Subject:Complete newbie question

Posted by: H2oskiphil

Date:4/7/2002 6:28:21 PM

I'm building a computer to put in a home studio. I've got live reinforcement equipment (mixer, amps, monitors, speakers, etc.), but this will be my first foray into digital recording. My plan is to utilize my current 12 track analog mixer, but after that I'm lost. A friend recommended Sound Forge and Acid as software, but doesn't have much imput on the hardware side. I'm assuming that I'll need a big hard drive, but how big? What kind of sound card should I look at? What other software and/or I/O devices will I need? I'm looking to keep this at a reasonable budget, upgradable, and easy to use-I'm gonna have to learn as I go, so I don't want to invest too much up front, but I'll want to be able to get the basics figured out, then add from there.

Also, any recommendations on books, how-to manuals, "Digital Recording for Dummies"-type info that will help me develop this?

Thanks for your input....

Subject:RE: Complete newbie question

Reply by: Jessariah

Date:4/7/2002 9:09:13 PM

Luckily, what you need isn't as expensive as it was a few years ago. Get a decent motherboard (815 or 440BX chipset), at least 128 MB RAM (RAM is cheap, so get 256MB if you can). A PIII in the 800s will work fine. Get ata/100 support. The most important thing is have a dedicated drive for your media files, and spring for 7200 rpm. You put your OS and programs on C: and don't put anything but .wavs (or whatever) on your "D:"

I'm capturing, editing and rendering VIDEO with ata/66, 7200 rpm drives with 256MB and a PIII 850. I can tell you that audio won't be any problem at all with something like this.

As for sound cards, I prefer the M-Audio line. I went from the Dman 2044 to the Delta 44. It just depends on how many ins/outs you want. I go with two stereo pairs in/out. I use one pair of the ins as my master in from my board to my computer. I use the other pair of ins for tracking guitars/vocals. The outs are sent to separate channels on my mixer, and I use one pair for vocals, and one pair for guitars. Again, it all depends on how you're integrating your internal with your external.

Hope this helps.

KH

Subject:RE: Complete newbie question

Reply by: H2oskiphil

Date:4/13/2002 7:21:04 AM

Thanks for the info...I'm going to end up w/an Athlon T-bird running at 1.1G, an MSI K7266 Pro MB, 256M of DDR, a 4G WD drive for my programs and a 80G Maxtor (7200 RPM) for my music, 32x12x40 CR-RW, 56X CR-R, and a bunch of recycled stuff for my floppy, etc. The sound card is still up in the air-see my post on SB Live Drive if you have any input...

Am I forgetting anything? Will this be enough computer to do what I want?

Subject:RE: Complete newbie question

Reply by: SonicRJH

Date:4/13/2002 8:33:27 AM

There are several books on this subject including "Sound Forge Power", which is available through Sonic Foundry:

http://www.sonicfoundry.com/products/NewShowProduct.asp?PID=436

Also available are "ACID Power", and "Digital Video and Audio Production", if you plan on incorporating Vegas 3.0.

There are also many titles available on the subject of Digital Home Recording, might want to check with your local bookseller for more information.

Good luck with your studio,

Subject:RE: Complete newbie question

Reply by: H2oskiphil

Date:4/13/2002 12:41:44 PM

Thanks for that information...I'm ordering the SF book today.

Do you have any recommendations on the general titles for this? I'm fairly computer-literate, and know my way around analog equipment, but have NEVER tried to do any digital recording. I don't expect to become an expert by reading a book, but I'd like to be able to have SOME clue what I'm doing once I start rolling with this...

Thanks!

Subject:RE: Complete newbie question

Reply by: rraud

Date:4/14/2002 7:58:19 PM

You are going to need a multi-track program such as Vegas in additon to Sound Forge, unless your doing everything direct to 2-track.