TranceAddict Forums

TranceAddict Forums (www.tranceaddict.com/forums)
- Production Studio
-- PC For Music Production


Posted by Project 7 on Nov-27-2004 21:02:

PC For Music Production

Well my p3 1.4ghz doesnt exactly serve to well with vsti and with only 256Mb Ram i cant really produce much to a standard without crackles and crashes thats why i need a new Pc (im 15 so im not totally sure about pc stuff but i do know abit) but i should be getting one for christmas.
What is the most important things Ram or CPU? I dont need speakers or an amp etc as i already have these (technics amp and 100W Wharfendale Speakers)

Anyway I was looking into something along the lines of

2.8Ghz
512Mb Ram or 1024Mb Ram
Dunno about sound card to many to choose from
And one of those shuttle thingys

Seeing as i run Fl Studio and Cubase and loads of VSTs is this enough or not?

Sorry if its already been posted: so i dont give a sh1t if it has!!!

Thanks


Posted by alanzo on Nov-27-2004 21:14:

I've got a 2.8ghz P4 and 512MB RAM...

I would recommend 1gb of RAM but the CPU does well for VST Instrument usage.

At 16bits/41 sample rate I can get about 6 instances of z3ta before it starts to run slow

I can have as many instances of Atmosphere as I want since it runs off of RAM..

V-Station I can have about 10 or so instances before it runs slow

but this depends A LOT on what sample rate you run at and how many voices each VST Instrument is using


Posted by matpocx on Nov-27-2004 21:16:

hey i run about the same setup

i have 2.8 over clocked with asus p4t533 to about 3.2mhz
have 256ram . i used to run 768ram and the biggest diffrence i seen was when i incresed my cpu

if u plan to run lots of vst like 3 or 4 on 6 tracks u should be fine

right now i can run 5 V stations with no problem.

See if u can get a mother board that u can over clock... if u get 3.2 and with 15% "safe overclock" thats over 400mhz right there

also look for fast audio card... such as motu 828, 2408, those cards use pci card and audiowire cable to the unit but u will be blowen away with the performance..


Posted by matpocx on Nov-27-2004 21:18:

quote:
Originally posted by alanzo
V-Station I can have about 10 or so instances before it runs slow



try running in 24bit ..lol


Posted by nec on Nov-27-2004 21:34:

Vanguard can only have 2 instances and then it fucks everything up
I have 1,4ghz 512 + 128mb ram, somehow enough for now.


Posted by Mr.Mystery on Nov-27-2004 21:56:

quote:
Originally posted by matpocx
i have 2.8 over clocked with asus p4t533 to about 3.2mhz
have 256ram .

Talk about bottlenecks...


Posted by Derivative on Nov-27-2004 22:21:

quote:
also look for fast audio card... such as motu 828, 2408, those cards use pci card and audiowire cable to the unit but u will be blowen away with the performance..


to reiterate an often repeated fact - soundcards have absolutely nothing to with performance or improving performance or alleviating cpu load or allowing you to use cache more VSTi's and samples. the only thing they do is

1) give you connectivity to external devices using 1/4" TRS jacks/RCA jacks/XLR jacks, give you MIDI connectivity and in most cases they give you a digital out (either S/PDIF as is most common, or if you shell out *loads* on a soundcard aes/ebu digital out).

2) allow you to record audio at 24 bit/96 khz although you'll need to record in decent soundproof studio type environment with decent mic preamps to really take advantage of this.

soundcards do NOT alleviate cpu load. they do not significantly enhance audio quality. swapping between my delta 1010 and my on board soundcard i notice no difference whatsoever. however, i have a virus b in the mail and i cant hook it up to my on board soundcard's single headphone jack. hence the delta 1010. if you do not plan to connect alot of external devices like hardware synths, samplers and/or rack effects to your soundcard then purchasing something like a motu 828mkII would be a profound waste of money.


Posted by matpocx on Nov-27-2004 22:55:

hes the bottom line you want to sound like a joke go get edirol ,delta, tascam,

which will sound the same as your soundblaster.
Motu A\D converters are almost the same as digitec A\D

If u want to get serius sound card make sure its not:
USB
only 16bit
rca ins
unbalanced ins



also any standalone unit with firewire connection is going to give u the least latency ... the smaller the latency the faster the hole thing runs...


Posted by matpocx on Nov-27-2004 23:05:

quote:
Originally posted by Derivative

2) allow you to record audio at 24 bit/96 khz although you'll need to record in decent soundproof studio type environment with decent mic preamps to really take advantage of this.



You can take the advantege of 24bit over 16bit, when you are recording a line from the synth. What happens is the Signal has more room per sample meaning the "shhh" or a SAW PAtch with be more clear


I have virus c and motif rack now with motu2408. I allways record at 24bit 96hz, then add some sonicmaximizer and it sound the SAME as when i direct monitor ,losing only maybe 2-5% quality


Posted by h.vox on Nov-29-2004 08:20:

Re: PC For Music Production

quote:
Originally posted by Airscape
Well my p3 1.4ghz doesnt exactly serve to well with vsti and with only 256Mb Ram i cant really produce much to a standard without crackles and crashes thats why i need a new Pc (im 15 so im not totally sure about pc stuff but i do know abit) but i should be getting one for christmas.
What is the most important things Ram or CPU? I dont need speakers or an amp etc as i already have these (technics amp and 100W Wharfendale Speakers)

Anyway I was looking into something along the lines of

2.8Ghz
512Mb Ram or 1024Mb Ram
Dunno about sound card to many to choose from
And one of those shuttle thingys

Seeing as i run Fl Studio and Cubase and loads of VSTs is this enough or not?

