hey all! I'm very excited about this so I figured I'd share! I created another thread a while back specing out some top level stuff, don't worry it's still coming... As life would have it what I thought was $800 in car repairs, was actually a totaled '03 Honda Civic instead. I'm obviously not a mechanic lol. So long story short my 15k setup is going towards a car. Not in vein the process of specing the rig was good, and I've found the price points I want to hit, and the gear will only get better with time, so I'm shooting for 2017 to jump off the high-endcliff.
So my compromise was this computer I came across at Best Buy. I had just recently purchased an hp pavilion amd quad core as a budget machine for office and mixdown duties. This was bare bones and would do that job but leave me without a truly worthy machine to run multi track daw duties, which was fine as I was planning on building my beast. Just a few weeks later, a day before my 31st b-day, I came across this. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo-ideacentre-700-desktop-intel-core-i5-8gb-memory-1tb-8gb-hybrid-hard-drive-black/4368200.p?id=1219738783972&skuId=4368200#spoke/featuresSpoke
After a few hours of late night research I ordered it, fearing the price might change. I picked it up, and it's still in the box, along with my unopened qnap ts-231 NAS drive. https://www.qnap.com/i/useng/product/model.php?II=142 which I picked up a few months ago with a 2tb NAS hdd.
The main selling point was the 6th gen i5 pentium processor (i5-6400) which is pretty much brand new. Along with this is the new Ddr 4 memory format, which shows significant performance over the previous ddr3, at least from my research anyway. The pavilion was very nice for $ 350 but lacked upgradability, and Futureproofing due to a soldered in chipset, ddr3 ram, and only one free PCIe slot. Which would have been fine, if my race car computer was coming soon, which it was at the time I bought it, but that quickly changed. The pavilion also could only support one internal hdd.
The Lenovo also had hdmi output, and a hybrid ssd/hdd which I'm skeptical of. At $ 650 I felt it was a lot of computer for the price point, with he next models up quickly and steeply reaching diminishing returns. In essence anything more than the ideacentre 700, which I purchased, made sense only as a build, rather than off the shelf.
So that was my thinking behind the decision to incur the $ 300 additional dollars in form of debt. I also purchased xara wed designer pro, on sale for $ 75 instead of the $ 99 it usually is. Magix movie maker pro premium, will round out the software suite, along with PTHD12 ($ 12-1500 software only from fleabay), and Samplitude daws. PT will show up in about 6-12 months. I will also need to investigate an Auto CAD program, and will likely install sketchup. Also will be room eq wizard, to complete the software suite.
Before anyone questions my dedication to being a broke musician, the money is borrowed against a large portion of my inheritance. I will purchase a car, and my first home, which I will fix up and rent out as a semi reliable revenue stream. Rinse wash repeat. Lol currently still live on the couch, and out of totes.
Also at the risk of TMi I am on an indefinite hiatus (with select pet projects the exception) to deal with my recent medical diagnosis (oCD/bi-polar/sciatica) which I have put off for many many years to do the studio builds, and hone my skills to a professional level. Those opportunities will pass by if not taken. A year and a half off a 5year bender, and the worst recording project of my life, which I couldn't even imagine would be so awful. I've decided now is a good time to completely restructure everything in my life.
So back to the computer! Before I unbox everything there are some upgrades.
1. Power supply- corsair ax860 or 100. I'm open to any other suggestions.
2. RAM- 4x8 gb (32gb total) which is the max the ideacentre can hold. Basic ripjaws or crucial runs $ 150. Still unsure if the computer can overclock, but at the risk of instability I will likely stay with the 2133mhz that is factory speCD.
3. Additional 2-4tb hdd, which I believe can be internal but I am still trying to spec out each component. (Lenovo is still saying coming soon for the computer, so it's very new, and the info isn't readily available like it was for the pavilion) otherwise I'll have to investigate a high speed external and associated PCIe card.
4. Battery backup 900w+ (rack mount preferable) apc or trip lite is what I'm looking at so far. Very open to suggestions on this front. I'm basically clueless about these things.
5. Isolation transformer- trip lite IS1000
1000w.
6. Rack out Power conditioner- very basic furman, purely for the electrical outlets. They just look cooler than typical power strips.
7. A rack- cheapo one, or a basic home built one.
8. Firwire 400 card- my very lame m-audio 1814 interface is FireWire, and I'm waiting on the burls to either be ordered or decided against, before I retire it. The caveat being that it actually has Windows 10 drivers which I believe it does if memory serves me.
I have to figure out how these power type devices play with each other, as I don't want to create problems, or wasted expense, or inefficiency.
