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Author Topic: Setting up your PC for Recording  (Read 296652 times)

Offline Boddhisattva

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Re: Setting up your PC for Recording
« Reply #25 on: May 08, 2007, 08:05:50 AM »
Kit,

I bought an Emu 1212 and have been using it since last month just for listening (not yet for recording). One time I tried to use Sonar LE, the bundled software and I realized that it wouldn't sound off midi files because there was no softsynth installed. 3650guy tried to help me install his softsynth but we were not successful.  Any tips?

WENDEL
Give it all you\'ve got, but slowly - Chuck Mangione

Offline KitC

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Re: Setting up your PC for Recording
« Reply #26 on: May 08, 2007, 09:44:02 AM »
Wendel,

Since the Emu has no onboard soundfont synth, you could use the Roland TTS-1 built into Sonar (does the LE version have it?). Load the tutorial, open the DXi rack and load TTS-1, then assign all midi tracks to TTS-1.

You can 'fool' Sonar into making it default to using using the first softsynth it loads by making sure NO MIDI OUTPUT DEVICES are activated or highlighted in Midi Options. Now, whenever you load a tutorial then load TTS-1, all midi tracks will be assigned to the softsynth. This behavior will be lost whenever you activate a midi output port in Midi Options, however. If you need to have permanent hardware midi output configuration, esp. if you have a lot of midi ports, just create a template project file with TTS-1 (or whatever softsynth you have) already loaded and pre-assigned to midi tracks.
Sonar 4.04PE/5.2PE/7.02PE/8.31 PE, Project 5 v2.5.1, EmulatorX 1.5, Cubase SL2, Ableton Live 7.14,  Intel Q6600 MSI P43 Neo 4Gb Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR2-800, Emu 1820m, Yamaha DSP Factory, Terratec DMX 6fire

Offline Boddhisattva

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Re: Setting up your PC for Recording
« Reply #27 on: May 08, 2007, 10:43:33 AM »
Teynks Kit. Tagal na natin di nagkikita.

Bought the 1212 for 150$. Good deal na, no?
Give it all you\'ve got, but slowly - Chuck Mangione

Offline stratman1

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Re: Setting up your PC for Recording
« Reply #28 on: May 08, 2007, 12:50:17 PM »
Anyone used UAD-1 here? Comments?

Offline KitC

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Re: Setting up your PC for Recording
« Reply #29 on: May 08, 2007, 01:13:25 PM »
Teynks Kit. Tagal na natin di nagkikita.

Bought the 1212 for 150$. Good deal na, no?

Very good deal, Wendel. Sayang lang you missed out on their $99 sale. did you get the newer v2 version? you can tell its v2 if it has no firewire port. were you able to configure it properly? kung medyo nahihilo ka na sa patchmix, just give me a call.

@stratman1 - try PMing or calling starfugger. she's a known UAD user.
Sonar 4.04PE/5.2PE/7.02PE/8.31 PE, Project 5 v2.5.1, EmulatorX 1.5, Cubase SL2, Ableton Live 7.14,  Intel Q6600 MSI P43 Neo 4Gb Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR2-800, Emu 1820m, Yamaha DSP Factory, Terratec DMX 6fire


Offline Boddhisattva

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Re: Setting up your PC for Recording
« Reply #30 on: May 08, 2007, 01:25:24 PM »
Double yata price ng 1212 dito. No firewire port so it must be a v2. I missed out on the 120$ sale, pero ok pa rin. Nakakahilo nga patchmix, but I'll give it a try. I'll call you if I'm unsuccessful.

