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Location: Vermont USA | I am thinking of getting the Alesis IO2 USB Audio Interface for my computer so I may record on the computer. Is anyone familiar with this unit?
Thanks Pauly |
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Location: NJ | nope I am familiar with the m audio stuff. I am looking to put together a system for recording but I just don't know if I want to go mac or pc. I also don't have enough bucks to do either the way I want to do it. for me to spend a ton of bucks on a priopritary machine for recording is just not cost effective right now. |
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Location: closely held secret | Doesn't have to be proprietary, Al. I'm in the process of building a new Core 2 Duo machine for recording, but I'm going to make it dual-boot so my wife can use it for her business. That way we have a partition for every day use, and my audio partition stays clean and lean. :cool: |
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Location: closely held secret | Pauly, I haven't tried one, but the reviews I've seen (not a lot of them out there) are pretty positive. Cheaper than firewire, but a lot of people experience latency problems with USB interfaces. Make sure you have no other USB devices plugged in when you're trying to use it.
What are the specs on your computer? |
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Location: NJ | waskel
I am currently looking at the korg d 3200
I have had too many computer problems to not dedicate the machine to recording only |
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Location: Vermont USA | Specs are ok the printer is the only other USB plugged in thanks guys.
Pauly |
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Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Al, I had a Korg D1600 that was a very nice unit and the 3200 specs out much nicer than the 1600.
I think you will be very happy with it. |
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Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Waskel, just ordered myself a E6700 dual core.
The dual boot is something I was really interested in, so we gotta talk! |
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Location: NJ | Originally posted by stephent28:
Al, I had a Korg D1600 that was a very nice unit and the 3200 specs out much nicer than the 1600.
I think you will be very happy with it. currently have a d1600 but the older version no usb blah blah blah.. it drives me crazy |
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Location: Tulsa, Oklahoma | I've got a Korg 1600 and have had a gas using it... I'm up to about 50 songs on it... |
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Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Al, that sounds like the original unit I had. Great but had a lot of early limitations that the newer ones correct.
plus 16 extra tracks never hurts! ;) |
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Location: NJ | Originally posted by stephent28:
Al, that sounds like the original unit I had. Great but had a lot of early limitations that the newer ones correct.
plus 16 extra tracks never hurts! ;) when I got it I loved it, then when I started to want to stretch out with it, I was disappointed.
I am taking myself into the d 3200 |
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Location: closely held secret | Originally posted by stephent28:
Waskel, just ordered myself a E6700 dual core. Not to be geeky, but...
:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:
People are O/Cing those to over 4Ghz.
I'm going with the modest 6300 - that only O/C's to 3Ghz. :cool:
Which mobo are you using? |
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Location: Sunshine State, Australia | I've got a dual core minimac and it dual boots - but I only use windoze for a few activities. Fantastic to have both OSs on one machine.
I wasn't aware that you can install Mac OSX on the 'other' dual core machines?
I haven't gone the audio interface route yet, but after some research I decided I was going to go with firewire. The Presonus had good reviews, but the M-audio and Tascam setups seemed to have a lot of negative posts with Mac owners.
Try googling to find a forum more specific to digital audio, there's lots of infomation (and opinions) out there. |
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Location: closely held secret | You probably can't... but I can't think of a reason I'd want to.
Oh, wait...... no, can't think of one. :D |
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Location: closely held secret | Studio Central is the best one I've found. |
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Location: Sunshine State, Australia | Al mentioned not knowing whether to go Mac or PC. You mentioned dual boot in the next post. I assumed that dual boot meant booting up in either Windoze or Mac.
... and lets not go there, Waskel. |
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Location: closely held secret | No problem, Muzza. As I've stated before, I have nothing against Macs, I just prefer the soft- and hardware choices in the M$ world.
I just meant dual Windows partitions. When audio/video support for Linux becomes more common, I'll probably go to a Windows/Linux system. |
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Location: Copenhagen Denmark | I do not understand " 2 hoots" of this all , but I`m currently looking at home recording stuff,here`s what I`ve been thinking of ,..a machine ,that has ..
# 1..mixer..mic/Line inputs
# 2..hard drive & cd recorder
# 3..I do n`t friggin`know...
I am a total novice at this :( ,so do I need a computer,what is the benefit of that ? :confused:
Could I just not buy a machine,to record my...
#1 guitars
#2 mic(s)
#3 stay sane ?
all this for a meager,let`s say..1500 usd.
Basically ,a little home recording studio of high quality and easy to use,any & every suggestion will be carefully considered & appreciated :)
Vic |
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Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Vic, if you don't want to jump into a pc/mac DAW then a stand alone system like Al is talking about is an excellent way to go.
There are upsides and downsides to every type of system. You just have to choose which poison you prefer.
$1500 would get you an excellent stand alone system to record with.
$1500 would not get you a good PC/Mac based DAW. |
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Location: ranson,wva | i still have a tape setup from high school....i doubt if it still even works....jason |
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Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Waskel, I went with the E6700 because I heard/read/was told that when running audio applications OCing served absolutely no purpose and did not show any performance gains.
However....if you are into gaming, then OCing is a big deal.
Needless to say, I did not plan on OCing this one.
Regarding the dual boot, I want both setups essentially the same except one will have all the virus crap and internet connections for updating the software, etc. Boot 2 would be a stripped to the core without anything except drivers and the sequencers.
I tried the different "user profile" approach but the basic programs would still load unless I disabled them (and then still had crap in memory) Disabling the hardware and software would carry over to the original profile and I would have to start them back up.
Is it safe to assume that my 2nd partition (on the boot drive) could be only about 40 gig to hold the operating system and everything else reside on the 2nd drive? |
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Location: Copenhagen Denmark | Okayy...stayed up all night to look into all those "wizard" machines ,including that Korg D3200,but...is n`t that a piece of "Professional" equipment ,when even a "Die-Hard" such as Alpep is considering it :confused: I mean..I want to fiddle with recording myself,but I`m not considering building a "drive-in" recording studio :eek: ,after all,I do realize that ;..mic`s , cables , etc. are needed ,on the other hand ,the machine looks small,soo..question is ;..why that one..is it good value for money..extendable..what/when/how...aaargh.. HELP ! .... Please...!!
and what`s all that computer stuff about :confused:
Vic |
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Location: NJ | Originally posted by Enfant Terrible aka V-Elite:
Okayy...stayed up all night to look into all those "wizard" machines ,including that Korg D3200,but...is n`t that a piece of "Professional" equipment ,when even a "Die-Hard" such as Alpep is considering it Vic Vic
I am putting together a home studio. the Korg or roland or tascam or any of the other stand alone units have many advantages.
the don't crash or glitch.
they are optimized for one task only and that is recording. and they do it well. YES you can get pro sounding recordings out of them.
smaller learning curve.
you are not dealing with software programs as much as touch screens. they are often a little more intuitive.
portable
you can take these to a gig a party etc and get a killer recording.
cost
cheaper than buying interfaces and putting together a computer and buying software.
my intention is probably get a korg d3200 but then couple it with a computer so I can more easily alter tracks with sonar or pro tools. that way I can have the best of both worlds and not have to worry about computer glitches and have maximum flexibility and bang for the buck.
believe me I have been through recording gigs with sony walkmen adats and hard disk recorders.
they all have advantages and disadvantages. and it depends where you want to be with it.
personally i would love to get a studer and just do tape |
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Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Vic, there are many lower cost, less complicated units than the D3200 that Al is looking at.
I don't know if he is selling or has sold it but maybe Al's old D1600 would be a good unit in your price range.
There are also excellent 8 channel units from Korg, Boss, Tascam and others that would be very nice for what you are trying to do....all for under $1000 and in some cases less than $500.
As Al mentioned....there are many advantages to these type of units....especially for the novice user. The main drawback is flexibility and the inability to cut/paste/patch individual measures of the music.
Other than that, stand alone units are great and most of us that have moved on to the DAWs started out on them.
Let me check and post some links of some nice modest units.....or maybe some of the others will post some links for you to consider. |
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Location: closely held secret | Originally posted by stephent28:
Waskel, I went with the E6700 because I heard/read/was told that when running audio applications OCing served absolutely no purpose and did not show any performance gains.
However....if you are into gaming, then OCing is a big deal. True, not all applications benefit when the application is running, but open/close time can be greatly improved, and well as response from VSTi's .
Needless to say, I did not plan on OCing this one. You shouldn't need to. The performance increase over the P4 is so great that running it at stock speed should be more than adequate, and you don't have to add any additional cooling (noise). I chose to go with the 6300 for budget reasons. Plus it has so much overhead it can be overclocked to about 70% on air cooling.
Regarding the dual boot, I want both setups essentially the same except one will have all the virus crap and internet connections for updating the software, etc. Boot 2 would be a stripped to the core without anything except drivers and the sequencers. Exactly what I'm doing.
I tried the different "user profile" approach but the basic programs would still load unless I disabled them (and then still had crap in memory) Disabling the hardware and software would carry over to the original profile and I would have to start them back up. The same problem I'm having. user-switching or not, the entire registry loads, with hardware profiles drivers, etc. It gets to the point where it's faster to reboot than to switch users.
Is it safe to assume that my 2nd partition (on the boot drive) could be only about 40 gig to hold the operating system and everything else reside on the 2nd drive? It totally depends on how you configure your system and what software/VSTi's you use.
I've done a lot of research on this, and it looks like the consensus for the best config is:
OS on physical drive #1 (40Gb should be plenty - but see *)
Program Files folder on physical drive #2 (100Gb or larger *)
VSTi's on physical drive #3 (size dependent on your needs *)
Audio data on physical drive #4 (Big. Big and fast. 3 or more drives in Raid 5 if you can.)
