DIY PC - anything I should take care of regarding DM-3200?

Drumstruck said:
I'm hoping the next step will be a device that records (e.g.) 24 tracks, has overdub facility, card options for digital I/O and can be sync'd with more similar devices for more tracks. This sort of device could work hand in hand with high quality convertors, outboard, analog and / or digital desks and a DAW.
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Not trying to be funny here, but that description sounds like a dedicated DAW computer to me. Maybe the problem is the surrounding clutter of updating a computer plus its software versions and drivers? To me, the PC is the most versatile machine man has ever made for the average Joe... and not only for DAW work.
 
In my mind's eye I see a 2RU device looking similar to a DV-RA1000HD.

On the front panel it would have:
- transport controls
- 24 vertical LED VUs
- 24 record arm buttons, one below each VU

On the rear panel it would have:
- 3 slots for optional I/O cards (8 in/outs per card)
- timecode sync

It would boot quickly and require no user intervention other than power on and selection of which channel is recording.

One's desk could control which channels are monitored ala tape return.

Perhaps a wired remote or MIDI for control surface connectivity.


A pretty simple idea, and I would hazard a guess that Tascam has the components and technology to do this already - perhaps I'm dreaming...... ;-)
 
Drumstruck said:
In my mind's eye I see a 2RU device looking similar to a DV-RA1000HD.

On the front panel it would have:
- transport controls
- 24 vertical LED VUs
- 24 record arm buttons, one below each VU

On the rear panel it would have:
- 3 slots for optional I/O cards (8 in/outs per card)
- timecode sync

It would boot quickly and require no user intervention other than power on and selection of which channel is recording.

One's desk could control which channels are monitored ala tape return.

Perhaps a wired remote or MIDI for control surface connectivity.


A pretty simple idea, and I would hazard a guess that Tascam has the components and technology to do this already - perhaps I'm dreaming...... ;-)
Click to expand...

That description sounds very similar to the Mackie hard disk recorder I used to own (MDR24/96) years ago. It had a remote too (Remote 24). I used this with an analog board (Tascam M3700) but the recorder quickly became obsolete shortly after I bought it. Mackie also made an HDR24/96 that was basically a DAW like the Tascam X48 but recorded up to 24 tracks.

After understanding the benefits of computer-based DAW recording, I sold the MDR and never looked back. I'm so glad I have a Tascam DM4800 console now. I just ordered the firewire card for it so the next major move is a new PC.

This is the very reason I'm reading this thread. I'm trying to figure out what hardware is most compatible with the new Tascam firewire interface card. I'm also trying to decide whether I should build a machine myself which I have been there and done before (it's time consuming sourcing and assembling components, configuring OS, BIOS, and installing drivers) or simply spend a little more on a custom manufactured DAW machine specifically for audio production.
 
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And it also sounds like my Akai DPS24 which I left behind when I got my DM3200
 
So, once all the tracks are recorded onto this 24 channel 2RU device, then what? What about editing? Then 24CHs back to the console for outboard effects? And back out again to a 2TRK master? Why does that sound very familiar?

I like that I have infinite tracks in my DAW and 32 channels at once to go in there where I can instantly edit. But then, I've definitely become institutionalized to this way of recording.

kv..,
If you can do it, building your own machine is a great way to go. Being able to choose your own hardware is a big benefit, especially the motherboard.
 
Yeah. It looks like I'm going to need to head that route real soon. I just installed my new firewire card for my DM and I've been testing it out for the last few days to confirm my card is good and working as it should.

For the test machine, I'm using a single-core 10-11 year old HP with an AMD/Athlon 2800 and 512MB RAM running Windows XP. The internal hard drive is a 160GB Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM. The motherboard and on board firewire chipset is VIA.

