Tell us about your DAW

Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2005 2:29 pm

<snip>

Posted: Fri Feb 11, 2005 1:28 pm

Howdy!

I'm currently using:

CORE HOST BOX:
Enermax Whisper 550watt PSU
Asus P4P-E (i845P chipset)
Pentium 4 2.53GHz (Northwood)
1GB Kingston ValueRAM PC3200
ATI Radeon 8500 128MB
Adaptec 29160 SCSI controller
2x Seagate Barracuda 40GB ATA100 (1 fixed, 1 removable tray)
2x Seagate Cheetah U320 SCSI drives (in ext. U160 chassis + removable trays)
Sony DVD+-R USB2.0

PRO AUDIO:
Creamware SCOPE Project
Cubase SX2
Logic 5 Platinum
Wavelab 4.0

UPGRADING TO ---

CORE:
P4C800-E Deluxe (might sell this for Super Micro P4SCT+II)
Pentium 4 3.2GHz (Prescott)
2GB Kingston HyperX PC3200
ATI Radeon X800 Pro
Adaptec 29320-R SCSI controller

PRO AUDIO:
Creamware SCOPE Professional (14 SHARC DSP)
Creamware SCOPE Booster board (additional 14 SHARC DSP)
Cubase SX3
Wavelab 5.0
Logic 5 Platinum

Anyone here using the Super Micro P4SCT+II motherboard?

Thanks!
~Z

Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2005 12:00 am

My setup:

Dual Opteron 242's (1.6 Ghz)
4U Chembro rackmount case
3 HDDs (1 OS/app drive, 2 removeable drives for audio)
DVD burner
1.5 GB RAM
RME DIGI 9652 interface
MOTU 2408 MK III interface
el cheapo Midiman 1x1 midi interface

Software:
Sonar 4 PE, Sound Forge 6, Reason, Cool Edit, Waves Platinum and other misc. plugs.

I have yet to really max this machine out. I can run many instances of SIR (impulse verb) in real time without a crash. I recently got the MOTU for it's superiour routing abilities over the RME, and have not gotten it stable though. It locks the system up within a few minutes of use, so I'm still using the RME. Other than that, it's been a very solid system. Hard to bog it down.

Posted: Sat Feb 19, 2005 3:55 pm

Hello everyone from a newcomer.
I was looking for some good info on what sort of laptop configuration to purchase for mobile studio applications; And you folks sure have helped on that end..in fact it's a bit much data. But helpful none-the-less.

I am looking for a lap top which will run both my CakeWalk Home Ed. and my V-Amp software.
Very green to home recording, so I may sometimes ask what seem to be "stupid" questions; I do hope none of you will get tired of me.

Farewell. Wink

Posted: Sat Feb 19, 2005 5:07 pm

Hi everybody.

This is the list of things in the studio:

Custom-made PC:
AMD Athlon XP 3000+ CPU (Barton Core, 333 MHz FSB)
MSI KT4 Mainboard
1 GB RAM PC 2700
3 x 80 GB Western Digital Caviar HDs
1 Pinnacle Studio Deluxe 8 PCI Card (analog + IEEE 1394)
1 nVIDIA GeForce FX5200 128 MB
Digidesign´s DIGI001 Hardware
M-Audio Delta DiO 2496 PCI
LG DVD-R Multi-format Writer
Windows XP SP-2 "unplugged" (no internet, no ethernet), customized for audio (no mysterious-useless services & processes active, no antivirus, no firewall, no desktop visual enhancements)
17" LG Monitor
This setup is awesome, IT HAS NEVER HANGED!!!!!

Software:
Protools LE 6.4
Wavelab 4
Sony Vegas + DVD Architect
Waves Plugins, along with those that comes with Protools, Sound Replacer, etc.
Cubase & sonar when the client asks for them, almost no used.
Reason 2.5

Audio Gear:
Yamaha 03D Digital Mixing Console, 26 CH w/ ADAT I/O for 8 simultaneous recording channels
AKG mics (414, c300, c100.....), shure, EV mics.
TC Electronics Finalizer 96k
Yamaha Keyboard
Roland MC505 Groovebox
Alesis RA250 Amp
Alesis MKII Monitors
& other irrelevant stuff..................
Planning to buy some preamps, altough the digidesign DIGI001 preamps are quite good.

