Computer recording.

Anyone have any recommendations or personal preferences concerning computer recording? I am about to purchase another computer and I want it to be primarily for recording and mixing. I can't afford too much (i.e., multi-thousand dollar computer), but I'm confident that I can get into something that will be satisfactory to me.

Currently I am considering an SB Live card along with the optional interface with the jacks that allow instrument connection directly into the front of the tower. I was also interested in the SoundFont technology offered by these card although I have no direct experience using them nor have I heard them.

Any tips appreciated.

---Darren

Welcome to the awsome world of hard disk... like going off the diving board and realizing there is no water in the pool...It is a long way to the bottom. No seriously, you'll love it once you get going. You are buying in at a good time for price /selection. 1st, go to prorec.com...all the info you could want.
2nd The safest most stable bet is go for a faster Celeron or P3 with as much RAM as you can handle...use Windows 98SE...very stable. Get something you can store to, I ate up a 14 GIG HD with 4 songs. You will however get a good track count(24 at least) and lots of processing room. You will most likely need an outboard preamp or small mixer, cause your sound card won't have the needed gain and it might be noisy.Ther's lots of cheap good stuff around new and used. More later, bedtime for kids

Well, the thing with audio recording is that if you really really want to do it right, you need to spend the money. If you just want to do simple things, then almost any computer will work. On the Mac side of the pond, any PowerMac with an audio in and a copy of Coaster will usually do the trick. Hard drive space is critical as sound files become HUGE, but that's just the nature of the beast. If you plan on starting small and building a more advanced computer recording system later, go with a PCI based PowerMac, probably a G3 or better, lots of RAM, stay away from an OS X system for now, the audio tools for it will be coming, but they aren't here yet. Stick to Mac OS 9.2 or earlier. Even a System 7.6 Mac with the propor software is a very stable and powerful work station.

One thing to keep in mind is that currently no new Macs come with an audio in- if you buy new you'll have to buy a USB, FireWire, or PCI based audio capture system. These can be faily inexpensive or very very expensive. On the other hand, you'll get a fast, stable computer with a lot of hard drive space and a CD-RW drive built in.

How about a Powermac 8500?
I've been wanting to do some basic 8 track type of recording but don't have a clue what I need to do. Especially as far as what software I need, what ram I have to have, how much HD space I need (like can I use a 100mb zip drive to store songs)
Basically all I'd like to do is sync up some Cubase midi files and record a few tracks of guitar behind them, then make some MP3's or burn some CD's. Is it possible with an 8500 or will I be forced to upgrade?

An 8500 could work. If I were going to use an older, pre-G3 PowerMac though, I'd try and find either an 8600 or a 9600. The 8600 has three PCI slots, the 9600 has six. Both are alot easier to upgrade than the 8500 and the 9500 due to the construction of the chasis and the types of RAM they use. Both the 8600 and 9600 are generally faster computers too. I actually have an 8600 that I plan on some day tweaking out to do hard disk recording with.

Another Mac based CPU that would be nice to get your hands would be a UMAX s900. Six PCI slots, seven drive bays, and support for a gig of RAM.

With any pre-G3 PowerMac you do get a few choice bonuses:
SCSI support. SCSI hard drives are a lot faster than all but the newest IDE hard disks though more expensive.
You really don't have to worry about hurting the thing because it's not like you're working on a $4,000 PowerMac G4. You can find another one for a few hundred dollars, scavenge some spare parts, and you're ready to rock.

CD burning would only require that you buy a compatable CD burner, and they're quite easy to come by.

You'd actually be amazed to see how many "outdated" Mac systems are very hard at work today in the audio biz. As a matter of fact, all of the on location audio capture for Star Wars Episode I was done with a tweaked out PowerBook G3.

[Edited by Raskolnikov on 11-19-2001 at 07:29 PM]

Excellent info!!
I really appreciate the help.

One last question is regarding the terms Nubus and PCI....
I'm kinda confused what that means.
On my old Mac, I bought a $50 add in card that let me add an extra monitor. I vaguely remember it being a Nubus card??
If I upgrade to the PCI versions of newer macs< does that mean having to get a new upgrade card to run multiple monitors or wilL i BE ABLE TO just re-use the card out of my old computer? (after using multiple monitors Im kinda hooked on em and would regret switching back to asingle monitor again. I'm also wary of this whole usb stuff.... I'm using all scsi periferals like my printers and scanners and wouldn't want to get into the expense of upgrading everything else too.
I'm seeing some great deals at CPUsed in Toronto on older used computers like the 9500, 8500 7100 etc.... and I guess what I'd be inclined to prefer to do is just swap my older machine, and just slip in a newer one with a little hassle as possible.

PCI basicly replaced NuBus, so you can't re-use your card. The upside is you'll end up with a better performing card plugged into a better performing slot.

If you're planning on running multiple monitors you need to pay a lot of attention to system software: I'm not sure on this, but I think newer operating systems (9.5-9.2) tend to support monitor mirroring only right out of the box (I assume you use multiple monitors for the extra screen realestate). I can't tell you for sure though, I could be speaking out of my ass on this one. The thing to do is ask an Apple dealer (bearing in mind that they'll try and sell you a brand new computer).

You may find that the trade in on your old system is scant to nil- You may be better off keeping it. I know one guy who has a G3 upgraded PowerMac 8500 as his main work station and uses his old Quadra to burn CDs. You could always use the case as a means to store drives that won't fit into your main computer, network them for archiving purposes, almost anything that doesn't require a lot of horsepower. Ice T uses his very first Mac (a Mac Classic or something, we're talkign Old School Macintosh here) to type up song lists and what not while newer computers do the dirty work of running Pro Tools.

Try out http://www.homerecording.com Go to their bulletin board service (BBS) after reading the intro stuff or go directly to http://www.homerecording.com/bbs It's as dedicated a site to home recording as this one is to guitars.