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Soundcards

RAM Processors Drives
Motherboards Graphics PC's Perfect PC
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Soundcards Go to top

These days it seems like there's a new soundcard out every week. I obviously can't test them all, so I'll keep the dump list short... "Creative SoundBlaster"

If you are serious about your music, a SoundBlaster card is not for you.

It seems as if most VST problems can be solved by simply "getting rid of that SoundBlaster."

On a more technical note, I do not recommend ISA soundcards. Not only do ISA Legacy cards pose the possibility of conflicts and IRQ's that are not shareable, these cards are not as stable, and usually not as predictable, resulting in possible timing problems. They also have a larger demand on your CPU.

Your PCI bus is an average of 6-12 times faster then your ISA bus. And these days it's becoming much harder to find a professional quality ISA soundcard.

Many of today's shipping computers come with PCI soundcards, though they are usually not of high quality, never the less you can see that ISA Legacy cards are declining rapidly.

If you are serious about buying a good soundcard for VST I highly recommend a card with a ASIO or WDM driver.

Support for Windows NT may also be important, since Win98 is likely to be the last version of DOS/Windows (all versions after will be based on the NT or CE kernel).

Following are some cards I recommend for Cubase VST
(all cards below are PCI based)

* ASIO driver available
/ ASIO driver planned
* NT driver available
/ NT driver planned

(all of the above driver info is subject to change)

I highly recommend the RME Project Hammerfall, in conjunction with a RME or Apogee A/D-D/A converter for those looking for the best card, the highest quality analog I/O, and digital converters!

Those who need 8 analog in/out's, I recommend the Apogee AD-8000, or the RME ADI-8 Pro in conjunction with this card.

The Project Hammerfall currently supports ASIO 2.0 on NT and Windows 2000, which is quite a statement in itself.

 

RAM plays a much more significant factor in VST (32-bit) compared to the earlier Cubase (16-bit) versions.

This is a "rough recommendation" regarding RAM vs. 44.1kHz Audio Tracks.

Note that this chart is assuming you will also be running real-time effects, and expect to be able to multitask (in real-time) while playing.

1 - 3 tracks = 48 MB
4 - 6 tracks = 64 MB
7 - 12 tracks = 64 - 96 MB
13 - 18 tracks = 96 - 128 MB
18 - 24 tracks = 128 - 160 MB
24 - 96 tracks = 192+ MB

These are only rough estimations, based on my personal opinion, and experience. It is absolutely possible to play back many tracks with a minimal amount of RAM.

100MHz SDRAM is currently the fastest consumer memory, and is highly recommended for optimal performance.

Level 2 cache also plays a very important role in Cubase performance, notably how smooth your audio will play back. The more L2 cache the better.

Unless you have a Pentium Pro you should have no less then 512k L2 cache or your VST performance will suffer heavily.

Want to know "exactly" how much RAM you need for VST?
Click HERE!

 

Processors Go to top

I only recommend Intel processors. The Floating Point performance of the Cyrix and AMD processors is not very feasible for VST performance. Though these processors make great business and home purpose processors.

Note that VST and DirectX based audio effects consist of nearly 100% Floating Point calculations.

I recommend absolutely no less than a Pentium 166MHz if you plan on using any real-time effects what-so-ever. A Pentium 133MHz would be my minimum recommendation without the use of any real-time effects.

If you are in the market to buy a new processor, get a Pentium II or Pentium III. Don't be tempted by the prices you see on the AMD and Cyrix camp... you'll regret it (note: the Athlon might be a exception, though it has not been tested with VST yet).

Their are a lot of benchmarks out their, but in my opinion their is none more accurate then SpecBench's SPECfp95 for testing floating point performance, which is most essential to VST.

specfp95.gif (8874 bytes)
 

What's the deal with the G3? Is it really twice as fast?
Click Here!

 

Drives & Controllers Go to top

Steinberg recommends using a separate SCSI drive for your audio & midi files. I also feel very strongly about this. A dedicated SCSI drive is a must for anyone in need of reliable performance.

Though I additionally believe that a completely SCSI based system is the only way to go for optimal audio performance, as IDE does not support simultaneous access to other drives while data access is occurring there. Though the rate at which the IDE bus will toggle access is very quick (enough so to be able to use two drives simultaneously) it can still hinder your systems ability to obtain smooth and reliable performance.

How fast should your SCSI hard drive be? Just make sure it meets, or exceeds the following specs:
   8.5ms
   7,200rpms
   A / V compliant

Regarding SCSI controllers, any PCI Wide SCSI controller or faster will do. I personally recommend a Adaptec AHA-294x class controller.

ISA SCSI controllers are a bad choice for any professional media based system.

Do you really need SCSI? No. A very fast UltraDMA EIDE hard drive can yield good results. But if you're serious about your music you'll choose the interface of choice by virtually every professional artist using a computer based solution, SCSI.

 

Motherboards Go to top
Your motherboard is the foundation upon your computers devices. And in my opinion the most important part of a computer internals.

