1st build ever doing music production

cpetion

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Mar 15, 2010
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Hi, I'm new to the community. Just wanting some advice on my first ever build. I'm going into music production, using mostly Vsts with midi controllers ie, Oxygen 49, Akai MPD-24. I am an FL studio user primarily for sequencing. My current PC's specs are ( Core 2 Duo 2.53Ghz, 4Gb DDR 2).

FL Studio is not what my main concern, it's the plug-ins and vst software i'm using in its sequencer that I'm trying to build for. ie...
Hypersonic
East West Symphonic Orchestra
East West Symponic Choirs
Ik Multimedia Sampletank
Zeta+
Zebra
Minimonsta
LennarDigital Sylenth

I currently use these programs on my computer. The problem is when I'm loading instruments it takes about 5 - 10 seconds to load especially with East West vsts. I also want to get rid of my latency issues.

I'd like some advice on what to build. I'm hearing i5 750 or i7 860 , 920. I don't know which way to turn. I know that AMD's 965 Black is a good processor, but wouldn't have the turbo boost or hyper threading that intel would give me. Where do I start and which way should I go? thanks for all who respond.
 


+1

Can't see a point of upgrading from C2D for FL or PT. I have an E7200 too and have had worked on projects consisting of 30+ audio tracks, 20+ Waves plugins and several softsynths in Sonar6 PE and my CPU never ran out of steam. Don't waste your money, dude.

The best place for doing research on music production is gearslutz.
 
The biggest question is what is your price range? The i7 920 with a lot of ram would be the best if money is no option. If you have a low price range AMD is the way to go, if you have a bit more money to burn then the i5 750 would be a good choice. If you let me know what you are looking to spend and what ports you want on the motherboard I can guide you better.
 



I have an Hp computer. It's the same computer that my family uses. I have been able to use it without any problems. I just don't like how long it takes some instruments to load. I never purchased a sound card for it, I was told that it could help with my latency. Is that true?? Any suggestions?? Thanks
 
Most likely that wont help anything.

Couple of questions.

1 What operating system you running and is it 32bit or 64bit?

2 How long has it been since you did a clean install of windows? Over time files get corrupted or just bloated a fresh install will improve performance a good bit if its been awhile.

3 How much ram do you have installed?

If you are running vista or win 7 i would recommend having 4 gigs of ram it will improve overall performance nicely. And combine that with a SSD for your OS and your main programs will give you the quick loads you want. I dont think going to an I5 or I7 is really necessary for what you are doing. Now if you really do want to upgrade and have the cash go for it but IMO its not needed for your purposes.

 


Get an SSD then.



I honestly don't know that as I mainly work with audio and pre-programmed MIDI tracks. By the look of things you use only USB input devices. Go to gearslutz for advice on that. Using onboard sound is never a good idea, though.



 



Thanks, I have XP pro 4gb I do a clean install every 2-3 months I have all my files on an external hard drive and have almost nothing installed on the 500 gb hard drive that came with the pc. So an SSD will make my programs load faster?? Not a faster processor?? Why do Mac users mostly use Core 2 Quads or Xeons on their sets? I went to a symposium where I spoke to some intel reps and they told me to go to an i7. Maybe they were tryng to make me buy something i dunno. I just don't want any problems in the future.
 
I would agree with a lot of what's been said on here already.

An SSD will help with load times immensely.

To help cut down your latencies you want a dedicated soundcard, something like the M-audio 192, ignore anyone who recommends you a gaming soundcard like the X-Fi, or even the Xonar.

Upgrading the CPU may help, but I wouldn't splash out until you've tried a proper dedicated music production soundcard. If you're recording the music and need to transcode it though, an upgrade here will help too.

Other than that a bit of general windows maintanance may be in order - check you have as few items as possible running on startup and do a full defrag.

Are you looking to improve your current setup or build a new machine? what are you looking to spend?
 
I will take your advice and order the M-audio 192. I have another question... isn't a 32bit OS better for production software than a 64bit. Pro Tools is not 64bit compatible correct??
 
Just because a program isn't 64 bit doesn't mean it won't run on a 64bit system. The vast majority of 32 bit prgrams run on 64 bit systems with ease. It's always worth checking with the manufacturer of the software though with something like audio software that runs lower down in the OS.

The main thing you need to look at is drivers and the M-Audio has W7-64 drivers.
 


Dude, you're on wrong forum. No disrespect to all the ppl who have replied to your post, but there are better forums on the net that deal with music production only... I don't know why you're going the Maudio/ProTools route, cos it looks to me like you're a guy who simply makes beats at home... Trust me, there are better DAWs than PT out there, and there are loads of audio interfaces that are way cheaper and less problematic than Maudio/Digidesign crap... go to Maudio forum and read endless threads about driver-related problems.

Maudio 192 is at least 5 years old... and it has 4 I/Os. What do you need 4 ins for when you're using USB devices only?!?

My advice is: go to gearslutz or SoS and ask your questions there before you splash your money on a new PC / DAW or audio interface.