Re: keyboard workstation vs. controller + PC for the hobbyist composer


"Hank" <hankyp00@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:7v50u4tijahfefu2hu4e8977gq5kqp18pf@xxxxxxxxxx
On Fri, 10 Apr 2009 10:45:21 -0500, "Rick Massey"
<seafox@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Well, first off some of your numbers are a bit high. The M-Audio
Keystation
Pro 88 has a good action, lots of control features, and can be had for
about
three hundred and fifty bucks. From there you're in softsynth land with
huge
numbers of freeware synths.

Now, your computer is going to cost a bit, but there are ways to keep that
under control as well. You don't need quad core for this, either, as a lot
of people are doing great things with single core processors. Therre are
also some pretty solid low cost programs out there, both for MIDI
sequencing
and also for audio recording.

FLStudio is shaping up to be a top-notch workstation package for the
Windows platform.. more and more I see guys who were early FLStudio
users showing up on Sirius radio on the electronic music channels,
they are bigshots now, too busy to post on the boards and talk to us
hobbyists :) Honestly FLStudio may not be the best choice for all
music types but it is an extremely powerful, capable DAW, and as a
host just might be the best for ease of use. You can get the low-end
versions for $50 or so and (I think?) upgrade at any time. Once
bought you never pay for upgrades and the upgrades are quite
worthwhile. It has morphed from a toy into a serious music production
tool.

Its true that you don't have to spend a lot on a PC to run it, and
generally speaking you will get more bang for your buck by going for
clock speed more than mutliple cores. It does appear to take good
advantage of mutl-threading with regarding to loading up more VSTs,
however the mixer thread won't so this is likely to be your biggest
bottleneck.

When it comes to CPU, more is better of course but the component you
don't want to skimp on is the sound card (don't get on-board audio).
You don't need to spend a lot of money there, but be sure to get one
with AISO drivers for low latency between the controller. 4ms-6ms is a
typical setting I use. I just use a Creative X-FI but I might go for
something different if I were recording vocals or guitar. It works
fine for my use and there's no difference in the final .mp3 output
from my card or a better one.

The other consideration is that most people do more with a PC than
just music, so by investing there you are getting much more than just
a musical instrument, you're buying a tool that lets you get many
kinds of work done faster. Everytime I upgrade to a new PC
(approximately every 3 years or so) I am wowed by the productivity
gains, even in areas where they don't seem to make sense. You'd think
surfing the net is largely limited by your internet connection but on
a faster PC everything is more responsive, even if only because the
page renders to the browser quicker... you just get from point A to
point B faster, and in music that means ideas flow from your head to
the track faster with a faster PC.

Don't fool around with sound cards if you have the money. There is a
difference, as sound cards rarely have flat frequency response in their
input stages to keep a microphone from feeding back, among other things.
There are audio interfaces that are very reasonable, (M-Audio's Delta series
comes to mind) that will give you far more joy. A sound card is not an audio
card, and though there may be no perceptible difference to most people with
a lossy format like MP3's, you can hear the difference on a CD release if
your ears are good and you've not gone to MP3 anywhere in the chain.

On the topic of computers, get the fastest processor you can get, as Hank
above said, but absolutely load the machine up with as much RAM as you
can.If you have to bump down a tick or two in speed to afford maxing out the
machine's memory, do it. Think of it this way: you have a room, with a lot
of furniture, and you need to be able to move it around a lot. Which is
easier, a large room or a small room whre you only have enough room for the
furniture and a few walkways? The larger room, of course. The room is your
RAM and the furniture is your applications and other data going into it.
Also remember that most operating systems will occasionally lose a memory
address while running, so that represents a hole in the floor. RAM is your
best friend.

If you can manage to dedicate a machine only to music you'll be a lot
happier. I have two machines that only do music applications in the studio,
and they are more stable, less prone to problems, and can be optimized for
music only, thereby focusing their needs. If you need to view word documents
or spreadsheets on that PC for musical reasons, then find Word Viewer and
Excel Viewer from Microsoft, (they're free) instead of installing the full
app. This is just one way to minimize your conflicting uses for the machine.

If you're running Windows, make sure your interface has both ASIO and WDM
drivers, as this will minimize headaches down the line.

Finally, take the time to learn the keyboard shortcuts for programs that
have them. Rodents are serious time eaters, and if you can keep your hands
on the keyboard instead of constantly reaching for the mouse or trackball,
you'll see great improvements in time. This is handy, because the muse is
sometimes fickle, and the faster you can create the less likely it is that
your muse will flit away to something else -- Muses have serious ADHD.


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