Computer Based Recording

Team Transylvania · Post by **Team Transylvania** » Sunday Sep 30, 2007

Does anyone here have a computer that that really only use for audio recording? I made the dive into computer recording and editing a few months ago. Recently, I got myself a decent system to really get started on. Here are the specs:
3 Ghz Pentium 4 with hyper threading enabled
1 GB Ram (soon to be 2 GB)
100 GB HD (soon to be 300 GB)
Ati Radeon 9800 Pro Graphics card
Plenty of USB and Firewire inputs

Now all i need for it is a nice LCD screen!!!

I ordered a Line 6 Toneport UX1 audio interface to record my guitar and some vocals for now until I can afford to Get a Presonus FP10 audio interface. Also, i ordered a midi controller keyboard to use with the massive amount of synth programs i have like Reason 3 and Native Instruments Absynth. Once i have all the components i need, im building a huge desk to house all my neat little audio toys. Once the desk is made, i guess ill have to build a studio.
Some of the programs i use are: Sonar 6 Producer Edition, Adobe Audition 2, FL Studio 7, Amplitube 2, Native Instruments Guitar Rig 2, EZ Drummer, and lets not forget effect plugins!!!!

Anyway, Im curious about what other's use in their computer recording setups. There doesnt seem to be many threads about this kind of thing. We could exchange many ideas.

metalchurch · Post by **metalchurch** » Sunday Sep 30, 2007

That computer looks bad ass!
I wouldn't know the first thing about computer recording, I bet there are quite a few people on here that are into it though.

The Sonar would be awesome to lay down some Dio riffs on.

nighthawk · Post by **nighthawk** » Sunday Sep 30, 2007

your gonna want a fairly good sound card and i would throw some more ram in there. but a lot depends on how many tracks you are planning on recording at once.

Team Transylvania · Post by **Team Transylvania** » Sunday Sep 30, 2007

i shouldnt need more than 2 GB for now. 1 has been fine, but the more the better!
As fas as soundcard, Im using the Realtek AC97 newest version its on the motherboard.
Whats in your computer setup?

nighthawk · Post by **nighthawk** » Monday Oct 01, 2007

im using an m-audio 1010lt soundcard at the moment. i just started looking into building a new machine for recording cause my current one just isn't quite enough. amd2.7 1 gig ram radion 9800 m-audio 1010lt and two 80 gig hard drives. i can do eight tracks right now but it can be a little testy cause it just aint quite powerfull enough for that. at the moment i think im just gonna go way over the top as far as parts so i never have a problem with speed. pluss i want to up it to 16 or more tracks. im looking at going with a quad core setup with 4 gig ram two 150 gig 10000 rpm hard drives some sort of pci express video and i will probably run two of the 1010lt or something better when i find it. i have a friend who knows way more about the parts and such. he will be helping me when it comes down the dropping the cash.

Banned · Post by **Banned** » Monday Oct 01, 2007

My setup is pretty basic, but fine for twiddling around.

With a Pentium dual-core, 2GB of RAM, and a single hard drive, the only place I ever get bottlenecked is the processor. All of that is from greedy plug-ins, though. Amplitube 2 is a really bad offender. I use the built-in Jesusonic plugs in Reaper for most things (verbs, comps, etc.), and one instance of Amplitube will take a bigger chunk from the processor than 50+ Jesusonic plugs.

BassFinger · Post by **BassFinger** » Tuesday Oct 02, 2007

I bought a Pentium D 820 (2.8 Ghz) system about a 2 years ago and intended on using it as a recording only system but that hasn't happened yet. I recently installed 4 gig ram and a 320 gig HD and would like to really use it for recording soon. I downgraded from an old version of Cakewalk Professional to Sonar Home Studio 6XL in order to have the plugins and virtual synth capabilities. I have a demo of Reason 3.0 and really like that so I may pickup a discounted Reason 3.0 as soon as they release Reason 4.0. I have a Line6 Toneport UX-2 also but I may investigate some M-Audio interfaces.

With the speed of broadband internet these days, I always think it would be cool to colaberate via the internet on recording projects.