These additional components will double the cost of the computer bringing the total to about $ 1200. These will arrive slowly over the next 4-6months.
(Potential upgrades)
8. Better cooling fan
9. Dual HD display card
That's all the mods I can think of for now. And I probably will break out the devices from the boxes as soon as the ram and psu happen. I'm planing on a fair amount of optimization for Windows 10 home, and a learning curve for the NAS drive, which I'm a complete newbie with. I left off at Windows xp.
I also have a significant amount of file organization to do, with multiple files from different daws, and computers/drives, before the real fun begins.
One area I'm out of touch with is virus scan which I haven't used since I've been computerless, and using the studios macs. I'd appreciate any recommendations.
I also have a significant amount of work to do on my business plan, accounting, and re-registration of my sole proprietorship, under a new name.
I've also decided to sell off all my guitar gear besides my hammer Californian (16th b-day gift) and my Ibanez sz prestige, guitars which I sweated a whole summer landscaping for. I will keep my beloved $150 jasmine acoustic, And my peavy 6505 combo, which was not making sound last time I tried it. First upgrade guitar wise is a Marshall dsl40 combo, but that is on hold for a while. My gear will go towards my car, at a fairly significant loss, but the ease of mind and instant gratification win. I don't feel like selling 30 items individually on Craigslist.
Also up on the more immediate list is a ergonomic chair like a Herman Miller, it the brand Thomas W. Bethel recommends.
And I guess I need a desk too. I'm thinking one of those basic rolling carts that hold the screen and keyboard, like you see at the doctors.
I feel like I am still missing something but I've bored anyone who made it this far, enough for one night/week/year/eternity. I still have to read the computer manuals more thoroughly, but I think it was a great time to buy (purely accidental) and in about 2 years, this is going to make a real nice mixdown machine, barring the m-audio interface. My goal is to have this new computer never see the Internet. The NAS drive has a celeron processor in it and functions as a basic cpu. I also own an iPad Air 1 (gift from boss at studio in 2014) and my iPhone 6. Both of which have water damaged, but functional screens/displays. And there's always the macs at the studio, which are basically obsolete at this point.
I would appreciate any thoughts and suggestions, as I'll be active in the Windows 10/Samplitude threads here. And just anything in general that pops ups.
Happy new year! All the best.
-Kyle
Edit- for some reason the prices I typed w $ signs aren't showing up properly in the post.
Re-edit- had to put space between the $ and the number.
Comments
I think at the end of the day if you're running a high track cou
I think at the end of the day if you're running a high track count, vsti, processing. all of those high end DAWS have their place. Being a hobby for me usually means I'm working with maybe 18-24 tracks which is pretty effortless ...I don't really have the need for a much bigger computer . I actually have Cubase ai6 Running on my i5 tablet !..
If I was all in (as in a full on production suite). I'd probably drop the $ for a high end workstation...
I've had good luck with HP gear, very stable and goes forever..
The i7 2600k is unlocked in the sense you can keep turning it up ... I understand they are stable at 4 Gig clock rate on air and even higher clock wise on a water block solution.
I've got a q9660 xenon class workstation as well, currently being used for software development. It's a 4 core 2.8 Gig box with 12 MBytes of cache.
It smokes along at a good rate too .. it also in an HP 8000 elite.
I sound like an hp fanboy but I can't knock the product... its all working well for me.
Personally, I think we have more than enough computer power to g
Personally, I think we have more than enough computer power to get things done, it's all the ancillary hardware that holds you back slow storage etc.
I work as an EA (enterprise architect )building big enterprise backend solutions (where storage systems are $750000 and up ,50000 employees. And 600+ locations).. I spend more time on servers then I ever had on desktops. As a matter of fact, I've been on servers for so long I had to get re-acquainted with the desktop and windows. I can use notepad far better then word lol.
I have a server motherboard and a q9660 floating around here, I
I have a server motherboard and a q9660 floating around here, I might just run it up on windows server and try sonar on it ... Personally servers are usually optimized for background tasks (depending on operating system) , (file and print services). When you sit at a server you may find the front end to be a bit pokey ... but at the same time the backend is making connections supporting hundreds of other users..
Guelph_Guy, post: 436718, member: 47293 wrote: Personally, I thi
Guelph_Guy, post: 436718, member: 47293 wrote: Personally, I think we have more than enough computer power to get things done, it's all the ancillary hardware that holds you back slow storage etc.
I work as an EA (enterprise architect )building big enterprise backend solutions (where storage systems are $750000 and up ,50000 employees. And 600+ locations).. I spend more time on servers then I ever had on desktops. As a matter of fact, I've been on servers for so long I had to get re-acquainted with the desktop and windows. I can use notepad far better then word lol.
