Operating system and sound card

[r4m]

I have been tossing around trying another crack at recording on my computer.
Right now I am using a 16 bit multi-track recorder.
I have a 1.2 AMD Duron (tm) processor with 704 ram. 40 gig hd
Soundblaster Live card. I'm using N-Track Studio 4 software.
My question is:
Would Windows XP be better. I have already come to the conclusion that I need a better sound card. I would like to record at 24 bit. I am thinking possibly Delta 1010 LT. Not sure if trying to record drums at 24 bit would be too much for my puter. I am on a tight budget. Suggestions?
thanks

[Sharpola]

I own the delta 1010 rack & card, it works flawless, I'm buying another

I record in XP, I've never had any issues other than maxing out my cpu sometimes when I have to many plugins running at once

Ray

[Bobby Watson]

Be careful on what ever you choose. Insure you verify the "system requirements" for your purchase. Hate to say it, buy you are a bit on the low end for processor. RAM is marginal. And, drive space is also marginal. XP and it's endless updates can become awfully resource hungry.
At any rate, good luck with it.   
BW@

[BassPlayer]

I had the Delta 66 and was not happy moving it around PCI slots so it could get it's own vIRQ. It was probably due more the crappy bundled mobo/cpu I puchased @ Frys more than the Delta, and it was an Asus board. On my new setup I went the 1394 route and it seems to be more stable than the Delta then again my new setup is a 17" laptop with a duo 1.73 procs so go figure. One thing I did like about the Delta card was that the driver lets you tweak the buffer size. I was able to a get a mix latency of 2.7ms @ 24/44.1Khz. 

[Gerk]

I've always been more hit than miss with M-audio PCI cards.  I've owned a couple and neitehr of them worked with my setup as required

For the price of them these days (and the quality and portability to new systems) I would suggest going with an eternal audio interface that runs over firewire or USB2.  PCI cards are long in the tooth and lots of new boards don't run with the older cards anymore .... I'm facing exactly that to update my DAW in that the new Mac Pro machines don't run standard PCI cards, only PCI express ... which means abou $1000-1500 for me to update _just_ my cards ...

So if you can avoid dedicated cards I would !

Mark

[BassPlayer]

The downside to the presonus firewire interfaces (not sure about others) it's a pain to switch sampling rate. The driver pretty much locks it @ one rate.

Still I kinda like my presonus inspire.

[iceman2058]

If you are after actual multitrack recording of drums, I can recommend the Edirol UA-101 or FA-101 (the former is the USB2 version that I have). 10 inputs/outputs at 24/44 or 24/96. The drivers are very stable, and 2 of the 10 inputs have half-decent pre-amps for hooking up a mic or guitar (Hi-Z) directly as well (I think... ). This thing has been rock-solid for me ever since the get go - its driver versions (both 32 and 64 bit) are still on 1.0.0 - 2 years after the launch which says it all!!!

Have to agree with the others on your PC though - it might struggle a bit with resources under XP. Although if you are not monitoring through the DAW you could live with higher latencies provided that your soundcard driver/DAW software combination knows how to deal with latency compensation issues for overdubbing....I know mine works fine (Sonar/Edirol). If you plan on using softsynths I think you will need to upgrade (to the best of my knowledge at least...).

Good luck!

[Tacman7]

I went with a PCI solution and have been happy with it. The Emu card.
Have some limits on upgrades. Some of the new dual core abit boards have 1 pci slot. So I should still be ok for a while.


I don't think the 1.2 AMD had firewire...definately not USB 2.0.

So sticking with that computer is going to limit the choices.

I've put XP on 400 mHz computers and had them do better/ok.

I don't know, in your situation I think I would try the new hardware without messing with the os upgrade. Especially if your thinking of using XP home.

There are some 24bit pci solutions in the $100-200 price range that would work on your system.

http://www.americanmusical.com/sort.aspx?PCI=Audio%20Interfaces&m=07_24_388

I like that place because if you go over $200 they break it up into 3 payments.

[r4m]

Thanks for the replies guys! It will take awhile to digest all the info. I am gonna have to up grade my computer anyway now. Some parts in the mother board are blown out. Not sure what you call them. The computer guy told me when I took it in. So now I will prolly get a better motherboard and bigger processor. Was looking into the dual core from Tiger Direct. (Bare bones)
Any suggestions here?

Thanks

[Tacman7]

I upgraded my truck. 2 steps.


You unscrew the radiator cap and drive a new replacement part under it.

Then change the radiator cap.



I'm a newegg.com fan.

Your going to build it yourself?

I would have to read up on current motherboard/processors/memory

if I was going to build a new computer. Like at Toms Hardware Guide.

Then buy not the latest, greatest but what's just come down in price, usually what was greatest 6 months ago.

I've always built and repaired my own computers. The more you do it the better you get at it. Also you don't have to put it in the shop. I hate to think what goes on in a lot of shops.

Lot to learn but it's good stuff to know.