Page 1 of 2

Post your setup here

Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2003 2:40 am
by GretscGuy
Thought it would be cool to know what everyone's setup is:

Mine is as follows:

computer
P4 2.8Ghz/3 GB RAM
Windows XP Pro
(2) 80Gig 7200 RPM hard drives

software
Cakewalk Sonar 3
Tascam GigaStudio 160
Sonic Foundry SoundForge 6.0
Sonic Foundry Vegas
Sonic Foundry DVD Creator
Waves Platinum Plugin Bundle
Sonalksis eq plugin

soundcards
Tascam PCI-822
Universal Audio UAD-1

setup

Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2003 1:52 am
by cso
hi, i just want to let all you newbies know that the set up makes a BIG difference, IMHO, especially if you want to avoid countless of hours of frustration trying to figure out how to rid yourself of dropouts, latency problems, audio crackling, not to mention crashes, and blue screens!

i suggest to anyone new to digital music and recording, who is experiencing problems, to take a look at hardware - yes, newbies, HARDWARE - rather than spend countless of hours tweaking.

check your chipset - is it a SiS or VIA chipset?...right there, all your attempts to fine tune your computer in order for SONAR to run smoothly may be futile...your chipset may not be compatible with the gear you're using

check your motherboard - is it a VIA motherboard? Depending on your gear, you may have problems, compatibility issues, etc...

is your hard drive adequate? 80 gb min if you're running xp, according to some at other cakewalk forum



i am not out to bash SiS or VIA - it's just that i've spent months trying to sort through all the difficulties i had with my laptop, which contained a SiS chipset. i finally bit the bullet and decided to buy a decent machine. And i have not been disappointed!!!!

maybe some of the enlightened technical few may be able to tweak their way out blue screens, dropouts, latency and the like, but i have seen what a big difference it makes when you are not working with inferior gear, or let's say, compatible hardware, as it's not necessarily an issue of inferiority, but rather, compatibility; eg., xp is a resource hog, too.

Athlon xp 2800+, 333mhz w/fan barton
1024 MB ddr333 pc2700
ASUS A7n8X DX motherboard
80 GB 7200 rpm 8mb cache x 2
sonar 2.2 xl
various plug-ins
m-audio ozone

i just set this system up today, and i have not faced any of the problems i faced with my laptop. not one crash!!!

i didn't even have to tweak xp to hear decent audio!

lol to all frustrated souls who just want to create music!

cheers,

cso

Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2003 9:38 pm
by cso
:oops: ...ok, i was overly enthused last post... for audiophiles, and industry types, my standards may be low... ozone sound card could be better...i don't have what'd be called a professional studio set-up (maybe that's what this thread was intended for - my apologies, if so)...But, hey, my computer doesn't crash! no more drop outs!! no more cpu spikes!!!

It doesn't crash!!!


I can now concentrate on my Sonar manual...

Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2003 2:48 am
by nick
Hullo! I'm new. This is my setup. I have a cheap version of cakewalk. It does everything I want it to do though.

Computer:
AMD Athlon 1800+ (1.53 Ghz)
480 Mb of ram
I dont know the motherboard bus speed
Sound Blaster Audigey Platinum 2 EX

Software:
Cakewalk Music Creator 2003 (What I mainly use)
Voyetra Digital Orchestrator
Native Instruments Absynth 2
Native Instruments Battery
Computer Muzys
Tractor DJ
Wavelab 4.0
Logic Platinum 5.10

Hardware:
Evolution MK-249C2 Keyboard Controller
Casio CTK-573
Steinberg Midex8
Roland JV-1080
Emu Xtreme Lead-1
Zoom MRT3
Alesis HR-16B
Behringer Eurorack MX 2004A
Shure SM58
Numark TT1600 (yeah, im gonna get a better one someday)

Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2003 6:39 pm
by andychap
I've been at this game a couple of years now and using much the same gear as when I started. Can't really afford to upgrade all the time.

Computer:
HP Pavilion PIII 850mhz
Windows XP Pro
256 Mb Ram
20 Gb 5400 HD
120 Gb 7200 HD
Soundblaster Live (midi I/O only)
Soundblaster USB MP3+

Software:
Sonar 2.2 XL
Soundforge 5
T Racks
Edirol Hypercanvas and SuperQuartet
Waves Gold Bundle
Numerous DXIs and VST's

Hardware:
Yamaha PSR 290
Yamaha RY 9 Rhythm Programmer
Faefisa DP18 Digital Piano
Akai Amp
TOA Studio Reference Monitors
Mini Disc Recording Deck
Tascam Portastudio
Fender Squire Strat
Tanglewood Electro Acoustic

Edit: I just bought a couple of optical digital leads and conneected them from my MD deck to the USB audio interface. I now have crystal clear audio in and out of my PC.

