Alright geeks - help a sister out!

Does exactly what it says on the tin. Some of the nonsense contained herein may be very loosely related to The Sisters of Mercy, but I wouldn't bet your PayPal account on it. In keeping with the internet's general theme nothing written here should be taken as Gospel: over three quarters of it is utter gibberish, and most of the forum's denizens haven't spoken to another human being face-to-face for decades. Don't worry your pretty little heads about it. Above all else, remember this: You don't have to stay forever. I will understand.
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lazarus corporation
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boudicca wrote:*swallowing what little pride I have left*

OK...

(Nice voice...) Paul, dear?
I do find your posts most witty and amusing, not to mention devastatingly insightful and incisive. Throbbing Gristle have never put a foot wrong. Brighton is God's Own Country.
(And that's a mighty purdy laydee you got there! :wink: )

Now pleeeeeeeeeeeeze can you tell me all the clever stuff? :D :oops:

[/snivelling]
see, that wasn't so hard was it


































unfortunately I have no idea about recording music on PCs, but I think Izzy and co might be able to help. :lol:
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boudicca
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YOU....!
:evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:


:lol:
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Dark
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Heh.. I'll be a nice person.

Boudicca, what exactly do you want to do?
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lazarus corporation
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ok, I lied, I actually do know a bit.

you'll have problems running anything halfway decent on Windows 98, and for audio recording you'll need a fairly high-spec machine. Multi-track audio recording takes a lot of processor power, a lot of memory, and the files take up a lot of your hard drive.

I'd suggest upgrading to a reasonably fast Pentium 4 (NOT a Celeron) or AMD Athlon equivalent. The cost for this will depend on what you're running at the moment, and whether you've got the right motherboard to upgrade. Since you said you're running Windows 98 I'd suggest preparing yourself for a shock...

Memory - you need to have at least 512MB of RAM (1GB would be preferable). 512MB of RAM will cost you about £70.

You'll need either a very big Hard Drive, or (better still) just install a second hard drive of around 80GB just for storing your audio files on. An 80GB Harddrive will set you back about £60 from Maplins.

The other big expense is a decent Soundcard that has got all the right connections to plug Mics etc into, and is a good quality. You're probably looking at about £150 for this.

You could upgrade to Windows 2000 (you could probably pick up a copy 'for evaluation purposes' from a HLer) or you could look at upgrading to Linux (free of charge). Linux, however, requires a certain confidence with computers.

As for (Windows) music recording software, Logic is the dogs bollocks but costs a alot and has a steep learning curve. Reason is a laugh, but after 2 years of playing with it all I can produce are 547 versions of the same type of techno.
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boudicca
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Dark wrote:Heh.. I'll be a nice person.

Boudicca, what exactly do you want to do?
Thankee! :D :notworthy: :kiss:

Well, the first post says it all really. I'm just starting out, so I want just enough to be getting on with, not top-of-the-range everything, BLAST! :roll:
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James Blast
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boudicca wrote:*swallowing what little pride I have left*

OK...

(Nice voice...) Paul, dear?
I do find your posts most witty and amusing, not to mention devastatingly insightful and incisive. Throbbing Gristle have never put a foot wrong. Brighton is God's Own Country.
(And that's a mighty purdy laydee you got there! :wink: )

Now pleeeeeeeeeeeeze can you tell me all the clever stuff? :D :oops:

[/snivelling]
she's lyin'
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timsinister
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Convincing though...
She clearly does it for a living. :wink:
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Well, you CAN do it on Windows 98, depending on the software you're using, but I wouldn't recommend it because it would rape your resources and hard disk space.

I make all my songs on Windows XP, I have an 80GB hard disk, and only 256MB of 333MHz RAM. I need more RAM if I want to up the quality some more, so I guess just do what Laz said.

RAM isn't really that expensive. On eBay, 512MB of PC2700 DDR RAM can go for around £20-30. The cheaper it's offered for, the more likely it is to break.
However, on Ebuyer, the same sort of RAM, but 256MB of it will go for about £15 for good quality ones.

It all depends really on what you're using to make music, since different programs demand different specs.
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boudicca
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You people are very kind. :notworthy:

My woman-brain, however, is being stretched to it's absolute limit!Image :oops: :lol:
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lazarus corporation
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boudicca wrote:You people are very kind. :notworthy:

My woman-brain, however, is being stretched to it's absolute limit!Image :oops: :lol:
Image
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boudicca
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lazarus corporation wrote:Image
I know, I know.

I'll stick to knitting, pressing flowers and attempting to bake the world's most perfect sponge cake in future. :innocent:
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boudicca wrote: I know, I know.

I'll stick to knitting, pressing flowers and attempting to bake the world's most perfect sponge cake in future. :innocent:
Cool, put me down for a jumper and a slice of cake. You can keep your flowers. :lol:
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timsinister
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boudicca wrote: I know, I know.

I'll stick to knitting, pressing flowers...
Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah/You could be the one/To get your flowers pressed


:wink:
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DerekR
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Dark wrote:Well, you CAN do it on Windows 98, depending on the software you're using, but I wouldn't recommend it because it would rape your resources and hard disk space.
I don't understand, Windows 98 is a LOT less of a resource-hog than XP. I use XP myself but I wouldn't hesitate in recommending 98 to someone on a budget, SE edition especially.

98 is perfectly adequate for most jobs, no-one NEEDS XP
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I don't know, I use XP and because of my lack of RAM, it does lag me out quite badly. I assume it would do the same on 98 with the same amount of RAM.
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Izzy HaveMercy
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Ah, time I started to look at this thread now ;)

Frankly, a Mac or a PC running Windows XP are more or less equal to run decent music soft.

