The Windows Based DAW Part II

In part I we briefly discussed using a PC running windows for a home music studio. In this segment we will talk about some of the specifics on PC hardware and the most important aspects of the computer as it relates to recording audio and MIDI.

Personally I would not recommend running using anything slower that a 1 Ghz processor 512 Megs of ram. The beefier your computer that more you will be able to do with it; such as recording multiple track, and the more tracks you will be able to have in a project.

The core of the Computer

I call the CUP (processor), Motherboard, and Ram (System Memory) the computer Core. These components will greatly impact your ability to work on your computer.

The CPU will provide the processing power such as applying effects to an audio file or compressing a .wav file to .mp3. The faster your processor the fast this task will complete, also some processors will perform this task faster than others. For example Intel based processors beat out AMD in compressing .wav to .mp3 in most benchmark tests.

Ram, also called Memory or System memory is where applications and programs are stored temporarily. If you don’t have enough ram you will begin to experience a dramatic slow down on your computer or if you run out when recording audio you may hear skips or other anomalies. The reason for this is when your computers memory gets full, your computer will move data on to a temporarily space on your hard drive which is much slower that memory. With memory you want as much as possible and it needs to run as fast as your mother board can handle.

The mother board is where everything plugs into and contains a component call the Chipset. The motherboard and the chipset really dictates what functions and how it is able to handles different components and interfaces, such as USB 2.0, Fire Wire, Blue Tooth, video card interface and PCI slots. This is important to note if your are using any sort or break out box, or PCI.

Another item that might that will get over looked is the video card. Music projects can get big and depending on you’re your creative environment, there may be a need to set up 2 monitors’ and having this abilities could be a great blessing.

One of the most important things you will find for a DAW is going to be the Sound Card. You will want a good quality sound card and depending on what you do with your computer. This should be something you take care in deciding, you want something that is going to meet your needs, maybe ever give you room to grow. This is one of the biggest decisions you will have to make with you DAW. Soundcards will not put out 24 bit digital at varying frequencies. Often when your purchase a sound card it will come bundled with software, and will talk more about that in another article. When choosing a sound card look at what you will be doing, what inputs will you need? What outputs will you need, does it need to be PC compatible, or Mac, or both? One thing I have run into is latency issues when recording when using consumer sound cards. There is nothing more frustrating than recording some killer track then when you play back being half a beat off. So, I would recommend staying clear of average consumer grade soundcards, and gaming cards. There are several company who make professional grade sound cards just for this purpose and I would feel investing In one of them would be very rewarding.

So far I have covered the basics of PC hardware as it relates to a DAW. I wanted to describe some basic components to give a tiny bit of insight on how the different parts will effect different processes in the recording process. The next two parts we will discuss more about software, both with your windows based operating system and an brief overview of your studio software suite.