* Some VSTi's (like NI's Elektrik Piano) won't work unless they're installed in the Program Files folder, and the data files are around 3Gb. Synths and samplers have grown to huge proportions. BFD drums come on multiple DVD's...
Now setting up this way doesn't meet everyone's budget. Mine, for example.
I already have 3 PATA133 drives, 2-120Gb and 1-250Gb.
I'm adding a SATA 320Gb which will hold my 2 boot partitions and VSTi's, and some on-line storage for things I'm not using at the moment, but don't want to hunt down the disk.
1 of the 120's and the 250 I'll use for audio data, maybe in RAID 0.
The other 120 will be an off-line backup of images of the 2 boot partitions.
I'll replace the PATA drives with SATA as money allows.
I'm using the Gigabyte P965-DS3 motherboard. Which one did you go with?
The Wabbit Formerly Known As (I gotta quit drinking so much coffee so early in the morning) Waskel. |
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Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Originally posted by alpep:
personally i would love to get a studer and just do tape Al, if ya managed to pull that off, I would love to come up and have a look see and jam a bit.
Man....that would be a dream setup. |
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Location: Vermont USA | Well I am rethinking the Alesis. I am now looking at these 1. Boss MICRO BR Digital Recorder, 2. TASCAM 414mkII Portastudio, 3. Zoom MRS4B 4-Track Digital Recorder feedback on any of these please.
Thanks Paul |
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Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Waskel,
Still deciding on the MB. Currently looking at:
ASUS ATX Socket LGA775 w/P965 chipset
ASUS P5W DH Deluxe w/P975 chipset (I'm thinking overkill)
Gigabyte P965-DS3 that you have
All available locally so an easy purchase once I decide. Any reason you went with the Gigabyte over an ASUS?
So far as the drives go...I have a 500 gig external for 2 complete (progressive) backups rotated every 3 days...using retrospect software.
For drives....I have a 320 gig SATA and a 300 gig SATA.
Currently got my OS and related (gotta be there) files on the 320 gig partioned into C: and D:
Then I have the 2nd 300 gig partioned into E: F: G: with E and F at 145 gig each and G at 10 gig for a scratch partition.
I have all the audio/sequencer programs and VSTi plugins on my E drive (with about 100 gig available) and all the audio files on the F drive (again about 100 gig available).
I have another 200 gig available but it is a PATA. Not really room in the case but I could run it external.
Do I need to rethink the way I have it set up? I assumed I was ok keeping the OS separate and that keeping the others on separate partions was good enough. Sounds like you have done more research than me so what are your thoughts on this? |
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Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Paul, stay away from the cassette based units.
The others you mentioned are nice but the problem with the mircos are the crypic screens that are difficult to see and understand.
I would consider:
Korg D4 (4 track)
Tascam DP-01 (8 track)
Tascam DP-01FX (8 track w/effects and XLR jacks)
Boss BR-600 (6/8 track)
All of these are under $500 and would serve you well. |
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Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Paul,
Just saw that Musicians Friend has the Korg D4 on sale for $199 (normally $349 everywhere). Limited quantaties......I would grab one.
Actually, I am thinking about grabbing one at that price. |
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Location: Copenhagen Denmark | okayy....I`ve been to the shop,and had a quick look,but their main man for recording gear is n`t back until tuesday,however..I did see a korg D888..about 1200 usd..and some mics..GA Project FC2ST condenser mics that come as a "matched pair" for around 250 usd,seem to be good for vocal/instrument...and GA Project FC4ST Condenser mics "matched pair" for around 160 usd for instrument use, how about these mics ,am I onto something here ,or should I move into another direction.. :confused: .. any input will be carefully considered and appreciated :)
( I feel like I`ve learned half the alphabet and now want to write my name in neon ) :rolleyes:
:cool:
Vic |
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Location: closely held secret | Stephen, I bounced back and forth between the Asus P5B and the Gigabyte DS3 for days. Even though the P5B had on-board firewire, what finally sold me was reading ALL the reviews for both on NewEgg. By far fewer problems and complaints on the DS3. That and the DS3 has solid capacitors. So a firewire card costs $8,. Still cheaper than the P5B, and more dependable.
Your drive setup sounds like it should work great.
The only thing I might suggest is if you use any disk intensive software samplers you put them on a separate physical drive than your audio.
Paul, I agree, if you can grab one of the Korgs, go for it. |
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Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Guess I need to head over to NewEgg and read a little bit. I believe I bought my last BenQ from them. |
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Location: East Tennessee | I record thru a Mackie DFX-6 directly into my computer with fairly good results. The DFX-6 has built in reverb.
Should I be using some kind of interface?
I use MAGIX Audio Studio in the computer. |
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Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Mike, if it is doing what you want it to do and you are satisfied with your results, then don't change a thing or worry about it.
If you feel the quality of recording is lacking or that you want expanded capabilities, then there are options you can consider. |
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Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Just noticed AMS (American Musical Supply) also has the KORG D4 for $199. |
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Need some feedback