I am not talking Cool Edit Pro or Soundforge, but pro stuff like ProTools (mostly used by Mac-users, but also available for PC), Steinberg Cubase and Steinberg Nuendo.

I can only talk about the benefits of a PC since Apple refuses to lower their prices for me.

I bought a Dell Dimension 5000 for 1200 euro.

It has 1 gig memory, which is very important to work with these progs.

Also do not bother to buy a soundblaster soundcard.

If you mean serious business, buy a M-Audio or RME card instead. They cost almost half the price of your PC, but that is what you would spend on a Mac then ;) Don't waste half the money on something you have to throw away after a couple of days.

Also a big hard drive is recommended, but most important, a FAST drive! 7200 is the strict minimum. A 10000 rpm is even better.

Tweaking your windows XP is also highly recommended. I read the comment about Win98 consuming less resources than WinXP. That's true, but that's because WindowsXP runs a lot of s**t you do not need. Look at http://www.musicxp.net/ for the quintessential stuff. Win Xp is a very stable OS, but it needs some guidance to push it in a certain direction :) All these animated thingies and backdrop shadows are nice, but it is, after all, just eye-candy and slowing your PC down.

Also, use a separate partition to install Windows. Use another partition for your music soft. That way the access to your files is mucho faster.

Next up, try to use your music PC ONLY for music. Don't start to run games or PhotoShop on it just because it is such a big and fast machine. Even the biggest machines get clogged up after a while.

I even use my lappie for internet and the Big Machine is used for music only.

More tips if you need'em!

IZ.
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James Blast
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I have no arguement with that, Oh Belgian Love God!

you're still not my type tho
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DerekR wrote:98 is perfectly adequate for most jobs, no-one NEEDS XP
Linux is perfectly adequate. No-one needs Windows.

Don't mind me, just fanning the flames :innocent:
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boudicca
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Cheers Iz, that was really helpful.

:notworthy: :notworthy: :notworthy: :notworthy: :notworthy:
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Izzy HaveMercy
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Motz wrote:
DerekR wrote:98 is perfectly adequate for most jobs, no-one NEEDS XP
Linux is perfectly adequate. No-one needs Windows.

Don't mind me, just fanning the flames :innocent:
Alas, Linux stinks audio-wise. There is as of yet no real Linux-alternative for ProTools or Steinberg products...


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Izzy HaveMercy
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boudicca wrote:Cheers Iz, that was really helpful.

:notworthy: :notworthy: :notworthy: :notworthy: :notworthy:
No sweat ;)

And I can really recommend a Dell comp. They are very good with an awesome service :)

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Sorry I couldn't be more helpful, Boudicca, unlike Izzy, I only use FREE music making-recording-mixing software. :roll:

Since Tierkreis' songs will be released commercially (by that, I mean just selling off the net and around Lincoln), I decided against any pirated software. Though I refuse to pay for anything, so freeware is what I use. ;)
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Izzy HaveMercy
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Dark wrote:Sorry I couldn't be more helpful, Boudicca, unlike Izzy, I only use FREE music making-recording-mixing software. :roll:

Since Tierkreis' songs will be released commercially (by that, I mean just selling off the net and around Lincoln), I decided against any pirated software. Though I refuse to pay for anything, so freeware is what I use. ;)
I use very expensive pirated software, with which I can make professional sounding music. That way I earn more money. So I can pay for a legal version afterwards. Like I did a month ago.

I started like you anyway, with a copy of Cubasis 1.0.0.5 and working up when I earned some money with selling CD's. All five of them. I'm sure you'll get there sooner or later. Sooner is better.

You see, Dark we tread on the same pathways. Only yours leads towards the Promised Land. I just came back from it after a quick peek and will return one day to reside ;D

And I'm still waiting for that demo! What ARE you guys doing? :roll: Get off HeartLand and start recording some music for christ's sake! You are the future! I'm getting old! Etc Etc Etc... ;D ;D ;D

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Rosalie
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boudicca wrote:Are you the kind of person who finds that joke about "Press Ctrl Alt Delete to restart" on a tombstone funny?

Then you'll probably enjoy a smug little smirk at the following question from someone who only just knows a monitor from a modem. :oops:

A few months ago, the more anally retentive amongst you may recall I posted a thread asking about making sweet muzak digitally on my computer. Many lovely people were kind enough to give me information about soundcards and the like :notworthy: ... but unfortunately I don't think anyone quite grasped the level of my stupidity when it comes to matters technical.

I am again making an attempt (decidedly half-assed this time) to get my project off the ground.

Sooo, I begin at the beginning. My computer. Never mind the stuff I stick onto it, that comes later. My question is, can I do this sort of thing on Windows 98 (which is what I have)? And if not, what should I be upgrading to (not ideally, just at the very least).

Also, on the impenetrable techno-jargon sites I've visited, I've just managed to make out that you need a powerful hard-drive (or something).... so how many giga- or -mega or boogalooga-bytes of memory do I need?

It's probably clear to you now that I really haven't the foggiest idea what I'm talking about. So, once you've stitched up your sides, could you please help this Luddite out? I'll give you my last Rolo if you do...
:wink:
You can make music on anything half decent, really. Windows 2000 is as far as you should have to upgrade.

Fruity Loops is a good cheap music maker. It's not just for making drumloops, it comes complete with Synth and Guitar simulators, all kinds of great stuff. I'd highly recommend it to a beginner.

I could um, show you where to aquire a fully legitimate copy if you want.
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boudicca
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Dark wrote:Sorry I couldn't be more helpful, Boudicca
Not at all, my little darkling!

I thank you all from the bottom of my feeble little woman-heart... ;D :notworthy:
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