Advice please

[HOLLOWMAN]

My Roland 8 track VS880 fried itself- never to work again. So, now I need to upgrade. Should I enter into the world of computer recording or stick with a stand alone machine ? I hear the 003 factory is good, but I'm worried about spending all that money, as I'm not really too computer literate - or is this the best way to learn ? If not the 003 Factory, what would anyone recommend ? Sorry if you have all covered this topic before, but it's all new to me. I have £1500 to spend.

[ferguson66]

I have the 003 rack and use Pro Tools LE 7.4. I like it a lot, it does everything I need it to. I've never used anything else but from reading these forums for awhile it looks like you can get similar results by going with something cheaper than a Pro Tools set-up. Try going through Brandon's soundcard wizard and see where that leads you.

[Charlie_M]

People have reviewed protools here:

Digidesign Pro Tools LE Reviews

In general protools is a nice system. Like everything there are downsides, but whether or not they bug you or get in the way of what you're trying to do is a very personal thing. Certain aspects got in the way for me so I moved onto another software, but I would say read the reviews for protools, cubase, audition, etc... and see which you think will suit your needs best.

Charlie

[HOLLOWMAN]

I searched the Internet last night for hours looking a various options and I intend to trawl round all the Glasgow music shops today to see what else they all recommend - but with my eyes open; you know that they aren't always going to give impartial advice.
Going down the computer route, I think, gives me the most flexible options in terms of recording, so I think that is the avenue I will explore. I thank you guys for your time. I do appreciate it.

[HOLLOWMAN]

Right guys, the new 003 Factory has just been purchased, what do I need to run the damn thing ? See previous posting ' Advice Please'. I have about £500 - $ 1000 - to spend. Is that going to get me a computer powerful enough to run the 003 ? And if it is, what do I buy, P.C. or Mac ? I thank you for your time. I'm new to all of this.

[ferguson66]

I think the PC and Mac are just about the same these days for running Pro Tools. I use PC personally. I used to run it on an older PC and it ran fine. The important things are hard drive capacity and throughput. Read the Digidesign website and there is a lot of information on the things to look for when buying a new computer.

Other than that you will need a microphone, a cable and something to record.

[HOLLOWMAN]

I've been on the Digidesign website and, I have to say, it was for the most part, whoosh, right over my head. What I'm looking for is someone to say, buy this Dell 6000 or that Mac or whatever, understand ? Put simply, to basically tell me what model or make of computer to buy. Otherwise, I have not a clue. Does that make sense ?

[ferguson66]

Well I can tell you I just bought the Dell XPS 420. 3gb RAM, dual 500gb hard drives, 3.0 Ghz CPU, Windows Vista Ultimate.....

I've been running it for about 2 months now and it has never hiccupped at the large audio files and large session files. I have no firewire compatibility issues that can sometimes be a problem with Pro Tools and some computer hardware.

Even the base model XPS 420 would be a good choice, I did upgrade a few things like CPU, RAM and video card.

[HOLLOWMAN]

Brilliant, that's exactly the advice I need. You are a gem. Cheers.

[ferguson66]

And just for comparisons sake, before I bought this new Dell I was running Pro Tools LE 7.3 on a Pentium 4 1.8Ghz computer with 3Gb of Ram. It was doing fine but at that point I was not getting into anything really big (large files and many tracks.) It may have worked just fine for all I know.