Give it all you\'ve got, but slowly - Chuck Mangione

Offline KitC

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Re: Setting up your PC for Recording
« Reply #31 on: May 08, 2007, 01:39:31 PM »
You know the secret to patchmix? Just think of the sends as audio patchcords to sound application. Asio sends route audio to asio driven applications while the lone wave send is for wdm/directsound applications. If you want to keep your outputs simple, just have a single wave and asio output strip, and that's it!
Sonar 4.04PE/5.2PE/7.02PE/8.31 PE, Project 5 v2.5.1, EmulatorX 1.5, Cubase SL2, Ableton Live 7.14,  Intel Q6600 MSI P43 Neo 4Gb Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR2-800, Emu 1820m, Yamaha DSP Factory, Terratec DMX 6fire

Offline stanley

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Re: Setting up your PC for Recording
« Reply #32 on: May 09, 2007, 04:08:32 AM »
Sir kit.   can a Soundblaster for Sonar give a professional sound result.
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Offline KitC

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Re: Setting up your PC for Recording
« Reply #33 on: May 09, 2007, 10:33:13 AM »
Sir kit.   can a Soundblaster for Sonar give a professional sound result.

If you mean truly professional, no. It's the soundcard's analog-to-digital converters that are important for professional sounding results. Soundblaster's typically use consumer oriented parts (translated: low cost) which often have passable performance, and their clocks have a relatively high amount of jitter in comparison with cards dedicated to recording. The first thing you will notice when going from a soundblaster to a 'pro' card is lower noise floor, better stereo imaging and more detail.

Does this mean you can't record with a blaster? No. You can make demo quality recordings with it. If your recording is mostly midi/softsynths/soundfonts with minimal audio recording, the soundblaster will fit that bill very well.
Sonar 4.04PE/5.2PE/7.02PE/8.31 PE, Project 5 v2.5.1, EmulatorX 1.5, Cubase SL2, Ableton Live 7.14,  Intel Q6600 MSI P43 Neo 4Gb Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR2-800, Emu 1820m, Yamaha DSP Factory, Terratec DMX 6fire

Offline stanley

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Re: Setting up your PC for Recording
« Reply #34 on: May 10, 2007, 04:36:26 AM »
Yes sir kit, most of my recordings are midi, softsynth from roland and cakewalk TTS, i use Reason rewire for drums, ang audio recording ko lang ay sa vocal and guitar. sir kindly explain 2 me the soundcard analog 2 digital converter, and what type of soundcard/brand that give a "pro" sound result. GBU.
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Offline KitC

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Re: Setting up your PC for Recording
« Reply #35 on: May 10, 2007, 10:46:09 AM »
Lets start with the input side, the A/D converters. Very good cards usually have a very high signal to noise ratio (SNR), allowing you to accurately capture detail at very low volumes; important when you want to capture very dynamic performances without capturing circuit noise along with it. Movement of electrons in a circuit always generates noise and high quality components and very good circuit design minimize this noise. Consumer soundcards were not designed for audio capture in the first place; they were designed mainly for playback and often are optimized to deload a cpu during gaming. That's right, a soundblaster is designed to give you better framerates for your favorite games.

Pro soundcards also have the ability to capture at high sample rates, very important for detail esp. in the high frequencies. One more thing, drivers are essential with a pro soundcard. Creative asio drivers often have poor audio recording performance that's why enthusiasts (like kxproject) have developed drivers with better performance - it will not overstep the soundblaster's converters, however.

On the output side, consumer cards were meant for ADEQUATE playback performance; the ordinary consumer will not hear detail that most pro cards are capable of. Why is detail important? When you are mixing music, it is supposed to be played back from a lowly mp3 player up to seriously audiophile hifi speakers. Guess what kind of speakers the critics and reviewers usually own. You also want the soundcard to reproduce faithfully what was recorded.

What soundcard will give a pro sounding result? That's not so easy to answer as all will state that theirs give professional results; consult published and online reviews so you can make an educated decision.
Sonar 4.04PE/5.2PE/7.02PE/8.31 PE, Project 5 v2.5.1, EmulatorX 1.5, Cubase SL2, Ableton Live 7.14,  Intel Q6600 MSI P43 Neo 4Gb Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR2-800, Emu 1820m, Yamaha DSP Factory, Terratec DMX 6fire

Offline stanley

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Re: Setting up your PC for Recording
« Reply #36 on: May 10, 2007, 03:26:19 PM »
very well said, if i decide 2 go for pro soundcard/interface, my sequencer should also be replace bcause of compatibility, ganun  ba sir?
In God We Trust, In Gold We Trash

Offline spazzkid

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Re: Setting up your PC for Recording
« Reply #37 on: May 11, 2007, 01:29:22 AM »
very well said, if i decide 2 go for pro soundcard/interface, my sequencer should also be replace bcause of compatibility, ganun  ba sir?
if youre using reason, FL, cubase, etc for sequencing theres no need to replace it as it will support a higher end soundcard/interface.