Team Transylvania · Post by **Team Transylvania** » Tuesday Oct 02, 2007

if you get an m-audio interface, might as well use pro tools m-powered!
I have a copy of reason 3 if you want it. PM me for a list of programs i have.
Id be down for collaborating digitally for sure!

also, check out this site for info to make xp better for audio recording.
www.musicxp.net <--fixed thanks to lonewolf

lonewolf · Post by **lonewolf** » Tuesday Oct 02, 2007

Team Transylvania wrote: also, check out this site for info to make xp better for audio recording.
www.musicxp.ccom

the .com has an extra C in it and it turns out to be a .NET. here is the fixed link:

http://www.musicxp.net/

BassFinger · Post by **BassFinger** » Wednesday Oct 03, 2007

I've thought about pro-tools with a digidesign interface or the m-powered stuff. I'm sure you can export files and collaborate also with that....correct? I'd have to do some research.

I'm up for some 'internet' collaborating this late fall/winter (...no lawn work!). I should start a seperate thread about that and see the response. I play bass and like and play all different styles.

Thanks for the link also. I stumbled across that site about a year ago, didn't bookmark and then forgot the link.

Team Transylvania wrote:if you get an m-audio interface, might as well use pro tools m-powered!
I have a copy of reason 3 if you want it. PM me for a list of programs i have.
Id be down for collaborating digitally for sure!

also, check out this site for info to make xp better for audio recording.
www.musicxp.ccom

songsmith · Post by **songsmith** » Wednesday Oct 03, 2007

Has anyone used Audacity as a multi-track recording program? i use it a lot for editing, sweetening and mastering, but I've never had more than a stereo pair on it. It's open source, free, and they upgrade regularly. It also seems dead easy to use. Anyone?---->JMS

BassFinger · Post by **BassFinger** » Wednesday Oct 03, 2007

I've used it but not for multi-track recording. Just for clipping and editing wav and mp3 files. It's a great free tool. Lots of audio effects! I've always used Cakewalk Pro that I owned but I'm sure it's great for 4-8 tracks of audio. Hey....it's ==FREE==

songsmith wrote:Has anyone used Audacity as a multi-track recording program? i use it a lot for editing, sweetening and mastering, but I've never had more than a stereo pair on it. It's open source, free, and they upgrade regularly. It also seems dead easy to use. Anyone?---->JMS

Team Transylvania · Post by **Team Transylvania** » Wednesday Oct 03, 2007

lonewolf wrote:
Team Transylvania wrote: also, check out this site for info to make xp better for audio recording.
www.musicxp.ccom
the .com has an extra C in it and it turns out to be a .NET. here is the fixed link:

http://www.musicxp.net/

thanks lonewolf!!!! ive been on the road for work. im in the hotel now. my mind has been many other places.

Banned · Post by **Banned** » Wednesday Oct 03, 2007

songsmith wrote:Has anyone used Audacity as a multi-track recording program? i use it a lot for editing, sweetening and mastering, but I've never had more than a stereo pair on it. It's open source, free, and they upgrade regularly. It also seems dead easy to use. Anyone?---->JMS

Love it, love it, love it. It's so dead simple. For quick and dirty, you can't beat it.

For more complex stuff, Reaper is the shizzle:

http://www.reaper.fm/

It's unexpiring shareware, so it's technically free. I registered mine and still felt like a thief at $39.95. It does so much.

The brilliant thing about Reaper is how freakishly unbloated it is. The full installer is 2.4 MB. That's not a typo. If you want to get more performance out of your system, reconsider upgrading hardware or tweaking the OS. Replace your morbidly obese multi-track software with Reaper and let your system cut loose.

BassFinger · Post by **BassFinger** » Thursday Oct 04, 2007

Wow! Thanks for the Reaper link Jimi. That program seems great. I'll be downloading it and trying it out. I like trying out new stuff and when I get my geeky, techy self out of the way maybe I'll actually sit down and compose something.

Jimi Hatt wrote:
songsmith wrote:Has anyone used Audacity as a multi-track recording program? i use it a lot for editing, sweetening and mastering, but I've never had more than a stereo pair on it. It's open source, free, and they upgrade regularly. It also seems dead easy to use. Anyone?---->JMS
Love it, love it, love it. It's so dead simple. For quick and dirty, you can't beat it.

For more complex stuff, Reaper is the shizzle:

http://www.reaper.fm/

It's unexpiring shareware, so it's technically free. I registered mine and still felt like a thief at $39.95. It does so much.

The brilliant thing about Reaper is how freakishly unbloated it is. The full installer is 2.4 MB. That's not a typo. If you want to get more performance out of your system, reconsider upgrading hardware or tweaking the OS. Replace your morbidly obese multi-track software with Reaper and let your system cut loose.

Team Transylvania · Post by **Team Transylvania** » Thursday Oct 04, 2007

yeah, Reaper is good. also try Kristal. thats freeware.