Setting up your PC for Recording

[jamming_papu]

First, check your routings. You should connect the mixer out to the line in, which is usually blue in color - line outs begin at lime green. ...

thanks for the answer sir kit. with some clicks in my pc's control panel, napagana ko yung from rca line outs of mixer to 1/8" line in of pc. however, level and sound read by the pc was quite bad. well, what would i expect of a stock soundcard which is built-in on the motherboard? 

as long as my M-audio 2496 works, im in and still good on my recordings. 

[KitC]

what would i expect of a stock soundcard which is built-in on the motherboard? 

There are some onboard audio that sound good when properly routed. The old Nvidia mobos with soundstream were quite good for their time. My previous mobo, K7N2 Delta had optical outs that I routed into my 1820m - did that so I can play the occasional game using onboard sound so that the directx drivers didn't fudge up the Emu's settings and my DAW's asio configuration. At one time I even had digital coax out from my DSP Factory going into the EMu as well! It made for some interesting routings.

[titser_marco]

Hi!

I finally got the Delta 44! Whooohoo!

Next question:

I currently run a 2.4 GHz P4 system with 1GB of RAM. Now, a friend is selling a mobo and processor package that contains an LGA 775 mobo and a Celeron D 3 GHz processor. My question is will that upgrade result in a significantly faster and more capable system? I know that this upgrade will eventually allow me upgrade higher end processors, but I'd like to know if I could work with more speed with this Celeron unit.

Also, would it be wise to get a dual core processor for this mobo eventually?  Will a 2.0 GHz dual core processor be faster than a 3.0 GHz Celeron D? Thanks!

[KitC]

Celerons are usually P4s with smaller caches; this sometimes has an impact on performance. Surprisingly, there was a mobile celeron that outperformed the same speed P4; these were based on the Sonoma laptop chipset.

Check your mobo for dual core compatibility first. Newer cpus coming out are now based on the 45 nm process and some mobos/chipsets are incompatible with those.

[KitC]

Celerons are usually P4s with smaller caches; this sometimes has an impact on performance. Surprisingly, there was a mobile celeron that outperformed the same speed P4; these were based on the Sonoma laptop chipset.

Check your mobo for dual core compatibility first. Newer cpus coming out are now based on the 45 nm process and some mobos/chipsets are incompatible with those.

[titser_marco]

Got it, Kit! Buti na lang the guy still has the manuals for this unit. Another bonus I guess is the fact that it's still in its housing so I can run the two systems in parallel and see which is faster. Thanks again Kit!

[titser_marco]

Ok another set of noob questions:

Hard Drive Allocation:

Okay, so I have the following drives:

1 x Seagate 120 GB SATA
1 x Maxtor 40GB SATA
1 x Seagate 120 GB IDE
1 x Seagate 40 GB IDE

So how should I partition these?

Where do I put the following:

OS and apps
VST plugins
Samples
Audio Project Data
Swap File
Other files [Mp3s, other docs]

Power Supply Question:

How many watts and amperes would I need to support this system:

1 x P4 2.4 GHz
4 x DDR400 RAM
1 x Seagate 120 GB SATA
1 x Maxtor 40GB SATA
1 x Seagate 120 GB IDE
1 x Seagate 40 GB IDE
1 x ATI Radeon Video Card
1 x IDE DVD ROM
1 x IDE DVD / CD Writer
2 x PCI Delta 44 Soundcard
1 x PCI SoundBlaster MIDI interface
1 x USB to MIDI Controller
1 x Processor Fan
3 x Casing Fans

Thanks!
 

[KitC]

Considering that many drives, I'd go 500 watts, but make sure to use PSU's capable of delivering 380 watts of 'real' power. Look for reviews on available power supplies and try to get the ones that could deliver.

As for your drives, I question why you should have two 40 Gb drives. OTOH, you could have a dual boot system with one dedicated purely for audio and the other for everyday use. You could also house one of them in an enclosure to serve as mobile storage.