The three motherboard brands that have been tried and tested by many PC owners, and have received the highest quality rankings in most PC magazines are the following:
   ASUS
   Intel
   Iwill

What a motherboard needs for optimal audio/midi performance:
   AGP
   PCI Bridge (most boards with 5+ PCI slots have one)
   100MHz System Bus

AGP can actually help improve smooth audio performance. By using AGP you eliminate the possibility of a PCI graphics which can block your PCI bus, thus hindering audio performance dramatically.

Why do you want a PCI bridge? By placing your PCI soundcard, and your SCSI controller on separate PCI segments of the bridge you are eliminating the possibility of blocking your soundcards I/O's due to a wide SCSI burst data on your controller, which can result in audio glitches.

Why do you want a 100MHz system bus? Recent benchmarks have proved that by increasing the system bus speed from 66MHz to 100MHz greatly increases floating point performance. Floating point performance is extremely important regarding real-time VST / DirectX effects. As these effects consist of close to 100% floating point calculations.

Keep in mind, you'll need at least a 350MHz PII, and 100MHz SDRAM, to support the 100MHz system bus

 

Graphics Cards Go to top

2D Graphics performance is important in a audio/midi environment. A good 2D graphics card can actually reduce the amount of strain on your CPU when on screen visuals take place, resulting in smoother audio and midi performance.

I personally recommend a card with the following specifications:
   6MB or more
   64bit or higher
   PCI or AGP

If you use dual displays, or a resolution higher then 1024x768, it's best that your video card has at least 8MB of memory.

Go for the AGP!
AGP not only frees the PCI bus for PCI cards, it will also improve the performance for ISA cards. ISA cards are often accessed through the PCI bus, you maybe saw the PCI-to-ISA bridge's in the Device Manager. Any removal of video accesses on the PCI bus is good.

Check out VGA KILLS AUDIO
(older article... but still holds some valid points)

If you have a PCI Matrox card click here

 

Computer Manufacturers Go to top

Manufactures I recommend:
   WaveDigital
   Dell
   Quantex
   Gateway
   Intergraph

I do not recommend computers by:
   PackardBell

   Acer
   Compaq
   NEC

   IBM

Make sure your computer comes with the standard, full version, Windows 98 CD-ROM (not the computer manufactures version).

Also make sure you get all hardware drivers on disk(s). Many computers by PackardBell, some by Acer, and a few others will not give you accessible drivers or a standard Windows 98 CD-ROM. They will give you their own CD-ROM which can only restore your system to it's factory presets (via re-format only), including all the useless shareware, freeware, and outdated/problematic 16-bit software.

I highly recommend formatting your hard drive immediately upon receiving your computer, to avoid getting stuck in a setup that won't work properly. This is actually one of the most important steps in setting up any computer. If you are nervous about doing this, find someone that you trust. But whatever it takes, get it clean! Just make sure you do it before you start saving any new data disk.

 

"In a nut shell" Go to top
For those of you interested in knowing exactly what I recommend for optimal audio/midi performance I will post it below.
~
CPU: Pentium III 500MHz
Memory: 128MB 100MHz SDRAM (192MB or more if possible)
Motherboard: 100MHz bus compatible, w/ PCI Bridge
System Disk: preferably SCSI
Audio Disk: UltraWide SCSI, 8ms or less, 10,000rpm or faster
SCSI Controller: Adaptec
Video Card: AGP
Soundcard: PCI, high quality, has a ASIO or WDM driver
Monitor: 17" or larger (VST is great with two monitors)

"No ISA cards, if you can."
"No IDE Drives, if you can
"

In addition to this setup, you should place your soundcard in PCI slot 0 or 1 to give it first priority over your other PCI cards.

You should also place your SCSI controller on a separate segment of your PCI bridge to your soundcard. To do this, place your soundcard in PCI slot 0 or 1, and your SCSI controller in the very last slot.

Avoid using shared PCI / ISA slots (they can cause PnP havoc!).

If you use a Ultra Wide SCSI controller, you might need to limit your throughput to 10-20MB per second, via a control in your SCSI BIOS. Some users experience audio glitches when set to a higher value do to a PCI bus overload.

Note: 10MB per second is more then enough for 32 tracks at 16-bit 44.1kHz. The real advantage of SCSI is in it's reliable consistency during playback and recording, not it's data transfer rate.

Having a clean setup just for audio/midi is a very good idea. If possible you should use another computer for all your non-music tasks.

If you only have one computer for everything... install Windows, Cubase, etc., on a new partition, completely separate from everything else you do. The best way to do this is to use a software utility called "Partition Magic" by PowerQuest
http://www.powerquest.com/partitionmagic/
I highly recommend this product!

If you need a better boot manager, check out XOSL here!

You do not need this setup to obtain good audio/midi performance. This is simply my suggestion to those purchasing new computers specifically for audio and midi.

Good luck... and happy Cubasing!

Dan Duskin

 

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