lurksalot

[quote name='Ancient Mariner' timestamp='1428181133' post='2738960'] Now I have to say, I'm coming to love windows 8 'plug & play'. Downloaded Audacity, connected a Zoom B2.1U to the laptop et voila, recording capability without faffing. It just worked. [/quote] I started with a zoom b2.1u , it does work , but I recall latency and monitoring issues made it a bit of a pain and vocals/ mics through it were patchy and the playback was odd , and the recording levels and the.................... I was on XP mind, but it got me started

Well , a bit of googling and I found myself a choir , I am not sure I can teach it the words but I will have a play with it

I am struggling at the moment . Very untypically for me, I have the idea in my head and I can hear it , I have 'lyrics' written , but I really need a Russian male 300 voice choir VST if anyone knows one, preferably a free one On the plus side , I now know a hell of a lot more about Napoleons exploits and European political geography around 1812 , it did seem very complicated for a tea-time kerfuffle . oohh , the teatime kerfuffle shuffle , , no , no ............Hmmmmm

I have just bought one of Paul's designed T shirts, and while technically from an online store, Paul was very helpful in making the design available for me. On Saturday evening, I enquired about a design he had done , but could not find to buy, he said he would ask about it it for me. An hour later the store had hosted the design , I bought it , and it arrived on the Tuesday . That'll do for me

come on in the waters lovely , plenty of room here , you are most welcome to put something together and join in the fun.

[quote name='Leonard Smalls' timestamp='1427959361' post='2736212'] Just out of interest, is it within the rules to take a relatively well-known classical piece (played badly by me!) and muse on it? [/quote] I think you are ok with the classical piece , but Muse , surely not , there must be a plug-in for that

[quote name='Mykesbass' timestamp='1427889766' post='2735469'] Might change my name to Tchaikovsky and give this one a go..... [/quote] Myke-ovsky perhaps fill your boots , great to see you involved. Come on Dad , we are still waiting

Well done indeed , excellent piece and worthy of the top spot

We have found that Kayleigh bombed , tried it a number of times aswell , the Jam stuff goes down quite well but yes.. [quote name='Graham' timestamp='1427646973' post='2732661'] I think it was probably Sweet Home Alabama or 500 Miles on Friday, it was that sort of band and that sort of venue [/quote] They both got them properly bouncing , even though we only 'jam' 500 miles , oh and Bryan Adams every time

[quote name='Bleat' timestamp='1427644391' post='2732629'] After several listens to all compositions, and a lot of thought 'cos they ALL have much merit ,my votes in no particular order this month will go to : Skol: really liked this especially the cool bass playing, and general feel of the track. Dad: for some nice creative touches throughout. Lurksalot: For doing something totally out of the box! Cheers, James [/quote] Many thanks , James , and my other voter [quote name='Skol303' timestamp='1427656871' post='2732771'] Ok, I'm going to try deleting McBass' track from the voting. There is a chance this may crash the poll and break the Internet! Wish me luck... [b]EDIT: it worked[/b]! Phew [/quote] Well done that man , did you get a reason for the withdrawal ?

Cheers Dad , you got it , that's brilliant ,it really is . [quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1427588278' post='2732138'] Dad your a hero... There is more time and effort gone into your reviews than any of us put in to the actual compositions... [/quote] I will concur absolutely Rob , it's a bit special

I think the white T works, it makes the smile look like you are enjoying it

[quote name='geoham' timestamp='1427578319' post='2732016'] Thanks for the advice guys. I've already asked many of the questions suggested and am strugging to get clear information. The gig came about via a friend of our singer. His band are making their way from Stornaway [/quote] Wow , I suppose there are no big city lights up that way , but all that glistens isn't gold , that is one hell of a commitment on a whim , unless he is being promised something very big ( by someone trustworthy) it is not worth the journey , dreams might carry a lot of the load down there , but the dissapointment is a heavier load on the way back up .

[quote name='paul h' timestamp='1427573768' post='2731939'] I start with colour. Everything else is negotiable. [/quote] cost and budget

Easter Saturday we are at the White Lion Ok , its in Buckley just over the border into North Wales , barely a spit and a kick from Brum

I liked it , but maybe it was a tune written a while ago , and entered without realising the regs .

It might be worth deleting McBass voting option, I fear it might continue the confusion if he has withdrawn, or at least a note to say it has been withdrawn if it messes up the poll .

No sweat , I have asked Skol to flag it up though , just in case .

An incredible line up indeed, all brilliant pieces, I have it down to 5 that I think are superb , I will need to give them some more thought and listens . The Boys needs a parental guidance certificate mind, explicit lyric content and such like , Lurksalittle hasn't listened in yet , but it would have been a bit embarrassing on a family listen in

This is the sort of thing you need for the job [url="http://www.directbuildingproducts.co.uk/details3.php?id=1525"]http://www.directbui...ls3.php?id=1525[/url] [attachment=187414:heavy-duty-cavity-fixings.gif] Job Jobbed

We use 2 ADJ LED cans , remote control , quite powerful TBH , but the sound to light is far too sensitive and makes the function pretty useless , a foot controller would be good , but they light up our 5 piece OK .

