Building a system around Audio Recording and for use with Pro Tools. Any Links or Ideas?

[eno]

I have mainly built just strong overclocking/gaming rigs in the past. Nothing for strong audio/video capture. I have customer that wants a good all around system mainly for webpage building and sound recording. I was thinking of going with a P4c either 2.8c or 3.0c w/ a Abit IS7.

Again he wants it for Website Creation/Sound Processing,Capture and Editing. And will want to use ProTools software.

1.) Will 1gb be good for him. He says he can upgrade later if it will work for now.

2.) Will RAID0 help him with any sound capturing or editing?

3.) As of sound processing, I was thinking of using the Audigy2 ZS Platinum. I have the card and love it but do not use it for sound capturing. Is that card good for that or is it just novice hardware. Ideas , comments?



Thanks in advance.

 

[Cerb]

With 2GB of RAM, I'd say no, RAID 0 won't help much, but SCSI or Raptors might. If he'll be dealing with 16/44 stereo or better streams, you want RAM. Think about those undos...
Recording itself won't stress it, and editing will be a serious memory stress more than anything else--I imagine P4C and Athlon64 machines will perform similarly when it comes to the end results.

On the card...I don't know. Research the Terratec and M-Audio solutions before you go there. The Creative might be a good choice, but there are others out there if you're spending $200 or more on sound. Try looking at hydrogenaudio.org.

 

[eno]

Great Feedback, thanks a million. I will look into it, anyone else?

 

[adams828]

this might be more than what he's asking for, but it might give you some insight/helpful ideas

 

[foofoo]

i put one togeter for a friend, we noticed that scsi really helped.
and we used echo audio mia sound cards. they really rock for a daw workstation that's not unreasonably expensive.
good luck

 

[bluemax]

First and foremost - DO NOT GET ANYTHING BY CREATIVE LABS!!!!!!

For pro audio they simply do NOT compare in quality, stability or support. Save yourself a lot of headaches and don't even CONSIDER a sound card meant for gaming - there's a world of difference in how they operate!

You want a pro audio card. AT VERY LEAST, the M-Audio Audiophile 2496 which has a couple of good, clean inputs and (most important) true ASIO2 driver support. This means when you hit PLAY/Record there's almost no delay from when you strike a key or such, to the time you actually hear it. Without true ASIO support, it can be almost a SECOND from the time you hit piano notes to the time the sound comes out of your speakers!
And again, don't be fooled - nForce Soundstorm and CL SandBlaster claim ASIO support. THEY DO NOT WORK! I've tried both - they fail the ASIO tests miserably.
There's lots of pro audio gear from simple stereo to recording 16 or more microphones (etc.) at once... talk to a music store to find out what's best for your needs.


Now, will he be recording several live musicians at once? Several audio tracks being mixed together simultaneously?
The more audio streams being recorded or played back at once, the more the speed of the hard drive comes into play. 16 channels or less, a good IDE hard drive will handle just fine without RAID.

The more RAM the merrier!! Audio will eat it for breakfast! 1GB is good for most work, but many large tracks will eat it up faster. You DO NOT want disk-swapping because you ran out of RAM!



After that, the only important thing is to have a STABLE SETUP! No overclocking, 100% safe RAM timings, etc. No NOT constantly install/uninstall software! The more you mess up Windows, the less stable it becomes. Leave the music workstation as that - a MUSIC WORKSTATION! (Heck, get a cute little mini-computer and leave it as the dedicated audio workstation!) No games! Use a different PC for that. Processor doesn't make much difference, provided it's not a Celeron, but avoid any VIA chipset that uses the 686B southbridge. KT400 and up are decent, though most agree - stick to Intel or nForce for stable chipsets. Adding major audio effects will eat CPU power, lots of tracks need RAM+fast hard drive.

That should get you well on your way!

 

[eno]

EVERYONE. THANKS!!!!

BIG THANKS TOO bluemax. That is some great incite. I have some more questions to ask him now. I already forgot about Creative. They work on both my systems with great sound but your info steered me away. I am going to price together a system for him. That is a good idea for stablity to have a 2nd system dedicated to it. I think this system will be his learning system , and he will be able to tinker around with the sounds and games. After that I can build he a 2nd system for hardcore sound.

I will post again once I spoke with the fella on his audio needs.

AGAIN THANK YOU GUYS FOR YOUR INPUT.

 

[thirdlegstump]

I've got an RME Multiface with the PCI HDSP card and very happy with it. I'd stick with AMD at the moment due to P4 and denormalization problems. They also seem to take less of a CPU hit with realtime plugins. Don't ever say Creative Labs and Recording in the same sentence. At the very least, M-Audio Audiophile 2496. It really depends on how he's going to be recording.

 

[thirdlegstump]

Also a single 7200RPM IDE drive is all that's needed and recommended for recording and editing. You can stream over 200 24bit/44.1khz tracks without a hiccup if you know how to optimize the system for audio.

P.S. I'd recommend a G4 Powermac over any PC for Protools specifically. If your client/friend is open to other DAW applications like Cubase, Nuendo or Cakewalk, a PC will do better.