Setting up a new DAW.

[zerocrossing]

I’m personally set, but my employer has contractual obligations with our publisher that stipulate our IT department needs control of the machines used to make assets for them.

The machine they provide is an i7 3.5. 32 gig of RAM and they’re putting in a 4 tb SSD. Probably good enough for most of their needs. No USB C, though, which makes me wonder what kind of audio interface is best. I’m assuming PCIe would be best, but I don’t know. I’ll probably recommend a small but good RME interface. Most instruments will be plugins or my guitars. Maybe a mic.

For a DAW, I’m thinking about Cubase Pro… maybe? I don’t know it, but it seems like it might be a better choice than Bitwig, which is what I use. Mostly I’ll be putting together short looped tracks for game music and SFX. Some voice over editing and processing.

For a controller… I’m hoping to convince them to help me upgrade my PolyBrute to the 12. It would then become my personal master keyboard and I would use my Kontrol S61 for my work build. If not… I’m not sure how I’ll be able to fit stuff. Maybe buy legs for the PolyBrute and use another Kontrol.

Ultimately, this will be awkward for me, space wise. So it has to be as compact as possible. Since all our audio comes out of an Oculus, headphones are fine. Better, actually.

[zerocrossing]

Bump

[Jim Roseberry]

Keep in mind that most audio interfaces that have USB-C ports are actually USB-2 devices.
They'll function just as well connected to a USB-2 port (via adapter or type-C>type-A cable).
If the audio interface is bus-powered (not my first choice), USB-C can carry more power.
That could affect mic preamps (if using phantom power).

[lfm]

Some interfaces clearly state that reason doing usb-c is just for power, if it is 0.9A or something compared to 0.5A. No need for extra adapter.
- I would not compromise that with adapter over to USB2
- if missing USB-C, look at extra cards adding those

In contact with RME over my Digiface USB they assured USB2 is enough doing 2x32 audio channels 48k or half doing 96k due to ADAT limitations on this interface, not USB2 limitations. And they even use USB2 only as connector too. Just digital electronics and a phone preamp, really.

[PAK]

PCIe choice is easy - an RME AIO. But $1,000 these days. The USB equivalent is the Fireface UCX II, which comes ready with more I/O (and a $1700 price.) There’s (obviously) the BabyFace if less I/O are required. You’re paying a premium for the driver / firmware support and TotalMix (which offers excellent routing options). USB will add ~0.5-1ms of latency, and PCIe will tend to sustain a higher CPU load before crackles. But, especially with modern CPU’s, your I/O requirements, and whether you want the card inside the case or not, should probably be larger factors for you.

The Polybrute 12 looks great. It’s main downside is there’s no track record to know how reliable the mechanism will be or issues which might arise. Not really any alternatives though, and I think it’s more interesting than a poly AT keyboard. The synth engine isn’t too shabby either. If someone has the budget, and doesn’t have to worry too much about it lasting them many years for the cost, then I’d say go for it.

DAW host choice is much too personal to give useful input. I think most DAW’s might be a step down from Bitwig in some options, and Cubase is maybe overkill for simpler use cases too. Definitely demo Cubase before a purchase as it’s been a bit of a mixed bag, on some PC configs, since version 12.

[_leras]

RME runs fine on USB 2. I'd highly recommend.

[vitocorleone123]

RME runs fine on USB 2. I'd highly recommend.

Babyface is the most economical with a mix of ports as long as the form factor works.

DAW: Cubase may be good. Could also do sketch work etc. on an iPad that way. My personal DAW choice is Studio One Pro.

[counterparty]

If you're doing VR stuff you might like an ambisonic mic! They aren't massively expensive as mics go (and you can get them second-hand etc).

[deepspeccode]

Regardless of what you use, download latencymon and test your systems for what is exactly eating the cpu. Those PCs are pretty well speced so with an rme it will be more then enough, also just consider how many inputs you need. for commercial i would say 8 minimum even if its not a "recording" studio. Rather get them when you set up so in the future you can accept most work.

Honestly i wouldnt reccomend cubase, yeah alot of clients associate cubase to a "Pro" setup.

Reaper can be tough to learn but when you are doing complicated or bulk audio editing it will completly eat cubase. Reaper "Actions" are basically custom cheat codes for your work. you just need to take the time to search them and know them