll be just fine, especially if you already have a lot of analog gear like preamps and mixers.

you can get the mbox 2 from musiciansfriend.com and i think they'll ship it to you for free don't get the factory bundle just get the standard, i can give you a bunch of pro plugins for free if you want (i have the waves diamond pack :thumb: )

[cadencethefire]

I actually like Cubase as much if not more than Pro tools. It is going to produce the same quality of music and there is a plethora of available plugins that will do just the same as any plugin in pro tools.

well if you have the plugins for pro tools then it's much better (fxpansion if 30 bucks and you can convert vst to rtas!!)... i've used cubase for a long time and when i finally got the mbox2 i was impressed with how awesome the sound was

[Seafroggys]

I personally do not like ProTools. Its what I used in college, and I hated the interface. I much prefer Sonar.

[cadencethefire]

I personally do not like ProTools. Its what I used in college, and I hated the interface. I much prefer Sonar.

yeah well i prefer pro tools to sonar so there

[the_only_singer]

So, today in between classes I went online and devised a complete list of everything I'll need to start my home studio. Turns out it'll cost me around $2500, so I'll probably have it by April (assuming I get a job within the next month).

Anyway, this is the computer I was looking at getting, tell me what you think.

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 939 pin
Asus A8n-VM Motherboard (I'll have to check if it has onboard firewire though, if not I'll have to find another one)
2 gigs of PC3200 RAM
Maxtor 250 gb 7200 RPM Hardrive
Pioneer 16x DVD Burner

Plus a Firepod

At a local computer shop, that'll cost me $541 (minus the Firepod and a monitor, as well as cables and fans, which are minimal anyways) which is quite good I'll say, considering it'll be pretty powerful.

I can easily find a monitor, we have two spare ones in the garage and I could probably scrounge one from my friends.

Would this be good?


Sounds good but I suggest WD or Seagate for drives.

[Seafroggys]

Mmmm, honestly I much prefer Maxtor, I trust them much more then others, their drives have never let me down.

WD hit a quality slump in the late 90s, early 00s and even though I'm sure they're out of it, its still engrained in me.

[cadencethefire]

Mmmm, honestly I much prefer Maxtor, I trust them much more then others, their drives have never let me down.

WD hit a quality slump in the late 90s, early 00s and even though I'm sure they're out of it, its still engrained in me.

they're all the same now i think

[the_only_singer]

In general I have just had more luck with Seagate and WD over Maxtor. As long as you don't get a Hitachi you should be fine. But in general I see more Maxtors go out vs seagate and WD. My Seagates and WDs are running 24/7 and haven't had a drive go out on me in years. Though I have had a few Maxtors go out on me in that time period. Also the two most common harddrives I have had to replace in customers computers are maxtor and hitachi.