Electrobel

Hi,
I have been enjoying producing tracks for a few years, but I recently got some nice NI plugins (reaktor & absynth). Unfortunately, my current computer, which is a few years old, is too slow to run both plugins at the same time, and more cpu consuming presets also make the system unstable. So, a good excuse to buy a new set-up. I am looking for advice for what is in important in a pc used solely for producing music. I am also looking for other things/hardware that would be essential for production. For example, I have always used headphones to mix and so on, but apparently decent monitors are crucial to get great sound.
I am on a budget of about 1400 EUR but i can go higher if it would be needed
In a nutshell, I'm looking on advice regarding these things:
-PC that can decently run software
-monitors(are great headphones to be preferred at my price range)
-some sort of audio interface ?
-something to make field recordings with
I already have
-DAW, software
-MIDI controller
 So, if you can say what you think the best way to spend my money is, and how to spread the amount of money on the various things, i would be greatly thankful.
 
EDIT; also, if you think there is anything essential for producing I am missing I would like to know what.

First of all, i'm not an expert, but i would advise you this:
Get a desktop with a good processor and a lot of memory.
Audio interface depends on what you're up to: just basic producing, one stereo output and input are enough. if you want to link your system to a external mixer, like i do, several outputs are a must if you want to play with routing and external effect devices. also try to get a midi in/out on your interface. Tascam and edirol have affordable audio interfaces, check their site.
When you buy monitors, try to aim as high as possible. rather wait a couple of months till you get the right amount of money than buying low quality moni's. i produce a lot on a headphone, but a lot of people here would (rightly) advise you to produce and especially master your tracks on decent monitors.
check the forum for other discussions about studio monitors and headphones, there are a lot of them.
i suppose you want a portable recording device to make your fieldrecordings, i don't know much about those things, but again, check the tascam website, they have a lot of those things.
hopefully this will help a bit
grtz

i posted a post here about monitors, cause my yamaha monitors i had before resulted always in something else then the real sound realy was

http://www.electrobel.be/forum/4/6722,Studio_Monitors_Wich_Are_Good,0



there were many choises, so i took the KRK G2 RP8, and im happy with it, they 250 piece, so 500 , its real sound, u can see them on this video, on pic and on webcam in the middle, they pretty big so i had almost no space to place em

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfoLJOpv42E

if u buy monitors or other stuff, buy them in germany, on musicstore, u can even pay at the postman when it arrives, its much cheaper as in belgium, its delivered in 3 or 4 days, and then maybe u win one more thing to buy :)

dont forget to take 2 pieces for ur monitors as they are sold by 1 piece, but check first and read good to be sure

greetz

I also bought a lot of my gear at musicstore
you got 3year warranty en the online service is very good.

well, u need a good pc or mac, quad core or 8-core with a big harddisk, 2 big extern harddisks to backup ur tracks and sounds twice, nobody wants years of work to burn in 5 seconds :) up to u, music software: reason, fruity loops, ableton live, or cubase, up to you, a good soundcard (with more inputs for extern stuff, midi ect, mic guitar input)... good monitors, a good monitor headphone, a studio microphone and a good sounddatabank (most sounds u can find on the net)

----> then u can already get something done...

optional: a simple midi keyboard

optional: extern synths, wich give better sound as software sounds, but ur software needs to be for extern stuff, like with reason u cannot use extern synths, unless u record it with soundforge and bring it in, but not directly

how older the synthisizers, usualy how better, thats what i heard, vintage synths are much better sound, but also more expensive

""extern synths, wich give better sound as software sounds"""-->Hardware synthetisers use the same algorithms than software synthetisers. So I don't think that tere is so much difference (exept for analog but that's another story)

Quote:

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Originally posted by : Apleton

""extern synths, wich give better sound as software sounds"""-->Hardware synthetisers use the same algorithms than software synthetisers. So I don't think that tere is so much difference (exept for analog but that's another story)

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well i use reason, and when i compare the sounds from the subtractor and malstrom with extern synths, u deffinately hear the difference, im not using vsts as i work with reason

In theory they can sound the same but hardware synths have hardware built just for handling those algorithms. also all vst have the same DAC (the one in your sound card) where each synth has one of it s own. so i guess a digital hardware synth can still have a specific sound.
i don't say hardware is better, the synth (vst digital or analog) that sounds best is the one that has a user who can push it to its limits.