Thanks


If you use ROMplers (synths based on samples, like Atmosphere or Stylus) or samplers (Kontakt, Intakt, Halion, whatever) more than instruments, then you need to get more RAM. If you use virtual synths more than sample-based ones, you need a better CPU. I have been searching for new one for quite some time now, and it looks like AMD Athlon64 is the best bang for buck out there. Now I am getting an Athlon64 2800+ with 1 GIG DDR400.
You might also need a new soundcard - if you do not need microphone input, emu0404 is the way to go, since it is good quality, has low latency, and is ridicilously cheap (less than 100 USD).


Posted by Stuart Silver on Nov-29-2004 13:06:

quote:
Originally posted by Derivative
to reiterate an often repeated fact - soundcards have absolutely nothing to with performance or improving performance or alleviating cpu load ....


Not strictly true - if you purchase a soundcard with onboard DSP then that will allow you to use the DSP chip for effects rather than your CPU (check out the new EMU 0404).


Posted by Stuart Silver on Nov-29-2004 13:08:

Re: Re: PC For Music Production

quote:
Originally posted by h.vox
emu0404 is the way to go, since it is good quality, has low latency, and is ridicilously cheap (less than 100 USD).


Lol - I posted the above post before I say this. Great minds think alike!


Posted by hardikaveri on Nov-29-2004 13:18:

quote:
Originally posted by nec
Vanguard can only have 2 instances and then it fucks everything up
I have 1,4ghz 512 + 128mb ram, somehow enough for now.


something is wrong with that pc..

i got 800mhz amd duron and i can run like 4 vanguard +6-8 samplers in fruity


Posted by jeronemango on Nov-29-2004 22:31:

AMD's have better floating point processing therefore you can run more vsts.

i would get a AMD 64 bit 939 pin if possible depending on your budget. after xmas the prices will prob drop, also get the corsair ram which is ment for AMDs as this will increase the performance.cubase is running on 64 bit currently and in the future other software will be. the AMD 64 bit processing still does 32 bit very well.. just read the comments on http://www.kvr-vst.com/forum/index.php

as for a sound card you might want to read the review for this card as it has both balanced and unbalanced.
http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/esi-julia/


Posted by sym on Nov-30-2004 04:21:

I am buying a powerbook soon for Serato Scratch + Production. I was just wondering how the new 1.3Ghz Powerbooks stack up against PCs.

For instance, will I be better off using Reason or Fruityloops on my PC which is an AMD Athlon XP 2400+ with a gig of ram? Or Logic on the powerbook which will be 1.3Ghz 768MB Ram?

I know alot of producers who say they produce on the road on their powerbooks, and was just wondering just how powerful they can really be.


Posted by jeronemango on Nov-30-2004 07:13:

powerbooks still have 5400 rpm hard disks not good for producing some even have slower hard disks i would not get one just based on that.

you would be better off getting a mobile athlon 64 laptop you wont need to upgrade for a long time and as i stated in the previous post "floating point" this is what make it so much better for the audio enviroment . as for the powerbook its coming out with old technology as stated above, something a lot of people dont seem to realise.

your athlon would be able to use more vsts as it has more Ram.it would out perform the powerbook in most tasks.but you cant really compare reason with the other hosts such as logic and fruity, someone posted over on KVR how reason uses low fi samples in their instruments if so then this is one reason why its much better on the CPU and the end product is not as professional sounding. is this true?


Posted by sym on Nov-30-2004 07:28:

quote:
Originally posted by jeronemango
powerbooks still have 5400 rpm hard disks not good for producing some even have slower hard disks i would not get one just based on that.

you would be better off getting a mobile athlon 64 laptop you wont need to upgrade for a long time and as i stated in the previous post "floating point" this is what make it so much better for the audio enviroment . as for the powerbook its coming out with old technology as stated above, something a lot of people dont seem to realise.

your athlon would be able to use more vsts as it has more Ram.it would out perform the powerbook in most tasks.but you cant really compare reason with the other hosts such as logic and fruity, someone posted over on KVR how reason uses low fi samples in their instruments if so then this is one reason why its much better on the CPU and the end product is not as professional sounding. is this true?


I don't think anything like that has ever been proven. Alot of very good producers use reason.

Also, just wondering how come it seems so many pro's seem to use macs if pc's are better? Or does it just seem that Mac has alot of producer support?


Posted by D-res on Nov-30-2004 08:13:

im on a 2.26gghz
1 gig of RAM

soundblaster live soundcard (came with computer)


Posted by nec on Nov-30-2004 13:29:

quote:
Originally posted by hardikaveri
something is wrong with that pc..

i got 800mhz amd duron and i can run like 4 vanguard +6-8 samplers in fruity


I use cubase and I've always been using it together with battery (I don't use battery anymore)


Posted by trancintaiwan on Dec-02-2004 07:49:

quote:
Originally posted by sym
I don't think anything like that has ever been proven. Alot of very good producers use reason.

Also, just wondering how come it seems so many pro's seem to use macs if pc's are better? Or does it just seem that Mac has alot of producer support?


lol.......

brian, jeronemango was comparing a new amd 64bit processor with a powerbook. there's a very big difference in fact. now, if you stack up a new g5 dual 2.5 processor, against an amd, thats quite a different story. almost any of the g5 dual processors would pretty much beat out any pc. the thing is, if u want one of those g5's adequately equipped, it'll probably cost u about 2- 2 1/2 times more than a loaded pc. basically, if ur looking for a very economical yet powerful setup, definitely look into an amd 64 bit processor



Powered by: vBulletin
Copyright © 2000-2021, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.