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[Z0001]

Hi all

I had a really fun time at the weekend in an audio production studio. It was just a taster, but I'd like to take it further and it got me thinking whether my HTPC would be a suitable set up. I think I'd use Ableton Live and this is my HTPC spec:

m/b - gigabyte P55A-UD 4P (BIOS ver F9);
CPU - Intel Core i7 870;
RAM - Kingston 2x 1333MHz DDR3 DIMM;
SSD - OCZ Revodrive 120GB;
VGA - MSI TwinFrozr 2 Radeon HD6870;
Audio - Asus Xonar Essence ST;
TV tuner - Digital Now Quad DVB-T;
o/d - Samsung SH B083A blu ray combo drive;
Power supply - Seasonic X750;
o/s - W7 Home Premium 64bit;
Seagate 2TB Barracuda Green (5900rpm) internal, and 4x same in a QNAP NAS box

As this is a HTPC I use the big 46" LED TV as the monitor. I think the display is my biggest weakness in using this as a DAW from the couch and latency with a remote desktop conencting to a laptop would, I think, be too high (and if I had a spare laptop I'd use that as the DAW I guess).

So I guess I'm just looking for any user experience in this general regard and I'd be really grateful for any thoughts and tactical experience to help my thinking evolve.

Z

[felix2]

Z0001, never confuse a player with a workstation. In this case, your HTPC is a player, and a player just decodes content. But a DAW is a creator of content - multi-track audio acquisition, processing, rendering, production - this is what they make workstations for.

Any Core i3 based PC can work as a player. With reasonable supporting hw it can play standard HD video. With an external good video card it can play BD video (BD video runs at up to 40Mbps bitrate.) And with a top-end video card it can even play great games.

But a DAW is a creator of content and that's a different ball game. Workstations required powerful CPU with matching powerful hw overall, not just a fancy video card. The cost adds up quickly, especially content creation apps. A workstation also require smart system tuning to match apps with OS and hw. A well-tuned workstation can improve up to 50%.

Before you start, learn all you can about how to build a workstation.

[Z0001]

Thanks for the thoughts.  Sounds like you know your stuff. Sure, I get that I need the software. And I actually have an i7 870 but hadn't updated my spec sheet, sorry to confuse.

I'd only be doing mixes from my CD library and loop clips, not recording live content.

When you talk about "smart system tuning to match apps with OS and hw" what are you thinking specifically. