New recording computer or gear? Which one?

I say that you need a computer.

How much do the Rev A kits normally cost? I've been looking at these for a while, but I don't think I have the funds to pull that off with the holidays coming. Ohh well.

I don't really, unless i import a lot of tracks that are imported in other formats (mp3, etc) or different bitrates. I don't usually have more than a couple plug ins going in the daw.The rest of the plugs are running on the dsp card for the alphalink.

Oh, and i don't do anything else with this machine. There is nothing else installed nor any other processes running. The os has been modified to be as bare possible.

And I'm running reaper. It's small and super efficient so it doesn't hog resources.

So, I'm now thinking that I'll back down to an intel I3 instead of my original plan of an I5. The i3 is still only something like 300x faster than the Pentium4 I'm using..

Again, i don't really have speed issues, i just want stability and longevity.

I won't give advice, cause I'm a cheap bastard when it comes to anything digital. Maybe more specifically anything based on a personal computer OS. I've got you beat on processing power, I've got an XP Pentium4 in the closet you can have. 4gb. 2.6HT. It was my VSL Slave for some years. Now I just run any soft synths off a little MB Air that USBs to the Kronos.

Anyway...I've been thinking of a new computer simply because I want to get the most powerful system I can that will still run Win7+Cubase6. I just See DAWs running in the opposite direction of me. I want an AUDIO box. Fuck 64bit. Fuck virtual instruments and midi. C6 has rock solid IO and plug compensation...I will always do cues with analog mixer, so my buffer just sits at 1024. I have been trying new plugs that use way more CPU...,not better sound. Audio is done for the personal computer paradigm, IMO.

So, again...no advice except I wouldn't care about the potential of it crapping out. I can't give away a P4. You can get them free or $25 all day on Craigslist. If you're not in the middle of no where, one of the few advantages of using consumer hardware is the amount of people that ditch computers BECUASE it can't run some video game or has a virus...spend on what matters.

So I eventually did both. The compressor was built and in the rack in a couple days.

The recording computer has been a serious pain in my ass.

I run a first gen SSL mixpander/Alphalink(I have Alphalink serial 003..)

I purchased an I3 and a current Intel motherboard.

Windows XP blue screened with an 0x7B error.. HDD inaccessible. So anyway, I wasted a whole day trying to figure this out. Besides the motherboard being native AHCI and having to be set to legacy IDE mode, XP SP1 doesn't have the proper SATA drivers.

So I do an "upgrade" from an SP2 disc.. Now XP will get to the "starting windows" screen and then freeze. Ok, I'll go to Safe Mode and load drivers there.

Safe mode boots OK. Drivers for this motherboard won't load unless DOTNET 4.0 is installed.. Ok. so I find the redistributable .Net4 and get it. Installed. Now to run the drivers.. "Your computer does not meet the minimum requirements for installation"

WTF.. I go through the intel website line by line and find in very small font.. "XP not supported on this hardware".

So.. I install windows 7. Everything looks good until I attempt to run SSL Mixer.. FREEZE. Computer locked up. Rebooted. Start SSL Mixer.. FREEZE.

WTF!

So I go through SSL's website.. FAQ says that the "Old" PCI mixpander has known issues with windows 7 because MS changed the way the PCI subsystem works. I'd have to run 2GB or less RAM for the mixpander to even attempt to work, even then, it's dodgy and not supported..

Damn it.

So I decided to do the unthinkable and buy yet another motherboard, with a year-old chipset that still has XP support. But wait, nothing with that chipset is offered with the socket that my processor has.. So yet another processor is purchased.

So I get that installed, get XP running, and now the SSL mixer program will start but will fail out with an error about timing.

I'm running a very old version of the Mixer program, mainly because the newer versions are completely incompatible with my old preferences and Mixer profiles, which means everything I've done in the past has to be completely set back up with the new program.. not going to happen. And not to mention SSL changed the GUI to pretty much the most horrible color scheme I've seen. It's impossible for me to read and the menuing is completely different. Sounds kinda lame for me to complain about it, but I gotta work fast and the new GUI and setup is much harder to use, a lot more clicks and mouse moving is needed to do the same thing that one move and a click could do before.

Anyway, I say what the hell and upgrade to the newest mixer software and update the Alphalink firmware as well. BOOM. FREEZE.

I've since gone back to the old hardware and everything works solid as usual, so I'm now waiting to hear back from SSL about the time-out errors and what they mean and why I can't use the Mixpander setup on new motherboards even though it's running XP..

...I want thing to work, but I want a pc. Hahaha.

Just messing with ya man. Good luck.

Hackintosh or buy a Mac mini. Those are cheap and really powerful compared to stuff just a few years old.

gotcha

Nope.  They moved to MADI on all the mixpanders and Alphalinks.  So I would have to buy both boxes again.

So I got the new computer set up with win 7-64, got the new MX4 card installed and running but unfortunately wouldn't work with the old mixer program so I was forced to update, which surprisingly allowed me to import my old mixer files, except some of the mixer elements are different so I needed to do some changes. Although the color scheme and layout are NOT to my liking (they made it very dark grey and hard to read and it only operates in a window and cannot go full screen), I was able to figure out how to reroute the MADI streams to get what I wanted.

So now I just need a final piece and I should be ready to move to the new machine. It only took 3 months and 4k$..