The PIII 1Gig should definitely achieve your goal. As I said, it isn't that high and I'm having a hard time seeing why you wouldn't be able to achieve it now.

Unfortunately you opened that big can of worms of processor/MB recommendations, and usually the people with the smallest winky needs to have the fastest most expensive system to make up for their lack of talent in using the tools they have. Sure we all would like to have the latest and greatest, but with technology if you try and keep up you'll be buying a new PC every 4 months, where you could be spending that money on something worth while like a good microphone, Mic/Pre amp, sound card, mixing board, headphone amp..etc. There's all these people in here sporting...I have a 1000Giga Hertz Pentium X, with a 256 bit 128Khz sound card with a 200dB signal to noise ratio, 1 million gig of quadrouple density PC1333333 RAM and because of that I'm so much better of an engineer than you. Then you ask them what kind of microphones do you have and what are you monitoring your mixes on? "Oh a radio shack SM58 clone and a pair of Audiovox speakers powered by my 1932 heath kit amplifier." Great!!!

Your video card could very well be a problem in your system. I've had many video card issues over the past years, that have always caused audio studering, lock-ups and such. Usually going to the manufacturers website and ensuring the latest driver for that particular OS has cured my problems. When building my DAWS, I always buy an older/cheaper card, that's had some developement history behind it. Everything has software behind it, and until it's been tried out on 10,000 systems, all the bugs aren't gonna be worked out. When I tell people, I have an ATI Rage card 4xAMR with 8MB of video ram on my DAW, they usually laugh. They say, what the heck you doing with that old slow poke card?....I usually reply...what the heck do I need great graphics performance when I'm recording "AUDIO"? My waveforms look just as good as the ones on your 1Gig video RAM 10X AMR, 5D MAX/MAX Gforce PRO/Ultimate Platinum edition. Now if I was using my DAW for Games and watching DVD movies like they are, then I might have a reason for all that, but my goal is stabability when doing audio work.

Couldn't agree more about the graphics card - I've kept mine through several updates now... it's not like I play games on my audio machine!

However all the Intel/AMD crap - I've been using AMD and it's fine, all I use that machine for is Audio, no glitches, no problems, Vegas 4, Vegas 3, Vegas 2.... and that's a system being used 10 hours a day.

I'm not saying Intel can't work either, I have no doubt that they can work equally well. However, if you want a machine template that really works, I can give out the exact specs of my machine, and you can be 99% sure it'll be perfect.

"usually the people with the smallest winky needs to have the fastest most expensive system..."

Boy, am I proud to say I only have an 850Mhz Athlon!!! :)

M

Now there's usin the old noggin...

This genius Rednputz is foolish enough to place personal feelings before PLAIN FACT as for computer parts. Yeaaaaaah. What a winner.

Naw, this kid is stupid enough to think I hold some kind of personal "grudge" or feelings against...get this...a processor. Yeah kiddo, there ya go genius.
Your on a rednroll.

The only reason to choose AMD for your DAW is based on shaving a meager amount of $ -which should tell you something right there.

AMD vs. Intel/Intel for a DAW? With the OCability factor now leveling the playing field??? Are you f-ing kidding me?
The answer has been quite clear for a while now:
Intel/Intel. Disregard the meager penny pinchin goombahs.

RED: (best spock voice) You have... and will always be... a moron

JoeD

How's those Radio Shack mics and Audiovox monitors been working for ya Angelica?

"(best spock voice)"
You also have a nice way with words.

<<How's those Radio Shack mics and Audiovox monitors been working for ya Angelica?>>>

Whaaaa???
Is that some sort of comeback? Pathetic.

If Seinheiser, Earthwrks, Oktava, Neuman, AKG, Shure Rode mics and Mackie/Tannoy monitors are radio shack/audiovox to you, then they're doing jussss fine....

Auto surround sound BOY (lol).
(Do you also install those fruity mini-van DVD jobbies as well?)

Back to my point with you:
Just LEAVE MY NAME OUT OF YOUR TIRED REPLIES FROM NOW ON AND YOU AND I WILL GET ALONG GREAT. In other words - beat it kid.
Go talk to this "angelica" instead and bore his/her ear off.

JoeD

winkies?
**besides the fact you refer to them as "winkies" (whoa - kinda telling).

I don't take info on computer components or name brands personally, but it seems you do.
However, because you mentioned it you may find it interesting I paid less for better Intel/Intel performance than you did on your AMD "incredible deal" ya got there ace.

Please research a bit before you speak next time, ok sweetcheeks?

