Re: New computer - what do I need for pc home recording?
It's time to buy a new computer for multi-use work/media/play I also want to put away the cassette 4 track and join the current century.
What are the essentials you need for home recording on a PC?
-how much mem/ram/speed etc?
-what type of special connections: rca, 1/4, ubs?
-any other kind of special drives or hardware needed?
-what's a good basic recording software to start out on?
Thanks for your input
I would say at least 1 GB RAM or higher, and a processor that is fast in floating point operations. A CPU that's fast in floating-point will probably end up being a Core 2 Duo (
not celeron), etc. Floating point operations are extremely important, and assuming audio software is properly designed, any 2 processor computer should do great at it (because windows can then run an operation per cpu at a time, so your speed and accuracy increases). For example, I am writing this on a dual Pentium III 1.13GHz Tualatin machine. Back when the Pentium 4 first came out (prior to 2GHz) this machine stomped everything. However, even after Pentium 4, this thing encodes audio very fast, due mainly to having two available processors. So if you can't afford a very expensive, fast 64bit processor, even a slower, yet Dual Core, processor should give you some good speed.
As for the motherboard, get something that's got a good reputation for workstation stuff like art and graphic design, and/or audio design. I've seen budget motherboards come with krappy onboard devices that, due to how poorly they run and do their job, hog system time and resources due to the CPU constantly waiting for them. If anything, I recommend getting a Tyan motherboard, such as the
S5191. Is it expensive? yes. However, this company makes some of the best (if not the best) motherboards where reliability and performance are all that matter, like for people who design industry web servers that must stay running for years on end. I bought my duallie in like 2002 or 2003 (Tyan Tiger 230T) and it's still running rock-solid and fast.
As for special connections, just when you buy the computer or build it, be sure to get a professional-grade sound card. Usually they're encased in metal to shield them from RF interference.
As for drives, unless you plan to record directly to CD, I wouldn't bother with SCSI drive systems. However, if you want to record directly to the hard drive, be sure you get a rather fast hard drive. SATA should be a good idea, and be sure you get a drive (regardless of its capacity) with a lot of onboard cache memory (16MB if you can afford such a drive). The more onboard cache memory the hard drive has, the more speed you'll get out of it, at least initially (because with heavy multi-track recording, a LOT of data gets written to the hard drive at one time). More system RAM also helps in this regard, like say upward of 1GB.
As for the recording software, I'm not good with that side yet. Sorry. I have no clue.
Another design consideration: if you plan to have the recording computer in the room with you, you'll want to go a different route: a Via Eden or other fanless processor and motherboard, a fanless power supply, and as many solid-state devices (to include hard drive) as possible. Why? Because fans and motors make noise.
