DAW for $1,000?

Re:DAW for $1,000? (jcschild)

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 09:48:51 GMT

"""Any off-the-shelf laptop will do."""

BULLCRAP complete and total bull even with USB this is not true
with USB you have a better change with firewire good luck.

Re:DAW for $1,000? (PH68)

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 03:43:28 GMT

For $1K you can get whatever you like.

Any off-the-shelf laptop will do.
I've used (and would still happily use) the likes of HP, Lenovo, Toshiba, etc
Never had any issues.

Make sure you set aside a good portion of your budget on a decent soundcard/audio-box.

Re:DAW for $1,000? (Player)

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 23:47:21 GMT

Jim at Studio Cat is great. I got my DAW from him a year ago, and it was worth every penny. The advice and support alone is worth the difference in price.

Re:DAW for $1,000? (apd2)

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:58:09 GMT

I just had a i7 920 with 6 gigs of 1600 ram and 2 hardrives (WD Black 500 and Seagate 1000), a 750 watt PS W764 home pre and a dvd burnner with a Asus P6T, Antec 300 case built for $1200...
I dont think I'll ever need more power than this. When the harddrives get old, just update to SSD and I can always add more ram..

Good Luck,
Scott

Re:DAW for $1,000? (stm27)

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 11:16:10 GMT

Thanks very much for your suggestions, all. I'll post again when I've gotten something (which may take a little while as I research this, work out the finances, etc.).

Re:DAW for $1,000? (Slugbaby)

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:19:52 GMT

With a $1000 budget, you're pretty much in line with what I could spend on my latest.
I couldn't find anything suitable from ADK and StudioCat (granted I just perused their website, didn't actually CONTACT).
I'm very happy with my Dell. It was cheap enough that I was able to also get a pair of KRK monitors and an M-Audio soundcard. It may not be the best DAW I could get, but it's more than powerful enough for my needs, I've never had an issue with internal noise, and I got some fun peripherals.

Re:DAW for $1,000? (bent4life)

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 06:43:19 GMT

stm27

Hi All,

I'm planning to put together a DAW for home recording use and I have relatively low technical knowledge (and I would much rather spend the time I have on music than on setting-up and fixing a system). I can't really justify spending more than about USD$1,000 on my computer. I do plan to use a decent amount of vst synths and effects, in addition to guitar and voice that I will record. Also, I already have Sonar 8.5, but my crappy old laptop is just not cutting it--latency is through the roof.

Any advice about what the smartest move would be? It's clear that you can get more bang for your buck by building a machine, but I'm worried that my lack of technical knowledge will make that a nightmare path of manuals and hardware fixes (instead of recording). Do you think this is true?

Some of the entry level prebuilt DAWs (for instance, from ADK) run about $1,000. Are these good enough? The "lifetime" technical support from those companies sounds appealing. Does anyone know if it's genuinely helpful for someone like me?

How about out-of-the box computers from Dell or HP or something? Do any of these work pretty seamlessly?

Thanks very much, folks. Any insights you all have will be greatly appreciated.

stm27, I was in your position 6 months ago. I went with an ADK $1000 system and am very happy with it. After toying with the idea of taking chances on a Dell and thinking about whether I could be bothered with the research necessary to build myself (bearing in mind I'm more technically "reclined" than "inclined" and don't have much time to reverse the situation right now), I contacted Scott at ADK and told him what I wanted. He didn't try to sell me more than I needed - quite the opposite in fact. I'm using what I consider to be "a decent amount of vst synths and effects, in addition to guitar and voice," but my needs may differ from yours. I've got no complaints about the machine or the service.

You might also try Jim at Studio Cat, as thomasabarnes suggests. I've not dealt with Jim directly but he is all over this forum like Scott, dispensing valuable advice. Anything they write I read. I appreciate their knowledge and willingness to share it (when they can, given that they are in the business of building and selling DAWs).

Good luck with it.

Ben

Re:DAW for $1,000? (thomasabarnes)

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 22:58:24 GMT

Hi:

I think you're right that you will get more bang for the buck if you did the research and attempted to build a system yourself. However, if you don't know the right parts to get that will work with your DAW software of choice, that could still lead to a lot of work trying to get your custom built system to work right.

Probably the more ideal route is to get a professional DAW builder to do it for you.

In addition to ADK, you might want to take a look at Studio Cat's DAWs, too.

There is one there in the price range you mentioned. Here the link: http://www.studiocat.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=46&Itemid=60

DAW for $1,000? (stm27)

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 10:08:50 GMT

Hi All,

I'm planning to put together a DAW for home recording use and I have relatively low technical knowledge (and I would much rather spend the time I have on music than on setting-up and fixing a system). I can't really justify spending more than about USD$1,000 on my computer. I do plan to use a decent amount of vst synths and effects, in addition to guitar and voice that I will record. Also, I already have Sonar 8.5, but my crappy old laptop is just not cutting it--latency is through the roof.

Any advice about what the smartest move would be? It's clear that you can get more bang for your buck by building a machine, but I'm worried that my lack of technical knowledge will make that a nightmare path of manuals and hardware fixes (instead of recording). Do you think this is true?

Some of the entry level prebuilt DAWs (for instance, from ADK) run about $1,000. Are these good enough? The "lifetime" technical support from those companies sounds appealing. Does anyone know if it's genuinely helpful for someone like me?

How about out-of-the box computers from Dell or HP or something? Do any of these work pretty seamlessly?

Thanks very much, folks. Any insights you all have will be greatly appreciated.