AMD Based Recording Stations

So most of the computer builds i see on here are based around gaming or video editing, i never see anyone who has a custom PC built as a Recording studio. My new build i'm doing is for that purpose (gaming as well), going to school for audio engineering and music production (along with other music classes, imma guitarist of 8yrs)

so post your Recording Studio Rigs Here ! I wanna see them

heck any gaming rig you see being built here would work.. the only difference for you would be that you need a silent system more then anything if the system is in the same room your recording in..

yea, i but I never hear anyone talk about the ProTools or other type of recording Interfaces they have, and the different sound cards. There's more to having a computer that can truly record,mix and master and record an album,demo,etc,etc, then just having a powerful CPU and lots of RAM. I just want to see what anyone on here has come up with for their recording PC....i kno there gots to be other musicians with home studios on this site besides me !

Asus m4/955 BE combo
Thermaltake Element S Quiet and sharp looking
Gskill DDR3..need 2 of these kits.
Corsair 650tx PSU
HT Omega Claro Halo Nuf said really. This thing kicks some serious ass. Impedence adjustment mean's bring your Cans or Montiors and drive the piss out of them. Big Senns to Grados, not an issue.
Mac Daddy RAID card
WD 1TB drive's Buy as many as you can man. Storage will never be enough.
OCZ SSD A pair of these in RAID 0 for OS, apps


Add in your preference for a pair of can's and monitors. You'll probably want to add in some cooling fans etc to this build so I'd look for some of the Sanyo jobs if you can find them. For cans I am an AT guy (700's right now are my flavor), but the card will push anything with the flip of some switches. Your software and personal preferences will make a big difference as to what you would end up with for a final build. There is no add on GPU as the damn things make to much racket for this machine's uses. Fun to think about though, I'm sure this build could be easily bested but it was a fun exercise none the less.

I definitely want to have a recording studio whenever I build a house. Quiet PC is an absolute must. I'll probably line the whole damn room with acoustic foam, too.

I really can't imagine one needing a powerful computer for recording, though. I did audio work on my Celeron M 1.4 GHz laptop for a while without a hiccup. AMD is the best route to go for value though to cut down rendering time.

You really shouldn't have to break the bank on a super top tier processor. Maybe something like an Athlon II X4 620 at $100 would do better. I also think the 8GB of RAM suggested above is turbo overkill. Video editors need a lot of 1TB hard drives, but audio editors? 2 drives, tops.

I guess I will agree to disagree . Looking at raw recorded audio, including multiple tracks needs a ton of HDD space post and pre recording. I thought the gist of the request wasn't recording someone at a coffee bar with a 2 mic setup, but more of like a 8-16 track recording with effects etc. That takes some pretty serious HDD space. If it's your job (as the OP stated) the faster you can render and mixdown the better. I guess I just don't see what a Athlon II X4 can do better than a Phenom II. Even with small gains over time if you do this for a living it adds up. Recording to PC though is really a different ballgame once you move past the most basic of setups. Your going to want space for multiple takes (just swapping mic location can bring various tonal differences), and have room for anything else you want to try. Add in various master's and such and your really never going to have too much space. RAID is there for redundancy as it'd be tough to explain how you can't work cause you let a single HDD failure shut down your rig. Your also not going to want to lose one single bit of recordings until your done the project. And forget about it if you have a guitarist who wants to use 3 different Strats for each track because he likes them all and swears they all sound differently but you need to blend them together. YMMV though.

Virtually all Pro Tools rigs I have seen have been Mac-based.

Celestial Avenger said:

I definVideo editors need a lot of 1TB hard drives, but audio editors? 2 drives, tops.

Click to expand...

dude, if you serious a serious musician and are really serious about recording/mixing/mastering your music then theres no such thing as too many hard drives, the more the better !

Ghettobox said:

Add in your preference for a pair of can's and monitors. You'll probably want to add in some cooling fans etc to this build so I'd look for some of the Sanyo jobs if you can find them. For cans I am an AT guy (700's right now are my flavor), but the card will push anything with the flip of some switches. Your software and personal preferences will make a big difference as to what you would end up with for a final build. There is no add on GPU as the damn things make to much racket for this machine's uses. Fun to think about though, I'm sure this build could be easily bested but it was a fun exercise none the less.

Click to expand...

I'm not quite sure i get what your meaning by "CANS"

My buddy uses a Phenom X4 9950, 8GB DDR2-1066, a WD Raptor for installs, and a couple 1.5TB drives mirrored for storage. Soundcard-wise he uses an Auzentech X-Fi Prelude and a bunch of M-AUDIO stuff for recording/playback. I'm unsure of his speakers+mics setup, though. He's still amateur so its not ridiculously expensive equipment, but its pretty nice for just a small home studio used for 2 bands.

