@kennyken
salamat bro, matagal na akong hindi updated sa computer hardware/technology. tatandaan ko nick mo pag may PC-related questions ako.
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share ko lang... i'm a 'ghetto' closet producer (hobby lang)... and by 'ghetto' i mean my PC hardware is always below 'minimum system requirements'. but that is usually solved by using an audio interface. i bet that most people cannot appreciate how an audio interface takes the load off the cpu (if you have a nice pc, you won't feel it).
naka-chika-chika ko yung isang co-contestant sa isang songwriting contest, nagulat siya nung sinabi kong yung pc na ginamit ko sa pag-produce ng demo ay desktop na single core 1.8 ghz with 512 mb ram. he owns a motif rack and other cool stuff... so tumaas talaga mga kilay niya sa gulat.
na-try ko na rin mag-produce using an asus eee-pc netbook (single core, celeron 900 mhz, 512 mb ram, no hard disk). pinaka-challenging na ginawa ko dito ay backing track ng theatrical version ng 'let it go' by idina menzel (shut up, i can probably outshred you --- oops sorry, defense mechanism, hahaha). i had to 'freeze' (cubase speak) a lot of tracks to get this done, otherwise puro dropouts/glitches ang maririnig (or cubase just refuses to play). while i'm not too worried about track count, i have to be very stingy with the number of fx plugins i use.
now this may prove promising for those of you who own half decent computers (or worse)... i can use said netbook for playing live synth and vocals! BUT, i have to use an audio interface. di talaga pwede pag walang audio interface. yamaha xg softsynth has the lowest cpu hit (so okay siya sa akin). tapos, while i'm playing piano, i also sing (when im alone lang)... plugins i use for vocals: gcomp2 (gate, compressor, limiter), kerovee (sintunado kase ako at para feeling t-pain ako), and classic reverb (kjaerhus audio). yep, my lowly netbook can do it real-time with somewhat acceptable latency. i just have to choose the plugins i use (older plugins tend to be less cpu hungry).
for those about to buy a computer, download these:
http://www.hwinfo.com/http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml