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Best PC for MP (Music Production)?


bobernaut

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 All you need to do is put together some parts, more like lego than "building" anything. :)  Anyone can do that as long as you get the right parts, and to be honest there are not THAT many variations.  That said, I doubt there are huge gains doing it yourself compared to those providing it as a service so if you like that extra safety and experience it might be a good choice.  Personally I like to do it myself simply because I have many times and know how I guess, I see no upside in outsourcing that part. 

Your requirements might need something different with 100 tracks and 200 plugins :) No idea if my 8700k could handle that, I never write music with 100 tracks and I dont even OWN 200 plugins let alone put them in one project. lol  We can always wait for the latest and greatest parts that might be around the corner, and in the process not get any music done. Buying good quality parts in the upper range of spec today will serve you well ... pretty much.

 

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12 hours ago, mettelus said:

FWIW, Jim built Noel a machine a few years back

That is worth a great deal, as it means that the actual code that makes up Cakewalk was probably written or at least tested and debugged on that system.

Those of us who roll our own tend to be people who are okay with the possibility of spending hours on getting all the components optimized and working together correctly. To me, it's actually part of the fun, believe it or not. All of my computers are ones that my former Silicon Valley cronies have given me for free as hand-me-downs. They were being tossed out or sold for peanuts at work because some bigwig wanted the latest impressive thing or they stopped booting properly and were deemed to old to bother with fixing. So hey, free i7 system for me! Free i5 notebook, free Core 2 Quad as secondary shop system. Others I give away.

I've put faster processors in them, Firewire cards where need be, upgraded them to Windows 10, SSD's, etc. Sometimes I've spent entire days reinstalling the OS, one OS upgrade kinda hosed my Cakewalk setup, but fixing all this taught me a lot more about Windows 10 and Cakewalk.

In the PC world, there's a reason people are willing to pay a premium to buy prepackaged systems from Apple, Dell, HP, Acer, whomever. It's because the integration of all the components has already been taken care of. They ensure that everything works together.

Jim and others like him do the same thing, but aimed toward a specialized use.

The cutting edge fast systems from the biggies tend to be aimed at gamers. Their other ones are aimed at long term stability at the expense of speed and upgradeability and versatility. My Dell's BIOS won't let me overclock the CPU or drop in a faster chip. It was made to run Office really well and make Skype calls and watch Netflix and then be handed down to do homework on. The idea of rendering multimedia files never entered into it.

I put a faster graphics card in it, set the processor to never spin down, a Firewire card, all this stuff. If I don't bend the case cover a little, it'll rattle from the fans being on all the time and you'll hear it in my vocal takes. But it was free and it runs Cakewalk and Vegas like a bat out of hell. It's a little like a Millennium Falcon to me.

If you want a quiet, reliable, fast DAW computer, get one from Jim or another audio-oriented integrator. Jim is well-vetted by Cakewalk users.

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FWIW, for giggles, I made 100 pure audio tracks in Cakewalk on my 2.6Ghz i7-6700HQ laptop.

Every track had the pro-channel engaged (compressor. EQ and console emulator), and a Scheps 73 EQ.

They all had to have their faders turned down considerably as it was LOUD with all tracks going at once.

But not once did it complain.

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Bobernaut...Having been in the bizz 40+ yrs  I had to learn todo  everything myself : Here is  my current running build list .If you need a updated build list .. just ask !

Evga DG76 case

Evga 550w  3g gold supply

Asus Prime Z370a Motherboard running Bios 1802  asus chipset/inf 10.1.17809.8096  Windows 10 pro

Intel 8086k processor

Noctura U14s cooling

Asus Rog Strix-Gtx 1050ti 4gb OC Edition : Asus video driver :  NV Driver 417,71

Crucial 2666  2x8 sticks..  CT10998007  that's A single stick ..Buy A Kit ! 2x8

Gigabyte Thunderbolt Card Alpine Ridge  Driver 16.3.61.275

Siig firewire card :NN440012-S8

Samsung Nvme 960 pro 512g

Crucial Mx300 525 g

M-Audio firewire 410 running win7 driver  (This Is My Midi Interface)  Apollo's don't have Midi

Universal Audio Apollo Twin mk ll ... Latest UDA updates ..

This system hauls Ass.. if you cant build it yourself or don't have a Friend with the KnowHow or a local Shop then you have to look at other options !

Feel free to ask question !

 

Edited by StarTekh
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14 minutes ago, StarTekh said:

Bobernaut...Having been in the bizz 40+ yrs  I had to learn todo  everything myself : Here is  my current running build list .If you need a updated build list .. just ask !

Evga DG76 case

Evga 550w  3g gold supply

Asus Prime Z370a Motherboard running Bios 1802  asus chipset/inf 10.1.17809.8096  Windows 10 pro

Intel 8086k processor

Noctura U14s cooling

Asus Rog Strix-Gtx 1050ti 4gb OC Edition : Asus video driver :  NV Driver 417,71

Crucial 2666  2x8 sticks..  CT10998007  that's A single stick ..Buy A Kit ! 2x8

Gigabyte Thunderbolt Card Alpine Ridge  Driver 16.3.61.275

Siig firewire card :NN440012-S8

Samsung Nvme 960 pro 512g

Crucial Mx300 525 g

M-Audio firewire 410 running win7 driver

Universal Audio Apollo Twin mk ll ... Latest UDA updates ..

This system hauls Ass.. if you cant build it yourself or don't have a Friend with the KnowHow or a local Shop then you have to look at other options !

Feel free to ask question !

 

An Intel 8086k... surely that's a typo... unless you're really using one of these old things 😉

download.jpg.34aa7a886e0305909652c518c596de7c.jpg

[Edit] - WOW I stand corrected... those things really do exist.... that's confusing.

 

Edited by msmcleod
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Starship Krupa : Was some good reading and its good to see I'm not the only one that has A... computer History  !  

To answer your question How does the Trackman Marble play with the ZX81?   

We had to use : (Mind Meld) but it's sitting pretty now ! 

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Dang...you guys must be part cyborg--which is pretty cool. I suppose I might be able to build something but I have a sneaking suspicion that I would end up wishing that I had just bought one from Jim. But, I really do appreciate all you heavy-hitters who chimed in here, thank you all so much!

By the way, I originally had just 100 plugs but decided to change it to 200 primarily just to mess with people--sorry. That would indeed be a monstrosity for sure. I don't really do 100 tracks either but it could happen...maybe.

I wonder, do you actually get Jim when you call or does he have quite the number of employees? Well, I almost certainly will be trying to get through to him very soon so I may well find out for myself.

Not much more I can say at this point except to say thanks for all input from everyone and that I will probably be dropping a small chunk in Jim's direction pretty soon.

Epilogue

Okay, this is boggling me now. Not one mention of Sweetwater from any of you whether good or bad? Don't get me wrong, I have never purchased anything from them but I figured that surely someone would have something to say on this.

Jim: 30+

Sweetwater: 0

 

Thanks everyone (cyborgs too!)

 

Bob

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I spec'd and built every PC Sweetwater sold for the first ~3 years.   Note that I was always freelance (not an employee).  😉

We're still on good terms.  I (like many of you) buy a lot of gear from Sweetwater.

If you go to GearFest 2019, you'll probably see me there looking at guitars.

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On 3/3/2019 at 11:40 PM, bobernaut said:

Wonderful replies here, thanks! It would seem that there are two possibilities here...

1) Jim is a great guy who knows his stuff

2) Jim has agents who help him work a scam on musicians

 

Joking, of course! Believe it or not, I trust the members here far more than I trust many other people. Is that sad? Whatever the reason, you all look out for each other here and that's awesome...man!

Now, as for the topic, again, thanks for your help. Now, all I have to do is try and figure out which one to go for (at Studiocat's) and narrow down some things or maybe I should say figure out some things. I actually have good mechanical, building and electrical skills but can't see myself trying to build one even though I am certain that there is a great satisfaction in doing so. Can you really save that much money by building your own anyway? I don't know but you all probably do since you have already built a PC or two. I am afraid I shall have to go the purchase route on this one.

I am thinking about the one s.l.i.p. suggested--it seems about right, or do I go higher for "future proofing"? Or, is it overkill as mettelus suggested? I guess I need to call Jim, that is, if he accepts calls. Did you guys just order yours by clicking through the parts or did you have a discussion with him first? Also, how does payment work? Do you pay in full prior to the build or some other way? I think that's probably fairly important...

Also, not one taker on Sweetwater's builds. I'm surprised by that. I guess they just can't hang with Jim.

 

Well, thanks so much everyone for your help on this. If anyone has more to say about any of this I would love to hear it

 

many thanks

bob

 

Sweetwater isn't exaclty a low cost leader and the actual customer support will depend on the rep.  

As for your original question, yes the Audio device and driver should be front and center in the conversation.  If you haven't upgraded in a while you might not have the best connection and stability with the computer.

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Brian .. you have a few options here  processor wise ...8700k  most users would be quite happy .. or its big brother 8086k or 9900k all 3 are killer processors.. as for building

If you don't do this ..then don't take on the task... it is not child's play  !   I hope you enjoyed  the responce's I did ..any further questions ..just ask !

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