[quote name='Mornats' timestamp='1426276794' post='2716599'] It's always hard to say how much to spend! Just over £700 will get you a system that most people should be happy with for audio work. Try this one: [url="http://www.scan.co.uk/3xs/configurator/3xs-mi97-music-pc-system"]http://www.scan.co.u...music-pc-system[/url] then change it so you have 8GB RAM (I wouldn't recommend any less than that) and choose Windows 8 over 7 if you prefer that. I'd favour Windows 7 as I reckon there'll be fewer driver issues and you can upgrade either of them to Windows 10 for free in the future. So that one has a decent i5 - the minimum I think you should look at, especially around this budget. That will get you quad-core. Note that the system doesn't have wi-fi - you'll have to add a wi-fi card or plug in via ethernet, or not go online (as some people do - not me though). You can add an SSD to that system too - it'll make a very big noticeable difference. £80 gets you a 250GB one. I run one of those with WIn 7 on and a whole host of VSTs - Miroslav Philharmonik, Komplete Elements, SampleTank 2.5L, Guitar Rig Pro 5, EZdrummer 2 and around 8 EZX's and more. Plus World of Warcraft I have 74GB free after that so I reckon it should be fine for most uses unless you have Komplete Ultimate or something crazy like that. It'll come with a 1TB drive too so you could pop some stuff on there. The £38 for the CPU cooler may seem a bit steep but I've been running that type of third party cooler for years and they're worth it. You won't hear the fan on it, and it'll keep it nice and cool. If £700 is too much then a bit more research may be needed. It's hard to spec a PC from Scan at much less than £600 and after that you're going into budget component territory where one has to tread lightly. [/quote] [quote name='Old_Ben' timestamp='1426340101' post='2717100'] I spent about 550 on my tower and had a mate put it together for me, specs wise not perfect but does the job for the time being; I don't have as fast a processor I would want, will upgrade it to an i5/7 later on this year as I currently have a 3.2 dual core, and possibly add another ssd drive to it, currently have 120gb, but once I'm done upgrading will probably have spent the 700+ that Mornats is quoting. I did however spend a bit on the graphics card, which if PC gaming isn't what you're after you can probably save a bit of change to have something else more audio based, like some extra RAM or a larger ssd drive, or a better audio interface! [/quote] [quote name='PauBass' timestamp='1426518815' post='2718746'] Many thanks Mornats...I'll definitely look into it. I will also use it for internet too and would prefer a ssd drive too. I might look into an iMac too, partner seems OK with it Any advice on Macs? Not laptops, just iMacs. [/quote] [quote name='Mornats' timestamp='1426520555' post='2718770'] Macs are somewhat simpler to choose from as they only do a small range of specs. In general, buy the best Mac you can afford. Out of the current list of iMacs here: [url="http://store.apple.com/uk/buy-mac/imac"]http://store.apple.com/uk/buy-mac/imac[/url] the second one along is the best to start with - that's the £1049 one. The 1.4ghz dual core one is a bit underpowered in my opinion. There's the Mac Mini too but all of those have the dual core i5 which I'd struggle to recommend. Even though I've had experience with Macs at work (I work for a publisher and used a MacBook Pro for 4 years) I'm stil very much a PC person so I'll hand over any Mac recommendations to anyone with more Mac music production expertise than me. [/quote]

[quote name='PauBass' timestamp='1426202457' post='2715752'] What a great thread Skol...thanks for your work! Time for a new PC since the one I got is on its last breaths...so what a better time to get one good enough for recording I will be using the monitor, keyboard and mouse I have so more money towards the tower. Any recommendations, please? [/quote] [quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1426203059' post='2715758'] I'll be listening keenly to replies to the above, too... [/quote] [quote name='Mornats' timestamp='1426205253' post='2715776'] It depends a lot on a few factors really. A preference for Mac or PC is one and to be honest, there's no right or wrong answer there, it's the system that works for you. Laptop or tower is another option - sometimes out of your control if space or portability is an issue. If you're PC inclined, then a good place to start is with Scan. They put together the right type of PC components for audio machines. Peruse this lot: [url="http://www.scan.co.uk/3xs/custom/daw-digital-audio-workstation-pcs/form-factors."]http://www.scan.co.u...s/form-factors.[/url] If you're Mac inclined then it's a bit simpler. Choose desktop or laptop and get whatever's at the top end of your (presumably considerable) budget. Buy me a $10,000 watch whilst you're at it too hehe I bought mine as separate components and put them together but I know that not everyone can, or wants to do that. I went for an overclocked i7 4970k - a fairly high-end CPU with multi-threading galore, with 16GB Corsair Vengeance RAM and a gaming motherboard (it doubles as a gaming PC). The case is soundproofed too (the Fractal Design Define R4) with bigger slower moving fans for good cooling and less noise. Windows 7, Reaper and all my virtual instruments and VSTs run off an SSD for tip-top performance. My actual projects and other documents run off a Western Digital Blue hard drive - nice and quick for a normal HD and fairly quiet too. Chuck a few specs up on here that are within your budget and I'm sure we can advise on which bits you could chop and change to spend the right money in the right place. [/quote] [quote name='PauBass' timestamp='1426246737' post='2716080'] Thanks Mornats! It's going to be a tower, I already have a laptop but it's used for work mainly. As for specs, I have honestly no idea where to start so I haven't looked at anything yet Budget wise, how much would I need to spend to get a decent one? Not over the top but not too basic either. [/quote]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Following the success of the home recording thread , there were a number of posts that were helping to identify what makes a good home recording computer.[/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]As this is a slightly different topic to the art of recording and one which also has the potential to help the recording and production process, I have created this thread to keep this information more visible to be used as a resource for those that might find it useful.[/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]I have brought over and quoted the posts from the other thread , and put a link in the recording thread back to here, so many thanks for the great input so far , please keep it coming, all your experience and expertise and questions are most welcome.[/font][/color]

Just a quick note to those who have contributed here with regards computer specs for home recording, I have taken the post to form a new thread so that the details become more visible and will hopefully prove to be a useful resource in itself. you will find it here http://basschat.co.uk/topic/258472-choosing-a-computer-for-home-recording/ many thanks .