Nov 18, 2007 04:21 am Win 98 with 256 of RAM and a POS sound card will record music.
What's the problem?
what will run on a win 98 system with 256mb's of ram?
Posted on Nov 18, 2007 04:03 am
whosyourdaddy00
Hold 'Em Czar
Member Since: Dec 30, 2004
ok about a year ago i had this guy walk into my parents store wanting to get into recording....i gave him several lessons at my then employers studio, we lost contact for awhile but now he's back....
here's the thing, this guy has a great heart and lots of drive, he's on a mission from god to get into recording (VERY Christian) and wants to get his gospel out to the masses (which i have no problem working with, as i ALWAYS set personal beliefs aside when working with others on music, in fact i think if he knew me a little better, he would choose not to associate with me)...this guy CAN sing well, but is having a very hard time grasping the concepts of audio and recording in general....ontop of that he is completely broke and a single dad, and investing 50 bucks IS a big deal....well, last week he got a free computer that's runnin' windows 98 and has 256Mb of RAM and a POS intergrated soundcard that i don't think is even runnin' MME drivers (i looked). he has ZERO experience with computers and EVERYTHING is new to him (even very simple tasks)...he's never had internet access in his life! i'm not knocking the guy, but man, it's kinda difficult to explain things to him sometimes....
anyway, so he's got a computer, no internet access (which i recommended today is step 2 to get him up and running)....but i'm having trouble recommending software that will run "stably" on his current system.....on top of that this is a total 'charity' gig for me, so now he's calling me weekly to come to his place and help him....i'm ALL for helping people, but i'm not sure what to tell him other than he needs a newer computer and a "proper" audio interface of some sort....but he's got it in his head that a computer equals a studio in a box...so now i'm dancing a line trying not to discourage him, but man, i can see this turning into a big ball of frustration for the both of us....so he's gonna save some money to get online, but past that, i'm not sure what to tell this guy (of course i plugged this site)....but what i need from y'all is something, ANYTHING to get him up and running on his own as far as cheap software that can run on his system (i'm not gonna tell him he needs more RAM until it becomes an issue).
i wanna keep his spirits up, but i really don't know what direction to point him in. any and all help would be greatly appreciated by the both of us.
part of me wants to say "look you're gonna need this, this and that, and it'll cost ya some money" and just get it over with, but he really can't afford anything beyond a few cables....today he had me out at his place at 11am (i normally dont' wake up before 3pm) and this kinda thing will get old fast...my dad says i'm "good enough" to charge for my services, which i mostly agree, but for some reason, i'm having a real hard time beein' blunt to him (the guy's got heart, and is dooing good things in his life and in music) and i can't simply blow him off (for reasons even i don't even understand).
if anything, thanks for letting me vent!
wyd
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Nov 18, 2007 04:21 am Win 98 with 256 of RAM and a POS sound card will record music.
What's the problem?
Nov 18, 2007 04:30 am i need software that's compatible!
Nov 18, 2007 04:32 am and preferably free that can handle multi-track audio (i'm not even worried about midi at the moment)
Nov 18, 2007 04:33 am gosh, that makes me think, i'm not even sure the current setup can handle full duplex audio....crap!
Nov 18, 2007 04:38 am You could try Kristal; it's the lightest DAW I know of.
Nov 18, 2007 06:47 am yeah, kristal and tracktion were what i was thinking of, i'm just not sure of the win98 compatibility....
basically my personal goal is to get this guy up and running as much as possible, then diagnose future problems on hardware....it's kinda harsh and premeditated, i know. but eventually it'll catch up to him, and i can say something like "well, you're gonna need a better system to do more"....i know it sounds harsh, but to be completely honest with y'all, i don't give a crap how far he gets....i'm helping him because i can't discourage a fellow audio enthusiast....and once he gets up and running and hits a brick wall (which he will), and then it becomes a money issue, i'm "off the hook"...i know it sounds harsh, but really, i've gone WAY out of my way to help someone that i shouldn't give a frack about...so i feel i've done good simply by not blowing him off, which i KNOW alot of people in this industry would have done...i've been nice, cordial, and helpful to him....but at the end of the day, i really don't care about his artistic success...i don't even know why i've invested as much time in him that i have....all i know is i'm simply incapable of blowing him off completely (again, i don't know exactly why, perhaps it's "good nature" on my part) but i simply CANNOT hold his hand through this journey....i'm just not interested, i've got my own issues to deal with...i just have a hard time being a pessimist in this area, espically to another good hearted person.
this is a multi-layered situation to me....on one hand, i simply don't care about his personal growth/outcome...but at the same time, he truly has a heart of gold and (IMO) is doomed from the start on an endless "quest" to "make it big" i understand everyone has "potential" but i really don't have any interest in investing my time in this guy....i hate to say it, but i will in the name of honesty with you guys and myself, but i'm above it....there i said it. for the first time, some will view it as arrogance, and others could see it as professional integrity. not in the sense that i'm on some kinda high-horse, but more in the lines of "i need to be working on 'better' things than this"...i can't help but feel i'm wasting MY time on this guy for nothing, but at the same time, i waste my time on other things that are FAR less worthy....so i get a bit of a warm fuzzy feeling when doing it.
it's like the "good guy" in me wants to help, but the "audio professional" in me is telling me, i'm completely dealing with the wrong client here...i should be doing better things in the field than this...gosh i'm really confused here.
is this a moral issue or a professional?