Offline stanley

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Re: Setting up your PC for Recording
« Reply #38 on: May 12, 2007, 02:53:57 AM »
ok tenks sir Kit & spazz.., aside from MAudio 2496, any other interface na compatible sa Sonar,  then later to go on online review.
In God We Trust, In Gold We Trash

Offline spazzkid

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Re: Setting up your PC for Recording
« Reply #39 on: May 12, 2007, 03:47:38 AM »
if youre on a really tight budget, theres a usb audio interface yung "behringer uca202" which is cheap and would suffice for your needs. i think they go for around 2.5k+, it should work on any DAW or Sequencer.  :-D

Offline jv21

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Re: Setting up your PC for Recording
« Reply #40 on: May 12, 2007, 06:59:30 AM »
sir kitz, to be more specific, pde po b kaung magbigay ng example ng isang magandang pc set up? or kau ba sir ano po gmet nyo? anong soundcard, speaker, processor, etc..


tnx a lot!

"epal ikaw ,Epal ako,Epal siya,Epal Sila,Epal tayong lahat hehehehe" quote from  JUAN SINKO (founder, Sinkoism)

Offline KitC

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Re: Setting up your PC for Recording
« Reply #41 on: May 12, 2007, 11:17:15 AM »
sir kitz, to be more specific, pde po b kaung magbigay ng example ng isang magandang pc set up? or kau ba sir ano po gmet nyo? anong soundcard, speaker, processor, etc..

past systems include:

pentium 166 mmx (upped to 233) with 64 megs sram, Intel 430 tx, soundblaster awe32 and sblive, cakewalk PA8
athlon xp 1700+ asus A7n266vm, 256 megs ddr, sblive from previous system, Sonar 4 & Cubase SL2
sempron 2600+ msi k7n2 delta ilsr, 512 megs geil ddr, terratec dmx 6fire & sblive, Sonar 4 & Cubase SL2

present system: msi k8n neo2 platinum, athlon64 3200+, 512 megs geil, emu 1820m yamaha dsp factory 2416, Sonar 4PE 5PE 6PE, Project 5 V2, Cubase SL2, Samplitude V8 SE, Cubase VST 5.1, EmulatorX V1.5

future planned system: core 2 duo (maybe 4300 muna) based on gigabyte ga965P dq6
Sonar 4.04PE/5.2PE/7.02PE/8.31 PE, Project 5 v2.5.1, EmulatorX 1.5, Cubase SL2, Ableton Live 7.14,  Intel Q6600 MSI P43 Neo 4Gb Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR2-800, Emu 1820m, Yamaha DSP Factory, Terratec DMX 6fire

Offline gjuanengo

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Re: Setting up your PC for Recording
« Reply #42 on: May 12, 2007, 12:27:08 PM »
(Being the Geek that I am, I would Like to contribute)

Setting up a DAW.

1. Start with the components, always try to get the components with the LOWEST LATENCY possible; that includes ram my boys. (Not only do gamers need fast ram, so do DAWS)

2. Start with no less than 1GB of ram, you'll need the buffer space. I have 2GB in my machine and sometimes it does run low when doing heavy processing.

3. Get a RAID array. RAID 0 for speed on your main drive (i.e. the system drive) to speed up disk activity and will help take some stress of the ram. Remember, the faster the data gets into the disk, the better. (since it takes the stress off the RAM)

4. QUIET COOLING. Youre running an audio station, you need silence. Dont go with generic fans, try to get fans with fluid bearings or dual ball bearings at the very least. (Panaflo gans win here) and try to get big fans that turn slower, since the pump out the same amount or more air at less noise.

