Computer Audio Pt 2....What should I get?

[fussnfeathers]

I was gonna do this in one long post, but I figured it would be easier to do in sections, so you could just skip to the info you want, without having to scroll for days...........

There's been a few questions regarding recording here lately, so I figured I'd hit that next. Just like a gaming machine, a "home studio" machine has a very specific set of requirements, that need to be followed. While some are the same as a gaming machine, there's some distinct differences that will make or break your recording experience.

First off, the basic machine. Speed is less important than stability. If you OC your machine, undo your overclocking......I'll explain why later. Choose your parts based on that, rather than on tweakability. (forgive me guys....... ) First and foremost, is the proc. I've built several studio machines in the last couple of years, and through testing found Intel to be the best chip for the job. AMD is close, but not quite there yet. This is due, primarily, to Intel being better at floating-point operations than AMD, the same reason why Intel is a better chip for video editing.

Choose a fast proc, obviously, but don't OC it. Noise is the issue here. When you OC your machine, you're putting more juice through the proc, and through the motherboard, and pushing the limits of the Northbridge connection. All of this introduces power noise into the signal. While it's not something you'll hear through your Z680's during a gaming session, it's as obvious as a pink horse when you're recording a quiet piano piece. Couple that with the fact that most pro recording software is very CPU intensive, and you've got the mix for crashing under heavy load.

Memory is next. 1gb is the barest minimum, regardless of what the box for your software says. 2gb is optimal. Remember, you're not only going to be doing some heavy duty processing for input, you're also going to be monitoring that signal on the way out. More memory, and faster memory, reduces the latency of the signal. Again, DO NOT OC the ram. Leave it be.

Your choice of video card isn't as important. While most newer versions of software require DX9 cards, you don't need the fastest out there. Save the money, and get a good midrange card, like a 9600, FX5200, or even a bit less. As long as it's capable of showing the GUI, you're fine. Besides, you're not going to be playing games or watching movies on this machine, are you?

Your motherboard should be chosen for stability as well, and less for tweakability. I've found that Gigabyte boards seem to be the most stable. While not OC friendly, they have the reputation of being rock-solid, dependable boards. If you're looking for FireWire, these boards also use NEC FireWire chips (I believe, it might be Toshiba, I'll verify later on this week). These are the fastest and cleanest chips for FireWire, and I'll explain THAT a bit later. You should be less interested in fancy BIOS features, as you won't need them.

Aside from your sound interface, that's all that should be in this machine. CPU, video, RAM. You don't even want a network card, and if you get a board with onboard LAN, disable it. Network cards and onboard LAN, again, introduce noise into the bitstream. The idea here is to eliminate any source of interference, and you're not going to be hooking this machine to the 'net anyway. Aside from the noise, you don't want anything remotely like spyware touching this machine. We all know what a few cases of ISTBar can do to your machine's speed. Plan on installing any updates by CD, probably burned from your gaming machine.

Like any other machine, it's absolutely vital that you have the latest chipset drivers, BIOS update, and a pristine install of WindowsXP. Use XP Pro, do NOT use Home Edition.

Then choose your drives. Depending on how your studio will be set up, you'll want the fastest, yet quietest drives you can get. Raptors are nice, and speedy, but noisy. The two drives I tend to use are either WD's 200gb drives, or Maxtor's Diamondmax 9 200gb drives. RAID is not important, but I do recommend RAID 1 on your working drives. Clean backups are essential in this machine. I'll get into the software part in the next post.

Finally, choose your PSU. This is a common question here, and is very important in this application. Do NOT use a cheap PSU. I suggest Antec or PC Power and Cooling, for two reasons: Plenty of power for multiple drives, and clean, clean, clean power. A dirty power stream will again introduce noise into your system.

Now that you have your basic machine, let's get into the audio interface. On to the next post, it's gonna be a long one.
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