Q: Hi yall. Use of PCs, but Im out of touch, but his research on hard . This forum and someone recommended a good advice;
Was wondering if anyone had experience building PCs for DAW Rack (recording up to eight tracks at once with many of the processing and synthesis up to 32 virtual tracks). Im looking for a low-latency, glitch-free recording.
Sadly I also need to use this computer for development at Vista Ultimate. Will this OS ok (I know that few software developers are on board so far). Or should I dual boot XP for audio apps and then Vista for my development (microsofty kind stuff.
I will post the proposed set later (does not ask to overload) 0.
But if I have a dual-boot I will have my
a. 1 HD for all things Vista (200-320 GB)
b. 1 HD for running my XP systems and software (120-250 GB)
c. 1 HD for my samples / audio tracks / data etc XP (320 to 500 GB) is
or OK to a 400-500 GB drive partition, do A and B, and C to do?
Thanks in advance!
Trav
Best Answer: Yes, I am a bit of a begginner myself. However, I started a few years back with Anvil Studio (Free Ver.). It is only good for MIDI arrangment. But it is a good primer for the next few like FL Studio. There are others like Reason, but you need an input device for it like a keyboard or external synth. Fruityloops is really the best begginner DAW. I will be more than happy to give you a tutorial to get you started with just the basics of audio editing with FL.
I suggest you start with your melody:
Open New
find a good instrument and right click it and select "Send to open channel"
Now, Create your melody in the Piano Roll editor (Right click the instument in your pattern editor, in drop menu, the top, "PIANO ROLL") This is where Anvil Studio tought me to use a piano roll.
ok now that that is done, it is time to add your drums and Bass and vocals.
Click out of the Piano Roll editor by the "X" at top right. now You should see the pattern editor again. Next, you should go up to the Play stop and record buttons. Next to it you should see a Number, that is the tempo, to the right of that should be another number(default is 1). That is your current pattern number. You need to click and hold and move the mouse up to "2". The pattern editor should now be empty again.
Now you can add "FPC". that is the default drum plugin for FL. to do so just right click on the pattern editor and go to insert. a list of plugins should come up. FPC should be somewhere top middle. Click it.
Edit that in Piano roll as before and you will see instead of Notes on the left you'll see perc. instruments. each is a different sound.
Repeat the steps for the melody to creat your bass part.
Now, to tie it all together as a song:
To the left of the play button are 2 tiny buttons. looks like this
————————————–…
Pat+"Play""Stop""Record"
Song+
————————————–…
Right now the button next to "Pat" should be red.
Click on the button next to "Song" to make it red.
Now right click that same button.
Now you are at the "SONG EDITOR"!!!
It is similer to the piano roll. The difference is that when you click next to a pattern the whole pattern is placed there.
it looks similer to this:
Patterns _________________
Pattern 1 :____I______I_____I_
Pattern 2 :____l______I_____I_
Pattern 3 :____I______I_____I_
and so forth
You want to click next to pattern 1,2 and 3. That places a colored rectangle next to it.
Hit play and you have a rudementory song!!!!!
Add more melodies for Chorus, Bridge and Breakdown.
Hope it helps! Enjoy
Re:Awsome Info. Thanks mate. I can't wait to try to throw this thing together.
Re:The Q6600 (quad core 2.4Ghz) should drop in price at the end of this month, you may find that beneficial. Otherwise, the E6850 will be out then as well (dual core, 3Ghz stock speed), and will be about $265, or you can go E6750 (dual core, 2.66Ghz stock) which will run about $185.
You may want to consider one of the new P35 chipset boards. Gigabyte or Asus.
As for memory, if you are not going to overclock the cpu, then technically, all you need is 533mhz DDR2. But you'll find 667mhz and even 800mhz at good prices.
So, if you are not overclocking, this is a pretty good deal here…
http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4565617
Windows 32bit versions will only recognize ~3.25GB of memory, so its up to you if you want to go 2GB or 4GB. These 2GB kits were about $200 earlier this year, so as you can see, memory prices are quite cheap right now. If you think you'll utilize more than 2GB, I'd say go for 4GB to be safe. It's only another $70.
