D
djmgyx
Guest
Who hoo finally I thread I can whole heartedly relate to.
My suggestion, simple toss everything about mac and pc's out the window. The simple fact is if he wanted you to build him a mac then he obviouly has enough $$$ to buy a prebuilt production box, built specifically for music production. So the whole mac vs pc, needs to go for now, it's irrelevant and is not helping the situation.
Hardware wise a good affordable example
A server tower works best all around with I recommedn 4 or 5 5 1/2 bays ( this is to allow multiple cd-rom drives or if u get a audigy with the front panel, easy access to plug analog device guitars mics into, as well as allowing venting excess warm air from within the case without the need for dozens of fans)
Cooling is the name of the game in pc's but more so in audio, one slight twitch while mastering out or mixing down tracks can cause a world of hurt)
As for processors, AMD or Pentium will do, affordable way would be a AMD XP 1800 or higher, some what higher go with a P3 or P4, simply depends on your own tastes.
RAM, better equals more, the minum I'd attempt anything with is 512, It can be done with less but you'll be sitting awhile.
Hard drives, I recommend 2 sepearte drives one for the OS and one for the storoge of the music data, wav files, temp files. 2 40 gig with 7400 rpm will do fine and are for the most part fairly cheap nowadays.
Sound cards are a pain to select, I have several but have gone back to my trusty Soundblaster Awe64 gold, yeah it's an ISA card, but it's an ISA with gold platted RCA in's and Out's so recording from my turntables, mics, and guitars is a snap, and no need to fret over which device has the right adapters or missing converter cables.
I also have a live, but it requires an adapter and convertor cable, I like things simple and straight through, the more kinks and redirects you have the more chance of somthign going wrong, thus leading to the more places you have to check to learn what went wrong and what you'll need to fix it. Sticking with one cable form, makes it alot easier, and feasible to drive to walmart at 4 am to find a replacement.
A few other cards to look at but a little higher are those made by Echo they have alot of good equipment that can usually be installed right into the tower.
Software, damn ther's so many all with their good and bad features. Right now the top of the chain IMO, is Sonar and Reason, these are high end programs and are quite complicated and can take alot of time to figure out if you have no clue where to begin. A little easier and more user friendly programs would fall to the following:
Soundforge
Fruity Loops
Rebirth
ReCycle
Cool Edit Pro
And for those quick analog recording straight to MP3, creative's own soundstream
In the end it all will depend on his needs, and how much he has to spend, and what he wants the end result to be.
Oh yeah a decent midi controller helps as well, if you use a creative cards with soundfonts, intead of using a standalone drum machine, or if the software is too complicated to program your own beats, you can simply, assign the midi controller to the sound font you want to use, and then tap out the beat on the keys.
Let me know if you need any other info, I think my email is visibale if not djmgyx@yahoo.com
BTW, if the system is not going to be on the ent very much which i don't recommend if the system is strictly used as a production system. Load the abr minimum on the system, no office, and no Anti virus, I've found that many of there real time scanning can effect the performance of rendering, so just be carefull of what u stick in the drives and where u go on the ent if anywhere.
My suggestion, simple toss everything about mac and pc's out the window. The simple fact is if he wanted you to build him a mac then he obviouly has enough $$$ to buy a prebuilt production box, built specifically for music production. So the whole mac vs pc, needs to go for now, it's irrelevant and is not helping the situation.
Hardware wise a good affordable example
A server tower works best all around with I recommedn 4 or 5 5 1/2 bays ( this is to allow multiple cd-rom drives or if u get a audigy with the front panel, easy access to plug analog device guitars mics into, as well as allowing venting excess warm air from within the case without the need for dozens of fans)
Cooling is the name of the game in pc's but more so in audio, one slight twitch while mastering out or mixing down tracks can cause a world of hurt)
As for processors, AMD or Pentium will do, affordable way would be a AMD XP 1800 or higher, some what higher go with a P3 or P4, simply depends on your own tastes.
RAM, better equals more, the minum I'd attempt anything with is 512, It can be done with less but you'll be sitting awhile.
Hard drives, I recommend 2 sepearte drives one for the OS and one for the storoge of the music data, wav files, temp files. 2 40 gig with 7400 rpm will do fine and are for the most part fairly cheap nowadays.
Sound cards are a pain to select, I have several but have gone back to my trusty Soundblaster Awe64 gold, yeah it's an ISA card, but it's an ISA with gold platted RCA in's and Out's so recording from my turntables, mics, and guitars is a snap, and no need to fret over which device has the right adapters or missing converter cables.
I also have a live, but it requires an adapter and convertor cable, I like things simple and straight through, the more kinks and redirects you have the more chance of somthign going wrong, thus leading to the more places you have to check to learn what went wrong and what you'll need to fix it. Sticking with one cable form, makes it alot easier, and feasible to drive to walmart at 4 am to find a replacement.
A few other cards to look at but a little higher are those made by Echo they have alot of good equipment that can usually be installed right into the tower.
Software, damn ther's so many all with their good and bad features. Right now the top of the chain IMO, is Sonar and Reason, these are high end programs and are quite complicated and can take alot of time to figure out if you have no clue where to begin. A little easier and more user friendly programs would fall to the following:
Soundforge
Fruity Loops
Rebirth
ReCycle
Cool Edit Pro
And for those quick analog recording straight to MP3, creative's own soundstream
In the end it all will depend on his needs, and how much he has to spend, and what he wants the end result to be.
Oh yeah a decent midi controller helps as well, if you use a creative cards with soundfonts, intead of using a standalone drum machine, or if the software is too complicated to program your own beats, you can simply, assign the midi controller to the sound font you want to use, and then tap out the beat on the keys.
Let me know if you need any other info, I think my email is visibale if not djmgyx@yahoo.com
BTW, if the system is not going to be on the ent very much which i don't recommend if the system is strictly used as a production system. Load the abr minimum on the system, no office, and no Anti virus, I've found that many of there real time scanning can effect the performance of rendering, so just be carefull of what u stick in the drives and where u go on the ent if anywhere.
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Xie wrote on Electronic Punk's profile.
Impressed you have kept this alive this long EP! So many sites have come and gone. 
Just did some crude math and I apparently joined almost 18yrs ago, how is that possible???
Just did some crude math and I apparently joined almost 18yrs ago, how is that possible???
Electronic Punk wrote on Sazar's profile.
Rest in peace my friend, been trying to find you and finally did in the worst way imaginable.