Computers & Electronics

Need advice for music creation PC

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  • Jun 5th, 2010 8:29 pm
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Deal Addict
Dec 20, 2005
1339 posts
107 upvotes

Need advice for music creation PC

Hi,
my cousin is looking to start creating his own electronic music and needs a new PC. I've offered to build it for him. His budget is about $600-700 including everything but the monitor(s).

Haven't really built a PC in a couple years but it seems like you get much better value out of certain store bought PCs on the low end. Was just looking at some machines at Canada Computers and I think I'd have a really tough time beating their prices, especially if we're talking about including a Windows 7 license.

So I'm looking for advice on low end builds or pre-built computers. I've always been an Intel guy but I'm guessing AMD might make more sense at the low end. Need at least a pretty fast dual core box, 4gb RAM+. I'm guessing he needs to budget at least $100 for a good sound card, definitely need some recommendations there. Video card is probably a lot less important and he can get away with an onboard solution.

Thanks,
Adrian
5 replies
Deal Addict
Sep 23, 2008
1646 posts
292 upvotes
a nice intel quad core would do you good as the hyper threading (8 threads) will help with your encoding, decoding, compression what ever you do. also a good sound card and a nice amount of ram is all you pretty much need in a "music creation PC"
Deal Fanatic
User avatar
Oct 24, 2001
5662 posts
73 upvotes
Calgary
Some major factors:
1) A REAL sound card - one with super-low-latency ASIO2 drivers. If you can't buy it at a music store, it's not really an audio-station card. A good inexpensive one is the M-Audio Audiophile. They can get fancier depending on how many inputs/microphones will be recording in a single take.
2) RAM - and lots of it! Several audio tracks being edited at the same time can get REALLY hungry!
3) Hard drive - you'll need lots of storage space - 8 tracks of 96khz audio makes for a BIG file! Drive speed will be important too, so some sort of speedy RAID setup would be good.
4) QUIET! The last thing you need in a recording session is the background drone of the PC and its cheap fans blasting.
Sr. Member
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Feb 17, 2007
892 posts
77 upvotes
Toronto
My friend make music too but his computer he has the audio input for his piano and drum and everything. I think if you just use keyboard you don't need so expensive sound card. Only if you have equipment to plug into it.
Banned
Apr 15, 2006
4572 posts
126 upvotes
Chatham
ricsad wrote: My friend make music too but his computer he has the audio input for his piano and drum and everything. I think if you just use keyboard you don't need so expensive sound card. Only if you have equipment to plug into it.
Thats what a sound card is LOL...

Sound card dont just output but also input sound.

OP, for music producing, you dont need CPU power at all. Get a cheap dual core and LOTS of ram. I recommend 8GB.

Then spend money on M-Audio external sound card (connect thro firewire), an SSD for OS and an 1TB for storage. When you're processing a project the SSD will help alot but you will need space to store all your work.

Again spend the money where its worth,
Deal Fanatic
User avatar
Oct 24, 2001
5662 posts
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Calgary
ricsad wrote: My friend make music too but his computer he has the audio input for his piano and drum and everything. I think if you just use keyboard you don't need so expensive sound card. Only if you have equipment to plug into it.
Garbage in, garbage out. You want a GOOD recording, you need a good card, good mics and good wiring. ASIO2 also means you can process several tracks of audio all playing at the same time without some lagging behind the others (or worse - crackling and popping.) The Audiophile is only $100-ish and better quality and more responsive than ANY motherboard's free onboard audio.


Any idea how many things he's planning to record at once? 2 guitars, two singers, bassist, keyboards, drummer, etc.?

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