5. Setup your BIOS properly. Turn off shadowing, as this improves performance for games, adds more latency to other devices (i.e. PCI BUS, which takes the heat for audio).

6. Disable devices that you dont use, less devices equals more processing power free for use.

7. Turn off fancy graphics. The less graphics your screen has to display, the more ram and processor power you have free for more important tasks.

8. Turn off system sounds and alerts. same reason.

9. Try to get components with the LEAST amount of onboard convenience. (i.e. onboard video is a no-no, it runs the processing through the CPU before the VGA. Onboard sound is also a no-no,  youre using a high-end or at least an upgrade card, you dont need audio)

10. Place the Sound card/device on the FARTHEST pci slot available, this distances it from the video card (which does produce quite a lot of noise) and keeps it isolated from the noisier devices up in that region of the mobo.
Get Wylde.

Offline KitC

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Re: Setting up your PC for Recording
« Reply #43 on: May 12, 2007, 02:33:38 PM »
Nice points, gjuanengo, but I'd like to point out a couple of things:

Raid is nice to have for fast HD throughput, but not entirely necessary for audio unless you are streaming loads of samples from HD or your magnum opus is already 120 tracks of 24/96 audio and counting. Video has a higher demand on HD throughput so a raid array is much more needed there. What is completely necessary is having more than 1 drive in your daw. I commonly have 1 drive for system and at least 1 drive for audio data (2 is preferable for backup purposes). I also backup important data to cd or dvd, but the jury is still out on how long data can be archived to these media.

Placing the audio card on the farthest slot is ok IF that slot isn't sharing an IRQ with video, which most motherboards commonly do. What better is to refer to the mobo manual and the IRQ allocation tables which sometimes indicate which slot isn't sharing an IRQ with any onboard device. IF there is no IRQ tble, then you will have to do that manually by swapping slots until the soundcard gets it's own unshared IRQ. Geeky stuff, I know, but necessary if you want your recording pc to be glitch-free.
Sonar 4.04PE/5.2PE/7.02PE/8.31 PE, Project 5 v2.5.1, EmulatorX 1.5, Cubase SL2, Ableton Live 7.14,  Intel Q6600 MSI P43 Neo 4Gb Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR2-800, Emu 1820m, Yamaha DSP Factory, Terratec DMX 6fire

Offline jv21

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Re: Setting up your PC for Recording
« Reply #44 on: May 12, 2007, 02:58:32 PM »
tnx for the info guys..

may kilala po b kaung pdeng mag-tutor sa kin personally sa pag set up ng hardwares for home recording? tnx.. (please quote me na din po how much will it cost me to have a tutor..

philmusic rocks!
"epal ikaw ,Epal ako,Epal siya,Epal Sila,Epal tayong lahat hehehehe" quote from  JUAN SINKO (founder, Sinkoism)

Offline pipo

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Re: Setting up your PC for Recording
« Reply #45 on: May 12, 2007, 11:21:12 PM »
ok tenks sir Kit & spazz.., aside from MAudio 2496, any other interface na compatible sa Sonar,  then later to go on online review.

^^^ako din mga bossing.sana yung available locally and affordable with great performance.
meron bang EDIROL dito saten?ok yung power studio 25 eh.

tnx mga masters! :lol:
1. Do you know for sure that you are going to be with God in Heaven?
2. GOD: “Why should I let you into My Heaven?”
 what would you say?

