1- Why some musicians buy a pricey internal desktopPC audio card if they already have a great external audio card? As film composer do I need a good internal PC audio card or not? (I already have external focusrite)
2- What motherboard max 250$ do you suggest for music? I just wanted with nvme, USB3 ports, Wifi and ethernet. Do I need some else too? (This PC is only for music work.)
3- Since intel 10gen has more single core frequency, can I use that to build new pc or is better 12gen ?
4- For using Vienna VEP 7 do I need 2 ethernet connectors on motherboard or I can add a simple network card with ethernet port in PCI-E x1 ? Is 2.5 ethernet important?
5- Do I need SATA 6gbps if I use external SSDs with USB3 ?
Questions on new PC build for music film scoring
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- KVRAF
- 7120 posts since 22 Jan, 2005 from Sweden
1. external audio interfaces usually are usb or thunderbolt.
- regarding usb I don't trust it to be as stable doing audio too
- midi interfaces are usb and they also mess up sometimes when glitches on power or just a fluoroscent lamp with transformer that you have to restart those.
With such heavy audio going on in and out if many channels I just rely more on internal card that never gave any head ache.
2. latest gen cpu's seem to use LGA 1700 socket so any MB with that. I'm looking at an Asus Prime Z690-P which do DDR5 but settled for the Z690-P D4 that do DDR4 only which is good enough.
3. just any would suffice. I doubt we notice difference with those that divides cores into performance cores and such. Not sure if OS or software need special optimization for using that.
4. to find MB with two rj45 connectors would be rare and limit your options. If you have both wifi and rj45 is even that rare what I saw, but I have and 18 year old Dell that do. MB come in either specification to optimize performance I think.
So if VEP need separate network card I am not sure why that would be.
What determine speed is router and if that is 100 Mbps or more and might be a bottle neck. So maybe VEP is recommended two computers with 2.5 Gbps or 1 Gbps and no bottlenecks. Cable straight between two computers, they usually have autosense to swap cords from cable.
6. if the highest specifications for usb 3 is to be used internal specs better with 6 Gbps, but don't think there are computers newer than 5 years that does not have that. I got a usb 3 card for a 12 year old with 3 Gbps SATA, and that give the same speeds doing backups to external hdd as a new laptop with proper usb 3 built in. Disk seem to take 1.5 Gbps or so on either of those computers doing backups.
- regarding usb I don't trust it to be as stable doing audio too
- midi interfaces are usb and they also mess up sometimes when glitches on power or just a fluoroscent lamp with transformer that you have to restart those.
With such heavy audio going on in and out if many channels I just rely more on internal card that never gave any head ache.
2. latest gen cpu's seem to use LGA 1700 socket so any MB with that. I'm looking at an Asus Prime Z690-P which do DDR5 but settled for the Z690-P D4 that do DDR4 only which is good enough.
3. just any would suffice. I doubt we notice difference with those that divides cores into performance cores and such. Not sure if OS or software need special optimization for using that.
4. to find MB with two rj45 connectors would be rare and limit your options. If you have both wifi and rj45 is even that rare what I saw, but I have and 18 year old Dell that do. MB come in either specification to optimize performance I think.
So if VEP need separate network card I am not sure why that would be.
What determine speed is router and if that is 100 Mbps or more and might be a bottle neck. So maybe VEP is recommended two computers with 2.5 Gbps or 1 Gbps and no bottlenecks. Cable straight between two computers, they usually have autosense to swap cords from cable.
6. if the highest specifications for usb 3 is to be used internal specs better with 6 Gbps, but don't think there are computers newer than 5 years that does not have that. I got a usb 3 card for a 12 year old with 3 Gbps SATA, and that give the same speeds doing backups to external hdd as a new laptop with proper usb 3 built in. Disk seem to take 1.5 Gbps or so on either of those computers doing backups.
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- KVRer
- Topic Starter
- 3 posts since 4 Jan, 2023
Don't know why I miss your answer, sorry...
