Hi there! I'm thinking about on building a new PC. The main use im gona give it is: Design software like photoshop illustrator and so on. Musical production software like sonar guitar rig amplitube, vsti's, etc, etc. I'd like 2 knw what kind of specs i must give some special attention. Thxs in advance!
well, im from portugal, i dunno the variation of the prices, but i believe that the prices are very different... i'm thinking about 400€ that gives about 530$dolar... but if u give me some guidelines, i can try to make a config, and i post it here 4 u to avaliate it...
This guide should give you a good starting point: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2009/04/04/what-hardware-should-i-buy-april-2009/1
thxs for the tutorial oasked. but being a pc for a specific type of use, shouldnt i focus on some special points? it seemed to me that the tutorial only explains for low price configs, and gaming...
If you're not gaming don't buy a high end graphics card like we recommend in the guide, a cheaper one like HD 4670 will do. Spend the money on more memory. Do you need a professional soundcard with it for the music software? How does it record/process audio?
i talked with my music professor, and he told me i could use a mixing table, conect it to the computer and then connectng the guitar and the piano on it. but i'm a bit worried with the latency...
How does it connect to the PC exactly? Look up ASIO - it reduces the latency between input and PC software, bypassing Windows.
well, by now i only use guitar > jack > pc line in > guitarrig/amplitube/sonar with the mixing table i guess it turns like this: guitar > jack > mix table > line in > amplitube/sonar the guy told me that by buying a new soundcard won't get anything better. but i have a laptop too, and it sowsnt have linein... so i thought i could get a external sound card, to use on booth computers... i dunno what's the best solution
Spend your money on a decent processor and lots of ram. The amount of ram will directly affect the number of tracks that you can play back and record on simultaneously within your software. What software are you using? I use cubase sx and pro tools. With regards to a sound card, what you require is a usb/firewire audio I/O interface, 24 bit and 192 khz (with multiple I/O). There are many of these available and they greatly differ in price. If you decide to buy a usb interface, you should realise that you will be restricted to recording four instruments simultaneously due to bandwidth restrictions. However this will not be the case if you opt for firewire. Disregard what your tutor told you. Using a mixer is a poor compromise as all the tracks (instruments) will be mixed down to a stereo track prior to recording. This means that you lose the ability to add vst's, effects etc to tracks individually once they become visible in the track window. If you can shed a little more light on what you intend to record, eg. single instruments, bands etc, then i will be able to suggest some suitable interfaces for you. Regards Dead beat
My idea is to record my own stuff... based on guitar and piano. i got a casio cdp-200. beside a digital piano it works as a midi controller too, it conects by usb, so i guess from there, i just need usb ports the guitar, i got a normal electric guitar... wich i'm connecting in the line in port from my actual soundcard... with the piano i can work on the major instruments.. (drums, bass, synths, piano etc etc) and the guitar i record it directly... i dont intend to work a full band simultaneously! just some home recording, 1 instrument at time... edit: i'm thinking on using sonar on the recording part... for the guitar, i only know guitar rig and amplitube...
Does your software support ASIO? That'll reduce the latency to something like 2ms typical iirc. If so - look for a soundcard that supports it in hardware and that has excellent line-in quality. I don't know what the Asus Xonar's offer off hand, but it depends how much you want to spend whether you go for "more professional" or stay consumer. Id definitely recommend some kind of soundcard though.
i'm not sure if sonar supports... guitar rig and amplitube i'm sure it sows, cause i use asio drivers