[titser_marco]

Considering that many drives, I'd go 500 watts, but make sure to use PSU's capable of delivering 380 watts of 'real' power. Look for reviews on available power supplies and try to get the ones that could deliver.

As for your drives, I question why you should have two 40 Gb drives. OTOH, you could have a dual boot system with one dedicated purely for audio and the other for everyday use. You could also house one of them in an enclosure to serve as mobile storage.

re: 40 GB Drives - Got them because they were given to me. I agree with you on the eventually going the mobile storage direction, esp. when I get enough cash to invest in bigger storage.

Btw, Kit, how do I know if it can deliver REAL 380w of power? I currently have a 500w PSU on my system.

[KitC]

Btw, Kit, how do I know if it can deliver REAL 380w of power? I currently have a 500w PSU on my system.

My cousin operates a computer gaming shop (my brother spec'ed out all individual components) and we noticed that it was the generic power supplies that keep giving out, usually with blown caps. It may say 500w on the cover, but the quality of power was way, way below what it could deliver. Most of the branded psu's here like Coolermaster, HEC, Enermax and Silverstone usually deliver in terms of power, but I still go on the net to check reviews on them.

For ex., I presently use a Coolermaster Real Power Pro 550W to power my quad core rig - reviews have given it good ratings in terms of sustained power, especially in the 12V rails which is important for those drives and other peripheral. My other rig (Athlon64 3700+) is powered by a HEC 480W, another proven psu.

[titser_marco]

Thanks Kit! By the way, what allocation scheme do you suggest given the drives that I have? [Drives are listed in my original post]

[KitC]

Thanks Kit! By the way, what allocation scheme do you suggest given the drives that I have? [Drives are listed in my original post]

Definitely use the 40 gigs as system drives. The other larger drives should be used for data and audio. If you have a lot of samples, you can dedicate one drive for that. One more thing, remember that dvd and cd drives are usually IDE; it's a good thing that a couple of the drives are sata - try to use the 40 gig ide seagate as the system drive since most P4 mobos prefer to boot from ide.

[maniacally_cool]

just acquired a laptop last summer.
wanted to start recording with it so i went here to get some pointers.

sigh......23 pages of "backreading"   hehehe.

[karlo]

If you're really plunging into this kind of hobby or profession... What you really need to invest first is your monitors....

I myself started with computer speakers... when i listened to my past recordings and mixes with my KRK's.... Haaaaaaaaayy grabe ang dami kong gs2ng baguhin!

Any Four Tet fans out there? It's amazing how four tet does all of his great tracks at home on his crap Dell PC using cheapo hi-fi speakers as monitors... He said something about knowing every sonic quirk of his speakers so he didn't really need studio monitors. I don't have good monitors myself (can't afford them- it just seems more cost-effective to the cash-strapped musician to plunk down on other things) so this is really inspiring to me. A very punk-rock way of going about it if I may say so. He had an interesting soundonsound article that can be googled where he discusses his "studio"

Plus, i love how he uses really old cakewalk music studio software, audiomulch, and cool edit pro for everything. Shows how even the most guerilla music gear can be used to great effect.

Jonesing for those tannoys and that hafler on the classifieds tho... If you've been listening to music on a pair of speakers for ten years, would getting dedicated studio monitors make that big a difference to justify the outlay? I'm not looking to earn money from my tracks anytime soon.

Also, without getting into the benefits of a more systematized and disaster-proof computer setup, are the performance (i.e. speed and stability) gains of hard drive partitioning even noticeable?

Ya, and another Q I have is about the expected lifespan of an external hard drive. Do these really have an expiration date, and if so, what is the best backup/recovery scheme to protect our precious production data? Would prolonged non-use affect this in any way?

[KitC]

If you've been listening to music on a pair of speakers for ten years, would getting dedicated studio monitors make that big a difference to justify the outlay? I'm not looking to earn money from my tracks anytime soon.

I used to mix on some Altec Lansings way, way back. The mixes would usually translate as boomy on other systems no matter what I did. Apparently the Altecs had a substantial dip in the crossover frequency where the sub kicked in - this was the cause of my problems. Moving to a pair of inexpensive Fostex monitors solved my problems with bass.

