I am building a pc for music making using old parts,i have a old Casio keyboard that has midi output/input.
What i plan to do with it is i plan to have the music keyboard on top of the desk in front of the monitors,the keyboard and mouse will be on a pull out keyboard tray,thet music keyboard will be hooked up to the pc and i can them just have the pc record what i am playing on the keyboard,so i can then edit it into real music,i also have a pioneer 5.1 av receiver and some old speakers to use with it.
I know sound cards are important and i have 3 PCI sound cards lying around,but i don't know which to use,here are the sound card i have.
I know exactly where the first 2 sound cards are,but i will have to dig out and find the last one,which i think might be the best one,but i have never heard of it before,so i don't know for sure.
As for the tower i have no idea what the specs need to be for it,if some one can tell what specs i need i can see what parts i have.
Also if you guys can give me suggestions on what programs and/or OS to install on it,because i have never done this before,but am wanting to teach myself music production.
I suppose you're familiar with PC components. Get a setup together for just about under $400-$300, it should do the trick. OS - Windows. As for the music making software, I haven't come across anything else besides FL studio, so in this case, wait for other guys to reply, or wonder around the Internet and see what's the best, here's just a sample link.
I know pc's,i have a custom built one that i am typing on now,i am not spending money on it,i plan to use old parts i have lying around.
Questions that might help,would an old single core be enough or does it need to be a dual core? What clock speed does it need to be? Does it need to be over 3Ghz? Can it be lower than that? Can it be under 2ghz?
Cause i have old pc's ranging from a old dell with a 1ghz p3,all the way up to a 2.8ghz dual core,and tons of old ram.
But i also don't want to use a pc that will be over kill,cause the pc will be used for this task and this task only.
My friend currently used FL Studio to produce music on his laptop with 3GB of ram and I think an Intel T6600 (Pentium at 2.2ghz I think), and his CPU spikes to 100% when he begins to play a 1min song that he made (before rendered, in fl studio).
Depending on what processor you have that is a dual core at 2.8ghz, you may be fine. I think basically any core 2 duo above 2.6ghz/core 2 quad above 2.4ghz will be perfectly fine. Of course, the better the processor you use, the faster your rendering time will be, and the more things you could do in the background.
I don't plan to run any other programs in the backround,cause this pc will only be used for making music.
I am guessing a Single core would not work? lol I have 3 different single core i could use lol a sempron 3300+ @2.2ghz and a athlon 3300+ @2.4ghz and a intel celeron D(but not dual core)@ 3.2ghz.
But it has to be a dual core the dual core i have is an AMD Athlon 5600+ @ 2.8Ghz
The AMD Athlon 5600+ would perform MUCH better than the Celeron 352 (what you have), but it still isn't very powerful. That AMD is about as powerful as my friends laptop, which CAN run FL Studio, but expect to lag every once in a while if you plan to use it.
As for ram, you can get away with 3GB (although I wouldn't really recommend it). Don't install any more than 8GB of ram since it would be a waste with those processors.
If you are willing to spend around $50 or maybe less, you may be able to get a core 2 duo E7400 or something similar, or if you're lucky, a core 2 quad q6600, both of which would perform so much better than the AMD and the Celeron 352. You could install the c2q/c2d processors into the same board that the Celeron is inside because it runs the same socket (775), but the motherboard may need a bios update before you can use the processors.
Edit: An Intel core 2 duo e7400 WOULD NOT be a huge amount faster than the amd, but it still would be faster. If you're willing to buy a new processor, go for a core 2 quad with a clockspeed of around 2.4ghz, but of course, the higher the clock, the better.
If you aren't willing to spend any money, use the AMD 5600+ with at least 3GB of ram. Any less, and you may have some trouble. I don't think using more than 6GB with that processor would be worth it.
I have 6 GB of ddr2 in the system that has the x2 5600+ is that enough?
Right now i don't have any extra money to put into it,but in a month i will get income tax and with it i plan to build a new main Rig,and since i live with my sister right now i will be passing down my current rig(8150+8gb+270x) to her,and her current system(q9450+4gb+460SE),then it will use that to upgrade her son from a E5400+4gb+GT240,and then i will use his to upgrade his sister from a dell with a Pentium D 820+3gb+x600. lol
Do you think the Pentium D 820 would do any better than the 5600+,since the Pentium D would no longer be in use after upgrading everone?
Problems during rendering may happen to you as well as the CPU might be on full load during that process, so consider making the music on the PC that you currently want to build, but render it on your main one. Hope that helps.
6GB of ram would be enough for the 5600+, so there's no point in adding/removing any if you don't need to.
No, that Pentium D 820 is from 2005, so it would not be faster than the AMD 5600+. The amd is from 2012.
If you have a system with an 8150, why not just use that to produce and render the music? It would be so much faster and better, or you could take @Toaster advice by producing the music on the AMD 5600+ and then transfer it over to the 8150 for rendering (no clue how you would transfer it over, since I personally don't use FL Studio, my best friend does).
If I remember correctly FL studio (for example) saves songs as projects (just as Photoshop saves them as .psd, etc.), so after finishing it on the PC we're trying to build, move it to your main one (possibly on an SSD, so it speeds up the process; also make sure to have FL studio installed on that SSD as well) and just render it there.
if all your doing is editing music the Athlon64 X2 5600+ should work fine.
that said you can get an intel core 2 duo 8400 for $12+ shipping which should be no more then $10 off this site if you want something with more power .
also be sure to use windows XP or 8 because windows 7 can output sound to a sound card but it can't offload processing to it. at least not with-out a special driver and software to manage it.
not sure what kind of stuff your editing but most songs only use maybe 250mb max and that's if you were doing it lossless with 7.1 surround sound. so you could easily get away with 1gb of ram.
I will most likely do what toaster says,because i want to have the keyboard setup and to stay setup,i don't want to spend 15 minutes hooking it up just to unhook it an hour or 2 later.
Toaster suggested i use the ASUS Xonar DG sound card with it,but i have been been looking at the last card which is E-MU and is made by Creative and it is suppose to be a professional grade card. here is some info copy and pasted from the web site.
"The E-MU® 0404 PCIe Digital Audio System delivers everything you need to produce audio on a PC at a breakthrough price - pristine 24-bit/192kHz converters, hardware-accelerated effects and mixing, and seamless compatibility with your favorite PC audio/sequencer software. The 0404 PCIe also ships with ASIO2 and WDM drivers for Windows XP, XP x64, Windows Vista and Vista x64.The E-MU 0404 Digital Audio System offers the same hardware acceleration as the rest of E-MU's Digital Audio Systems, providing you with professional sound quality and powerful DSP an affordable price."
you can look at its specs here www.creative.com/emu/products/product.aspx?pid=20022
Should i go with that or should i just go with the ASUS?
the asus is the better choice since it has a lower signal to noise ratio which should mean cleaner sound input. just make sure any effects are disabled.
that said you might want to test the cards first. some sound cards have trouble recreating sounds accurately. ie: they emulate the sound of a Tuba but distort when trying to emulate a Flute. it depends on the cards midi controller.