building a recording computer

[bonesaw]

some one just asked me if i could build them a computer thats just for recording. i know i could build them a gaming or performance computer. would i need anything different any one know what i'm talking about. i was just thinking something like my computer with no video card would do.

[bonesaw]

p5b-e with a 6400
corsair ddr2 800 5-5-5-12
silverstone 560w
and he has everything else. but i told him to get new sata harddrives

[danrok]

What kind of recording, video or audio?

[Favu]

I'd assume audio, either way you want the PC as quiet as possible, so no fan noise intrudes, you also probably should get a sound card designed for recording, although I don't know much about them.

[GrahamGarside]

An integrated video would suffice if it's not being used for anything incredibly taxing, but if we're talking multichannel, high bit rate and resolution audio then sticking in a cheap vid card will take some strain off the ram.

Basically the only differance between a computer used for recording and any other computer of a similar price is the audio card, stay well away from integrated audio and go for a good add in card. You need to know what sources will be recorded, will it be two channels or more, will you need a pre-amp or will basic line in functions suffice, what quality of audio is needed, will cd quality do or are they going to want high resolution audio.

Manufacturers of card to look for are Emu, maudio and terratec.

[bonesaw]

yea the sound card i was holding off on because i wanted to talk to this guy more and find out what he thinks. but go with a cheap video card i will.

[GrahamGarside]

Other considerations are the noise levels of the system. If recording is being done with microphones in the same room as it, and if any mixing is being done on it then the system is going to need to be near silent. That means a good high airflow steel case, low speed 120mm fans, high effeiciency quiet psu, a good, preferably passive cpu cooler and a good quiet aam supporting disk drive.

[robbie]

I just went over to Sam Ash'es web site and found this,
http://www.samash.com/catalog/showit...subsearch=true not bad for $100, hell I might even pick up one. It's a good start.
If no one has mentioned it... your going to need a VERY quite computer. So HIGH GHZ may NOT be the answer. You'll definately wanna go with huge hard drives, and maybe consider some type of raid. (built for backing up incase of data lost not speed)
HTH

[bonesaw]

thanks all of you guys. i'll get back to on what i do. any suggestions on what i purposed so far?

[cloasters]

I'm told that a $300+ sound card is a good idea. 4Gb of RAM is also a good idea.

[bonesaw]

4 gigs? can i still use my 1:1 ratio logic and maybe some small overclocks.

[GrahamGarside]

Unless you are talking massive multitrack recordings with loads of plugins I think 4gigs would be overkill, a dedicated audio drive is by far the most effective way of avoiding blips and stutters along with a dual core processor.

And remember a sound card will only record as good a quality as the source, don't blow too much on a top card with premium AD/DA convertors if it's getting a cheap chinese mic plugged in

[bonesaw]

do drums count as multitrack? my drummer uses a 6 piece with triggers. if you wanta hear the quality hes getting now on his current system i can post a link. the funny thing is this guys is a rapper and my only friend thats not a metalhead.

[Gizmo]

Note that the following comments aren't really an issue if you are only recording about 4 or less channels of high-quality audio at the same time.

A dedicated drive for audio. OS on one drive, audio storage on the other. In addition, it would be good to have the audio drive on its own storage controller, or at least channel.

This means that if you are using IDE, put the OS on the primary channel master, and put the audio storage on the secondary channel master. THis is one of the few cases I would suggest putting the CD/DVD drive on the primary slave and having both CD and hard drive on the same channel.

If you are using SATA, I'm not real sure how to configure that.

For SCSI, use a dual-channel controller and put the OS on one channel and the audio on the other. Beware though; many dual-channel controllers actually implement both channels through a single controller chip. As a consequence, to get true channel independence you either have to use a quad-channel controller, or buy two dual-channel controllers.

[GrahamGarside]

Originally Posted by bonesaw

do drums count as multitrack? my drummer uses a 6 piece with triggers. if you wanta hear the quality hes getting now on his current system i can post a link. the funny thing is this guys is a rapper and my only friend thats not a metalhead.

Drums done properly do yes, we're talking a mic per drum plus two overheads. Which drums does he trigger? If he does all of them then you can scrape by on two inputs for demo's. But if he does just the kicks then you will want a mic at most between two toms and the snare needs it's own.

Remember if you are using mics then you will need preamps for most multi track sound cards as they tend to only offer two of their own if any.

When I've recorded drums I've used ten mic's in total for a 5 piece though that was without any triggers so you wouldn't need two channels for the kick drum.

[bonesaw]

i'm surprised that people at aoa know this much about recording, no wait, no i'm not.

[bonesaw]

whats a good silent cpu cooler for a e6300 or e6400

[GrahamGarside]

Thermalright Ultra-120

[bonesaw]

those are always out of stock.
so heres the lists of parts
case http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16811147056
mobo http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...N82E1681313107
vga http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16814125036
psu http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16817139001
e6420 http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16819115016
ram http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16820145034
total price after rebates 663.96 not counting shipping
still gonna try to get that cpu cooler some how and will be adding 2 widescreen monitors down the road.