Advice on using old PC for computer recording appreciated

[CrystalWizard]

Yes, if you can afford the SSD it’s worth it in time saved and (as long as you get a decent one) more reliable. That machine should do fine for you needs.

What OS?

[21tones]

Crystal Wizard
It is Windows 10

[21tones]

Seismic1 - thanks for indicating similar specs worked fine.
Epiphanius and Planet Earth. I am thinking of the Motu M2 which gets good reviews.
This would connect through the existing USB 2 ports. any benefit in upgrading to USB 3 or C?

[planetearth]

Seismic1 - thanks for indicating similar specs worked fine.
Epiphanius and Planet Earth. I am thinking of the Motu M2 which gets good reviews.
This would connect through the existing USB 2 ports. any benefit in upgrading to USB 3 or C?

Avoid USB-C at all costs, since there are very few peripherals that can connect to it without an adapter, and I'm not aware of any audio interfaces that can.

USB-3 is faster than USB-2, but you won't see any benefit, and it's generally not available on "smaller" audio interfaces (those with fewer than 8 inputs and outputs).

Steve

[metamorphosis]

I'm coming back to home music recording after a decade or so away.
I can't really afford to buy a dedicated PC for this purpose and am thinking of using a 2011 HP desktop machine with the following specs
i5-2400 CPU @310ghz
8gb RAM (might be possible to expand this?)
1TB HDD - don't know what speed it revolves at.

I mainly do recording of guitars and bass and vocals, plus Jamstix drum software, and some VST instruments/effects for other sounds e.g. keyboards, saxophone and (rarely) strings.

On my old windows XP machine with 2gb RAM I was generally running up to 24 tracks without problems and don't expect to go beyond that. (But the last version of Jamstix seemed to be struggling)
I will be using Waveform 11 as a DAW, and am thinking of getting the Motu M2 as the audio interface.

For what I want to do will this setup be okay do you think?
Is there anything else I need to think about?

Thanks in anticipation of your response. I feel very out of date on all this and was never very techy anyway!

Download if you can find it, Tracktion 7 instead (also free). Less buggy in my experience, or rather, the bugs are less problematic. I'm getting poof crashes with Waveform11, which I never got with 7.

[codec_spurt]

fghjkl;

[Passing Bye]

Then again, need an old sound card. f**k getting an AWE64 Gold. I bought one of them back in the day. NO way is I gonna pay 300 quid for one now. Nice card though. I'll get something for 40 quid if I can, as long as it has midi.

I think you can get Digidesign Digi 001 for that amount of cash. maybe M-Audio Delta 1010 too.

[Dunbar]

Got this old win98 box up and running nice...

I'm using an old Win98 SE box too.

ASUS CUSL2 motherboard, 1Ghz CPU, 512mb RAM, 16Gig DOM drive. Cubase 5 (pre SX) for DAW duties. This system is lightening fast.

I use it as a host for an old Korg Oasys PCI synth board and a Yamaha SW1000XG with a PLG150-AN piggybacking.

[21tones]

Planet Earth
The Motu M2 I mentioned is USC-C, but compatible with USB-A. I don't know whether that will affect latency. I'll check with Motu.
Metamorphosis - thanks for the tip about T7. I was keen to get up to date software, and like the idea of the sandbox VST protection even with the free version of Waveform 11, but if it is buggy overall maybe it is not a good idea
Thanks for your responses

[codec_spurt]

jjj

[codec_spurt]

vbnm

[mgw38]

Avoid USB-C at all costs, since there are very few peripherals that can connect to it without an adapter, and I'm not aware of any audio interfaces that can.

There are quite a few audio interfaces that use usb-c. Most of the newer ones, actually.

[planetearth]

Avoid USB-C at all costs, since there are very few peripherals that can connect to it without an adapter, and I'm not aware of any audio interfaces that can.

There are quite a few audio interfaces that use usb-c. Most of the newer ones, actually.

If you know of some, would you mind posting links? Most of the ones I help people with haven't been "upgraded" to USB-C. If you know of some, the links might help others who are considering a new interface.

That said, if USB-C is relegated to the higher-end interfaces, that won't help people trying to use an old PC for recording. Those two groups of consumers are rarely in the same Venn diagram circle. Besides, higher-end interfaces almost certainly won't come with drivers for Windows 98, XP, Vista...or even Windows 7.

Steve

[mgw38]

Avoid USB-C at all costs, since there are very few peripherals that can connect to it without an adapter, and I'm not aware of any audio interfaces that can.

There are quite a few audio interfaces that use usb-c. Most of the newer ones, actually.

If you know of some, would you mind posting links? Most of the ones I help people with haven't been "upgraded" to USB-C. If you know of some, the links might help others who are considering a new interface.

Sure, the latest iterations of Focusrite Scarlett, Motu M-Series, Presonus Studio, Audient Evo all utilize USB-C. You will find a lot more, these are just the ones I can recite from memory.

[planetearth]

Avoid USB-C at all costs, since there are very few peripherals that can connect to it without an adapter, and I'm not aware of any audio interfaces that can.

There are quite a few audio interfaces that use usb-c. Most of the newer ones, actually.

If you know of some, would you mind posting links? Most of the ones I help people with haven't been "upgraded" to USB-C. If you know of some, the links might help others who are considering a new interface.

Sure, the latest iterations of Focusrite Scarlett, Motu M-Series, Presonus Studio, Audient Evo all utilize USB-C. You will find a lot more, these are just the ones I can recite from memory.

Good to know, thanks.

Steve