Remember how I said that I was sticking with Mac...?

I feel your pain!

Are you running an external firewire sound card or you using the built in one?

Sammy, CPU is a CPU, a softsynth with the same code will perform almost equally fast or slow on any OS, unless there's a lot of stuff involved with memory management, disk access, etc. Macs are still faster here, maybe not THAT faster in some cases, but faster nonetheless. In addition, you might have noticed there's a different user interaction paradigm which fits human nature dramatically well and incomparably better than Windows or other systems. If you did not get this... well, I just can't comment this. It's like saying you "did not get the sunshine".

Put your own computer together man. Ebay or Amazon sell componants at ok prices. iam holding out till i can get a dual cpu motherboard really cheap, then i will get 2 AMD'S dual processor dirt cheap to put them in. I may even bang in 2 quad cpu's. You got the software right?. With time and a little bit of knowhow, you could make yourself a monster!!

Artemio and Lazerfist:

I don't know exactly what I'm going to do yet, but I am pretty much still dead-set on getting that Receptor thing. Yes, it is a pain in the ass to use, and no, I don't WANT to spend an extra $2,000, but hey -- the thing works. Everyone out there all say the same thing -- the Receptor does kick ass. (If Creamware still made the NoAh, and if it did what the Receptor could do, then I would consider that instead, but it is moot because they don't make it and it never had the suppor that the Receptor does).

And yeah, I've considered buidling my own PC, or upgrading drasitcally my Spectral. But I'm not so sure that I want to spend that kind of time on trying to do something that I could just do using what I pretty much own.

Yeah, you are all correct. That is the problem, plus my creativity as at an all-time low. But fear not -- I will figure all of this stuff out. I am pretty sharp, and it is only a matter of time before I put it all together. If all of this computer music stuff were EASY, we would have a lot of music producers out ther-- oh yeah -- we DO have a superglut of people who THINK that they are "producers." When I was a kid (snickering) producers had to use TAPE. And a "sampler" WAS a box with a tiny little LCD on it, and had 512 Megs (IF you were lucky...) So, I guess that I should just shut up and thank my lucky stars that I never have to clean another tape head ever again...

Thanks for the hand-holding stuff. Seriously. I do appreciate it a lot.

Take care.

- Sammy

Hey --

I thought that I had already responded, but I must have done something wrong with my browser. Anyway, here's the response to all three who took the time to reply:

- Artemio: Yes, you are pretty much correct. The "Human" element of the OS is something that I could actually do without, but it doesn't matter that much. I suppose that if I give it a chance, then it will probably grow on me... like the fungus that is growing on my --

Anyway...

- LazerFist: I have considered doing exactly that, but I just don't feel like it. I don't mind the Mac enough to want to replace it with a Frankenstein's monster that may or may not work properly.

- Chanders: I am using the M-Audio FireWrie Solo It is way better than the interal sound card, which would give me anywhere from 12 to 18 milliseconds of latency, so the interface is essential. However, when I (finally) get that Receptor THAT I HAVE BEEN TALKING ABOUT INCESSANTLY for the last TWENTY @#$!@ YEARS (sorry -- yelling at myself, not at you or anyone else here!) then I will probably be in better straits.

The nice thing about the Receptor is that you can use it as your audio interface, in addition to being the synth in your system. According to the manual, it is best to connect it to your audio interface anyway and use a pair of digital coaxial cables to ensure proper sample-rate timing between the computer and the Receptor. I'll be all set, because the Solo does, in fact, have a nice S/PDIF in/out on the back.

They also suggest in the manual that you set the Receptor's audio buffer size to twice of what your sequencer uses. So, Cubase has 64 audio buffers as its minimum; setting this to 128 in the Receptor will most likely yield about 2-3 ms of latency, which I can definitely live with. (Right now, I'm getting about 4-8 ms at 128 buffers, or 5-10 ms at 256. This is not as good as it sounds, because as I have previously mentioned -- I can only run about 6-8 VSTi synths before I begin to overtax the processor.)

I hate to say this, because I know that I'm going to sound like a HUGE dick, but let's face it -- I can play rings around most cats who do this computer sequencing stuff. This necessitates my owning something that can keep up with me -- so I can only hope that the Receptor can do just that.


Anyway, that covers it for now. Thanks to everyone. Take care.

- Sammy

re building your own computer:

Our computer is about 6-7 years old and starting to show its age. I considered upgrading my RAM from 256 MB to 1,2, or even 3 GB. I've already installed the firewire chip and a DVD burner.

I went to our local computer store and the techie told me that I could do it, even told me how. But he also warned me that all the other parts are still going to be old and will, eventually, need replacement or upgrading and that, unless I replaced all the parts at the same time, I would always be dissatisfied with the old parts. His suggestion was to buy a new computer. Remember, this was the techie, not a salesman, whose wages are dependent on service work, not sales.

So, here I sit with an old computer with old parts wishing I had the money readily available to buy a new computer and still wondering if upgrading parts should still be the way to go.

Dale

dalematt


http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/New-Athlon-64-X2-3800-PC-Computer-Tower-1GB-250Gb-DVDRW_W0QQitemZ160144906280QQihZ006QQcategoryZ179QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem


there've got cheaper ranges too bud.

Dale:

Okay. I reread your post, and actually, I agree with the techie, to a POINT. I disagree with him saying that you should buy a new computer. Despite your admonition that he is "just a techie" and not a salesperson, I still think that he would love to sell you a new computer. I believe that you can do what you are suggesting.

Replace the following:

The motherboard and chipset -- upgrade to the most expensive dual or quad core set that you can afford
The RAM -- upgrade to at least 3 Gigs of 667 mHz RAM. (If you can afford it or find a deal, get FOUR Gigs of the 800 mHz RAM.) It is worth the money.
At least ONE SATA II hard drive, at 10,000 RPM

And you will have a great system. I know that it will sound like a lot, but if you like the case and the components, just do the above. I think that you will be very pleased with the final result.

My experience is that the PC computer that I own right now would be great -- IF I could just quiet the damned thing down. Right now the fan is louder than my refrigerator, so I would prefer to use the Mac. My aging PC has 3 Gigs of RAM and a Pentium D 3.0 GHz processor. The RAM is old too -- it is the 533 mHz RAM, so it isn't quite as fast as what is in my Mac, which is the 667.

- Sammy