Quote:

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Originally posted by : Apleton

""extern synths, wich give better sound as software sounds"""-->Hardware synthetisers use the same algorithms than software synthetisers. So I don't think that tere is so much difference (exept for analog but that's another story)

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Quote:

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"the synth (vst digital or analog) that sounds best is the one that has a user who can push it to its limits."
+1
After it depends what sound you'r looking for...each synth has it's good points and bad points...in relation to the kind of sound you want to achieve...

But if you don't have much money I would deff go for software and a nice little midi controler to get your hands on the softs...

"In theory they can sound the same but hardware synths have hardware built just for handling those algorithms. also all vst have the same DAC (the one in your sound card) where each synth has one of it s own. so i guess a digital hardware synth can still have a specific sound. "--> The processing speed does't matter. Your sound won't be different wheter you use an AMD, an Intel, or a synth embed processor. About the DAC, If you don't export your sound to a mixer, if you stay on reason for example, the sound is not converted (just to the speakers when you listen to it). The mixdown will just be digital.

if you want a cheap good computer just build it yourself. You can get the components very cheap on http://www.forcom.be/.
You can use some stuff from your old pc if you want, for example DVD burner, graphic card, harddisk etcc..

Just buy a new case (40 euries) mobo (60-100 euries), external harddisk (1tb= 90 euries), some Ram, etc.. You should be able to make a new pc for less then 500 euries.

For an audiointerface i'd go for something simple if you only need to connect your monitors to it, something with 2 in 2 out should do.
If you need more connectivity i'd advice you to buy a firewire mixer (behringer xenyx, mackie onyx, alesis), that gives you a mixer and a audio interface in 1 package.
If you need monitors i can advise the ones i have bought: the Behringer B2031A Truth are cheap but not bad for the price (300-350 euries)
The Yamaha HS80m's sound a little better, especialy more tight on the lows, they come for around 600 euries a pair.
Headphones are nice, but i would not reccomend mixing on them, since no headphone will sound perfect anyway. Just buy a pair that "sits' well on your head, does not hurt your head and feels light, so you can use them all night long.
If you need field recordings i would reccomend a minidisc recorder. Minidisc is great technology, but nobody uses it anymore. The audioquality is perfect (same as CD), the only downside is that you need discs,  and special (plug in power) microphones. I got myself a minidisc with microphone (stereomic) for 100 euries on ebay.

I get most of my gear from Germany as well. Thomann.de is an excellent site, they usualy ship the next day, it takes 2 days for your package to arrive and they have a great service + 3 years of guarantee. 

regardless what soundz best (digital/analog // synt/vst)
you will need processing power 
and nothing beats the intell i920 (8 core) today
i run reason with 2 mixing desks, 8 combi's with 8 NNTX + 8 reverbs, 8 Rex players, some Redrums, some Thor & Malstrom synt, incl Reverbs, masterEQ, Vocoders, Screams 
+
Ableton Live with internal EFX (combi EFX with phasers, delay's, ...) and a lot of VST (native instruments, D16, contralogic, FXpansion, Linplug, McDSP, PSP audioware, and a convulsion reverb)
depending on how much tracks i get 20-40% CPU usage
like i said, nothing beatz the intel i7...
go for it

jay
ps. the quality of my music is direct inverse proportional 2 my computing power
ps.. if u decide 2 run a 64bit operating system (like Windows7 64bit)  u can apply +4GB RAM

thanks for the replies everyone. I ended up ordering:
ZOOM H-2 for field recording
something by tascam as audio-interface (144 something, i forgot??)
monitors mackie MR-5
 pc I will buy later on when my stuff arrives.