Notepad lmaoo. It's funny working on a million dollar server system and using notepad. A lot of times it's the simple things that work through and through.
I've always wonder how a server would hold up as a daw, or if it was even possible. I love the idea of how dependable they're designed to be.
I'm not sure if it applies to the background you were referring to, but I know part of the pro tools and (I think most PC ) os optimization is to assign 'processor scheduling' to 'background services'
What I've noticed about macs, and an i7 daw custom built by a buddies dad, who works fitting microchips into stuff for a descendent company, is that there may be a little bit of lag like when you double click or executed a certian command, but it does so more reliably. Almost as if the computer is like super quickly 'double checking' itself to make sure it's right.
I could see where a typical user would want the most instant gratification, but maybe that's at the expense of reliability or performance elsewhere in the system.
Interestingly enough, Being that I run a MOTU 2408's and 1296's
Interestingly enough, Being that I run a MOTU 2408's and 1296's they use the pci424 card (pretty legacy in this day and age)
the Intel chipset q67 in the 8200 supports PCI natively So there is no glue or bridging logic ...
The interface is rock solid and the latency is very low.
The manual for my computer doesn't specifically say if the proce
The manual for my computer doesn't specifically say if the processer upgradeable to i7, but the manual does breakdown step by step how to upgrade just abot everything and the precession is one of them. Also the next model up had the i7, but if was $250 more. I'm guessing that everything else was pretty much the same between the two computers.
Maybe when the 6600k comes down in price... But by then I'll probably just be using this computer as a mixdown cpu.
I'm an audio engineer by trade. I've been doing live stuff for like 8-9 years and recording professionally for like 7. I started for fun back in '99.
I do all my serious recordings at the studio I work at because it's got drumkits amps and mics and a few top end peices. I like the apogee converters although there's only 8 channels of Rosetta, and then I think another 8 in the ensemble.
We use the Motu for its cue mix which it's pretty cool. We use the 0 latency/direct recording, but i kinda don't like that method. When you have plug-inson the track your recording it get disabled while recording so when you hit play to listen back the volume is different. Constantly riding the faders for overdubs sux.
I've always just used small buffer sizes at home, or when I have to multitrack a live band w my gear I just don't use and effects and up the buffer high.
So fortunately I have been getting away w modest computers over the years because it's really just for personal ideas. That's changing when I get my house in a year or so but for now it's the same ol. Usually just a couple vsti and like 20 tracks. Similar to u. I hate drum programming but I ised either BFD or Reason. My cousin really sets everything realisticly editing the velocities and nudging things but I don't have the patience. Id rather use a basic beat and just have a real drummer play it.
I'm going to start doing neo classical shred stule stuff w orchestra vsti, so I might have to spend more time getting the midi right.
I'm probably going to try a guitar to midi interface, but I'll probably have to learn the piano better too. I think I can maybe get some soundtrack type work for indie films and maybe some adds.
After so many years engineering local rock/pop/hip hop/metal, I've gotten my fill of that for a while. I want to expand my horizons.
Hopefully the computer can keep up w BFD and Vienna stuff, they're pretty heavy. I'll likely have to render stuff to audio as i go.
I've been debating getting a uad card but I wanna wait till the next gen comes out the current ones have been around for quite some time already.
Are you using direct monitoring?
Well, as space is at a premium in my house, I've got a Roland el
Well, as space is at a premium in my house, I've got a Roland electronic kit for drums.. for guitar work I have 3 line6 pod xt pro's the bass and guitar version (rackmount). The third one is fill of option packs to extend its soundscape... I also use an old art pro audio 215 voice channel . The high impedance input and compressor/eq on the pro channel make a great bass pre .... My friend has the Avalon pre d5 for his bass and we've run them neck and neck.. it's a very hard call, ...
Synth it's alot of rackmount and master controller stuff, a90/a50/emu/roland/korg/akai/novation/ So I'm covered off pretty well ...
Effects processing is TC electronic/TC helicon, Antares/Lexicon..
Audio I don't have much in terms of pre amps, two focusrite liquid channels seem to give me enough to play with
And another pair of art pro audio 215's
If I was making money with it , I'd be hunting for a pair of universal audio 6176's...
At some point there will be a downsizing , I suspect I'll get down to both focusrite liquid channels, a new interface (Tascam UH7000) and a set of JBL's. And do it all in the box ... keep my master keyboards and midi interface. Digital Drum kit and pick up an axe fx ultra II. Personally, I had too much GAS coming into this as a hobby. I'm 10 yrs to retirement and looking forward to spending more time in the studio. Right now it's finding time to work in it.... I'm too busy with family and can only get in there in spurts....