So you won't ever use an external audio USB card, but always only internal?
Can you suggest me some worth (for both around 300$ and 700$)??
Now about USB if you don't trust that means you should avoid USB piano keyboard too, right? How do you solve this? Do you use 5pin MIDI cable to audio interface, you think it's better?
Sorry I didn't understand the thing about "they usually have autosense to swap cords from cable"... what you mean?
another thing about latency I'm worried about is the compatibility between PC pieces. I heard if you got that wrong can cause problems of latency
Anyway what should I buy to protect PC and instrumentation from electricity problems and blackouts?
That's a thing I was wondering too... Could USB in motherboard create latency problems too and if could be better buying a separate PCIe card with USB ports to connect my external audio card there?
So you won't ever use an external audio USB card, but always only internal?
Can you suggest me some worth (for both around 300$ and 700$)??
Now about USB if you don't trust that means you should avoid USB piano keyboard too, right? How do you solve this? Do you use 5pin MIDI cable to audio interface, you think it's better?
Sorry I didn't understand the thing about "they usually have autosense to swap cords from cable"... what you mean?
another thing about latency I'm worried about is the compatibility between PC pieces. I heard if you got that wrong can cause problems of latency
Anyway what should I buy to protect PC and instrumentation from electricity problems and blackouts?
That's a thing I was wondering too... Could USB in motherboard create latency problems too and if could be better buying a separate PCIe card with USB ports to connect my external audio card there?
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- KVRAF
- 7120 posts since 22 Jan, 2005 from Sweden
If you use a dedicated 5-pin din midi interface with usb that is the actuall product and possible drivers for it or class compliant is focused on that. So I choose midi gear that have din midi as well so I can use that.
Another reason is that din midi is a clever design and can easily have 10m cables without any issues
- it is also electrically isolated one unit to another since a opto coupler in one end
- this means your studio does not create ground loop issues that way, one problem less to think about
USB both make units electrically the same ground and limit length of cables. I started having issues already with 2m cables. If you have ground going both via usb and then also do audio from synth gear you already have many ways for ground.
With lots of usb devices not seldom create issues if one unit is not connected or powered up every time computer is started. Especially if one usb midi is using another port next time and you suddenly have different order of midi ports and need to fix in daw a bit.
Even picking just a midi keyboard I would look at it having din midi as well.
Autosense network cords meant that when connecting via a switch or hub for network, which is most common, the two cables need not to swap in one end, or sometimes called a crossed cable, but when connecting one network card directly to another wires normally need to be swapped. What is signal and what is ground you could say to simplify a bit, but really is two voltages and one positive and one negative. Most network devices sense this automatically nowadays - this one is positive voltage and adapt accordingly etc.
Choosing networks cards as wifi or cabled can make a difference for audio. Wifi often, at least historically, have had high DPC latency(deferred procedure call) and may occupy busses too long as network data is transferred and when audio buffers need to have access too not to create crackles. So standard recommendation was often to disable wifi card if any to avoid crackles. There are software called DPC latency monitors where you can check how long is longest DPC holding busses and if within limits and if that is causing the crackles you might have. But also some settings in bios that can affect latency, don't remember what it was called.
Otherwise I don't see much in choice of computer parts cause problems.
- motherboard defines most things, what usb connectors are there, how many expansion slots are there
- power supply strong enough for the best quality graphics cards, vendor has specs for that
- a 2-slot wide expansion slot to pick any graphics card you want, some occupy two slots
I am now going to try an usb based audio interface, so not carved in stone what to pick. Future will tell if I did a mistake.
About doing video a few things about daws
- I ran Cubase 9.5 and the new video engine was horrible high cpu load
- if that improved since I don't know, but I abandoned Cubase because of that
- it was some security issue with former quicktime engine that many used
Other daws I used as Sonar/cakewalk is what I currently use, or Studio One and Reaper use a fraction cpu for the same project doing video. Less than a third. But I use 1080p as preview video in daw too, one can always generate lower resolution if computer does not make it.
