Building a studio computer

with industry Pro, Nick Batzdorf

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matto
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Re: Building a studio computer

Post by matto » Sun Jul 30, 2006 10:05 am

Quote:But I am concerned with what Dave said about using 48 for film/tv. I have had my music on film/tv and continue to pursue opportunities for that. Don't be concerned...I do all production at 44.1k/24bit, and by far most of my music ends up in tv/film. When I export my final mixes (from Cubase) I export them to whatever format the client requests, this ranges from 44.1/24 or 44.1/16 stereo interleaved wavs to 48/24 split stereo aiff files...sometimes even mp3 of some kind... I don't like to have different sessions be in different formats, it gets way too confusing and the possibility for stupid errors is far too big IMHO.So my advice would be to run all your sessions at 44.1/24.matto

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Re: Building a studio computer

Post by nickbatzdorf » Sun Jul 30, 2006 2:06 pm

I don't have any special talent for this stuff, Ern, I just have an interest in it. My knowledge is strictly practical - there are many people who understand the maths, but I've even forgotten algebra. And no amount of theory is a substitute for ears!

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Re: Building a studio computer

Post by nickbatzdorf » Sun Jul 30, 2006 2:06 pm

Plus you seem to have a much better handle on it all than you're admitting to.

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Re: Building a studio computer

Post by ernstinen » Sun Jul 30, 2006 3:40 pm

Quote:Plus you seem to have a much better handle on it all than you're admitting to.I am what I am and that's all that I am ---- Popeye Thanks, Nick! Ern

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Re: Building a studio computer

Post by spariam » Tue Aug 01, 2006 1:56 am

Quick question...I've just recently upgraded and got a new machine (a Creation Station PC from Sweetwater). I went relatively low end, but did get two hard drives. I primarly use this machine for MIDI stuff - Cubase SE and EWQLSO Silver, Silver XP, and Gold...(and Reason). I run some other looping software on a laptop. My question has to do with hard drives...I run Cubase on the C drive, and the EWQLSO samples on the D drive. When I render to audio, is it better go to C or D drive? With EWQLSO/Kontakt I use DFD (direct from disk). I haven't had any issues with rendering to D, but wonder if I should get another drive just for my audio, especially as I'm considering getting ProTools as well (I currently record audio stuff to a digital recorder and mix on the computer, limiting me to 16-bit at the recording process).Thanks.

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Re: Building a studio computer

Post by davewalton » Tue Aug 01, 2006 2:08 am

Quote:I run Cubase on the C drive, and the EWQLSO samples on the D drive. When I render to audio, is it better go to C or D drive? Hi Doug,If there's a lot going on, specifically with EWQL and/or DFD, I've sometimes had to render to a hard drive other than the drive that the samples are streaming from. Mostly it doesn't matter, I just work from one hard drive, but it is more efficient if one hard drive doesn't have to do the work of reading the streaming samples at the same time it's attempting to write the audio. Also, in Sonar (and I'm assuming in Cubase) the default is to render audio at a really fast pace. I've had to turn that off and have Sonar render in real-time. Otherwise the DFD in the EWQL software has a hard time keeping up with everything regardless of what I'm doing with the hard drive situation.HTH,Dave

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Re: Building a studio computer

Post by spariam » Tue Aug 01, 2006 4:25 am

Thanks Dave, I'll check the rendering speed if things start bogging down.It hasn't been a problem yet, but now that I've upgraded to Gold, I'll see what happens.

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Re: Building a studio computer

Post by nickbatzdorf » Tue Aug 01, 2006 5:14 am

That's interesting that the offline bounce routine doesn't know to wait for the data to stream. I hadn't thought about that, and it makes sense. In theory the host should know better, but I've had problems with that in Logic too - in fact one time it was embarrassing, because I delivered a project with a big click in it.

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Re: Building a studio computer

Post by davewalton » Tue Aug 01, 2006 5:27 am

Quote:I've had problems with that in Logic too - in fact one time it was embarrassing, because I delivered a project with a big click in it.On Sonar and EWQL, stuff just drops out. One time I delivered a cue for a film where that happened but I didn't listen to the entire cue all the way through so I didn't know anything was wrong (big lesson). In various parts of the cue, whole sections of my "orchestra" just dropped out and then inexplicably popped back in later in the cue. The real problem was that the film maker thought it sounded "really cool" even though it sounded totally idiotic. I had to fight like hell to get him to promise to not use the screwed up cue and instead use a fixed version of the cue that I sent later.

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Re: Building a studio computer

Post by nomiyah » Tue Aug 01, 2006 1:32 pm

Dave, thanks for sharing that info. I'll check for rendering speeds on PT.I'm using one drive for running systems and one for audio files. If I get a large library of audio files, tracks and sounds, how long before I need a third drive?Matt, thanks for the recommendation. It's good to know I can change it if I need to later but I'll record in 44.1/24.Nomi

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