(cross-posted)
Hiya-
Having finally killed my old Win98 P3 at home, I'm in the market for a new PC DAW and am curious to hear from others as far as experiences w/ retailers and machines...
And while I know it's usually cheaper to build your own machine, I really don't want to futz with the BIOS config., driver library, cache settings, etc., - 'out of the box' is what I'm looking for. Would like to spend $2000 or less, but will shell out a little bit more if it means the difference between great and unbelievably great.
Been looking at these sites:
www.adkproaudio.com (like 'em 'cause they offer Win2k for all us XP haters)
www.shop-sonica.com/
www.pcaudiolabs.com
I think I'm also leaning towards an AMD dual-core chipset...
Thoughts?
Hiya-
Having finally killed my old Win98 P3 at home, I'm in the market for a new PC DAW and am curious to hear from others as far as experiences w/ retailers and machines...
And while I know it's usually cheaper to build your own machine, I really don't want to futz with the BIOS config., driver library, cache settings, etc., - 'out of the box' is what I'm looking for. Would like to spend $2000 or less, but will shell out a little bit more if it means the difference between great and unbelievably great.
Been looking at these sites:
www.adkproaudio.com (like 'em 'cause they offer Win2k for all us XP haters)
www.shop-sonica.com/
www.pcaudiolabs.com
I think I'm also leaning towards an AMD dual-core chipset...
Thoughts?
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Unsu...
Re: Best PC DAW
Thu, December 8, 2005 - 2:16 PMADK or PCAudioLabs are both good choices. ADK are quite familiar with the dual core stuff.
BP -
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Re: Best PC DAW
Fri, December 9, 2005 - 1:45 PMI don't have any experience with buying prefab DAW, but I think you hit the nail on the head that building your own isn't such a great idea. There's a much greater chance of things not working well. I built my own desktop a few years ago, and have encountered a number of problems with the MB chipset and video card. So I think any prefab DAW is a better choice.
I believe you should write out your needs and requirements, and then get in touch with each of these vendors and see what they recommend. Assuming they have experience running the rigs they sell, they'll be better able to point you in a direction to optimize your performance needs. And with a couple of quotes you could possibly negotiate a better deal or add-on. But more importantly, you may find that some are more responsive and helpful than others, or that one doesn't really know shit and just wants to sell machines. It's important to learn this upfront should you encounter problems after the purchase.
Also find out what kind of warranty support they offer. Is it just the hardware, or will they support the pre-installed audio software as well? For example, Dell's warranty is only for the hardware, and most of the time when the computer doesn't work it's the software. So when people buy a Dell they assume the hardware AND software is covered, but when they call Dell for a software problem they're told the warranty doesn't cover the software and they have to call Microsoft or Adobe or whoever for help.
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Unsu...
Re: Best PC DAW
Fri, December 9, 2005 - 3:21 PMThanks much, Jay. I know on my old machine that getting an outboard soundcard set up was more difficult than it shoulda been...
Great points about general responsiveness to customer inquiries as an indicator of service level provided, too.
Also, as for software - I actually won't need too much since I already own Reason, Acid, and the other progs I use primarily. Thought for a bit about checking out Sonar, but one thing at a time for me.... -
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Unsu...
Re: Best PC DAW
Fri, December 9, 2005 - 4:10 PMI would recommend staying away from Sonar. Just my opinion, but Cubase is not much more money and much more stable.
BP -
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Unsu...
Re: Best PC DAW
Fri, December 9, 2005 - 4:25 PMStability issues, really? Interesting. I was put off for a long time by the fact that it was Cakewalk software, but heard some good stuff here and there.
Cubase -and ProTools, for that matter- are great suites, but IMHO they lead to problems on the user end in that people often get caught up twiddling knobs too much instead of finishing the damn song first and THEN dealing with tones, FX, etc. I prefer to start with a song idea that's reasonably solid no matter what sounds are plugged into it, hash out a basic arrangement and mix, and save the FX and such for last. Discrete steps in a process...
...but that's just me. -
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Re: Best PC DAW
Sat, December 10, 2005 - 6:40 AMI don't think those critiques really apply only to Cubase and Protools, but to any multi-track software with tons of menu options and dozens of available plugins. If you're getting stymied by the knob-twiddling aspects, come up with another workflow that works better for you.
For DAW software, I really like Samplitude, on Windows, but for some people it initially has a steeper learning curve. For me, it is the least likely software to get in the way of my creative process. I've found it to be very stable, too (though there are a couple outstanding bugs they never have truly addressed, though they're not deal-breakers). It's good both for "live" multi-tracked music and for loop based things.
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Re: Best PC DAW
Sun, December 11, 2005 - 8:44 AMI could never imagine buying a pre-made system after working for a shop putting system like that together.
Sure there is good shops, but in this case even if it was a music shop selling the systems as high-end DAW systems there was jsut too many choices made on the basis on what prices they could get the stuff for rather than what was an ideal configuration.
But building your own does require a bit of researching and knowledge.
For AMD machines I would recommend to make sure you get a NForce3 based mobo.
Usually ASUS have been a good choice for bulding a DAW, but since the don't have any NForce3 based mobos on the market right I used the Gigabyte K8NSC when putting together a system for a friend and it seems to the best choice currently.
And get a good pair of matched RAM, like Corsair TWINX.
Minimum 1Gb, preferably 2.
A cheap Radeon GFX card will do and have proven to be reliable to use with a DAW.
A strong quality PSU is important, I would say absolutly minimum 400w.
A quiet CPU fan and harddisks is nice to have as well.
Seagate Barracudas is the most quiet I have.
SATA should be good, but have been problematic in many cases, so I go with good old IDE drives which is fast enough for me to never hit the ceiling when running many tracks.
Thats basically it.
That set of components will give you a DAW that I know will work with a lot of very demanding hardware and software.
You can get a regular computer shop to put it together for you for a small fee and save a lot of money compared to a music computer specialist.
You really should not need to do BIOS tweaking to make it run fine, but you should go thru the tips on www.musicxp.net/ to get a smooth system, regardless of if you bought it from a music shop or not.
Some might spend a lot of time tweaking the system, but most don't in my experience.
