If you want to make music on the move then obviously a laptop is the best option however, most people tend to have a desktop environment which is what I will be covering in this blog.
There are lots of powerful PCs on the market these days. You can pick up a decent desktop for £400. The main things to think about are:
The power of the processor
I would look for a processor that’s a minimum of 2ghz. There are two types of manufacturers – Intel and AMD. There has been some debate over which is best for some time. AMD have always been the cheaper competitor but nowadays deciding between an Intel processor and AMD is not so much of an issue as they are very similar in processing power so don’t worry to much about this. I would also look for a processor that is dual core. These are built for multitasking which is ideal for music production.
The size of the memory called Ram
Go for a minimum of 1Gig of memory. Most PCs have this as standard these days.
The size of the hard drive
Go for a hard drive with a minimum of 200GB space. It is also worth considering buying a PC with two hard drives, you can then dedicate a separate hard drive just to audio. Also try and get a SATA hard drive. These are a new type and run better and faster than the old IDE version.
Check it has an ASIO soundcard fitted
It is worth considering buying a PC without and installing a sound card yourself as is a straight forward process but if you feel you are not up for it then ensure it has one already installed. Most sound cards come fitted with the below:
- Stereo inputs and outputs so you can plug in your instruments, turntables etc.
- Midi connector. This is a digital standard used for the connection between your keyboard and computer. You can also use a USB lead to communicate with your computer.
- S/PDIF
- Input Stereo ¼ inch jack (with separate left & right)
- Output Stereo ¼ inch jack (with separate left & right)
- Ultra low latency. This is an important feature, you want to be able to plug in your keyboard and not have any delay when triggering sounds in your computer. Latency is the short delay in your soundcard converting analogue signals to digital.
At this point I cannot recommend the EMU 0404 enough and no I am not being paid to tell you this! You can buy one for about £50 and it comes bundled with the software below.
Check out a great review here
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep04/articles/emu0404.htm
- Cakewalk SONAR LE
- Steinberg Cubase LE and Wavelab Lite
- Ableton Live Lite for E-MU
- IK Multimedia AmpliTube LE
- SFX Machine LT
- E-MU's Proteus X LE Desktop Sound Module - everything you need to create, record, edit, master and burn is in the box
If you need to install your audio card yourself see this document below. All you basically need to do is slot the card into a spare PCI slot in your computer; once it is fitted your computer should recognize it, you then have to install the drivers from a CD that comes with it.
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/choosing-and-installing-a-new-sound-card.html
Most people tend to have desktop PCs, even an older PC with 512mb of ram and a 1.8ghz processor is enough. It all depends on how hard you want to work your computer. I started off with this spec on my PC and this was enough to record a basic track with about 6 VSTis (virtual studio technology instrument, more on this later) running at the same time.
One thing to bear in mind is that newer software can use a lot of power so keeping up with the times is sometimes necessary, getting the latest spec PC is a good start but don’t let anyone rip you off by telling you that you need to spend thousands.
Remember that to make good music you don’t need to spend lots of money. It’s not the amount of money you spend; it’s about what you do with the equipment you have that’s important. You don’t have to spend lots of money to be creative; creativity comes from within your head and your heart and not your wallet!!
No comments:
Post a Comment