Nov 18, 2007 07:27 am Audacity should run pretty good...
Win98/ME
recommended 128 MB / 500 MHz
minimum 64 MB / 300 MHz
As far as an interface... get something from that era... preferably from a company still in business. :) But the Aardvark cards do work...
Nov 18, 2007 07:33 am one issue that is going to crop up is the harddrive... thats probably at best an ATA66... so a second harddrive would help a lot...
Nov 18, 2007 07:41 am cool zek! thanks for the Audacity plug! i'll prolly recommend it...as for the interface goes, i think i'm stuck with the integrated soundcard in this situation, at least for the near future.
Nov 18, 2007 07:42 am i think the budget is < $100 as far as "upgrades" go in this particular situation.
Nov 18, 2007 07:48 am If the sound card is an issue, make sure to try ASIO4ALL.
How about the old free version of ProTools? It's limited to like 8 tracks, but it's free and 98 I believe is the most recent OS it'll work on. If you can still find it.
That said, if he has a couple dollars to invest, RAM might be a good idea.
Nov 18, 2007 10:12 am Reaper:
Uncrippled unexpiring shareware for Windows 98/ME/NT/2k/XP/Vista
www.reaper.fm
3.1m download, at the moment, so it'll be easy to dl and install.
Nov 18, 2007 10:29 am Quote:
is this a moral issue or a professional?
Sounds like both.
Volunteering your services is always a pain, but it's somewhat nature of the beast, unless you're a real jerk.
Sounds like you're not a real jerk =)
At some place you're going to need to say no, but politely, letting him know that you can't volunteer your services anymore. You already have, and you're glad to do it, but you have other things to attend to.
Regardless of what your other projects are at the moment, you still can't be expected to feel the same passion for this guys' project as much as he does.
RE: the hardware, let him know, to complete certain types of projects, you need adequate tools.
Nov 18, 2007 07:14 pm does he have an ISA slot in that computer?
i might be able to find something legacy that'd be better than onboard sound I could send your direction.
pro bono of course, i'd prolly just throw it away otherwise.
Nov 18, 2007 07:24 pm WYD, I may as well have something like maybe an original M-Audio D-Man card from when they still went by the name MidiMan.
It as well might be ISA but I will check. And odds are really good I still have the driver disk as well.
Nov 18, 2007 07:28 pm yeah, i think i have a soundblaster awe64 gold around somewhere. I'm 99% sure it's ISA and would def. be an upgrade to the onboard. it's got a gameport connector with midi connections too. Let me know if you want it, send me your address, and i'll mail it out ASAP.
the D-man might be better though.
Nov 18, 2007 07:49 pm Yep, just checked its an ISA card. Drivers are on floppy disc if that tells ya anything. And it has the midi port adapter as well. Still got the original box and manual.
Nov 18, 2007 09:27 pm yeah, tyhe AWE 64 Gold is ISA< I used to have one, I think flame has it now.
Nov 19, 2007 05:11 am y'all ROCK! noize i'll definately recommend it when we get up and running, and yeah ram is my next planed grade....progress on this is gonna be slow so i'll tap this thread when the proper time arises.....thanks a bunch! noize, i think i can sell that for ya if you're interested...i just have no clue when.
cheers all!
wyd
Nov 19, 2007 12:08 pm hey, i used to record into a sb live card with a win98 OS and 256mb RAM. It got me started. Did it sound professional? No. Did it get me involved? Yes. Did I love it? Yes.
I was using Cool Edit Pro back in those days for multitrack software. Ended up being limited by the number of effects on the tracks, but just audio, with minimal effects (especially minimal on the reverb and delays) you could do like 12-15 tracks without having issues. Maybe more if you lock the effects.
If my memory serves me right...
Nov 19, 2007 12:30 pm A few years ago, I was using a similar machine with Cool Edit and did a 30 track project without much trouble. Didn't use a lot of real-time effects though.
Yeah, for sure you can do a surprising job with a limited computer if you keep it simple and know you're doing.
Nov 19, 2007 01:38 pm WYD, I've got ram laying around too that may work with that machine (depending on how old). There's no markings on it, but it's the ram that has 3 dividers (blank spots or whatever) on it. It's not DDR or DDR2, this is pentium II 400mhz era - ram.
I think the old girl had 384 mb on it before it was put out of service. It is of no use to me and if it'll work, let me know.
Nov 19, 2007 02:24 pm My old P2 with 192MB did ok with multitrack. I used a program called samplitude.
Nov 19, 2007 07:00 pm WYD, find out exactly what the PC is. I may have an old AMD powered box that was the boyz old game box laying around. If his isn't as fast as that one I may be willing to donate that as well.
Let me know.
Nov 19, 2007 07:28 pm rock! will do for sure....i just don't know when....i told him to call me when he gets internet access, so i'm just kinda waiting for now...but like i said before, i'll hit this thread up when the time comes....thanks alot you guys! i can't wait to tell him all this good news!
we both thank you!!!
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