My wife said I had gone overboard and had too much money in "the hobby" , I told her okay I'll switch to "unlimited powerboat racing".. she said "no it's okay just keep going "....lol
I do have a console, an old Tascam TM-D8000 its tdif in and out to the MOTU , no no snaps , crackles or pops, works great..!!!
My latency is really low on pci and MOTU , round trip less then
My latency is really low on pci and MOTU , round trip less then 6ms @44.1K... So monitoring is a non issue. Can I do direct monitoring? Yes I can...
My friend called BS on the latency till he came over and saw it for himself .. It can go lower 3-5 MS but I've never run it there..
I have much higher latency on USB and FireWire devices ...
Guelph_Guy, post: 436731, member: 47293 wrote: Well, just got th
Guelph_Guy, post: 436731, member: 47293 wrote: Well, just got the new update to studio one 3.2 wow, lots of new stuff...
That's awesome! Anything new that your really looking forward to/been waiting for?
Guelph_Guy, post: 436737, member: 47293 wrote: My latency is really low on pci and MOTU , round trip less then 6ms @44.1K... So monitoring is a non issue. Can I do direct monitoring? Yes I can...My friend called BS on the latency till he came over and saw it for himself .. It can go lower 3-5 MS but I've never run it there..
I have much higher latency on USB and FireWire devices ...
Pcie was and still is state of the art. Ethernet comes close, or matches, but only on a pcie Ethernet card that has some addidtional precisssing onboard.
6ms is negligeable. If I had to guess based on foggy memory I was around 12ms through FireWire.
Dante Ethernet protocal is quoting 4ms with a standard Ethernet port. They said no theoretical minimum latency all hardware dependent. They claim sub 2 ms is possible.
The PTHD native pcie is 1.7, and the regular HD is .7. Lol .7ms is absurd.
But those numbers even 10 ms is all workable in my eyes. Lol rythym has never been a strong point for me so what's a few ms here and there.??
Jw what buffer size your using?
The pods are cool. I used one for a cd one of my bands made in like 2001. The guy had it and I used it for a couple overdubs. That was the original or second gen back then.
The fractal is sweet. Everyone's loving them who has one, at least in inwrveiws I've read. Avid has an 11 rack which went highly underrated, like the liquid stuff, but man it's very nice. It gets harmonic complexity very well. It's the best amp sim I've used by far. I'm sure the fractal is even a step or two above that.
Art makes nice stuff. I used there rack pre for di with no complaints. For distorted guitar running via pluggin amp sim, I'd overdrive the art which sounded gross/broken on its own, but when like a Marshall amp sim was paired it had a good sound. It didn't have that grainy sound like when the if was used alone. Breaking the gain stage in two helped. Art is a band for your buck. Especially w eq and compression built in. I'm a big fan of channel
Strips, and eq and compression on the way in.
Have not checked out all of the audio one feature set , there is
Have not checked out all of the audio one feature set , there is a feature that allows you to mess with the summing math that changes the characteristics ofmthe mix bus. And some new effects chaining .. I'm pretty new to studio one (December) so there's still functionality in the previous version I have not explored ! Playing alot of catch up.
I can run at 32 samples at 44.1kHz... and the same@96kHz however I don't have high track counts at the moment so I'm not experiencing any issues.
I suspect if I crunched it with 36-40 channels something would show up that would be unwanted .
Yes I have some guitarist friends that jumped on the axe fx ... it's on the hit list for 2016 and I'll keep my eye out for a minty fresh used one..
I've wanted to pick up a Marshall JMP 1 but can't justify it .... I'll hold off for the axe fx... Once I can get one into the studio, I'll offload the pods..
The Art 215 channel strip has been really good..better then I though .. I picked up a mint one for $125.00 and when things are dialed into the sweet
Spot its great. This product seems to get trashed on a number of forums but I suspect people don't bother to read the manual or take the time to work
Through the product... Seems people that purchase gear and can't get results in the first 2 minutes start trashing it ... Like they're expecting a UA6176 performance for 200 bucks..
All products have their limitations, no silver bullets here, I've learned that knowing the products limitations are what determine where you're going to apply it.
Anyhow, my systems are "old" MOTU 2408/1296's and the PC's are old too , but the hardware combination works, and I get results... I've survived on updates. My friends have home studios too but periodically come over to use mine. Mainly to try a different work flow.. or to try a piece of gear that I've got and they think one will work in their studio..
I've got some ART vla's as well, another under rated product...
