setting up home recording.

[peacock1987]

hi guys, im looking to set up a rig in the house for recording. I probably wont be recording drums but guitar and vocals are a go. I will probably go with PC as I don't have an excess of money and im used to the running of one. What sort of specs should I be looking fro from a desktop computer for effective sound recording and sequencing. Is there anything I should really avoid and also, what audio interfaces would be good value for money or small desks, i would not need more than 4 or 8 tracks. I have been recording through 'education' for ages but have never had the money to set anything up at home. Cheers.

[JohnnyX]

For the PC you will need the following :

Good motherboard e.g. ASUS P5K/ P5Q

Quad core processor (get the fastest you can afford)

Depending on running XP or Vista you'll want a minimum of 2GB upwards of quality RAM (Something like OCZ, Corsair), 4GB with Vista. There's been issues with Vista and audio applications so you may want to get XP to keep things simple.

You'll want twin hard drives running at 7,200 rpm, one for operating systems and samples etc. and one purely for audio. (Western Digital/ Seagate)

Get an uprated power supply and cooler and you are away! You'll probably get all of that for £600

[Ramirez]

You won't need any of the above at all just to work on projects consisting of a few tracks. I routinely record 10 simultaneous tracks without any problem (although with high buffer settings) on a 1.2GHz Athlon with 640MB of RAM. I also work on projects up to around 30 tracks on this system, running a few plugins as well. I use an EMU 1212m card with a Behringer ADAT preamp rack to give me 10 inputs. The 1212m can be bought new for around £100, and is fantastically flexble, although it's not the most user friendly if you're just looking for something simple.

If you already have a computer, I'm sure you could get some results with it instead of splashing £600 for a new one.

Although, having said all this, I am certainly feeling limited by my current computer, which is why I'm in the process of speccing a brand new quad-core rackmounted machine solely for studio use.

[Fullofkittens]

Agreed, you definitely don't need a hot rod computer if you're just going to be recording some audio tracks. Do you have a PC already? What are the specs on it?

Re: Vista vs. XP, unfortunately it's no longer possible to buy a new PC with XP on it.

[peacock1987]

nah i currently have a laptop and its just not suitable for audio recording. I will have to go with a desktop. It's just a case of not knowing what is good and or bad. These specs dont mean a lot to me bar things like hard drive space and RAM. I'm interested to know why certain things would be good and others poor if anyone can shed any light for me

[dhj]

Originally Posted by Fullofkittens

Agreed, you definitely don't need a hot rod computer if you're just going to be recording some audio tracks. Do you have a PC already? What are the specs on it?

Re: Vista vs. XP, unfortunately it's no longer possible to buy a new PC with XP on it.

Yes it is, try Dabs (who have loads) or Ebuyer (who have a couple)

Cheers

[jalapeno]

From your description any modern CPU will be OK, personally I'd avoid CELERON processors, but even they are fast enough these days.

Get a lot of RAM (more than 3Gb on an XP is wasted as it won't use it).

Get a big disc. Better still get a second disc that's a whopper and use that for all your recording files.

Simple is best, so an EMU 0404 or M-Audio 2496 sound card is £50 or so. For recording 4/8 concurrent tracks you'll have to spend a lot more - be clear what you need up front.

I used to maintain this FAQ which may help -> Recording FAQ

[JohnnyX]

I disagree with the people that are saying you shouldn't get a fairly powerful PC.

I started off with a single core 2.8 P4 but as I got more into PC recording and increasing my use of plugins it became woefully inadequate.

Getting an Intel Quadcore set up with twin hard drives and a few gig of RAM is really not that expensive these days and would give you a lot of freedom when using effects/ virtual instruments and soft synths.

EDIT : by the way you can still get XP

[jalapeno]

Originally Posted by JohnnyX

I disagree with the people that are saying you shouldn't get a fairly powerful PC.

I started off with a single core 2.8 P4 but as I got more into PC recording and increasing my use of plugins it became woefully inadequate.

Getting an Intel Quadcore set up with twin hard drives and a few gig of RAM is really not that expensive these days and would give you a lot of freedom when using effects/ virtual instruments and soft synths.

EDIT : by the way you can still get XP

I think that "fairly powerful" is spot on, and a QuadCore is over the top - not saying that it isn't what you need, but he's only given us some fairly modest needs.

CPU isn't the only limiting factor - memory, disc speed & layout, audio card, audio drivers can all make even a QuadCore slow.

[JohnnyX]

I dunno - it all depends on if he really 100% is only going to ever use 4-8 tracks. Before you know it maybe you'll want to double track guitars, drums might need more than one track, bass, maybe lead - then there's vocals.

If you want it to all sound half decent you'll need effects, maybe he'll like the idea of adding strings/ pianos in the future? This will all begin to tax your system resources.

If this is all a possibility then it's much better to future proof yourself. And like I said before get a decent amount of RAM and 7,200 rpm twin HDDs.

And he won't have to worry about the audio card/ drivers because he'll be going through an interface.

I say Quad is the way to go for PC musicians in this day and age - why compromise unless you are on a very tight budget because it's not going to break the bank