Also, without getting into the benefits of a more systematized and disaster-proof computer setup, are the performance (i.e. speed and stability) gains of hard drive partitioning even noticeable?

Better to have a separate drive for audio. Imagine having the OS on one partition and audio on a separate partition on the same drive... can you imagine the work the drive heads have to do in order to keep up with multiple tracks of audio while still accessing system files and the swap file simultaneously?

Ya, and another Q I have is about the expected lifespan of an external hard drive. Do these really have an expiration date, and if so, what is the best backup/recovery scheme to protect our precious production data? Would prolonged non-use affect this in any way?

The only safe answer is redundancy... on separate drives and/or writable media. That is my worry now... imagine having to find backup solutions for 3 terabytes of data.

[x_taxi]

scoring used to be a hobby for me.  i started monitorin on a sony boombox and a sb live.  haha.  my mixes lacked bass so i compensated for it.  when my boombox died, i started to use an atp3 altec lansing.  i just monitored on everythin else as well.  like the car, ipod or home stereo.

gettin a proper set of monitors saves you time though.  it'll let you take on more work less the hassle of bad mixes.

 

[Kclan]

very informative thread. nice



 

[karlo]

scoring used to be a hobby for me.  i started monitorin on a sony boombox and a sb live.  haha.  my mixes lacked bass so i compensated for it.  when my boombox died, i started to use an atp3 altec lansing.  i just monitored on everythin else as well.  like the car, ipod or home stereo.

 

A lot of people actually do recommend the car test as an essential part of monitoring. Monitoring on the iPod with its tinny earbuds?

[x_taxi]

A lot of people actually do recommend the car test as an essential part of monitoring. Monitoring on the iPod with its tinny earbuds?

yup!  if it sounds good in 128bit mp3 format with the very bad stock ipod earbuds, then it must be good!

 

[Zazza]

man this thread is heaven sent  learning a lot from it big time!

[gutz_3110]

Sir KitC salamat sa reply mo sa PM!

im still reading the thread pa...and learning!

[Gibson78]

Hi, sorry if this is OT or not - I did'nt want to create a new thread.

I recently upgraded my PC, it's now running Vista, using my onboard soundcard (Realtek HD Audio), and I just installed the latest Asio (2. and Guitar Rig 3

Ok, when I choose Asio for the audio setup, nothing happens - no audio and  input device box, when I choose Direct Sound, same problem - no audio but it has all the choices (latency, sample. I/O etc).

I can hear my guitar sound through the speakers - it just doesn't pass through Guitar Rig 3 at all. Looking at the interface, there isnt even the tiniest blip on the Inputs. I can't even play drum tracks when using ASIO, I can play the same tracks using Direct Sound, but no audio at all (I see the meter going).

Anyone else has this problem? I think it's a driver problem with Realtek HD Audio, I just don't have the time to re-install Windows XP and AC97 drivers to check if it really is. I really don't want to go out now and buy a separate soundcard, because I really can't be bothered right now.

Hope you guys can help.

Cheers and Beers!

[KitC]

@Gibson78 - three things are compounding your problem... Vista, asio, and realtek. For one thing, Realtek doesn't support asio. Second, Vista and asio don't seem to go well together. You can try using WDM/WaveRT/WASAPI drivers if Realtek has developed any but that's a longshot. An officemate of mine had me look over a new laptop with Vista installed... we couldn't get asio working and resorted to WDM only.

Solutions? Either revert to XP or get a real soundcard with Vista drivers. FYI, I'm still using WinXP SP2.

[Gibson78]

I knew it. I guess I'll just have to breakdown and get a new soundcard / audio interface. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

[KitC]

I knew it. I guess I'll just have to breakdown and get a new soundcard / audio interface. Any suggestions?

Try looking at the M-Audio USB or firewire offerings at JB. If your inclinations are toward guitar recording as well, I suggest the Line6 Toneport or UX series over at Yupangco. In a pinch, the Behringer UCA can work, but I'm not so sure over its low latency capabilities.