But, I have moments where I'm torn between doing everything "in the box" , sending stems out to a dangerous d box for summing and mastering the return pair into studio one..
WELL... I was at my music big box store today . apparently they
WELL... I was at my music big box store today . apparently they were clearing out an older copy of samplitude 11 .... I scooped it for $100.00 I don't even know if that was a good deal or not.. but at least it puts me in a position for upgrade pricing...
Grabbed the last and only copy in the warehouse .. but for that price it's good exposure..
kmetal, post: 436723, member: 37533 wrote: but I know part of th
kmetal, post: 436723, member: 37533 wrote: but I know part of the pro tools and (I think most PC ) os optimization is to assign 'processor scheduling' to 'background services'
Why is that, Kyle? ( my question isn't sarcastic... I'm being totally sincere here).
On the surface, one would assume that for best performance, you'd allocate the most memory to the task at hand? But, what do I know? ...just last week I changed that setting to allocate resources to the "primary program" ( or whatever that choice is titled as)... figuring that would be the best thing to do, ( WRONG) and I was rewarded by getting the Windows 10 version of the "blue screen of death" ... "your PC has encountered an error and needs to restart"... LOL
Another DAW to learn ... lol .. So far I'm in Sonar, Abletion Li
Another DAW to learn ... lol .. So far I'm in Sonar, Abletion Live, Studio One 3.2, and now samplitude 11, interested to see if I can hear the difference..
If I can't then my monitor chain will need a re-vamp ! Not likely to happen anytime soon ...
As for the house thing, We periodically check out properties too .. the last one we looked at all ready had a studio set up with a vocal booth!.. my wife said no way ! Lol.... housing prices in my area are not cheap ....
DonnyThompson, post: 436772, member: 46114 wrote: Why is that, Kyle? ( my question isn't sarcastic... I'm being totally sincere here).On the surface, one would assume that for best performance, you'd allocate the most memory to the task at hand? But, what do I know? ...just last week I changed that setting to allocate resources to the "primary program" ( or whatever that choice is titled as)... figuring that would be the best thing to do, ( WRONG) and I was rewarded by getting the Windows 10 version of the "blue screen of death" ... "your PC has encountered an error and needs to restart"... LOL
Well, from a server guys perspective, a server is like a dump truck that delivers a load, the desktop is like the Ferrari...
So background prioritization ensures that other functionality, drive access, network access, or basically services delivery are prioritized in the queue before lesser services. A good example of that would be interrupt services. A piece of hardware is requiring service from the CPU, it generates an interrupt which tells the CPU that it needs servicing. The CPU identifies the resource and determines where in the prioritization scheduling the device exists. If two interrupts are generated, the CPU will service the device with the higher interrupt prioritization .and will schedule accordingly. computer users used to think that windows server and windows workstation were the same thing with the exception that the server could handle more users. In fact the operating system in the server is optimized for the heavy lifting and will allocate resource time of 'the CPU for the heavy lifting before lesser services other services are delivered.
Now on the desktop, things are different , there are still background services that run and in a corporate network there is alot of chatter, but the tasking prioritization favors the desktop..(that's pretty generic, drive and network still take prioritization). However the weighting of where the CPU resource time should go is different from the server to the workstation. So where the server favors backend services, the desktop favors the front end desktop ,,video, mouse keyboard..
the CPU basically slices up increments of time to allocate to resources, and will allocate the time accordingly to the prioritization of the interrupt requests and weights the amount of time to allocate to the resource.
So here's a fun example , you play a video, game across the network, you can't beat the opponent so you need an edge, from your desktop, you can use a tool which will flood the opponents network card with service data requests. Because the network card has a higher prioritization the say video , the CPU attempts to service all the network requests and lesser services get bumped down the queue on hold, suddenly the opponents keyboard is less responsive and the video becomes real jerky (this was on lesser video cards in the day, the current crop are fine).. its basically a denial of service..
Hope this helps
Cheers
Its best not to mess with background/ foreground processing unle
Its best not to mess with background/ foreground processing unless you have an application requires it ...
Another thing I'll point out is that the process that does the scheduling also takes into consideration CPU utilization and can dynamically adjust due to processor load ...
There's alot of nuances going on under the hood, in some cases it's best left alone as the O/S is far smarter the you or I to determine fore ground/ background processing.
Now when we fine tune our DAWS, we turn off unnecessary features in the services control panel. When we do that those services no longer create demands on the CPU so there's more processor time to allocate to lesser resources . Eg the network browser service could be turned off if your computer is a stand alone and mot connected to your home network .. however if you were to turn off that resource on a network you would not be able to locate printers or servers or other resources (workstations with network shared drive space).. (well in the Microsoft world)
In enterprise networks we would sell our grandmas to find 4% improvement.... So, far I've not had to sell mine yet LOL...