You'll have to pay sales tax at NewEgg (they have a distribution center in TN, 2 I think, one in Memphis), so these other sites may come in handy…
http://www.zipzoomfly.com
http://www.outpost.com
http://www.ewiz.com
http://www.mwave.com
As for a DVD Burner, I'd get a SATA one. Smaller cable, and PATA is just about dead. NewEgg's prices for these are so low, you won't mind the sales tax…
http://www.newegg.com/Product/…tion=&Ntk=&srchInDesc= (http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Submit=ENE&N=2010100005+1036506653+1038406820&Subcategory=5&description=&Ntk=&srchInDesc=)
You'll need a screwdriver, some scissors, and also some Thermal paste, Arctic Silver 5 maybe. Everything else will come with the motherboard and case/psu.
You won't need any other cooling. The retail HSF that comes with the cpu will be fine.
Re:sonata III case (comes with 500W power supply – 16.7×18.2×8.1") 16.7×18.2×8.1"
$100
ASUS P5B Deluxe WiFi-AP
$200
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz 4MB L2 LGA 775 Processo $200
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 Hard drive 500GB internal 3.5" SATA-II NCQ 7200RPM 16MB Cache
2 of these for a total of
$200
later on I will get one more also as has been suggested?but this should be a good bassline
[I hope this is quiet???] Sapphire 100164DDR2 256MB X1650PRO 600MHz ATi Radeon PCI-Express 16X Video Card with Dual DVI, Dual VGA, HDTV, DirectX 9.0, Shader Model 3.0: 100164DDR2 (Retail)
$70
[I need advice here - what type] RAM 3MB if not 4MB. I want good stuff. I will be doing lots of sampling/DSP work plus my vista computing may be heavy $3-600
any old dvd burner???
$20
tools, ?cables?, pastes, etc?I sadly don?t have any of this stuff in USA (from Australia) $30
extra cooling? Is it necessary if I never over clock?
$20-60???
Keyboard and maybe a firewire800 card for my onyx 400f
$50
Total around $1200-1600 depending on the deals I get and what RAM costs
CPU questions;
Could
1. be patient E6750 for only $10 less when they come
2. or be patient and get the quads cheaper
3. or now I can get INTEL CORE 2 QUAD Q6600 (BX80562Q6600) 2.4GHZ EM64T QUAD CORE W/4MB X 2 CACHE 1066MHZ LGA775-PIN RETAIL BOXED W/COOLING FAN (3 YEARS WARRANTY) (for about $200ish more than the one above)
Sorry to be long-winded again,
Re:Id suggest one drive for your program and possibly samples. The other drive is purely a recording drive that would contain your tracks and projects.
Re:However, guy has set the standards now…i expect a 30 minute response every time now
hopefully I can start giving back soon
Re:I knew you'd get some good advice here.
Re:Thanks JPeyton!
Budget is flexible as long as its good bang for the buck .
Let's say $1000-1500 without monitors (BTW: I already have my Onyx 400F for sound). Dual DVI(-D?) support would be great for me too…the more screen space the better…but i will never be gaming on this one. Oh yeah, my only other requirement is an ATI Radeon with 256MB+ (for a project requirement). Other than that, I am flexible for a quiet, rock-solid system.
When you suggest HD2 as source drive, are you refering to samples Vs what i record onto HD. Or do you also playback what you have already recorded off there (that is, do i move the recorded audio from 3 to 2 once i have recorded it?)
As for noisy racks, I guess I could always try to get handy and create a case/rack enclosure for my tower. it really doesnt need to live in a rack…just for travel about once a month i reckon.
Thanks again
trav
Re:Budget?
Was wondering if anyone had experience with building Rack PCs for DAW
Rack PCs are not typically quiet, because they are made for a server environment. I'd recommend a tower case instead.
I am looking for low latency, glitch-free recording.
If your budget allows for it, get a $270 Core 2 Quad instead of a Duo (price drop should be effective by the fourth week of July).
Sadly I also need to use this computer for development on Vista Ultimate. Will this OS be ok (I know that only SOME software developers are on board so far). Or should I dual boot XP for audio apps and then Vista for my Development (microsofty kind of stuff.
I would dual-boot. XP just seems more responsive in nearly every application for me.
But if i dual boot should i have;
Hard Drive 1: Two partitions, one for Vista/Software and one for XP/Software.
Hard Drive 2: Samples/Audio Tracks/Data Source Drive
Hard Drive 3: Samples/Audio Tracks/Data Destination Drive
Having your source and destination locations on separate hard drives noticeably speeds up your system.
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