Topic: STUDIO ENG'S / PRODUCERS / COMPUTER GEEKS
- Feb 11, 2008 08:29pm by yady - amateurs practice till they get it right, professionals practice till they cant get it wrong.
www.soulserverskc.com
www.myspace.com/djyady Location: KC
QUESTION
besides a G4 or 5, what are great desktops to look for? i need a new desktop, gonna be buying in the next few months. main use will be for home studio and production. suggestion on make's, models and specs please??
- Feb 11, 2008 09:41pm by barnyard - Befriend me. ---> [url=http://www.myspace.com/farmfreshcuts]MYSPACE[/url]
I assume by saying "besides a G4 or G5" you are implying an interest in a PC (windows based). If this is the case, I suggest building one. I just built one for $400 and it's a BEAST. I guess to some people this could seem like a daunting task, but trust me, computer hardware is MAD CHEAP if you buy it by the piece. Don't be fooled by Dell or all those other no-faces.
- Feb 11, 2008 09:54pm by yady - amateurs practice till they get it right, professionals practice till they cant get it wrong.
www.soulserverskc.com
www.myspace.com/djyady Location: KC
whats the specs on the one u built? thats a lot less than i planned on spending, what would you charge to build me a BEAST??
the g5 deal... i'm not againts em at all, but i'm not spending over a grand for a computer.
- Feb 12, 2008 02:37am by Distorted_Mastermind - I reject your reality and substitute my own.
Adam Savage Location: Olathe, KS
There's a ton of software for PC, and PC's are quite a bit cheaper.
The only real reason to get a Mac would be because you really like Logic or if you want to run Pro Tools HD.
That's kind of opinion, but why would a person want to spend twice as much money on something that does the same thing and the one that costs half the price makes upgrading cheaper and allows more options for the upgrades.
I haven't used Mac's much, but have enough not to believe the hype. For the price of a Mac you can get a 500 dollar PC, spend 500 dollars on a high quality sound card/audio interface, then spend a couple hundred on software and still come out cheaper (than just the mac)and with a much better set up for whatever your budget is.
- Feb 12, 2008 03:07am by DR.T - nuts .. haha Location: KCMO
If you're doing like video editing or just graphics in general, go with a Mac, but you want it for home production and stuff, Go with PC...but DON'T get vista....go with XP home edition (preferably with service pack 2). You can't go wrong.....
- Feb 12, 2008 04:15am by Deta!L - I just said that so you would stop bothering me.
do yourself a favor and get a Mac, you can get a Mac Mini with max ram on Ebay for around $500 and it will be solid! definitely able to run 32 plus tracks for hip hop, an external hard-drive by Glyph or someone trust worthy and you're golden
don't risk your music with a noisy, bugged down PC...unless you want to use Fruity Loops or Sound Forge
- Feb 12, 2008 05:10am by barnyard - Befriend me. ---> [url=http://www.myspace.com/farmfreshcuts]MYSPACE[/url]
[quote:9a5469a1da]whats the specs on the one u built? [/quote:9a5469a1da]
The one i'm running now is 3.0 Ghz Dual Core processor, 2 Gb Dual-Channel DDR2 RAM, SATA hard drives, dual monitors, and a decent-ish Soundblaster card.
[quote:9a5469a1da]thats a lot less than i planned on spending, what would you charge to build me a BEAST??[/quote:9a5469a1da]
honestly right now i have a computer sitting around that i'm not using. it would require a new motherboard and you'd probably want a new case, but honestly you could put together a nice little system with it. we could work out a deal there, otherwise PM me and i'll recommend some places to start looking if you have a price range in mind. Get at me.
[quote:9a5469a1da]do yourself a favor and get a Mac[/quote:9a5469a1da]
Any new PC would eat your mac alive. 😀
- Feb 12, 2008 07:05am by AceFadal - [b:353f9d151d]k[/b:353f9d151d]inestheti[b:353f9d151d]C[/b:353f9d151d]~means To learn by doing
www.dipity.com/acefadal
WE ARE, Kansas City is [b:353f9d151d]k[/b:353f9d151d]inestheti[b:353f9d151d]C[/b:353f9d151d]!
http://crushproofstudio.bandcamp.com/ Location: Downtown, Kansas City, Mo.
[quote:7c41063a7d="barnyard"]
[quote:7c41063a7d]do yourself a favor and get a Mac[/quote:7c41063a7d]
Any new PC would eat your mac alive. :D[/quote:7c41063a7d]
I dunno i just got a new laptop for $700. If I didn't have a Mac before this, I might not miss it. It runs good but, it ain't a MAC. Getting rid of the last bit of uninstalled programs is still a bich.
I will say this.......VISTA sucks a big donkey ball. You gotta ask permission before you goto the bathroom with this piece. Save up your dough. Buy a MAC Pro for $2,000 grand. Then you can run Leopard and XP smooth and seamless, on the same machine.
My shit is less than a year old (Vista Home Premium) and I miss my [u:7c41063a7d]G3[/u:7c41063a7d]!
- Feb 12, 2008 07:07am by phism
fuck macs.
if i were you i'd built it also. i built mine and i could tailor it to what i needed. you can decide which things you want to be good enough, and which to juice up. like, you probably want a pricy sound card, but don't care as much about the video card.
- Feb 12, 2008 07:12am by AceFadal - [b:353f9d151d]k[/b:353f9d151d]inestheti[b:353f9d151d]C[/b:353f9d151d]~means To learn by doing
www.dipity.com/acefadal
WE ARE, Kansas City is [b:353f9d151d]k[/b:353f9d151d]inestheti[b:353f9d151d]C[/b:353f9d151d]!
http://crushproofstudio.bandcamp.com/ Location: Downtown, Kansas City, Mo.
[quote:a552cc0d8e="phism"]fuck macs.
if i were you i'd built it also. i built mine and i could tailor it to what i needed. you can decide which things you want to be good enough, and which to juice up. like, you probably want a pricy sound card, but don't care as much about the video card.[/quote:a552cc0d8e]
Actually my sound is played through my USB port to my USB mixer. 1s and 0s. the sound is lossless and beautiful. I love ASIO.
I did build my computer.
But......I hate pulling up the task bar and see things like realsched.exe, taseng.exe, QPservice.exe, winlogon.exe, rundll32.exe, drwatson.exe, fuck an exe file, cookies, all that. Notnearnudder problem with my Mac till the old fuker crashed. It was only 7 years old.
My laptop has a AMD 64 Athlon X2 processor, which is more than enought o run any VST or DXI but. there are always things running in the background that i shut down for more "juice".
Never had to do that with my mac. Especially since I was running Ableton on both systems. I could chop a beat on my PC and Flash drive it to my MAC, and pull it up in Ableton on both.
The only reason I got a PC is cause they are cheaper.
They are cheaper for a reason!
for Photo/Video Editing...get MAC
If you PC can't handle music buffering, or the transpose rate of a song @ 44mhz or a bitrate of 192, you do need a new computer, and shouldn't even be looking at a MAC catalog anyway.
peas
- Feb 12, 2008 12:35pm by Deta!L - I just said that so you would stop bothering me.
ehhh, I'm all set with my Macbook Pro with dual 2.33 and 3 gigs of ram player 8) nobody is shitting on that
I could actually record through the digital input say if I had an MPC 1000 and never need an external soundcard....to each his own though, I was just pointing out that there are cheaper Mac options than most will admit and the refurbished section on apple.com is a good place to start
- Feb 12, 2008 04:05pm by Distorted_Mastermind - I reject your reality and substitute my own.
Adam Savage Location: Olathe, KS
Hey Ace a good way to cut down on all the processes is just to cut back on the start up programs.
Also that user account control can be turned off.
Vista hasn't been near as bad as people make it out to be in my opinion. The biggest problem I had was my sound card hadn't released drivers for vista yet, but the XP drivers still worked and the official vista drivers have been released with a few new features.
The only thing that has been a problem at all for me was the older USB devices (1.1). I can see how that could become a pain for some people. It wasn't that big of a deal for me since most of my stuff is USB 2.0
If you built a computer I would recommend going with XP, but if you buy one already built I would suggest at least giving vista a shot. My experience has been that it's not any worse than xp.
Also keep in mind Macs have their problems too
- Feb 12, 2008 04:58pm by Reach. - Peace and oneness,
www.emceereach.com
www.myspace.com/reach
www.twitter.com/emceereach
www.youtube.com/reachtv
www.cdbaby.com/cd/reachmusic2
www.cdbaby.com/cd/reachmusic Location: Kansas City
I've heard Mac's are better for graphic design.
Can someone explain why?
- Feb 12, 2008 05:05pm by dublow - http://KCMusicScene.com
www.myspace.com/dublowseven
www.myspace.com/barbaricmerits
http://barbaricmerits.com
mac's are cute. you can take cool pictures on your webcam that make you look like an alien....and they don't have all that complicated stuff that pc's do like 2 mouse buttons.
- Feb 12, 2008 06:02pm by AceFadal - [b:353f9d151d]k[/b:353f9d151d]inestheti[b:353f9d151d]C[/b:353f9d151d]~means To learn by doing
www.dipity.com/acefadal
WE ARE, Kansas City is [b:353f9d151d]k[/b:353f9d151d]inestheti[b:353f9d151d]C[/b:353f9d151d]!
http://crushproofstudio.bandcamp.com/ Location: Downtown, Kansas City, Mo.
[quote:1f04bc3549="Reach."]I've heard Mac's are better for graphic design.
Can someone explain why?[/quote:1f04bc3549]
100,000,000,000 pixels
but on some uber nerd talk
My boy is an I.T. (i.t. for over 8 years, self taught, owns four computers, two or three broken laptops and a billion parts, yeah that guy) for Olathe school district.
He's got a Mac Book Pro. (yeah the big shiny one for $2,300)
His Supervisor gave it to him because he didn't "need" it. Hes running XP and Leopard.
I have watched him switch from MAC to Windows with a click.
[color=yellow:1f04bc3549]He said this video, basically shows what his computer can do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjVZt-G2qC8
[/color:1f04bc3549]
You decide how much you wanna invest.
But ultimately Its what you are using it for.
personally I like this vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxdK-bZQ698
- Feb 12, 2008 06:02pm by phism
[quote:5f9fca7d38="Reach."]I've heard Mac's are better for graphic design.
Can someone explain why?[/quote:5f9fca7d38]
it's mostly just because that's what a lot of your classes are going to be taught in if you go into that field, and what your job will probably use if you get one in that field. i could say that things look better on a mac, but it really depends on what your video card is like, and with how much people do in video, and not just still images, i would opt for a PC because it's not hard to edge past macs in video performance or anything like game design, 3D design, etc. because in my opinion there's more processing power, which is needed when you have something more complicated than a pixel image.
there's a couple pieces of software that are probably made for macs that don't exist on PC, but there's fewer and fewer of those all the time (since no one learns how to program for macs, and since making cross-platform programs is generally beneficial to software companies).
also, i hope i never get windows vista. i'm rocking win2k right now, which is kind of a rarity.
ace, i was talking to yady, about the sound card. i've never really heard of going the usb angle. you sure it's still not being processed by your sound card? there was one sound card i wanted for a while that had like rca plugs and whatnot on it.
and windows PCs do take some maintenance. i'm good at keeping shit from automatically starting up, keeping spyware off, etc. also, you think you don't get cookies on a mac? the problem with macs, to someone who is kind of geeky, is that they hide all the technical stuff, so that you can't, or don't think to, make changes that might improve performance or prevent disasters.
if you ask me, macs are for people who don't really use their computers very much.
- Feb 12, 2008 07:43pm by barnyard - Befriend me. ---> [url=http://www.myspace.com/farmfreshcuts]MYSPACE[/url]
this debate is as old as PC and macs themselves. it's all about personal preference. if i were you i'd take my ass down to microcenter or some shit and put your hands on some PCs and some macs. see which one calls to you. while it's true that PCs take a little more time and maintenance, they are much cheaper and faster. and if something does break down internally, it's a matter of switching it out. macs can be bit more difficult to repair.
[quote:219588fc3b]
ehhh, I'm all set with my Macbook Pro with dual 2.33 and 3 gigs of ram player Cool nobody is shitting on that
[/quote:219588fc3b]
and how much did you pay for it? 😀 seriously though, if we were to run some benchmarks to test raw performance, i'd shit on that. apples fancy GUI gobbles those resources you think you have so much of 🙂
- Feb 12, 2008 07:55pm by AceFadal - [b:353f9d151d]k[/b:353f9d151d]inestheti[b:353f9d151d]C[/b:353f9d151d]~means To learn by doing
www.dipity.com/acefadal
WE ARE, Kansas City is [b:353f9d151d]k[/b:353f9d151d]inestheti[b:353f9d151d]C[/b:353f9d151d]!
http://crushproofstudio.bandcamp.com/ Location: Downtown, Kansas City, Mo.
[quote:3222aa3759="phism"][quote:3222aa3759="Reach."]I've heard Mac's are better for graphic design.
Can someone explain why?[/quote:3222aa3759]
it's mostly just because that's what a lot of your classes are going to be taught in if you go into that field, and what your job will probably use if you get one in that field. i could say that things look better on a mac, but it really depends on what your video card is like, and with how much people do in video, and not just still images, i would opt for a PC because it's not hard to edge past macs in video performance or anything like game design, 3D design, etc. because in my opinion there's more processing power, which is needed when you have something more complicated than a pixel image.
there's a couple pieces of software that are probably made for macs that don't exist on PC, but there's fewer and fewer of those all the time (since no one learns how to program for macs, and since making cross-platform programs is generally beneficial to software companies).
also, i hope i never get windows vista. i'm rocking win2k right now, which is kind of a rarity.[/quote:3222aa3759]
[color=yellow:3222aa3759]Yes this is why a MAC is considered more pratical for ausio/visual.
But in my humble opinion, Garage band Sux, Acid Pro Sux, Logic is Barely usable, Cubase is too big, and Pro Tools LE (which is absolutely free for any MAC owner)is humongo, minimun requirements=20 gigs i think.
The only thing I could use, like I wanted use was Ableton. But to upload you have to convert to mp3s right? So I did that in fruity loops, which means I had to, burn the file to a disk, until I got a ZIP drive.
***spend the $30.00 on the 2 gig, you be glad you did!
[/color:3222aa3759]
[quote:3222aa3759="phism"]
ace, i was talking to yady, about the sound card. i've never really heard of going the usb angle. you sure it's still not being processed by your sound card? there was one sound card i wanted for a while that had like rca plugs and whatnot on it.[/quote:3222aa3759]
[color=yellow:3222aa3759]
It leaves a very little imprint but thats only so you can instantly record., but I can also adust that ass well as the buffer rate of my system all within the program Im using. I have very tiny and few latency issues. Only when I load mad Vsts, organs or huge synths, do I get a problem. nothing RAM cant fix. Minimum System Requirements (PC):
Input Levels
* PHONO: 3mV
* LINE: 200mV
* MIC: 2mV
Output Gain: 14.5dB +/- 2dB
Frequency Response (20-20KHz): +/- 3.5dB
Channel Balance: < 2.5dB at 1KHz
Line SNR: > 60dB (1KHz)
Line L/R Separation: > 45dB (1KHz)
Line Distortion: < 0.09% (1KHz)
USB Playback:
* Distortion < 0.05%
* SNR > 80dB
USB Recording: Distortion < 0.1 %
USB Interface: USB1.1 or USB2.0 with full-duplex operation (simultaneous playback and recording)
Weight (mixer alone): 4.0 lbs, 1.8kg
but...
Ive completely turned off my sound card on my PC, using ASIO
[/color:3222aa3759]
http://www.asio4all.com/
[color=yellow:3222aa3759]
I plug a USB cable from any 2.0 slot on my PC direct to my mixer, port1 t Recording as well as playing. I have my Turntable connected through the stereo jacks on the mixer. on port 1 stereo connect.
Then I have my laptop connected with a USB in port 2. I have a pre amp to connect and electric guitar, mic, or any other input on stereo jack 2.
I can play a file on my computer, while recording my turntable in the program. and master record it on which ever system I am not running the program on. I usually run the program I am using on both systems at the same time. It helps me monitoer the output. Plus I can record it if I want without mixing it down, dig?
[/color:3222aa3759]
http://www.numark.com/dm950usb
[color=yellow:3222aa3759]It going to be the same with the mixing board Im about to cop too. USB all the way.
[/color:3222aa3759]
http://www.bswusa.com/proditem.asp?item=XENYX-2222FX
[img:3222aa3759]http://www.equipmentemporium.com/images/Mixing74.jpg[/img:3222aa3759]
[quote:3222aa3759="phism"]
and windows PCs do take some maintenance. i'm good at keeping shit from automatically starting up, keeping spyware off, etc. also, you think you don't get cookies on a mac? the problem with macs, to someone who is kind of geeky, is that they hide all the technical stuff, so that you can't, or don't think to, make changes that might improve performance or prevent disasters.
if you ask me, macs are for people who don't really use their computers very much.[/quote:3222aa3759]
[color=yellow:3222aa3759]and MAC dont got anything like fruit loops.[/color:3222aa3759]
thats the biz.
- Feb 13, 2008 12:37am by Distorted_Mastermind - I reject your reality and substitute my own.
Adam Savage Location: Olathe, KS
Hey phism I've been running an Emu 1616 http://www.emu.com/products/product.asp?product=13554
for a while now and absolutely love it. I have the card buss version and just bought a pci card so I could use it on my desktop. Some of the time I need to record several tracks at once and it does the job well. I also run a Korg ADAT mixer with it.
Just the drivers make performance in audio programs a ton better. I use it as my default audio device in windows and the USB, firewire and PCI all work very similar. The PCI and PCMCIA are going to get you a little lower in latency, but not much especially compared to how much latency consumer cards have
- Feb 13, 2008 01:36am by Deta!L - I just said that so you would stop bothering me.
[quote:d54ff70853="barnyard"]
[quote:d54ff70853]
ehhh, I'm all set with my Macbook Pro with dual 2.33 and 3 gigs of ram player Cool nobody is shitting on that
[/quote:d54ff70853]
and how much did you pay for it? 😀 seriously though, if we were to run some benchmarks to test raw performance, i'd shit on that. apples fancy GUI gobbles those resources you think you have so much of :)[/quote:d54ff70853]
I doubt it man, I paid 2 grand for it, I don't think you could find a pc laptop for less than that price with the same speed, ram, reliability and options that is as quiet and trouble free as my mac, you can't even tell that it's on, it hasn't crashed once and it's baller as fuk!...apples run windows faster than PC's, google that...it's whatever though, to each his own. I'm only pissed I didn't get the 17 inch.
- Feb 13, 2008 01:59am by AceFadal - [b:353f9d151d]k[/b:353f9d151d]inestheti[b:353f9d151d]C[/b:353f9d151d]~means To learn by doing
www.dipity.com/acefadal
WE ARE, Kansas City is [b:353f9d151d]k[/b:353f9d151d]inestheti[b:353f9d151d]C[/b:353f9d151d]!
http://crushproofstudio.bandcamp.com/ Location: Downtown, Kansas City, Mo.
[quote:ce37847a6d="Deta!L"]apples run windows faster than PC's, google that.[/quote:ce37847a6d]
Yes it does. If I ever have an extra $3,000.00 laying around Im getting that mac Pro!
- Feb 13, 2008 07:16am by phism
also, i never used my mac for anything but itunes, because it didn't even come with a word processor, and it was impossible to pirate software for it.
and then it broke. waste of a few thousand dollars.
- Feb 13, 2008 08:06am by maclethal
I used PC from 1997 to late 2006. I used Vegas, FL Studio, Sound Forge and had 2 or 3 different external sound interfaces.
Until late 2006, which was when I bought my Mac Pro, I had nothing but problems with recording and operating the computer. Seriously. Like 9 years of fucking headaches, latency, crashed harddrives, Vegas crashing because it can't handle the plug ins or whatever the fuck else you can think of.
PC's are pieces of shit.
MAC's CANNOT get viruses/spyware/trojans/pop-up ads etc.
You can pirate the shit out of software with these bad boys. Some programs make you use a USB Key, but I have yet to really run into one.
In fact, I have a pirated version of FINAL CUT PRO open right now, with about 35 GIGS of video footage open as well. I'm editing video, on the internet, listening to itunes, and probably grinding up a buffalo somewhere inside this beast.
Do yourself a favor, and listen to the time.
By the way, PC's are not faster than Macs.
And nothing is faster than a MAC PRO.
😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀
- Feb 13, 2008 04:58pm by Blam Location: Kansas City, MO
[quote:7beb8a3c60="maclethal"]
PC's are pieces of shit.
MAC's CANNOT get viruses/spyware/trojans/pop-up ads etc.
You can pirate the shit out of software with these bad boys.
By the way, PC's are not faster than Macs.
And nothing is faster than a MAC PRO.
[/quote:7beb8a3c60]
I actually agree with those statements 100% .
I am on the G5 dual 2.7GhZ and I havn't had one problem with it. I can run Ableton, internet, watch movies and have 15 different other programs running with out a single bit of lag or one problem.
Yes, Macintosh is dope.
- Feb 13, 2008 09:09pm by phism
you can get virii on macs, people just program less of them. the more popular they get, the more virii you'll see.
i had a mac, which they told me would be an equivalent to whatever speed pc, and it most definitely, certainly was not. maybe things are different now that they struck that deal with intel, and intel's core 2 duo actually lived up to the hype (come on amd, get in the game).
anyway, let me just say i'll never go back. and ipod's suck too, and as much as i like the interface, the next mp3 player i buy will probably be something else. or, at least if i got a mac, it'd be a desktop, and i'd have a pc sitting next to it that i'd probably be more attached to.
and this is from someone who has a lot of disagreements with windows & microsoft. but, as a nerd, and as much as mac is trying to advertise to the general dork community, macintosh's OS is much further from open source than windows is. i plan to go to linux whenever i get settled.
- Feb 14, 2008 04:12am by Distorted_Mastermind - I reject your reality and substitute my own.
Adam Savage Location: Olathe, KS
It's not officially geeked out until Linux is mentioned.
There's some pretty decent live boots for audio out now and some of the software could mature and become very useful........the big problem is being able to use professional hardware (sound cards/audio interfaces) without drivers released for Linux
- Feb 14, 2008 12:34pm by DR.T - nuts .. haha Location: KCMO
Okay since were on computers and nerdy stuff I'll just say it......
[size=24:6e30ece175]MAC IS FOR NOOBS!!!!!![/size:6e30ece175]
PC PWNS WACKINTOSH!!!!!!!!
...son!
