I was looking for a low budget comp for music production. Would the following specs be ok?

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad Processor Q9550 2.83GHz, 1333FSB, 12MB
Memory: 4GB (4X1GB) NECC Dual Channel DDR2 800MHz SDRAM Memory
Sound card: Sound Blaster(R) X-Fi (R) XtremeMusic (V)

everything but your soundcard looks good dude

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Originally posted by Zombie0729 everything but your soundcard looks good dude

yep looks ok to me

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yeah i'd avoid that soundcard. i had one for a while back when i was starting serious production, and it just went to shit on me (lots of white noise audible , and no, it was not speakers/external wires). not to mention creative's drivers are absolute garbage.

processor and ram looks tasty though!

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Yep. Ditch the consumer level soundcard you picked.
And if you're just getting started, you might not even bother with an audio interface at all. Just run it out of the built-in audio on the motherboard, physical connection permitting. Use Asio4All to address latency. Nice & free. Later on, do some research and buy a dedicated audio interface, external preferably, but only after you've gotten proper speakers.

As for the rest, yes it's fine, though you could probably build an acceptable audio pc for a much lower price than what you're looking at there.

Imo, for now go ahead and keep the shitty sound card. You don't want to but a 200 dollar sound card to realize that you don't want to produce any longer. Get a free software sequencer such as reaper, some free vst's such as synth 1. Then after you get up and running with that stuff slowly start to buy equipment.

Also, check out the tutorial master list.

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don't buy that sound card, it's crap and useless for production

Consumer sound cards are great for gaming - they use hardware acceleration for that.

Production/pro audio cards aren't great for gaming but they sound much better, allow for lower latency and have a lower noise floor.

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Thanks for the advice everyone =)
So should I get an integrated soundcard instead of that one?

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Originally posted by pwnage1 Imo, for now go ahead and keep the shitty sound card. You don't want to but a 200 dollar sound card to realize that you don't want to produce any longer.

By the way, are $200 "pro audio" cards really that great?

Cheers.

Last edited by XvN on Dec-08-2008 at 19:52

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By the way, are $200 "pro audio" cards really that great?

I use a presonus firebox (firewire audio interface, costs circa $200) and it has been nothing but brilliant. very low latency, multiport (xlr/1/4") ins on the front, and 1/4" input and output, as well as a headphone jack on the front for any split monitoring. crushes the xfi into two, pathetic pieces.

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Originally posted by XvN Thanks for the advice everyone =) So should I get an integrated soundcard instead of that one?

You don't want anything integrated. You want an external audio interface, FireWire or USB. Preferably FireWire.

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Originally posted by XvN By the way, are $200 "pro audio" cards really that great? Cheers.

Its going to be better that anything integrated or consumer-grade. The three most important parts of a computer based studio are going to be: Good Computer, Good Monitors and Good Audio interface, in that order. The good audio interface and good monitors are going to go hand-in-hand, so try to get both if you can.

Decent monitor manufacturers are going to be things like Mackie and Tannoy. Better is Genalec and Dynaudio. Great is Focal, K&H, ADAM.

Decent Audio interface is going to be PreSonus. Better is going to be MOTU and RME. Great is going to by Apogee, Lynx or Prism.

Stay away from anything from M-Audio.