PDA

View Full Version : What's my best option?


Moonlight Graham
02-20-2011, 10:58 PM
Hey everybody-

So I've been going back and forth with myself about a couple of things, so I figured I'd get some expert opinions from you guys. Here's the deal..

I'm just wondering what would be my best move in terms of upgrading my music making set up. Right now I have a 2007 (I think) IBM Thinkpad with 1.83 ghz core 2 duo with 2gb ram, running vista 32 bit (yucky), and about 13gb left on the hard drive (I do have an external hard drive). My music set up is my ART Dual pre project series, an akai lpk25 usb midi controller and a couple of mics I use. I had been getting ok sounding stuff, but now I'm starting to get cracks and pops and latency. Also, I was looking to get into some more electric stuff, instead of just acoustic which I do now.

That being said, what should be the first thing I upgrade? I was looking at the Line 6 kb37 (which looks amazing) and I was basically sold on it because it killed two birds with one stone, but now I'm second guessing myself. I'm a college kid, so this is a pretty big investment for me haha. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

brainwreck
02-20-2011, 11:39 PM
Clean up your drive, figure out what's causing the crack/pop/latency stuff, and go from there. If these problems came up over time, you should be able to work out what's to blame with a little research/trial and error. Chances are that if you don't take care of it, a new interface is going to suffer from the same issues.

If you do decide to get a new interface, the kb37 won't exactly be an upgrade. I think that in the scheme of amp modeling, Line6 is doing some of the better stuff for rock (their basic Marshall sound is pretty usable, Fender type stuff is bleh), but their interfaces aren't anything to get excited over. If you use the tone direct monitoring, I think the latency is maybe a few milliseconds, but when you monitor through plugins, you'll get a taste of the real latency, which if I remember correctly is in the mid 20's (milliseconds) at the lowest buffer setting. Also, the preamps don't have a whole lot of gain and can get kind of noisy with dynamic mics. Maybe spring for the amp farm vst plugin (requires a dongle) or one of their guitar input only interfaces (acts as a dongle) so that you get the amp modeling. An all in one interface is a neater solution, but I wouldn't want to accept any major downfalls to get it.

Sheppola
02-21-2011, 06:07 AM
I agree with some of what BW has said about the KB37.I use a Toneport Studio GX,
http://line6.com/podstudiogx/

It suits my recording style as I only need one input.The amp models are pretty good and although the mic pre-amps are a little low input they can be tweaked and I have some mic patches anyone can have and the S/N is good.I have zero latency with the,"Tone Direct" monitoring.Bang-for-buck it's a great unit.The built in sound card is of good quality.
I didn't go the bigger route as I didn't want all my eggs in one basket.I use a small 25 key Xboard midi keyboard with it,

http://www.etcetera.co.uk/products/EMU300.shtml

It's easy to get dragged into arguments about higher spec devices but IMHO a lot of the gear these days is of way higher quality than it used to be and good recordings can be made with good knowledge.
All of the songs in my Reverbnation sig are done with the GX/Xboard25 and Reaper and a few mics/guitars.The only other gear I use now is a small Art Tube MP pre-amp to power my Large Diaphragm condenser mic.

You have to decide what functionality you actually need.If you are going to record more than yourself at once then obviously you need more inputs.

Moonlight Graham
02-21-2011, 12:49 PM
Thank you guys so much for your input. Brainwreck, how would you suggest cleaning up my drive? Is there something specific I should do?

So would any new interface help me with my latency problem? Or am I just making that up?

foxAsteria
02-21-2011, 01:28 PM
mid-range gear "upgrades" are fairly lateral movements and you should only concern yourself with whether their features match your needs. the cheapest upgrade will be hard drive. make sure you get a 7200rpm drive and not a 5400, though it will depend on your laptop design whether this is something you can easily do yourself and whether the increased speed will create heat problems. latency, (unless you've got protools) has very little do with the soundcard. much more to do with processor power, but if you don't have enough ram (1 or 2 gb is usually fine). your system will have to access the hard drive more often. if your processor is slow, you will have a hard time running lots of fx at once or monitoring through fx, freezing tracks etc. i'd suggest a bigger 7200rpm hard drive as a temporary holdover until you can afford a better computer altogether. defragment your hard drive regularly and keep at least 20% space free at all times for optimal performace. just don't fall into the trap of wasting money on little studio.gear upgrades. scam. and get off vista asap. win7 is what vista was supposed to be. 64-bit version has still a lot of missing drivers for old equipment but its by far the most stable windows os yet and its only necessary if you have 64-bit software that can utilize more than 2gb or ram.

Sheppola
02-21-2011, 02:19 PM
This thread may help a little,

http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=23255&highlight=pagefile

brainwreck
02-21-2011, 07:06 PM
Thank you guys so much for your input. Brainwreck, how would you suggest cleaning up my drive? Is there something specific I should do?

So would any new interface help me with my latency problem? Or am I just making that up?

What I meant about cleaning up your drive is to free up some space, if you can. Move old files to your external drive, uninstall any unused programs, delete temp files, that kind of stuff. You said that you're on a budget, so there's no need to buy stuff that you don't need, such as a hard drive, if you can get along with what you have. I can tell you that I've ran 24 track projects on a typical 5400 rpm laptop drive.

On your latency problem, only you know if there has been a problem since you began using that particular interface, or if the problem came up later on. If the latency has always been high, and it's noticeable to you, yea, I'd be trying to find some other interface.

Moonlight Graham
02-22-2011, 02:42 PM
Fantastic guys. I really appreciate all the help. I've decided to go with a simpler interface than the kb37, and upgrade my setup in increments as money comes my way. I'm looking at stepping down to the pod studio ux2 because I would like some electric effects and because I heard the tonedirect monitoring is pretty nice. Anybody have experience with it?

Sheppola
02-22-2011, 04:01 PM
Fantastic guys. I really appreciate all the help. I've decided to go with a simpler interface than the kb37, and upgrade my setup in increments as money comes my way. I'm looking at stepping down to the pod studio ux2 because I would like some electric effects and because I heard the tonedirect monitoring is pretty nice. Anybody have experience with it?

If my little Line6 Toneport Studio GX broke down right now there would be another one ordered and on the way within minutes :D

I don't know what latency is as I've never had to worry about it with this unit,the sound card is excellent.The amp software is fine.All the Guitars/Basses/Vocals and songs on my Reverbnation page have been done through it(See sig).

BigFella
02-22-2011, 04:21 PM
CCleaner - cleans up temp files
Defraggler - gathers all your bits and pieces into a sensible order.