Here's my DAW, with a link to the SPCR forum:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=55183&highlight=daw

Specs:
Antec Solo case
Nexus Value 430 PSU
Nexus 92mm fans x 2 with silicone softmounts
Scythe Slipstream 1200 RPM 120mm fans (one on HS, one for exhaust, soft silicone mounts for exhaust)
Asus M4N72-E Motherboard
OCZ Gold DDR2 2 x 2GB RAM 800MHz
AMD Phenom II x3 720
Scythe Mugen 2 Heatsink
HP 20x Super Multi DVD writer
OS: Win 7 64 Ultimate (technet)
Scythe Master Ace fan controller
M-Audio Delta 1010LT
WD 500GB Scorpio Blue HDD x2
WD 500GB Caviar Blue HDD
Sparkle 8400 GS GPU

I had some free time, so I thought I'd run some tests to see how well my cooling setup worked in my new DAW. I haven't had a chance to do much audio work with it, mainly just music playback, but I wanted to see how hard I could run it and still stay silent.

The system:

CPU: AMD Phenom II x3 720 with 10% OC to 3.08GHz (14 x 220MHz)
Case: Antec Solo
Cooler: Scythe Mugen II
Fan controller: Scythe Master Ace
Fans:
Exhaust: Scythe Slipstream 1200 rpm
CPU (push): Scythe Slipstream 1200 rpm
Intake: Noctua 92mm
Ambient temperature: 17C
Sensor software: CPUID Hardware Monitor plus Core Temp.

In general I just run the two 120mm fans at 720rpm, as that's a good setting for quiet operation. However, I didn't know how effective it was, or how much more cooling would be needed if the CPU was stressed in audio production. I figured that Prime95 would be a good test of stress as I can't imagine any production environment that I would be in that would use as much of the CPU processing power.

The tests and results:

At startup/idle:
Exhaust rpm: 720 rpm
CPU rpm: 720 rpm
Intake rpm: 0 rpm
Core temps: 22C
HHD 1 temp: 27C
HHD 2 temp: 25C

Prime95 at 10 minutes:
Exhaust rpm: 720 rpm
CPU rpm: 720 rpm
Intake rpm: 0 rpm
Core CPU temps: 36C
HHD 1 temp: 27C
HHD 2 temp: 25C

Prime 95 at 20 minutes:
Exhaust rpm: 1200 rpm
CPU rpm: 1200 rpm
Intake rpm: 0 rpm
Core CPU temps: 30C
HHD 1 temp: 27C
HHD 2 temp: 25C

Prime 95 at 30 minutes:
Exhaust rpm: 1200 rpm
CPU rpm: 1200 rpm
Intake rpm: 1200 rpm
Core CPU temps: 29C
HHD 1 temp: 25C
HHD 2 temp: 23C

Based on these results I can feel confident that I can run just the two 120mm fans and keep the PC cool. In fact, I think I'm going to move the CPU fan to a pull and run it as the only fan to see how well that works, further isolating noise to the middle of the computer.

AnAngelsDeath said:

I'm not quite sure i get what your meaning by "CANS"

Click to expand...

Headphones man..sorry.

(hope this doesn't sound too prickish)

I've been out of the audio rec world for some time, but the last daw I built was rack mounted and definitely not silent. Not that it mattered, since I never tracked or mixed a band with the daw in the same room. You shouldn't either. Put your PC(s) in a separate room, a closet, etc. Anywhere other that where your musicians will be performing or you'll be working. I kinda question devoting the time/energy into building the 'ultimate silent daw' if you can just locate it outside.

I used to record bands on location and it sucks. It's annoyingly loud, the acoustics almost always suck, you don't get to put mics where you want, and inevitably people steal your shit (cables, mics, etc. were always getting "lost"). MUCH better when you have your own tracking room(s), acoustically treated and measured so you KNOW how the room performs, mics where YOU want them, where you can predictably achieve desired results, and no one walks out with your gear! Where you can sit in your control room, in peace.

What interface and software are you looking at? If you're looking at protools, the PC hardware is almost irrelevant. It's just a box to hold drives and cards. The only guy I know who still does recording work is still using Mac QUADRAS for his protools rig, cause all they do is hold cards and have external scsi ports. All the "work" is done in hardware.

FWIW, my first mobile recording setup was a MOTU 896 FireWire interface (8 mic pres) to a 400 MHz G4 Mac Powerbook with a little 120 GB 5400 rpm drive. That's plenty of space for an album's worth of 8 tracks @ 24 bit x 44.1kHz uncompressed (~7.5 MB / track / minute). If you're mixing several projects at the same time, OK - get bigger disks. But you don't need TB's unless you're keeping all your projects local. Just dump old projects to DVD - if you need to remix a project, you can bring the tracks back onto your workstation.

The best advise I can give you is to build your own room, acoustically treat it PROPERLY (covering it in egg crate is not what I mean ). The more controlled your room is, and the more you understand your room, the better your mix will be. Next, spend on mics. Buy 2-3 good value condensers, pick a few different ones because they all sound a little different. Learn how they sound and when/where to use them. You don't need Neumann's. AT makes fine mics for good prices. Spend the rest of your mic budget on SM57's. If your room is controlled, it'll get out of the way of your mics, which will get out of the way of the musicians, will will result in less stress for everyone.

Good luck in the pro audio world. Tooth and nail out there. It's easy to forget that music is art.