Guelph_Guy, post: 436756, member: 47293 wrote: Have not checked
Guelph_Guy, post: 436756, member: 47293 wrote: Have not checked out all of the audio one feature set , there is a feature that allows you to mess with the summing math that changes the characteristics ofmthe mix bus. And some new effects chaining .. I'm pretty new to studio one (December) so there's still functionality in the previous version I have not explored ! Playing alot of catch up.
That mix bus option sounds like it could be interesting! Congrats on samplitude! It's got killer stuff. One thing I like is the tabs, each "song or mix" can be on a different tab in the main browser set window. Perfect for plié find through mixes, while having just ask access to make changes. Beats flipping back to iTunes and gain matching that stuff. I'm on pro x. That's what's going in along with "pro tools free" which is a free basic protools. I'm ho ping to get all my transfers done with that, otherwise titles have t wait till HD shows up.
I seem to spend about 2-3years with a program before I end up using another. They all pretty much do the same thing. Each sound different and have different workflow. I don't particularly like learning new programs all the time but it seems it's the way of it. Adobe audition and samplitude are the only two programs that "sound better" with regard to their capture and processing. Other than that they are all about the same.
Guelph_Guy, post: 436756, member: 47293 wrote: I've got some ART vla's as well, another under rated product...
Yeah I have one. Mines stock but I'm sure chips caps tubes and power supply upgrades would give it a more refined sound. People used to do those a lot.
It was always decent. Better than your basic stock pre, transparent. I a/b it against a Manley dual tube, and that's when you really hear the difference. It's fairly subtle, but otherwise unattainable. It's always that last ten% that's 10x more.
The thing with these are they are the "best" in a sense that until you are 800-1k per channel. That huge price range in between has few offerings. So the vla has been one of those things that's good because it isn't bad, and sits fine along other things.
I've used a Urie silver face 1176ln a fair amount at the studio. It's got a great natural distortion, all buttons out. Just drive the gain stages.
I'm always weary if channel strips like the 10176, or the la-a 610. Even 8-ch vs4ch in the same rack space. As long it's a full size circuit path and the power supply is adequate that's fine. I just don't like "adapted for" technology. Specifically the la-610, which las like 2 less tubes it was something like that. the isa 8/4 Ch rack hints also have slightly fdffienet fronts one has a button the other a knob.
The 1176 is a 2u beast on its own, so are most of the replicas. When it comes to that level of gear I'm always weary of it "being the actual one" that it has its reputation based on. Doesn't mean other versions don't sound good or maybe better, or perhaps more bang for your buck better. So I like to make sure channel strips are the full thing as well. I'd go w a 2-610 rack + 1176, if I was considering the 1076, it adds a whole extra tube pre to the mix for not much more money, 2band eq, DI, a lot of capability for say 3k vs 4.5 k. Just imho something I personally look out for.
Guelph_Guy, post: 436756, member: 47293 wrote: But, I have moments where I'm torn between doing everything "in the box" , sending stems out to a dangerous d box for summing and mastering the return pair into studio one..
.
If you have a dangerous already, all you need is some available converters and an extra pc and you can do some great sonically with summing and capturing. I personally eq/compress/whatever on the way in, and stay itb. The scaring daw pc is on its way when this one is complete for. I think the saying is once itb stay itb? I dunno lots of different though in that area.
DonnyThompson, post: 436772, member: 46114 wrote: Why is that, Kyle? ( my question isn't sarcastic... I'm being totally sincere here).
On the surface, one would assume that for best performance, you'd allocate the most memory to the task at hand? But, what do I know? ...just last week I changed that setting to allocate resources to the "primary program" ( or whatever that choice is titled as)... figuring that would be the best thing to do, ( WRONG) and I was rewarded by getting the Windows 10 version of the "blue screen of death" ... "your PC has encountered an error and needs to restart"... LOL
Lol no idea d, just parroting the manual.
Guelph_Guy, post: 436776, member: 47293 wrote: As for the house thing, We periodically check out properties too .. the last one we looked at all ready had a studio set up with a vocal booth!.. my wife said no way ! Lol.... housing prices in my area are not cheap ....
Yeah I'd always be wary of a pre existing "studio" in a home. I'd rather a blank slate. Looking the part is different. But the likely hood of coming across a place with a truly professional quality build thru and thru seems unlikely to me.
Guelph_Guy, post: 436777, member: 47293 wrote: Its best not to mess with background/ foreground processing unless you have an application requires it ...