And now at this point I'll add leaving references to my "cock" out of your posts along with my name (and urge you to at least try the female of the species before you knock it).

hugs n kisses,
JoeD

More of the same... :(
SSDD (same sh*t, different day)


M

Talking to redhead only myst.
Relax.

JD

Well, all I was looking for in the start of this debate-gone-bad was opinions regarding a new motherboard and processor. As it were, I just swapped my Celeron 600 with a PIII 1 gig, added another PC133 stick of 256 mb (512 total), added another 7200 rpm drive for my audio folders. Improved, but still get choked with certain plugs (Antares auto tune and RGC audio reverb). I'm onto my video card as next area of suspicion.

I find it interesting that the deeper these threads get the more adversarial they become. I think we should all remember that we share a common interest here and at least in my case, have received useful information from people who think each other is full of shit. Again, thank you all for the info, and peace....

Larryo, did you try finding a site that shows you how to optimize your O.S. for audio?
You also mentioned switching to XP was a possiblity in the future. I would say that XP is very stable, but make sure all your existing hardware is compatible with XP.
I lost use of one of my soundcards and my videocard because they weren't supported in XP. So be aware that switching might cost more than you thought. What vidocard do you have, are the drivers up to date?

M

MyST, I am still using 98SE, haven't yet switched to XP. I haven't really messed with the OS, other than the usual recommendations. I have everything disabled from start up except explorer and systray, DMA enabled, separate disk for audio folders (both 7200 rpm), etc. I don't know if there are any changes that should be done to the BIOS, tho. My vid card is a "Jaton Corp, video 97 AGP" something or other. I just loaded in the newest driver. I really do think my limitations arise with multiple plugs. I also wonder if my old SCSI CD-R is stealing anything since it is occupying a PCI slot(?). Yesterday I opened a 24/44.1 project with 6 mono tracks and 1 stereo track. I added SF compression to 3 tracks, antares autotune to 3 tracks, and RGC audio room reverb to 3 tracks. When I hit play I watch my RAM meter increment upwards from, like 25/512 to 279/512, no audio, then an error popped up with some "you lose" text. When I unchained Antares, it worked. While other top heavy projects now play without glitching, I was expecting more than a nominal improvement going from a 600 celeron to 1 gig P3. I do have to play with it more, tho' to get a true indication of my improvements.

"I added SF compression to 3 tracks, antares autotune to 3 tracks,..."

O.K., this is where my hobbyist status will probably stick out like a sore thumb, but...
Did you add the compression/autotune to individual tracks, or did you run them through a buss then add the compression/autotune?
I'll admit I don't know much about busses, but I think this is what they're for.
Again, sorry if this is out in left field, but I'm trying to help with whatever ideas I have.

M

MyST - I added the plugs to the individual tracks. I have messed with busses and tried applying plugs to the buss when it's convenient, and that does free up some space. What I'm trying to avoid is applying non-real time effects. I guess I could do that and create separate tracks so that in the future when I inevitably will want to change something, I'll still have the flat file.

Just so you know, and dont keep proving yourself an ignoramus calling JoeD "angelica".

Angelic is a producer/scout/sort of record company

http://angelicrecords.tripod.com/pre_production/

not part of StudioZ/Pipelineaudio and as far as I know not part of JoeD's stuff either, just a Sonar user who would rather spend more time on Vegas, maybe Vegas 4 will bring him around to the light

Unbelievable...

Pipe, why turn this back into a mudslinging thread? Larryo has a legit problem. Can't he get help for the more experienced Vegas users here (which all three of you are)? You know your post will undoubtedly bring a reply. I thought you had "ignored" Rednroll. Couldn't go without his knowledge? Don't bother defending any reason/excuse for removing him from the "ignore" status, cuz if he's no use to you, you would have kept ignoring him.
Unreal! Couldn't you have at least attempted to find a solution for larryo while you were on this thread? You "Pros" are so busy putting each other down, it's hobbyists like me that have to try and help fellow users. The worst part is you guys could probably find a solution for him in no time. That's a shame.

Larryo, when you ran your tracks through the buss, were you still having problems?

M

As a solution to the problem who knows? Im the one who breaks everything. Every app, every plugin, every mobo, every cpu, every soundcard.

