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If I were you, I'd go to tomshardware.com and look at the system builder marathon articles, preferably the latest article.
They try to make the best pc possible in a certain price range, and they make damn good ones.
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Buildning your own computer shouldn´t take more than an hour or so. Anyways, the software you intend to run along with a good external audio interface is equally importnant (performance wise). You can easily run quite alot of tracks in Logic on a Mac Mini with 4gb of ram. It´s a bit over your budget though. And Mac Mini is hardly most bang for the bucks..
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intrigue
Washington, D.C9934 Posts
if it helps i use primarily reason and ableton
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motbob
United States12546 Posts
I am going to get so much shit for this.
But, buy a Dell unless you're planning on pirating Windows. I'm dead serious. Hands down, it's a much better deal than what you can build.
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motbob
United States12546 Posts
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A 7.1 soundcard for music production is a terrible idea since all music is still mixed in regular stereo. Some M-Audio soundcard should work fine, and even an on-board sound chip might work if you have a limited budget.
EDIT: About the soundcard, it doesn't necessarily harm to have support for 5 or 7 channels. My point was that you won't need that when you produce music.
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for $500 you won't be getting much pre-built.
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On August 17 2009 15:57 intrigue wrote:
hey guys! i'm sorry if i sound really stupid here but i am terribly computer illiterate and i need help.
so recently i've been really getting into music production but my computer blows. i'm looking for a desktop that has as much ram as possible and dual core+ for around 500 dollars. the stuff i'm doing requires lots and lots of tracks and programs and processing stuffs and shit to be running at the same time, and i'd like to also plug in a midi keyboard and some recording gear. basically, fastest computer possible for lowest price? i'm sorry i can't really be more specific.
i've asked some producer friends to help and browsed some sites like slickdeals but i have no idea what i'm looking at =\ mayday!!
thanks in advance
edit: i am somewhat on a time limit too, so something preassembled would be the best. i'm fine with maybe sticking together really obvious and basic things, but the simpler the better please!
Atleast here you can easily find used computers built for music tracking, mixing and other homestudio purposes. I´d go with used. OS is also important. There´s a linux version (maybe more than one) designed for this purpose.
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People are making this much too complicated.
Go to HP.com or Dell.com and pick out the best PC for your price range. You can get a HP Pavilion Elite from $650 with everything you'd need for the short term: enough CPU power, enough HD space, a nice monitor, matching peripherals, Windows, anti-virus, and a year of support.
I'm running a HP Pavilion 2.4 Quad Core (Vista x64) 6 GB RAM that I got on sale last Christmas for $600. I routinely run Ableton Live with Reason rewired and I have yet to overload the CPU or cause clipping.
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On August 17 2009 19:07 ProTech_MediC wrote:
People are making this much too complicated.
Go to HP.com or Dell.com and pick out the best PC for your price range. You can get a HP Pavilion Elite from $650 with everything you'd need for the short term: enough CPU power, enough HD space, a nice monitor, matching peripherals, Windows, anti-virus, and a year of support.
I'm running a HP Pavilion 2.4 Quad Core (Vista x64) 6 GB RAM that I got on sale last Christmas for $600. I routinely run Ableton Live with Reason rewired and I have yet to overload the CPU or cause clipping.
True to some extent but this doesn't always apply. Since you don't need any GPU performance for music production you can buy a cheap gfx card and use the money for a better cpu and more ram.
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Any computer runs a midi keyboard you just need usb yo.
I'm on my old laptop and using FL studio 8, reason and ableton and I have to say it never has major lag issues... just render the synths to wav and then use them on your track instead of running the VST or whatever AND the effects.
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YO, I've been making techno/house/hip hop records since the mid 90's. I've used programs like Cubase, Logic, Reason,etc,over the years. But currently use Ableton also. Ableton is definetly the fastest sequencer to get your tracks from Concept to Cut. Last night I was working on a new Q-tip bootleg 8)
People are going to be upset about this, but Mac is the industry standard. Period. Your not going to get one for $500, unless you buy a used one, which is also an option. You can get them on Craigslist for a round that.
I also don't want to rain on your parade, but making music is VERY expensive. Just getting your tracks mastered can cost $500. But that's a whole different subject.
Good Luck
PM if you have questions
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EPT