Another thing I'll point out is that the process that does the scheduling also takes into consideration CPU utilization and can dynamically adjust due to processor load ...
There's alot of nuances going on under the hood, in some cases it's best left alone as the O/S is far smarter the you or I to determine fore ground/ background processing.
Now when we fine tune our DAWS, we turn off unnecessary features in the services control panel. When we do that those services no longer create demands on the CPU so there's more processor time to allocate to lesser resources . Eg the network browser service could be turned off if your computer is a stand alone and mot connected to your home network .. however if you were to turn off that resource on a network you would not be able to locate printers or servers or other resources (workstations with network shared drive space).. (well in the Microsoft world)
In enterprise networks we would sell our grandmas to find 4% improvement.... So, far I've not had to sell mine yet LOL...
Great breakdown.
The interesting thing is the computer based stuff is all state o
The interesting thing is the computer based stuff is all state of the art, and a,or of the outboard audio gear is based in very primitive designs. Isn't a outlet from the old telephone/broadcasting days? I feel like gear like that can be copied by someone who can spec out the parts properly and who is also competent with a soldering iron. I think there's some ways to save on cash in that area, but I think as far as computer technology it's easier to buy the newest as opposed to like diy circuit boards and stuff way beyond me. Guelph guy showed how efficiently a used PC daw could come together.
I think it's possible to shave some corners but largely it's workflow dependent.
DonnyThompson, post: 436809, member: 46114 wrote: Yup. Always.
DonnyThompson, post: 436809, member: 46114 wrote: Yup. Always. The first 90 % is the easy part. It's that last 10% that becomes the deal-maker/breaker.
Got that right, I used to build internet companies for clients... it took 10% effort to get 90% there.... the last 10% took 90%if not more.. and it seemed as you got closer to completion you were running at %150..you know.. the days where you don't come out for 20 hrs...sleep 3 shower and change and eat in
One and right back in again!!!1
And the plot thickens. Lenovo, has finally released the documen
And the plot thickens. Lenovo, has finally released the documentation on the Lenovo ideacentre sand I finally got to figure out some of the components. I want to upgrade the anemic stock psu, and apparently Lenovo uses a proprietary ten pin atx power plug, with 9 pins being used. It's possible to use the next model ups 450w psu, but this is also a generic part, and at $120 usd, it's almost as much as the corsair ax 860. I'm considering taking out the pcie x16 graphics card that came with it to save on power consumption. The graphics card is reccomended for 300w. Or more psu's but Lenovo stuck it in my computer along w 250w. Lmao. I think the CPU/chipset has Intel 530 graphics built in, so openly that will work, but I'm not even sure how to do/check this.
The max supported ram speed is 2133mhz, so that makes things cheaper for me in that dept.
I've also discovered that it doesn't support booting from pcie SSD drives. So my options are standard pcie sata speed pcie drives, or a dual m.2 adapter for the pcie x16 slot. I also have decided that if I go w 2.5" SSD drives, I will go Samsung 850 pro, instead of sm863 enterprise drives.
I'm thinking currently of 2 Samsung 850 pros in 'raid 0' for audio, and then the m.2 drives one OS, one Sample. That's the fastest configuration I can think of, if m.2 adapters /speeds are in fact supported, as. The Lenovo tech has said it wold...Hopefully it'll work, but I have to finally take this thing out of the box and start swapping things in and out one at a time. The two audio suds in raid 0 should equal the speeds of the m.2 drives, if my thinking is correct. Both should do 1000mb/s transfer rates on paper, again, if I'm correct. I'm not quite sure my understanding on it is correct, so feel free to correct me. So psu is the last hurdle to tackle conceptually, before I start taking this thing apart.
I'm finally familiar with the basics of PCs, (after hours and hours of you tubing and 5 days of part hunting/mattching) and I'm ok with cutting wires, modding things. My main concern is just reliable performance when the replacement is finished. I'm having a hard time finding anyone on the www that is successfully replaced the PSU, and Lenovo doesn't stock an adapter. Any help is greatly appreciated! I can post more pics/links if needed. I haven't unboxed my computer yet, but I do have the manuals, and parts lists now that Lenovo finally got around to making them available. There are the pics of the stock mobo, and psu, as well as the corsair psu I'd like order for it. I'm just concerned about running this thing w the stock psu, at least for more than a few days/hours,, and would love to get the psu upgraded before I even turn in on, but we'll see.
I have the RAM on order for the NAS, and ive deceived to go with seagate enterprise NAS drives ion Raid 0. The initial drive I bought was just a standard seagate NAS model, and has a 5900rpm disk speed. So thankfully I caught my error before ordering it's duplicate the other night. The new plan is to setup the NAS w the drive I have (the 5900rpm one) and make that the archive disk. While I'm working on the setup and archiving of the old stuff, I'll be saving to order the new enterprise pair of drives in a couple more months.