Offline KitC

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Re: Setting up your PC for Recording
« Reply #46 on: May 12, 2007, 11:32:20 PM »
^^^ako din mga bossing.sana yung available locally and affordable with great performance.
meron bang EDIROL dito saten?ok yung power studio 25 eh.

tnx mga masters! :lol:

Unfortunately, walang local distro ng  Cakewalk products unless you count your local cdrom vendor.  :| Cakewalk's Power Studio 25 is merely Edirol's UA-25 packaged with Cakewalk's Sonar Studio Edition.
Sonar 4.04PE/5.2PE/7.02PE/8.31 PE, Project 5 v2.5.1, EmulatorX 1.5, Cubase SL2, Ableton Live 7.14,  Intel Q6600 MSI P43 Neo 4Gb Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR2-800, Emu 1820m, Yamaha DSP Factory, Terratec DMX 6fire

Offline gjuanengo

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Re: Setting up your PC for Recording
« Reply #47 on: May 13, 2007, 12:30:29 AM »
Nice points, gjuanengo, but I'd like to point out a couple of things:

Raid is nice to have for fast HD throughput, but not entirely necessary for audio unless you are streaming loads of samples from HD or your magnum opus is already 120 tracks of 24/96 audio and counting. Video has a higher demand on HD throughput so a raid array is much more needed there. What is completely necessary is having more than 1 drive in your daw. I commonly have 1 drive for system and at least 1 drive for audio data (2 is preferable for backup purposes). I also backup important data to cd or dvd, but the jury is still out on how long data can be archived to these media.

Placing the audio card on the farthest slot is ok IF that slot isn't sharing an IRQ with video, which most motherboards commonly do. What better is to refer to the mobo manual and the IRQ allocation tables which sometimes indicate which slot isn't sharing an IRQ with any onboard device. IF there is no IRQ tble, then you will have to do that manually by swapping slots until the soundcard gets it's own unshared IRQ. Geeky stuff, I know, but necessary if you want your recording pc to be glitch-free.

Hence me saying to disable all the other unused devices. This frees up IRQs.

Also, my mobo (and all the previous ones) are VIA powered Asus boards, quite good latency wise.

And the onboard raid controller is quite nice, hardly touches the processor.
Get Wylde.

Offline KitC

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Re: Setting up your PC for Recording
« Reply #48 on: May 13, 2007, 01:34:05 AM »

Hence me saying to disable all the other unused devices. This frees up IRQs.


In some ways, yes, this works however most present-day mobos 'hardwire' specific IRQs to specific slots to specific devices. Mobo designers and manufacturers assume that most consumers of their mobos will most likely use onboard devices rather than buy an expansion card, and the designers are usually right. Unfortunately, DAW users only represent a very small percentage of overall mobo users so I don't see a DAW specific mobo being designed any time soon.

Often, you will find USB and 1394 controllers sharing IRQs with specific slots; unfortunately most peripherals are usb-based while audio interfaces come in usb2/firewire flavors. Sometimes even raid controllers share an IRQ with a particular slot. With AGP/5 pci-slot mobos, you will often find that slots 1 and 5 share an IRQ with the AGP slot, that's why it's often not advisable to place the soundcard in the farthest slot from the vidcard. With PCIe, IRQ allocation becomes a different ballgame altogether. As main moderator at Productionforums.com, I often encounter IRQ sharing issues with pcie-based mobos often exacerbated by ACPI's handling of IRQ assignments.

Used to be you could assign an IRQ to a particular pci slot but modern BIOSes don't allow that anymore. Disabling unused ports like COM and LPT ports will not necessarily free up an IRQ for your soundcard because of the nature of their 'hardwiring' design, but will free up precious cpu cycles.
« Last Edit: May 13, 2007, 01:38:28 AM by KitC »
Sonar 4.04PE/5.2PE/7.02PE/8.31 PE, Project 5 v2.5.1, EmulatorX 1.5, Cubase SL2, Ableton Live 7.14,  Intel Q6600 MSI P43 Neo 4Gb Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR2-800, Emu 1820m, Yamaha DSP Factory, Terratec DMX 6fire

Offline pipo

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Re: Setting up your PC for Recording
« Reply #49 on: May 13, 2007, 12:23:06 PM »
sir yung "m-audio fast track usb" sa jb music?
6.8k sya.ok po ba sound & performance nun?
or any other alternatives/suggestions?

tnx. :-)
1. Do you know for sure that you are going to be with God in Heaven?
2. GOD: “Why should I let you into My Heaven?”
 what would you say?