That's it. You can hear what it's capable of at the MusicV2 link in my sig.

PCI/822 Card. driver dwon't work with XP

Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2004 4:33 am
by Stephen Boyd
I have xp home edition. gigasampler LE and the driver won't load on my system. I'm doing the microsoft updates and service paks for windows to see if that will make a difference.

can anyone reccomend something to try?

trying to set up the best, affordable, basic multitrack studio.

steve
HP
2.4 p4 , 80, 512, etc...

Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2004 12:13 pm
by andychap
I don't think the service packs will make much difference, most of them are for networking and security.

I'll have an ask around and see what I can find out.

thanks... i'm perplexed... I emailed tascam...

Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2004 2:39 pm
by Stephen Boyd
I find it strange that tascam wouldn't support windows xp

windowns "logo testing" ??

Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2004 2:44 pm
by Stephen Boyd
it says that tascams driver hasn't passed windows logo testing and it could make my system unstable now or later... do I ignore this warning?

I really want to use my pci card with some cool software...
Steve

Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2004 11:01 pm
by andychap
Just ignore that warning. Most of the hardware and software available hasn't passed windows testing but it still works.

Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2004 6:28 pm
by GretscGuy
Quote:
I have xp home edition. gigasampler LE and the driver won't load on my system. I'm doing the microsoft updates and service paks for windows to see if that will make a difference.

I had the same problem. According to Tascam, the program will not run under 2000/xp. They also will not give you any special price for an upgrade to a program that will work.

It's frustrating, but I have been through this a few months ago.

Tascam and Gigastudio versions

Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2004 6:37 am
by Stephen Boyd
Gretchguy,

interesting... i just talked to someone at tascam on Wed... they were toying around with the idea of giving me gigasampler 24 for free...

after your post, i'm thinking that won't happen..

I'd love to hear more about your successes and gripes about the pci/822.

that is my main card and it seems ok...

I'm using a TDM 1000 too...

Posted: Mon Jan 19, 2004 1:52 pm
by GretscGuy
Steven,
Did you talk to Candice? I spend about a day on the phone with Tascam trying to get some kind of discount. I have two legal copies of LE. One I purchased and one I got bundled with a soundcard.

She was sympathetic and even had me write an email to some guy who is the head honcho over there. Tascam still makes some good gear, but the service has declined over the past few years.

They took down the user forums because people were having too many problems with boat anchors like the TM-D4000. They choose to hide this now. I'm looking at a DM24 or FW-1884 right now but if I didn't think I could get it running by myself, I would be looking elsewhere.

Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2004 9:33 pm
by Guest
Hi, I just joined the forum. I've been a registered Cakewalk user since Home Studio 5.

Here's most of mine. I'm sure I left some stuff out.

AMD AthlonXP 2000+
384MB RAM
Windows 2000/SP4
Cakewalk Home Studio 2004
E-mu Proteus Keys PK-6
E-mu Definitive B-3 ROM
E-mu Vintage Keys ROM
E-mu Protozoa ROM
E-mu Proteus 1/XR
Brother PDC100
Fender Precision Bass Special
Fender Jazz Bass Fretless
Fender Jazz Bass V
Fender Showmaster
Ampeg SVP-PRO
Alesis 3630
BBE 482
Peavey UltraVerb
Crest Audio LT1000
Tascam 424mkIII

Thanks,
Joe

Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2004 12:49 pm
by GretscGuy
computer
P4 2.8Ghz/3 GB RAM
Windows XP Pro
(2) 80Gig 7200 RPM hard drives

console
Panasonic/Ramsa DA7mkii (with 3 adat cards)

interfaces
MOTU 2408mkii
MAudio 2x2

software
Cakewalk Sonar 3
Tascam GigaStudio 160
Sonic Foundry SoundForge 6.0
Sonic Foundry Vegas
Sonic Foundry DVD Creator

plugs
Universal Audio UAD-1 (with Fairchild and Cambridge)
Waves Platinum Plugin Bundle
Sonalksis eq plugin
Antares Mic Model

microphones
Neumann TLM-103
AKG Solidtube
Rode NT-1
Shure BG 4.1
Shure SM-58
Shure SM-57
Audio Technica ATM-10
(2) MXL 990's

monitors
Event 20/20
JBL Nearfield
Boston Acoustic A/70

mixdown
Tascam DA-30 DAT
Akai X-360D Reel to Reel
NAD 614 cassette

guitars
bunch of old Gibson, Fender, Martin, Gibson, Guild and Gretsch (including a real 1960 Les Paul Standard)

amps
old Fender, HiWatt, Marshall, Vox, Ampeg & Kustom - Newer Soldano SLO-100.