Best of the RecPit Post subject: Making the jump to DAW

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Posted by lx3keysman
I’m upgrading my PC for recording duty, as my ADATs have finally bit the dust and I’m tired of throwing good money after bad.

I am building a 2.6 Pentium 4 system with 1 gig of memory, and I’ve purchased a quiet power supply and fan from quietpc.com. I have a pair of 01Vs that I’ll be using for front end (I do mainly live tracking at gigs as well as small stuff in my home), ADAT out.

I currently have an old DSP Factory ADAT card/input on my computer that I will be upgrading if it doesn’t give me the results I want (which is a distinct possibility). I currently use the two 01vs for 16 track dates, but am considering going to the 01V96 with additional ADAT outs and outboard preamps to allow 24 tracks, which is the most I’ll expect this system to do once it is set up.

At that time, I’ll retire the DSP Factory, but at this point I’m willing to use the time to learn the programs. Hard drives are all 7200 or above, and the system should smoke.

As I mainly do direct tracking, I’ve been advised that something along the lines of Vegas would be easiest to use for live tracking. I’ve also been told that the new Cubase will be better, but more difficult as far as quick setup and agility in a live setting.

I’m assuming at this moment that the cut/paste/editing facilities are somewhat the same, although I have no experience using either of these programs yet. I am very well versed with ACID, and am assuming that Vegas is very similar.

All that said, what PC multi-track recorder would best serve my purposes, which basically is 16 (to expand to 24) track live tracking, and 8 track (or so) acoustic performer recording?

Reply posted by shineboxnj
The computer is fine, you seem to be set in that department.

Do yourself a favor and buy an RME Digiface or HDSP9652 card as your sound card. This will give you 24 i/o of adat. That works great with the 01V. I have that with my DA7 console and it has not failed me yet.

Software... pretty much anything will do what you are looking for. Here are some examples:

Sonar: Pretty user friendly, does a little of everything at a pretty good price. Has “acidized” loop functions which you will probably dig if you are used to acid. Version 3.0 will be out soon I think so I would wait on that if you are gonna do the Sonar thing.

Cubase SX: Better engine than Sonar, a little more "pro" features (whatever that means). More expensive, and a major update is in the works.

You could also go with Vegas, Cool edit, Samplitude, Nuendo, but I think you are better off looking at Cubase or Sonar when you make your jump into computer recording.

Reply posted by teleharmon
I don't have any specific suggestions but rather a couple of thoughts:

Since you are going to be tracking directly (mostly) it seems to me that your first priority is to put together a system of components that play well together. I have had audio interfaces that did not work well with specific motherboards, I’ve had software that did not work well with specific motherboards, and I’ve had software that did not work well with certain audio interfaces. So getting these three crucial variables working together is key. I would advise finding out from the manufacturers of each of these specific components what they suggest in terms of compatibility.

As far as software goes, it seems that most of the mainstays will work for your purposes (including Vegas) but you may want to ask yourself what features you don't care if you don't have.

It may be that you have no interest in MIDI, in which case those features available in Sonar, Cubase or Logic are overkill, and get in your way when doing the task at hand (and increase the price of the software).

FWIW, for audio (not MIDI) work, I really enjoy using Samplitude. I find the interface to be very intuitive and have not had any stability issues.

Reply posted by lx3keysman
You bring up a good point. Say I decide on a feature set for a hardware I/O card for my motherboard - are the manufacturers pretty helpful with any compatibility questions you have concerning "will this work with my motherboard" questions?

I guess I could post my motherboard/processor information on here and try to get replies, but I'm figuring it would be difficult to find someone with my exact configuration using that specific card. Just curious about this...

Reply posted by shineboxnj
Just go for a standard chipset like the 875, 865, 845.... Last I heard the 875 was buggy, but it should work fine as far as compatibility.

Reply posted by teleharmon
Starting with the the audio interface seems like a good idea. As far as I know, most manufacturers are, at the very least, going to be able to tell you what to stay away from (in terms of motherboard/chipset). But they should also have lists of compliant hardware that they have tested and know to work (or, at least, have the highest likelihood to work... They are computers after all!)

Reply posted by lx3keysman
The motherboard I purchased was an Asus P4P800, with a Pentium 4 2.6 chip. Would this be considered standard stuff for most hardware cards?

Reply posted by manning1
There is some inexpensive software Ican recommend highly:

- asoft.com n-track is a great package, IMHO.
- magix.de magix audio studio, wonderful.
- pgmusic.com powertracks, excellent value.
- multitrackstudio.com. Lots of FX included as well.

All the above are vastly underrated and all range from 29 up to 60 bucks. Just try the demos and read some of the satisfied user comments.

Reply posted by lx3keysman
I got the computer up and running last night, and loaded drivers - stuff I already had - with no real trouble. Only trouble I had was I didn't have DSP Factory drivers for XP, but cruised the ‘net and found them.

I loaded some basic stuff I already had (Sound Forge, CD Architect and Acid) and I'm now familiarizing myself with XP, which I've never used (I always ran Win98 before this).

Anyway, I still haven't purchased a recording program yet. I have an older version of Cubase VST, but haven't tried to load it yet. Not even sure where the dongle is right now, so that's an issue, too!

One thing...I've noticed that Nuendo 2 is out now. Is it even remotely that much better at $1300-plus that it would even be worth considering, especially with my existing soundcard? The more I think about it, I'm definitely going to get the RME with Lightpipe ins for this computer. Would this be good enough to realize any benefits from purchasing Nuendo 2, or would Vegas/Cubase/Sonar etc. work as well as Nuendo at this level of hardware?

Reply posted by manning1
As I said before, try the demos of the packages noted above, all costing less than a hundred dollars, before spending large money.

Its your choice.

Reply posted by lx3keysman
I finally got a program. I purchased Nuendo from someone who bought it and for some reason hated it for what he did. It so far plays very nicely with the DSP Factory, and the system has many fine features.

My first demo session (which was with a singer/guitarist/songwriter type) came out very well. Not only was this session much easier to edit in the DAW than with the ADAT projects I've done in the past with this performer, he noticed an audible difference in the quality of his finished demo.

All in all, I believe I have now become a convert. Of course, this may change the first time I lose a hard drive, or the system crashes in the middle of a date, but it can't be any worse then the time my ADATs presented me with big-time error messages at a fairly important gig.

Thanks for your suggestions, and if you have any recommendations for essential plug-ins, I'd really appreciate it. I have decent rack gear, but routing it, etc. is still a bit of a pain and I'd like to take advantage of some new FX and processing options to be had with plugs.

Any suggestions? (I currently have the Sonic Foundry and Nuendo plugs since they came with the programs I already had, but what else would be cool for me?

Lovin' it so far...