Re: New Computer for Guitar Recording

>So, if I understand this, the latency is mostly pci sound cards, video
>cards and background apps.

Exactly. Latency is also greatly affected by the audio driver which
will also affect USB/Firewire sound devices. M-Audio makes excelent
drivers. In fact the ASIO driver for my Audiophile is the same one
they use for the Delta 66 (more I's and O's). I have tried the WDM
drivers and they aren't nearly as good as the ASIO's. Where you
really notice latency is when recording and while input monitoring.
This is where you listen to what is being recorded along with the
effects etc. I can record my guitar with backing tracks doing input
monitoring with no noticable latency between what I am playing and
what I hear through the headphones.

The apps running in the background will affect latency as well, that
is why no internet, no virus scanners, etc. Just bare bones. For a
DAW system, a simple video card is best. You don't need a fancy
gaming card with 3D graphics. Acutally what I might recommend if you
have the cash is a video card that is made for video editing as you
might branch into that some day. I think you could get an entery
level card from Matrox, or one of the other biggies for about the same
as a middle of the road gamer card.

If you want to spend even more money to get your latency as low as
possible, get an audio card with a DSP chip. That way a lot of the
work is done on the card and not by your CPU. That though will add a
200-300 dollar premium to the sound card. Not really necessary if you
are just starting out.

My recommendation with sound cards is once you decide what you want,
check out Ebay. People are selling audio cards and devices all the
time as most audio people get the upgrade fever on a regular basis.
You can find entery level and middle of the road cards very
reasonable. I bought my Audiophile for 80 bucks and it has served me
well for over 2 years. I get around 2ms of latency which is about as
good as it gets. My CPU doesn't groan untill I get upward of a dozen
tracks with multiple plugin effects going.

By the way, when I put this PC together, I installed 2 instances of
Windows XP. One I use as the Swiss Army Knife, the second instance on
a separate partition is AUDIO ONLY, with a very minimal install of XP.
Have my audio apps working on both instances of XP, but I notice that
on the Swiss Army Knife side, the software gets bogged down a lot more
easily because of all the other garbage. When I want to do serious
work, I boot to the Audio instance of the OS where I can run double
the tracks and effects before any dropouts.

>
>I think I'll try an M Audio interface with a basic PC and work up from
>there.
>
>Thanks!

.

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