Purchasing a PC for your Studio

When it comes to recording on a PC, you have to choose the PC wisely. If you are fortunate enough to be able to have a PC to devote solely to recording, that's awesome, then you only need to have one focus in mind.

However, many of us are not that lucky, computer prices have come down a lot, but not that much. And those "free after rebate" PC's really don't have what it takes to do any serious recording, though they are capable as an internet/email/letter writing machine for grandma, you don't want one in your studio.

So, in my personal interest of talking to the masses instead of they few, I am going to discuss some issues that should be considered when buying a PC when you have many uses for it. Buying a PC when one those uses is home audio or video recording and editing means you have just stepped out of realm of "average user" and into the "power user" category. Audio and Video recording is very system-intensive (Video a good deal more than audio) and require large amounts of disk space (in the case of video HUGE amounts) and often, multiple hard drives. When recording or editing, you notice substantial speed and stability improvements with more RAM. And usually, it's handy to have a large removable drive, or recordable CD device.

So, as a musician, what the most important part of your PC (besides the core components like a CPU, RAM and Motherboard), probably the sound card, therefore, it would make sense to budget your purchase with more money allocated to that. If your not a gamer, buy less of a video card and put that toward a little better sound card. Are you gonna be on the internet, if so, you have to budget for a modem, if you are not gonna be using it a lot, don't by the biggest, baddest modem you can. Just get one that will get the job done.

So, "What do I look for in a sound card" you ask? and "How much should I spend", let me ask you a couple questions. Do you do your recordings yourself, or do you have a band? Sequenced drums and electronic music or live rock n' roll with a big ol' drum kit?

It's a question of inputs, my friends...the number of inputs and outputs seem to have a huge factor in the price of the piece. If you do it yourself, or have friend sit in and record everything one instrument at a time, you can get by with a couple inputs. Myself, I usually use FruityLoops to sequence a drum part, export it as a stereo .wav file, import that into Cubase and then proceed to record basses, guitars, vocals and sometimes put in some MIDI or other FruityLoops sequences. So I am quite content with 2 1/4" inputs and a stereo S/PDIF interface that I get from my Echo Gina. If you record live drums, you may need more inputs, or, mix it down to stereo before it goes in the sound card, then record that to your multitracking app. As far as outputs go, I get by with three sets, one the goes thru my mixer and out to the reference amp, one that goes straight to the amp, and one that goes to a headphone amp for when I am recording miked instruments.

Unless you have a very elaborate setup, or just have wild dreams, I see little reason you would need more than 3 sets of stereo outs for the "typical" home studio, and this is available on many higher-end sound cards.

If you a gamer, well, than you have a video card to think about to, today's powerhouse video cards can do amazing things, but they can sometimes interfere with your primary objective...making music. I have, on occasion, seen video cards and sound cards fight for dominance and it ends up in a locked-up PC. Don't get me wrong, it is not common, but it does happen.

When you build a PC, build it around the sound card you choose. Visit the cards' manufacturers' website and find out about any known issues with other components or operating systems, and be sure to consider that, if a particular sound card is known to not work with a particular modem, for example, DON'T BUY THAT MODEM! The "well it won't happen to me" crap just won't work, you'll most likely just end up frustrated and angry.

When finished, you will find that a PC you build for recording will perform almost any task better than the average "big-box" PC that you would buy from a chain store.

The bottom line is, as with any purchase, you do your research, with that information you look at what is most important to you, and plan accordingly. No matter what happens, don't let a pushy sales person con you into getting something that he "happens to have a great deal on" because it might be that they need to get rid of them to make room for something else. Listen to people if you know they know what they are talking about, but quite often in the "Electronic Superstores" just hire kids and teach them what to say and what to sell. As always though, my personal best advice remains unchanged...if you can, build a system for your studio, don't buy name brand, it will come back and bite you in the long run. I have seen it happen too many times...anyone who has heeded this advice from me has never, not once said that they wish they had went name-brand, on the flip side, a couple people that went name-brand have, over a couple beers, said they wished they had listened because now their PC is too slow, and is virtually un-upgradable without just buying a whole new PC.

I don't claim to be a know it all, but I know what I have seen, and I have seen msuicians in particular be better off with a custom-built, open-architecture system everytime.