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anonymous 12 July 2005

Hi all,
I'm an Avid musician with little recording experience looking to get into the world of the DAW. The only computer audio program I have experience with is Reason 2.5-3.0 which I have been using for a few years. So far, my compaq presario laptop running an AMD XP 2200+ at 1.79 GHz with 512 MB of RAM has been fine for this program. I have been interested in taking my musical interests to the next level by purchasing a good DAW and pro tools set up so that I can incorporate guitar, vocals, violin, etc into my pieces.

My knowledge on DAWs is extremely limited, but the Music XPC, Carillon, and DAWBOX systems all look very appealing to me. I am willing to spend anywhere between $1500 to $2500 for a powerful, reliable system that will give me semi-pro to pro results and that I will not have to worry about becoming obsolete for a long, long time. Some of you might recommend that I build my own system, but I have tried this before with disasterous results. I am willing to spend the extra money for a preassembled system that I won't have to worry about.

The music XPC site states that its systems are "Digidesign approved" which sounds cool because I've heard a lot of horror stories regarding Pro Tools being incompatible with various hardware. I also like the small sizes of the C3 and C4 PCs.
http://www.musicxpc.com/products.htm

Another question... Is a good sound card important? After all, since most hardware seems to run through firewire or USB 2.0, doesn't that make an expensive sound card unecessary? So much to learn such little time! I truly appreciate any input from you guys.

Thanks,
Dave

Comments

Big_D Tue, 07/12/2005 - 15:10

Welcome to RO Dave,

Why don't you check out ADK and Sonica DAWs instead of settleing for some off the shelf "music system". Both companies build custom DAWs within the price range you are looking, offer great customer service and better performance for the dollar than what you are currently looking at. Besides both Scott of ADK and Guy of Sonica post in this forum often and it's nice to know who you're dealing with.

Here are the links to their sites if you're interested.

http://recording.org/resources/recording-computers.300/

http://www.sonicalabs.com/

Good Luck! :D

Randyman... Tue, 07/12/2005 - 17:16

yzfwv wrote: my god. Those xpc music pc thing are incredibly expensive...

I really don't know why they are so expensive. I built a 3.0GHz 1Gig RAM Shuttle XPC DAW from Newegg for like $700 plus monitor and audio software, and saved $1000 off the Music XP price.

I'l also lean more towards ADK and Sonica, as they use more common parts (unlike the somewhat "Proprietary" Shuttle form factor). Nothing wrong with Shuttle (minus the $1800 Music XP price tag), mine has not crashed yet...

:cool:

Big_D Tue, 07/12/2005 - 19:19

In the past I have always been an Intel guy but since the socket 754 came out I'm lovin AMD. The newer socket 939 is even better. I just finished my new DAW (3200+ 939) and it is absolutley smokin. I still like Intel but AMD is just killing everything out there right now.

64 bit is the way to go for sure even if you stick with 32 bit XP for now. DAWs last a long time and if you decide to upgrade to 64 bit later your machine is ready for it.

My suggestion for a processor? AMD socket 939 all the way.

anonymous Wed, 07/13/2005 - 04:21

concerning 64-bit technology- when you say "upgrade" to it- is this talking about the software you run? or is it anything to do with hardware

and- if you have a 64-bit processor- you can still run all the 32-bit stuff right? if that is the case then im sure anyone buying a new PC will want to opt for a 64-bit processor right?

so are any of the current recording (do you call them sampling programs?) programs enabled to work at 64-bit- ie- cubase, pro-tools, logic etc.......have they announced any plans to do this?

how much will this effect processing speed? a dumbass (like me) would say that doubling the number, doubles the speed- but i am guessing this is not true- is it loggorithmic (sp!)...........or am i talking a load of codswallop?

thankyou!

Guest Wed, 07/13/2005 - 06:58

HI,

64 bit ready proccessor/subsytem

only Sonar is "64bit ready" and i think RME Fireface is still the only driver working right.

most things will run in "WOW" mode in win 64. "windows on windows"

however you see no improved performance doing this. and can have issues.

we are still about 6months to a yr out from it being prime time!

Scott
ADK

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