[RWP] good computer for recording?

Chris Belle cb1963 at sbcglobal.net
Fri Oct 11 04:36:15 EDT 2013 

OH good, hey if your just doing that sort of stuff, any old box will do.

I don't even bother with asio when doing two track editing with soundforge, and am still using an older version for accessibility sake.

I just didn't want newbies getting the wrong idea, I didn't want to disrespect your thoughts, just have been through this and seen many folks get burned by wrong ideas of what it takes to do daw stuff, and since I teach this stuff, it's sort of a religion with me 'grin'.

I didn't really understand it till a few years ago,
but it's not about power so much as when the power is available.

It seems so counter intuitive that a really powerful machine with lots of ram could perform badly and be beat out by a lesser but well appointed machine, but I've seen it with my own eyes, or rather heard it with my own ears too many times.

Well, happy producing.

A lot of radio guys use audacity.

That little daw has come a long way, I hope they eventually implement asio in to it.

It'll be a really good choice then for audio only stuff.
not just for real time fx, but for lining up tracks properly with timing and such.



  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: yRylan Vroom 
  To: Reapers Without Peepers 
  Sent: Thursday, October 10, 2013 2:37 PM
  Subject: Re: [RWP] good computer for recording?


  Haha true enough Chris, I don't actually use any real time effects at
  this point. My tallents lie more with audio production for radio and I
  haven't run into any lag issues doing that yet. Heck, maybe I got
  really lucky with my crappy box. :) I read up on the latency issues
  surrounding the windows kernel and will keep it in mind if I ever
  start up a recording business. cheers

  Rylan

  On 10/9/13, Chris Belle <cb1963 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
  > I used to think that but I learned better.
  >
  > If you've not learned about dpc latency and just how windows works, you can
  > make a costly mistake.
  >
  > Go read up on defered protocol, and read the tons of messages on forums
  > about crackling audio and drop-outs, etc.
  >
  > There are fine machines out there which can eat the hottest games for
  > breakfast but will suck on audio because the dpc latency is too high.
  >
  > Think of this senario.
  >
  > YOu have a big truck that comes by one a day, that's your computer.
  > or processor.
  >
  > You have your hard-drives, interface,
  > peripherals and such they all need attending to in a timely manner.
  > Let's call them the little delivery trucks that bring packages to the big
  > truck your computer.
  >
  > Now what if the big truck quit coming by once a day, but only every other
  > day?
  >
  > YOur packages would pile up.
  >
  > That's exactly what happens when you get audio drop-outs, or you can't load
  > very many plug-ins with out having to turn your latency way up on your
  > interface, or any number of things.
  >
  > If your dpc latency on your computer is higher than say 100, you will have
  > problems.
  >
  > Average is around 30,
  > my new daw runs in the teens,
  > I had a student who got impatient
  > and had his computer fixed by some local guy, and they didn't turn off hpet
  > and do other tweaks in the bios and even though the machine was originally
  > configured as a daw, it did not perform well,
  > so you need the right parts, as well as the right settings,
  > specific motherboards will do well as a daw while others will suck.
  >
  > Certain settings in the bios are not available on certain motherboards,
  > you might have issues with firewire chips, so it's not enough to say hey,
  > just get an asio sound card and your golden, maybe if you have a mac you
  > can, because
  > it get's the blessing of one kind of hardware combo, and also apple's os is
  > closer to a real time os than winblows, but don't count on great performance
  > running a mac system on the windows side,
  > with an immulated bios you can't tweak.
  >
  > ON the apple side, you don't have to deal with dpc latency, it's not the
  > same deal with a unix based os.
  >
  > but with windows, everything low level has to ask for permission in the
  > kernel, and if it has to wait too long, then the whole house of cards comes
  > down.
  >
  > YOu might get lucky and get a machine which has low enough dpc latency where
  > you can get some work done, but too many of us even old time cats who've
  > been doing this for ever have made the sad mistake of buying an off the
  > shelf laptop hoping to use it for audio, only to find out oh no, it won't
  > handle it.
  >
  > I will concede the point that as computers get more powerful,
  > the margin for error get's bigger, but if you want performance for a daw,
  > that error is still pretty slim.
  >
  > YOu won't notice it just doing plain audio recording and not using lots of
  > real time fx, if you are doing that, then just go ahead and use any old
  > machine for basic tracking, but if you want to run real time fx, guitar
  > chains, and drum modules that you can play with your asio card set to a nice
  > low latency, and not have to bother freezing tracks all the time and such,
  > then go get a daw built.
  >
  > Save your best buy computer for skype and emailing your grandma, and your
  > mp3 punk rock library 'grin'.
  >
  > I'm here to tell ya, I bought lots of machines, went to custom shops even,
  > but getting a purpose built daw is the difference between riding on the
  > garbage truck, and going first class in a portche.
  >
  > Because you see, it's not about the power, or ram or drives, though that
  > plays a part, ok, even if you get your fast ssd, what good is it if the
  > drives are waiting on the processor which is hung up on that errant video
  > driver you don't know about from that Chinese company,
  > written by that first year computer programmer student,
  > but your daw maker knows that the driver that came out last year is a better
  > match and won't spike the dpc latency.
  >
  > If and when you find out and correct it, think how many hours you lost.
  > and how many hit song ideas went away.
  >
  > Man, that's wort 5 bills to me for sure.
  >
  > So don't believe me, go out buy a cheap machine and if you get lucky, call
  > old Chris a liar, but if it doesn't work and you have issues and are right
  > back here asking us how to solve an impossible problem remember old Chris
  > told ya so.
  >
  >
  > ----- Original Message -----
  >   From: yRylan Vroom
  >   To: Reapers Without Peepers
  >   Sent: Wednesday, October 09, 2013 3:28 PM
  >   Subject: Re: [RWP] good computer for recording?
  >
  >
  >   It all depends on your pariferals these days. A good computer is less
  >   important than an ASIO equipped soundcard and whatever other midi
  >   equipment you use. I for one am using a crappy Acer throwaway box I
  >   got at bestbuy for $500, 12 gb of ram, quad core amd Processor, no GPU
  >   to speak of, but it gets the job done. I do notice that after loading
  >   10 or so VST's it gets a smidge laggy when you play a project, but
  >   that's about it. HTH
  >
  >   Rylan
  >
  >   On 10/8/13, Chris Belle <cb1963 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
  >   > Go see Jim Roseberry at
  >   > studiocat.com
  >   >
  >   > He builds the best daws in the us, for the best price, and you can get
  > in to
  >   > a very mice machine that won't frustrate you for much less than you
  > might
  >   > think.
  >   >
  >   > His project studio daw starts at a thousand.
  >   >
  >   > Don't get some bargain machine at tigerdirect or what-ever, you'll be
  >   > sorry.
  >   >
  >   > You'll have high dpc latencies, and other compatibility issues, these
  > guys
  >   > are fine for gamers or office machines, but for a daw, do it up right
  > you'll
  >   > be glad you did.
  >   >
  >   >
  >   >   ----- Original Message -----
  >   >   From: Matt Turner
  >   >   To: reaper
  >   >   Sent: Tuesday, October 08, 2013 1:04 PM
  >   >   Subject: [RWP] good computer for recording?
  >   >
  >   >
  >   >   Hay there, folks.
  >   >   i am looking into getting a computer, that will be used mainly just
  > for
  >   >   recording.
  >   >   I am not sure what i should get, as there are all kinds of computers
  >   >   ranging from 799$, and higher.
  >   >   I wood like a laptop, but i've heard there' not good for recording.
  >   >   Any suggestions?
  >   >
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