I installed Nuendo 3 on it and I was able to record 4 stereo channel drum tracks from a drum machine. I only recorded 4 simultaneous stereo (equivalent to 8 mono) tracks because I didn't want to put too much strain on a way underpowered outdated PC. Anyway, the tracks recorded flawlessly for a good four minutes or so then the audio just dropped out all of a sudden. Samplerate is 48k 24 bit. Firewire buffer is set to 96 samples (one setting about the minimum recommended setting determined by the driver. DPC latency is low (around 170ish microseconds) well into the green with no spikes at all. During audio playback, I get clicks and dropouts followed by brief moment of system freezing while navigating the GUI or opening and closing or briefly dragging windows or activating and deactivating certain buttons within the GUI. As far as plugs go, The CPU can't handle many which is to be expected with such an old machine. However, the dropouts still occur sometimes when navigating the GUI even without any plugs active. Mind you, I'm using onboard graphics and firewire. I wonder if there's a conflict somewhere? I didn't see any IRQs shared among any of the controllers in Device Manager.

I know an extra data harddrive and firewire PCI card might help, better yet, a new machine altogether.

I know I need a better machine (I'm only using this one for testing purposes right now) but I'm just wondering what I could tweak software-based to get it to perform better in it's current configuration as far as dropouts and pops goes?

On a side note, the test did confirm the interface card is working well as I was able to record and playback multiple tracks of audio. So I suppose the test is successful in that respect. Oh yeah, the Windows driver is the official 1.21. I'm going to install and try beta 1.30f9 tomorrow to see if that helps with improving performance. The IF-fw/dm MKII firmware is 1.10.
 
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I'm currently using a AMD Hexacore with 4GB Ram. And I am using a presonus firewire interface, giving me 16 preamps and 16 connections to headphones and main amps.... Such a multicore gives you a lightning fast user experience.... And I have not yet experienced a tracknumber It can't handle.....
 
the Windows driver is the official 1.21. I'm going to install and try beta 1.30f9 tomorrow to see if that helps with improving performance. The IF-fw/dm MKII firmware is 1.10.

Your issues are only partly related to the single core PC. The bigger problem is, the DMFWII driver(s) are intended for Win7 operating systems. My guess is, that the newest (v1.3x) driver will only make matters worse.

I use an 'obsolete' (5 year old) Intel i6300 Dual Core Win7/Pro machine (fully optimized for audio work). I can run 35+ tracks of ProTools 10 audio/midi @ 32/96kz. Point being, if you're on a budget, you can pick up an 'obsolete' machine like mine for very little, and with a few days worth of tweaking have a solid audio platform. Even better - invest in a 4-core/multi h/drive system, and have a powerhouse at your disposal.

Final tip: if you don't need 32 INPUT (tracking) channels of firewire simultaneously fed to the PC, you can set the MKII firewire interface to send only 16 channels which saves some bandwidth. This way, you can receive 32 channels FROM the DAW, and have 16 simultaneous inputs for tracking. This adjustment is helpful for less robust (2 core) PCs.

CaptDan
 
Thanks for the tips, Captdan and Muziekchuur. I do plan to eventually upgrade to a Windows 7 or 8 64bit machine with nothing less than an Intel i7 (debating between the i7 5820x on the new x99 chipset or the i7 4790 on the current slightly older motherboard chipset). I'd probably go with the 4790 event though it's a little older. It's a only a quad-core compared to the 5820x hexacore, but it clocks at 4 GHZ and benchmark test show very subtle differences in performance between the two. Thus, an i7 5820x system would probably cost anywhere from $1300 to $2000 or more to build depending on the other components. Then there's the DDR4 RAM that's probably more expensive. Ideally the best machine would be one running on the mew i7 8 core processor and x99 chipset, or a Xeon processor, but that would be too way expensive right now. I don't want to spend more than a reasonable amount on a computer because today's top-of-the-range processor will eventually become the slowest tomorrow as technology improves and newer faster processors are released.

I've seen prebuilt i7 4790 machines on ebay for around $700, more or less. My guess would be to grab one of those, add an extra harddrive, dual monitor video card, and dedicated VIA chipset firewire PCIe card, and tweak the drivers and OS a bit and I would have one kicka** machine for tracking audio with all 32 input and output channels and several plugin in a high track count project.

In the meantime, I might go back to the DIGITAL page for Slot 1 on the console and set it for 32 inputs but 16 out and see if that helps. Then I might try 16 in and out, then 16 in and 32 out, and compare the differences.

Thanks again.
 
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