• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Question on reqs for Audio Production Box

J

jonjonsanfru

Golden Member
Anyone familiar with the system requirements to sufficiently run those programs? Buddy has them up on a mP4/XP lappy and it just can't handle all the samples. So he wants to build a travel box that can handle big songs, but doesn't want it to be overkill.

Any help with what kind of tech I'm after and what price range he should be looking at would be much appreciated. ATM he's got a print out from a local company that has a rackmount case he likes, something that he can pack into a gig box, thats running $1250. If I can clarify anything please let me know, been a minute since I've put together a box or priced a spec so I'm not sure where the market is right now.

Thanks in advance.
 
I use Acid, reason, kontakt, FL Studio, etc a bit.

Before I sold my desktop I was running a C2D e6300 stock, 2gb memory, gigabyte ds3 mainboard, and some various HDDs.

everything ran flawlessly. now, it all depends on how many samples he was running at once, but it would take a TON of samples to really bog down my system.

Get yourself a c2d shuttle for a few hundred, pack some ram into it, a big HDD or two, and be done with it 😀.


EDIT:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16856101044

theres a good start. Throw a proc in for ~200-300 bucks (hell, you could do quad core for that.), 100 bucks of ram, a few hundred for some HDD's and your set. you could even get a low end pci-e video card for some dual monitor fun 🙂
 
Laptops have slow components, esp hard drives.

4GB of ram is cheap, and a dual core processor should be enough. But unless you plan
on buying a nice audio interface for the computer, you could easily stick to budget and
get a quad core processor.

Unless you're doing resampling, fx, synthesis - samples don't stress the CPU very much.

I would definitely recommend having the samples and the programs running on separate
hard disks.

Edit - I <3s Reason
 
Originally posted by: The Bakery
Laptops have slow components, esp hard drives.

4GB of ram is cheap, and a dual core processor should be enough. But unless you plan
on buying a nice audio interface for the computer, you could easily stick to budget and
get a quad core processor.

Unless you're doing resampling, fx, synthesis - samples don't stress the CPU very much.

I would definitely recommend having the samples and the programs running on separate
hard disks.

Edit - I <3s Reason
Click to expand...

oh wiat, were talking about laptops strictly? whoops, my bad on my previous post 😱.


Oh, and also. +1 on the notion to keep your samples on other HDD's. Being able to use the rotational HDD speed of a drive specifically for program files and then use other HDD's for your samples is huge.
 
Hey, Thanks for the replies. I've been waiting for him to get back to me with how many samples/loops he's using. Its gonna be a desktop (laptop is just the current setup). Good to know about the HDDs, I would guess that other than the ram - that is a major bottleneck when using more than 5 samples on his comp.

The shuttle case looks good, I'll have to check with him. The thing will be used in a studio and need to be trucked around to shows though, so it would need to be durable and portable. Sounds like a cheapside system - Dualcore, 4gb ram, 2 HDDs, onboard anything else - would be more than enough? Should be well under $1250 (spec quote he got from a local shop)? Any cases out there that have a keyboard/mouse/portability rolled into one (not really a software questions, but its kinda attached to my software question)?

Thanks again for the help, I love AT's community 😀
 
Agreed with what others have said above, but I would go for the Quad Core. Pricewise, it would only be a little more, but it would be a huge increase in processing power (especially if your DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) has multi-processor support). Also, if he can get it, hook up an external E-SATA and make the sample drive external. It's much easier to load and share sounds between computers this way.
 
agreed with danceman. go quad core unless hes really really tight on cash. Even a 6600 will be huge. Depending on if he gets into vst instruments and the like, even non multithreaded apps will benefit from the sheer amount of programs he'll be running.

ESata would definitely be beneficial. What i personally use is two HDD's internally, one for OS/programs one for samples, then one external drive for sharing and backups. This way I have two spaces for my samples if i need to take something with me, and I also have a backup drive for projects im working on. The one advantage to having my backup drive as the only external, however, is that i dont need esata, USB works fine for me. Yeah, transferring big projects take a LITTLE longer, but literally, just a little 😉.


As far as everything being onboard, the only thing that I would say maybe get is a low end video card that can output to dual monitors if thats something he can utilize in the studio. That shuttle case has HDMI and vga, but i dont know if they can be used at the same time to be honest.

The nice part about DAW computing at the moment, is that prices have been falling like a rock on just about everything in the computing world. Even a year to a year and a half ago you try configuring a dual core machine with 2gb of ram and say dual 500 or even dual 1tb hdds...yeah...pay alot for it.


Nowadays the expensive thing in most peoples computer around here is the vid card. luckily you dont have that problem 😉. Processors are cheap, hard drives are cheaper, and ram is the cheapest. 😀😀
 
ah ha! I knew there had to be a shuttle for cheaper without that vfd display.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16856101042

!

Also, I took a closer look on the back of both of those and saw they had esata. Dunno why I missd that the first time. Even better! The Seagate freeagent pro drives that have both esata and usb would be perfect, as you can get the performance at your computer but if you need to transfer files to a comp without esata you still have usb to fall back on. 🙂
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top