I think rednroll was right if he was the one who said just try the P3 instead of the celeron, and I have to disagree with JoeD about the P4. I have tried multiple different P4 setups now and they all seem WEIRD. I swear my P3 700 was WAY faster than any P4 setup Ive tried so far, at least in vegas. But then again, I see ZILLIONS of problems with athalon setups in every app I can think of, and many soundcards dont seem to like it either

"I thought you had "ignored" Rednroll. Couldn't go without his knowledge?"

forget that!!! I had to unignore him because I cant see any posts below his, if I do

anyhow I would LOVE to see someplace anywhere where there were exact specific setups, with exact specific settings, exact specific hardware, bios setups, etc... and some sort of relevant performance benchmarks

I mean, this is the sort of thing I was going thru with RME: they listed a pretty specific setup of hardware on their site, at different levels, but wont tell you a thing about setting it up no matter how much you ask. And in stock form, their hardware setup is PITIFUL in Vegas, terribly pitiful

I would be happy to list EXACT combos NOT to get

My one crowning success machine, is only good for 16 channels, and if thats enough here it is:

Mobo: Supermicro P6DBE
CPU: Dual Pentium 3 700
Ram: 512megs cheapass SDRAM
Video Card: Matrox G-400 Dual Head
CDROM: TEAC CDR
System Drive: Seagate Barracuda ST series 40 gig 7200 RPM, running on internal IDE 0
Promise UDMA100 controller
Audio on software raid defined by windows XP on two Seagate Barracuda ST 40 gig each
Storage/Guest Drive: Seagate ST series 40 gig on Inclose Removable Drive Bay
Soundcard: Soundscape Mixtreme PCI with SPDIF option

now most likely I could throw away the software raid thing and just run a Western Digital JB Jumbo Buffer drive instead, Im just saying this exact setup works and it works VERY well! If there were a way to get more channels of I/O and not completely screw the pooch, Id still be using this machine. As it is now, the machine has become my home setup for some mixing, editing, futzing around and playing Gloom, which it excels at
www.planetgloom.com

Id LOVE to see a specific setup to handle 24 to 32 channels of I/O. I could give you the specs of the one I work on now, but it is problem city

<<What I'm trying to avoid is applying non-real time effects.>>

With systems of low or moderate power this may be something you will faced with from time to time - especially when using many plugins or some that are cpu intensive. Autotune certainly falls into this category. Also, I haven't found a need to keep the "out of tune" tracks. ;-)

drbam

<I haven't found a need to keep the "out of tune" tracks>

absolutely correct - I have no use for out of tune tracks. I was using Antares as a test to see how my system responded after tossing in the 1 gig PIII. I was able to dramatically reduce my playback buffer before skipping. I was able to push a few projects just a little harder before hearing any gapping. I just thought I could go nuts, ya know?? Somewhere I saw someone refer to a link where I can download a program that measures just how hungry open apps are. Anyone know the link??? I downloaded a free reverb plug (rgc) and this thing seems to have a voracious appetite. I do have improved performance when applying a plug to a buss, such as compression/reverb to a background voc buss with 3 parts. The thing I have to play with is knowing when enough is enough: I'll be recording away with multiple tracks with no glitches. Then, come rendering/mastering time when I pull out the plugs, I find I can't even get a good ear into the project because of the skipping/gapping. Also, I created a "temp storage folder" in my audio drive. Before it was in my boot disk. I assume that now that I have 2 drives I should keep ALL audio data flowing to "D" (?).

"reverb plug (rgc) and this thing seems to have a voracious appetite"

It must! I can run several Acoustic Mirrors (quality 3, impulses read from the CD even), many other plug-ins in each track with no problems. Add that Rgc reverb and bloowee! Gapping at the least and sometimes a freeze. Similar results in CW. I quit using it some time ago because of this. Other Rgc plug-ins I have work fine though.

MJ

"Unreal! Couldn't you have at least attempted to find a solution for larryo while you were on this thread?"

Exactly Myst!!! Isn't that what I tried to do? I even endorsed the Pentium III he suggested. Didn't I even mention I own a P3 along with an Athlon in a previous post? It's easy to come in and say, spend another $5K and buy a quadrouple P4 with a SCSI RAID, and 5 Gig or RAM blah..blah.<insert more JoeD blabber here>.yada yada... Who doesn't already know that answer? Throw enough money at any problem and it'll go away. I noticed his goals weren't very high, and should be obtainable with minimal cost with the system he currently has. I can easily achieve his goal on my 700 Mhz Athlog 1.1Gig of RAM system. I suspect something needs to be tuned within his system....and was just trying to help.

I currently see 5 JoeD posts in this thread....I don't see 1 line of helpful information. Yet he tries to attack my lively hood.

"Auto surround sound BOY (lol).
(Do you also install those fruity mini-van DVD jobbies as well?)"