Posted: Sat Feb 19, 2005 5:22 pm

MusicMan2U answer:

Your question can start a "battle" of opinions about Intel and AMD. I considering myself a AMD lover because its price/value relationship, and i particulary find AMD processors to have something in it internal structure that make them very reliable on audio/video tasks. Intel in the other hand have come with many changes in their processors, putting more cache, more internal speed, and they performs flawlessly but at a higher price tag. Tip? Try buy an Intel Laptop. Why? one of the well known isues with AMD is that their processors generates more heat and consumes more power than Intel processors. Important feature for a mobile device, power consumption. Centrino Laptops are trying to prove that little less GHz and huge cache makes a power efficiency a dream.......So as a general rule for audio workstations, the more, the better.......512 MB ram at least, 60 GB hard disk, and lots of GHz if u plan to use a lot of time-based plugins like reverbs and delays (power-hungry plugins)... I still own a 1 GHz Pentium 3 PC that works fine with cubase, but i´m limited knowing what you can do with more horsepower..........

Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2005 9:11 am

Rockmachine

Antec P150 w/ NEO HE 430W
Gigabyte K8NF9 Ultra
AMD X2 3800+
2GB Twinx C2Corsair RAM
Gigabyte VGA GV-NX62TC256D8
1x WD250 GB SATAII
2x Maxtor 300GB SATAII
NEC ND-4551A
Apacer Cardreader 14-in-1 (no floppy)
2x Samsung TFT SyncMaster 710N
+
Apple Macbook C2D 1.8 GHz

Front-end

Yamaha 01v96v2
Yamaha i88x
all connected with mLAN
+
Digidesign mBox2

DAW-software

Cubase SX3 <not anymore> upgraded to Cubase 4.1
+
PTLE
+
Logic Express 7.2 comptemplating upgrading to Logic Pro.

Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2005 9:40 am

0db wrote:

MusicMan2U answer:

Tip? Try buy an Intel Laptop. Why? one of the well known isues with AMD is that their processors generates more heat and consumes more power than Intel processors. Important feature for a mobile device, power consumption. Centrino Laptops are trying to prove that little less GHz and huge cache makes a power efficiency a dream.......So as a general rule for audio workstations, the more, the better.......512 MB ram at least, 60 GB hard disk, and lots of GHz if u plan to use a lot of time-based plugins like reverbs and delays (power-hungry plugins)

Intel Centrino laptop is a good choice when it comes to battery life, performance and temperature.

If you're looking for sheer power, there are also P4 2.8 and higher as well as AMD64 notebooks. Note however that not all applications benefit from Intel's Hyperthreading. Some even suffer penalties. I heard ProTools wants you to disable HT, where Cubase just loves it.

I might also add that cache is the CPU's on die memory which is something completely different than your system memory. 512MB is a nice chunk of RAM, though. Insufficient RAM might hinder your system to reach its full potential. With Intel the more cache the better, with AMD64 the difference between an 1MB or 512KB cache is almost negligable because of the on die memory controller.

On desktops the s775 Intel CPU's get a lot hotter than the AMD64 939, especially when it's a the latest 3500+ 90nm winchester core. Running hotter is not necessarily a problem. If you're recording in the same room as where your laptop/desktop is, it better be a quiet one. That's a little harder if the box runs hot. Cool

Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2005 5:33 pm

Cfaalm:

when you see a processor with 512 MB on it´s cache, just let me know.......

and ask here in this forum if temperature isn´t an important issue.....he´s asking for a LAPTOP, because he probably wants to use it outdoors, so temperature its a important factor.

I just wanted to help posting MY opinion. Why don´t you just do the same instead of trying to teach me some lessons?

I´m sorry if i was rude, or wasn´t your intention, but i get so %$&@! everytime someone wastes his time tryin to show what a "brainy" he is, instead of giving some advice to someone who´s asking for it.

Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2005 5:18 am

Apple G4 PowerPc Dual 1.25 GHz with FPU

System Bus speed: 167 MHz
Backside Bus Speed 250 MHz
1 GB RAM, Datapath 128 bit PC2700 DDR
Level 1 Cache: 64k
Level 2 Cache: 256k
Level 3 Cache: 2.0 MB (backside)
VRAM: 64 MB
Dual DVI + VGA Monitor Outputs
1 x Firewire 800
2 x Firewire 400
4 x USB 2
Ethernet 1000BaseT
Modem
Analog audio I/O

FreeBSD based UNIX OS: OSX 10.3.3

3 x 120 GB HD Deskstar
Superdrive

Motu 828
Motu Fastlane

Logic Pro 6 (7 ordered)
VintageWarmer
All soft instruments and plugins boundled in the Logic Pro DAW.
Autoload Song:
151 Tracks
720 Plugins already inserted
Once my sister saw me running a so huge Autoload, (she hated Macs and was a Windows addict) trashed her 4 PC and buyed 2 G5, one for her and one for my parents. Smile

Final Cut Pro HD
Dreamweaver
Flash
Cinema 4D
...
...
...

A lot of fun and power for the money!

Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2005 6:28 am

0dB

I was merely trying to add to your advice. No offence taken. Wink

Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2005 2:53 pm

Compaq ML330
dual Xeon 2.4
3G memory 533Mhz
80G ata raid 1 system drive <2drives>
72G raid 0 SCSI ultra 320 <2 15k rpm drives>
some 64M pcix video card from walmart
built in 100M network
painted black Smile

17" Lcd NEC

audio/midi
M Audio Delta 1010 converted to pcix
Midiman 8x8 and Midiman 4x4 controlling a bunch or synths and a Behringer DDX3216 mixer...and a whole bunch of other crap...

Software
WinXP
Sonar 4

Mixdown Machine

Dell 800Mhz
512Meg of RAM
20G hd and a firewire 120G
CD burner and stuff

Audio
DAL Card D+

Software
WinXP
T-RACKS, Wavelab and Red Roaster <old software>

manfromplanetx

Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 12:16 am

A "hi" to everyone here...

My current setup:

AMD XP3000 cpu
Abit NF-7 mobo
80/200 GB ide drives
2 GB of PQI DDR400 ram
ATI Radeoon 9700 pro vid card.
Dell 2001FP 21" LCD monitor
M-Audio 24/96 Audiophile PCI sound card.

Software:

Sonar 4 producer
Drumkit From Hell Superior
Atomosphere

Other:
Trapkat midi drum trigger
Schecter 6 string guitar
Boss GS-10 Guitar/Bass processor
M-Audio 66-key Radium midi controller
Samson power amp + Resolv 65 monitors.
Furman PL+ Series 2 power strip holding most of it together.

I'd love to upgrade quite a bit of this.... namely a PodXT Pro for bass, Mackie HR824 monitors, a MOTU 828mk II, a Mesa Boogie recording pre-amp (or a guitar pod xtpro), and more synth software, possibly an 88-key midi controller....

None of this will make my songs better (well, just sound a bit better) Smile

Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2005 10:18 am

AMD 3800+
2MB L2 Cache
1.5GB PC3200 400mhz ram
256MB nVideo GeForce Video
SATA 200GB Main drive
Firewire 80GB 7200 Audio Drive
DVD 16x Dual Layer Burner
SB Audigy 2 Sound Card
Dual 19" Ultrasharp LCD displays
10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet
7 USB and 2 FW ports
Windows XP Pro SP2
Protools 6.4 LE and Mbox

Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2005 5:39 am

hi just (30 seconds ago) joined this site
well my daw is as followed:

hardware

laptop centrino 1.6 ; 512 ram;
roland e-15 keyboard
trumpet, saxophone
directdrive turntable
analog mixer
3 meter of records (funk, soul, gospel, reggea, blue beat, dub, hip hop, house)

software

ableton live 3
digital videos of learning to play piano

at the moment al the hardware is working seperatly and i am orientating on a firewire audiointerface (with free light version of cubase) so hope ajust one on my hardwarelist this year....hopefully tascam fw1884 or whatever comes close

Confused

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