PC Production Setup (Software Based)

[tekboi]

Hi everyone,

Please provide me with some assistance in what you think of this simple PC setup, need help confirming if my PC will be powerful enough to use the Ableton suite in conjuction with a single midi controller with a heap of VST instruments and effects to start making music?

Also need help on choosing the best from the list of VSTs below? Need to limit the money spent, the whole set up is on a small budget, thanks heaps!!!

PC (Desktop)

ASUS P5QL-EM Motherboard
Maxtor 500G External Drive
4GB DDR2 RAM
Coolermaster or Noctua KIT (CPU Cooling Accessory)
Cordless Keyboard & Mouse (Logitech)
4 Port USB 2.0 HUB
M-Audio 2496 Audiophile Soundcard
Winfast 256MB Videocard

Not too sure which Intel chip to use, how important is this? I have a standard P4 (Dual Core) chip at the moment, can I use current or should I get something more powerful?
Same thing with my current power supply, how important is this? Can I use my current or should I get something more powerful also?

Software

Operating System:
MS Windows XP Pro

Production Suite:
Ableton V7

VST Options:

Synthesizer & Bass:

Synapse Audio Hydra (Junglist)
Albino
NI FM7 / FM8
NI Pro 53
GMedia Minimonsta
Zebra II
TC Electronic Native Bundle
Korg Legacy Collection
Optium FX Basslane
Audiorealsim Bassline II

Drums:

NI Battery
Fxpansion Guru
Fxpansion DR008
Fxpansion BFD2
Ableton's Operator
Redshift Drumular
Izotope iDRUM

Effects:

TC Electronic Megaverb & Mastering
Arts Acoustic Reverb
Sonalkis Stereo Compressor & Filter
URS EQ & Compressors
Antares Filter & TUBE
Timeworks Reverb
Kjaerhus Filter
Fabfilter
Minion Filter
PSP Nitro

Other VST Options:

Spectrasonics Trilogy
AMB Electrabass
Steinberg Virtual Bassist

Hardware

MIDI Controller Options:

Waveidea Bitstream 3X
Novation Remote SL
Behringer BCF2000
M-Audio UC33E
M-Audio 02

Monitor Options:

Alesis M1
M-Audio Studiophile
Samson A5
Wharfedale Studio

[Jay Pace]

PC looks more than adequate, but I'm not an expert

Midi I'd go for the bitstream.

Monitors I'd go for krk rp8s, or poss Adam A7s. Would not go for anything on your list.

not sure what your ram prices are or your cooler master costs are, but if you're on a budget I'd do away the coolermaster and start with 2gb of ram. Can always upgrade later.

How experienced are you? You've built a hefty set up. To be honest unless you know how to use everything I'd scale it down slightly, no point buying the biggest beefiest machine around if you don't need it. Spend as much as you can bear on monitors and as little as you can get away with on PC. You can upgrade elements of your PC as you progress and find you need more power. But once you buy monitors you're going to be stuck with them for a long time. Monitors will make more of a difference to your production than anything else.

[BloodStar]

hi man,
i don't know what is your budget, but personally i would recommend youá few bits i currently own or i have got experiences with:

PC (Desktop) - seems to be more or less ok. better buy 2 smaller hardrives. 1internal, lets say 320Gb for all installation and stuff, and the other one, lets say 320Gb or 500Gb external for all your samples, movies, etc...
RAM seems to be fine. Regarding PSU, I would recommend you Seasonic S12II-500 500W, rock stable and no too noisy.
Good and actually pretty cheap chipset from Intel is Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 BOX. Be sure you choose a motherboard which will work well with it.

As for the soundcard. I§d go for something bit more expensive, with more functions, better converters etc. I am using E-MU1212M, which is actually very very cheap, and it is using 120dB mastering grades D/A A/D converters,.. sound difference to Audiophile2496, which i owned before is immediatelly noticeable.
Software

Operating System:
MS Windows XP Pro

Production Suite:
Ableton V7

VST Options:

Synthesizer & Bass:
Synapse Audio Hydra (Junglist)
Albino
NI FM7 / FM8
NI Pro 53
GMedia Minimonsta
Zebra II

Drums:

NI Battery
Sonic charge uTonic

Effects:
Sonnox pack
Sonalkis Stereo Compressor & Filter
URS EQ & Compressors
Antares Filter & TUBE
Wizoo verb



Hardware

MIDI Controller Options:
Waveidea Bitstream 3X

Monitor Options:
Adam A7 or Dynaudio BM5A

[The_Laughing_Man]

Righto, I`ll edit your quote for my recommendations

PC (Desktop)

ASUS P5QL-EM Motherboard
Maxtor 500G External Drive
4GB DDR2 RAM
Coolermaster or Noctua KIT (CPU Cooling Accessory)
Cordless Keyboard & Mouse (Logitech)
4 Port USB 2.0 HUB
M-Audio 2496 Audiophile Soundcard
Winfast 256MB Videocard

Not too sure which Intel chip to use, how important is this? I have a standard P4 (Dual Core) chip at the moment, can I use current or should I get something more powerful?
Same thing with my current power supply, how important is this? Can I use my current or should I get something more powerful also?


PC seems fine, Ya want lots of ram. As Vlasta said, 2 drives, one for audio, one for software.

Software

Operating System:
MS Windows XP Pro

Yep, screw vista

Production Suite:
Ableton V7

Nice, good learning curve on ableton.

VST Options:

Synthesizer & Bass:

Synapse Audio Hydra (Junglist) - Cannot recommend this more, no synth goes as low without breaking up.

Albino (ALbino 3, simply amazing, highly recommended)

NI FM7 / FM8 (Again, the FM8 is simply stunning, takes a while to learn though)

NI Pro 53 (An oldie, but a great generic work horse)

GMedia Minimonsta (Again, nice sound, but quite specific)

Zebra II (Woudln`t really recommend this, the sound always seems a little cheap)

TC Electronic Native Bundle (Not bad, but the sonitus collection is good, even better would be voxengo, or sonalksis)

Korg Legacy Collection (Lovely, but again, not as flexible as some)

Optium FX Basslane (essential, just watch the levels on this, it overdrives easily)
Audiorealsim Bassline II (Lovley lovely, best 303)

Drums:

I would add, the following to this list list
Drumatic 3 (free and excellent)
Soniccharge Microtonic (Excellent analog percussion)

NI Battery
Fxpansion Guru
Fxpansion DR008
Fxpansion BFD2
Ableton's Operator
Redshift Drumular
Izotope iDRUM

Effects:

TC Electronic Megaverb & Mastering
Arts Acoustic Reverb
Sonalkis Stereo Compressor & Filter (In general their plugins are fantastic)
URS EQ & Compressors (Not fully convinced by this gear, the pretty GUI`s decieve you into getting some average plugs)
Antares Filter & TUBE
Timeworks Reverb
Kjaerhus Filter
Fabfilter
Minion Filter
PSP Nitro

Theres plenty of stuff I could recommend here, a lot of it free too, maybe just hunt the KVR Vst forums for recommendations


Other VST Options:

Spectrasonics Trilogy (Romplers suck)
AMB Electrabass
Steinberg Virtual Bassist

I would also suggest Slayer 2 if you want a nice bass guitar sim.

Hardware

MIDI Controller Options:

Waveidea Bitstream 3X
Novation Remote SL (Nice features, horrible faders)

Behringer BCF2000 (I use one myself, lovely full length faders, of which you have 16 virtual banks of, and 4 virtual banks of 8 rotaries, all memorise their positions, motorised faders, great funcionality, stunning price, Best thing Behringer ever made, utterly recommended)
M-Audio UC33E (Shite)
M-Audio 02

Monitor Options:

Alesis M1
M-Audio Studiophile
Samson A5
Wharfedale Studio

None of those are worth buying at all. Waste of money really.
If you can tighten your belt money wise in all other areas, then do so, but don`t scrimp on monitors.
Looking at the budget area for the monitors you have listed, the £350 area, I can make some recommendations, but really, I`d save a bit more.

Fostex PM2 (has a good overall sound, relatively easy to learn)
http://www.dv247.com/invt/19502/

Quested S6R (Quested are quality, and these have reasonable bass response)
http://www.dv247.com/invt/49859/

KRK RP8 (Nice sound especially for the price, good bass response, and generally good respose time, most recommended at this price)
http://www.dv247.com/invt/51949/

KRK VXT4 (Wow amazing price on these, really good monitors, better than the RP8 and not much more cost)
http://www.dv247.com/invt/41867/


However, I would also recommend Soundcraft Absolute 2`s
Second hand they go for reasonable monies. They are excellent, and were replacements in many studios when yamaha killed the NS10.
They are very much a classic nearfield, with a brutally honest sound, ensuring you get a good mix, but much more comfortable to listen to for long periods than the NS10`s
You would need an amp to go with them, but a Alesis or samson monitor amp would be about 100 quid, and if you are lucky the Abs 2`s you can get for 100
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Studio-Monitor...1%7C240%3A1318
I cut my teeth on a set of them, and indeed still have a set in my dual pair monitor set up.

[tekboi]

Thanks heaps!

I will budget as much as I can on everything but the monitors.
The software I need to budget on aswell I guess, some of those vsts are really expensive too but its definately the way I want to go.

If there are any more recommendations for my setup, please do as I wont be starting the shopping until next weekend, thanks again Blackout Audio members :)

[Jay Pace]

There's plenty of free VSTs you can start with. Just check the sticky in this forum.

Some of them are really top notch.

VSTs again are sort of something you need to grow into. Admirable that you want to buy them all straight out, but to be honest you'd be better experimenting, trying the demos.

General clap on the back for not stealing software when you're starting out.
You're a better man than me :)