 |
Soundcards |
RAM |
Processors |
Drives |
Motherboards |
Graphics |
PC's |
Perfect
PC |
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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.

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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!

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

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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.

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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
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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

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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.

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For those of you interested in knowing exactly
what I recommend for optimal audio/midi performance I will post it
below.
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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!
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Dan
Duskin |
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