Hi guys!
I'm music-student-to-be and I want to buy equipment to start working and composing with VSL. Concerning this I'd be glad to get some tips. I'm going to get VSL Special Edition and a bit later Extended Edition and I have got a budget of max. 1500 euros to spend on hardware what leads me to my first question...
PC or MAC? I know that there is a never ending discussion on this topic. Actually I was thinking thinking about buying an IMac Intel Core 3 3.06 with 8 Gb RAM. But wouldn't you get a Pc that is far better for 1500 Euros? If i had the money, I'd buy a MacPro Quad Core thats for sure.. but I'm not sure that an IMac for 1500 is better than a PC configured by yourself for this money.. what you think? By the way I'm bothered by the philosophy of Apple..
How much and which RAM would you recommand me? The power of the processor isn't that important right?
If I bought a PC, Cubase would be the only sequencer programme to come in question, right?
I'd be glad to hear from you!
Greetz
Konstantin
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Which set-up for a beginner?
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Hello Konstantin,
You´ll hear many opinions on this topic. If you know how to build a PC yourself, you´ll be better off concerning the price point. But it´s not an easy task to build a good music computer, which is why some companies specialized in building DAWs. Here are our partners.
I personally wouldn´t go for an iMac, simply because you will be stuck in terms of hardware at some point.
For the Special Edition, you should be fine with 4 GB of RAM, 6 GB are of course better (some overhead for the CPU).
You might even consider using a MacMini in combination with an external harddrive (the internal ones are only 5400 rpm drives).
Many options, really.
Concerning Sequencer: You should use the sequencer you know best (or have some friends that can get you started, or use the one they use at your university)..... On Windows, Sonar is a nice alternative to Cubase, and there are other notation based programs like Sibelius or Notion that might be of interest to you.
What are your colleagues using?
Alright, I guess that´s just the opener for this discussion.....
Best,
Paul
Paul Kopf Product Manager VSL -
@DG said:
Just to add to what Paul says, I would always choose a cross-platform sequencer because then you are not stuck on either platform.
DG
I would say it subtracts [8-|]....
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Because Paul wrote "On Windows, Sonar is a nice alternative to Cubase" and Sonar is not cross-platform,
but it was a sort of joke, didn't you see the smiling face?
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Because Paul wrote "On Windows, Sonar is a nice alternative to Cubase" and Sonar is not cross-platform,
but it was a sort of joke, didn't you see the smiling face?
Ah, but whilst it does subtract from the choices, it adds further information. [:P]
DG
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Just as Paul stated, building your own PC will most likely give you a better price point. I have nothing at all against Mac though, mind you. :)
If you go with this option, you better be prepared to spend some time doing research though. Choosing the right components is cruical for a good and stable performance. When building a new computer, I usually spend around 8-10 hours reading up on components, checking other DAW-setups, e.t.c. Except for some minor glitches with some setups that usually could be remedied with some further research, all my systems have been pretty stable and performed well, at a fair price. My current setup, an i7-920 with 6GB RAM works like a charm, except for a quirk with the USB-devices for which the connections gets lost every now and then (usually no more than once every other week).
Some things to consider, should you go with this option:
- Don't go with the cheapest mother board. A good motherboard is very important for the perfomance and stability of your system. You probably wont be needing support for SLI or tons of PCI-slots though.
- Research the motherboard chipset. Some chipsets might cause some glitches for DAW-setups.
- When choosing memory, consult the Qualified Vendor List (QVL) for your motherboard.
- Doublecheck the Motherboard FSB against the clock frequencey of the CPU and RAM-sticks.
- If possible, as your system drive, choose SSD.
- Do not underestimate the importance of a good and reliable PSU.
- Don't go with the cheapest mother board. A good motherboard is very important for the perfomance and stability of your system. You probably wont be needing support for SLI or tons of PCI-slots though.
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If you are an absolute beginner there are 3 ways:
1 (long, hard but probably the cheapest) learn the computer world (hardware and software) as the music world. You'll never depend on somebody for a life long updatings .
2 find someone who has got programs you like. Ask if he or she has problems of any type. If says no, ask again if the hardware is really ok. If says yes ask if the software is really ok. Then ask again if he or she ever got problems of any type. If he still says "never" is a liar. If he says four to six times in a year, buy the same hardware and software. It has to be the same even in the meaningless particulars. No clones allowed!
3. (the easiest but the most expensive) buy a turn-key system.
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Hi, thanks for your support and extensive replies. I'm tending to buy a PC with Windows 64 right now as Karel and Paul are saying for following reasons: warranty, the possibility to upgrade hardware more easily and the price. Yet I do not dare to configurate my own pc because the risk of buying one wrong component that would disturb the whole system is too big, I think. Can you recommand me any customizers of DAW-PCs? I have already checked XI-Machines. What do you think of them? Compared to this dell studio pc ( http://www1.euro.dell.com/de/de/heimburo/Desktops/studio-xps-7100/pd.aspx?refid=studio-xps-7100&s=dhs&cs=dedhs1&~ck=mn ), the cheapest XI machine ( http://www.xi-machines.de/xi_de/xi_systeme_audio_x1_de.html ) seems to be very expensive talking about the harware (4 vs 8 GB, Quad- vs Hexcore, 2TB vs 320 GB...) What makes the difference? The interaction of the single components and the silent cooling system? Apart from hardware I think to get the following components: Cubase EDU-Version VSL Special Edition Yamaha HS 80M for Monitoring M-Audio Fast Track Pro as Audiointerface
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One thing to watch out for on the PC side: it is best to avoid any of the cheap off-the-shelf systems made by Dell, HP, etc. The real inexpensive PC's of that type most often use cheap parts that while fine for word processing and the like, do not handle the strain of trying to do digital audio very well.
Also make sure your system has enough hard drives: typically one for programs, one for recording audio files, and one for sample libraries, assuming you will be using one computer. Again, most of the cheap computers allow for at most only two hard drives. That limitation will quickly become a real bottleneck.
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Ok, thanks for your answer. Another question concerning the audiointerface: Do you think its an disadvantage to buy an audiointerface without midi-connection and to connect the midi keyboard via usb? Does this make the connection slower?
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Well, I got my Special Edidtion some days ago and everything works fine. Although the vsl player does recive the midi signal my audiodevices can't play back the sound. I have got an USB 2.1. system with internal soundcard and an internal soundcard on my mainboard. MP3 and stuff can be played properly. I'm going to buy an audiointerface in a few weeks anyway but I'd like to work with VSL meanwhile, though. Do you have an idea how I can get it started? Regards Konstantin
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