Protection of electricity I did not do since not common where I lived to cause problems with thunder or spikes on power grid and such. But hear that many recommend that in different parts of the world.
A couple if years ago I did use a double converter to stabilize grid power to perfect 230V AC/50 Hz as it is here. Voltages dropped down to 170VAC sometimes. This was until electric company did maintenance and remade the entire grid with components better suited for the load on that grid. This was far out on the country side.
Anecdote...
I found on youtube that Brian May used a converter to always get the perfect power to his Vox AC30 amps where ever he went in the world. He preferred 234 VAC 50Hz, then his amps sounded right. Anod voltages to tube are close to rectifying grid voltage straight in, 400VDC or so. So can make a difference how it sounds if grid voltage vary too much. Funny story....
Another reason is that din midi is a clever design and can easily have 10m cables without any issues
- it is also electrically isolated one unit to another since a opto coupler in one end
- this means your studio does not create ground loop issues that way, one problem less to think about
USB both make units electrically the same ground and limit length of cables. I started having issues already with 2m cables. If you have ground going both via usb and then also do audio from synth gear you already have many ways for ground.
With lots of usb devices not seldom create issues if one unit is not connected or powered up every time computer is started. Especially if one usb midi is using another port next time and you suddenly have different order of midi ports and need to fix in daw a bit.
Even picking just a midi keyboard I would look at it having din midi as well.
Autosense network cords meant that when connecting via a switch or hub for network, which is most common, the two cables need not to swap in one end, or sometimes called a crossed cable, but when connecting one network card directly to another wires normally need to be swapped. What is signal and what is ground you could say to simplify a bit, but really is two voltages and one positive and one negative. Most network devices sense this automatically nowadays - this one is positive voltage and adapt accordingly etc.
Choosing networks cards as wifi or cabled can make a difference for audio. Wifi often, at least historically, have had high DPC latency(deferred procedure call) and may occupy busses too long as network data is transferred and when audio buffers need to have access too not to create crackles. So standard recommendation was often to disable wifi card if any to avoid crackles. There are software called DPC latency monitors where you can check how long is longest DPC holding busses and if within limits and if that is causing the crackles you might have. But also some settings in bios that can affect latency, don't remember what it was called.
Otherwise I don't see much in choice of computer parts cause problems.
- motherboard defines most things, what usb connectors are there, how many expansion slots are there
- power supply strong enough for the best quality graphics cards, vendor has specs for that
- a 2-slot wide expansion slot to pick any graphics card you want, some occupy two slots
I am now going to try an usb based audio interface, so not carved in stone what to pick. Future will tell if I did a mistake.
About doing video a few things about daws
- I ran Cubase 9.5 and the new video engine was horrible high cpu load
- if that improved since I don't know, but I abandoned Cubase because of that
- it was some security issue with former quicktime engine that many used
Other daws I used as Sonar/cakewalk is what I currently use, or Studio One and Reaper use a fraction cpu for the same project doing video. Less than a third. But I use 1080p as preview video in daw too, one can always generate lower resolution if computer does not make it.
Protection of electricity I did not do since not common where I lived to cause problems with thunder or spikes on power grid and such. But hear that many recommend that in different parts of the world.
A couple if years ago I did use a double converter to stabilize grid power to perfect 230V AC/50 Hz as it is here. Voltages dropped down to 170VAC sometimes. This was until electric company did maintenance and remade the entire grid with components better suited for the load on that grid. This was far out on the country side.
Anecdote...
I found on youtube that Brian May used a converter to always get the perfect power to his Vox AC30 amps where ever he went in the world. He preferred 234 VAC 50Hz, then his amps sounded right. Anod voltages to tube are close to rectifying grid voltage straight in, 400VDC or so. So can make a difference how it sounds if grid voltage vary too much. Funny story....