In addition to the pics, il attach a vid clip of someone who has the same machine, and opened it up. I also have tons more pics, data and spec sheets, and links, so anything you need, I'll probably have, if it is available to the public.
Finding out where my bottle necks are finally, is allowing me to finilize the purchase list for the best fitting parts for max performance, but staying within the limits this modest machine was made to do. It feels good to be narrowing possibilities. Eta is. 2-3 weeks more before the NAS/mini PC un boxing and setup. I'm currently trying to clean out some space. Anyway any thoughts and suggestions are welcomed, this psu issue seems fixable.
It seems I'm having trouble. My pics, yet again, which is an ongoing iCloud / iPad issue w me. I despise iCloud. Gonna try to reboot.
No luck w the pics, keeps saying "invalid extension". I've had n
No luck w the pics, keeps saying "invalid extension". I've had nothing but problems since the year started with access to my pictures and iCloud. It's cost me some opportunities, and innumerable hours and headaches. As soon as I can I will post the photos.
In the meantime here's the MOBO, and psu model numbers.
MOBO-
Msi (is the brand on the box, probably s generic version)
01AJ143
Stock psu
Ace bel
54y8934
Well, for some reason my pics still aren't working, (sighCloud),
Well, for some reason my pics still aren't working, (sighCloud), but thankfully someone else who is encountering the psu issue took some killer pics. Also, this links to a thread on Lenovos forum. Apparently some people have gotten this computer to work properly with an aftermarket psu, via some wiring mods. Does this method makes sense to anyone ? It seems relatively straightforward. I did some mods to a wiring harness a couple times for my car radio, other than that, I'm green with this type of thing.
I'd be okay, with risking frying a MOBO trying this, as long as I could keep the other components safe. I'm. It sure if it works like that. I guess I'm gonna learn the finer details of how a psu and mobo work together.
Here are some of the connecters people are using/modding. It seems to me that the 20 to 10 pin would fit, but it requires a complete reorientation of wires, which should be relatively easy, with the right tool, and proper layout. I think the 2nd one is the one that was successfully used in by some users in the Lenovo forum, but required jumping the green wire to black, w a paper clip. Someone else just fused the wires together, in a seemingly more refined take.
http://www.orbitmicro.com/global/59402010000e-p-12556.html
Attached files 
I'm kinda surprised that there's only a small noticeable improve
I'm kinda surprised that there's only a small noticeable improvement in between processors. I7's seem to be 'the only' or at least minimum for serious production computers.
Is it a case of high model i5 and low model i7? Are they comparable in terms of level among the models?
I'm just wondering if there's other things in a daw scenerio that perhaps have as big of a role as the processor in a daw scenerio
Not to sound like a jerk, but I'm glad you did the upgrade, and posted the results so far. It's making me feel a bit better about my modest i5. I tend to get 'best fever' and only want whatever is the top notch. Tho often I land middle of the road due to funding. I really would have been bummed out the whole time wishing for that i7. although the 6600k 4ghz seems like a beast. People are supposedly clocking them up to the high 5's. I think it's easy to get caught up in numbers, and reviews from excited owners that maybe don't use the most objective point of veiw, or haven't compared other things side by side.
This whole part w the processing is a bit shocking and enlightening at the same time. Can't wait to start making music again.!!
Really I think the biggest eye opener in this thread so far is just how well an off the shelf PC can done some TLC. It's showing that you don't necessarily need a big budget/name audio PC or Mac to get the job done. In a general sense. I think in your case it shows that if you know what to look for you can get an excellent machine. I've always felt Hp was a solid computer. I had a 566mhz back in 2000. I used to run a DAW called n-track wich I bought for 30.
I remember being mad that I had to pay for a new 4.0 version since I'd been getting the 3.x updates for free. Lol I thought you just kept getting updates for free for life. I even wrote the programmer an email expressing my disappointment. He was a cool dude and a helpful guy. I think the program might still be around.
I think abot ten years from now the daw is going to come into its own be be quite different. Right now not much has really changed since its invention. It's the same basic premise and workflow.
Something like ableton put a new spin on it, and I hope to see more instant gratification. Right now it's kinda this weird hybrid of sorta mimicking analog but with digital editing.
Touch screen editing is something I'm very much looking forward to. I hate the flow of editing as it exists now. I will admit once I get started its hard to stop, easily obsessing. I fix clams only or full out edit everything.
This is an eye opening thread so far.