In recent threads both here and at CM/FM forums, people have asked for recommendations on systems, which is something fairly common and something I actually rarely get bored of. I get to live vicariously through somebody's new purchase.
For me, somebody investing in a new computer could potentially look at an Athlon64 (for example) with a gig of RAM, reasonable hard drive, and whatever audio card they're happy with, and I see nothing wrong with that. Sure, there's 'trailing edge' technology that will do most of these people fine, but you know-- if you've got the money for the system, these are all specs that I think are reasonable.
But inevitably, people will offer advice that takes this already powerful machine up to the next level... the level that I think of as "tweaker 3-D shooter-head mode" (OK, I've never used those words, but it conveys what I think, I suppose.
)What the hell kind of music are people MAKING with their machines that they need 2GB+ RAM and the penultimately fastest consumer CPU (overclocked, for some)?? Thank god most K-v-R people are sensible enough about hard drives and graphics cards, or every time someone asked for a recommendation they'd be told to buy a monster gaming machine.
When I got into this, I remember ProRec had a "Roll Your Own" article, in which the budget-but-still powerful DAW being built was based on a 1.0gHz Duron processor with 512(256?)RAM and 2 40-gig hard drives.
Now, I know times have changed... but they haven't changed THAT much. 96k/24-bit (I admit, I actually stick to 44.1k/16-bit) audio still takes up the same amount of space, still takes the same number of cycles to process, and still sounds the same when it comes through your sound card.
What happened to a bit of planning and care? I guess if you want to open a new track for each new take, keep that track's VSTs active all the time, and never pay attention to composition, you could quickly run out of resources, but come on!
Obviously, there are people out there who actually need the juice. Serious composers with a Giga set-up and orchestral arrangements... pro studios that can't afford to f**k around with their clients' time... and even hobbyists who are particularly ambitious.
But I know people on this forum who are getting by with a PIII-700mHz and doing just fine, and being quite productive, indeed.
My advice to people buying or building a new DAW-- yes, get yourself some power. Like I said, even a machine that seems more powerful than you really need is still fine. I'm planning to get an over-powerful machine, myself. But when it gets time to add on little bits and pieces that the tweak-heads swear will give you phenomenally improved performance, at least consider that you might not need the extra gig of RAM, and support one of the fine software developers out there (particularly the independents) by buying a plug-in instead.
That's not really the ultimate point of this thread, but now that it's made, it doesn't seem like such a bad one. The ultimate point is-- don't believe all the crap people tell you, use a bit of common sense and make an educated decision... for every good bit of advice in a public forum, you're likely to get 2 dodgy-to-mediocre pieces, so be careful to sift through them.
Greg
Max
rob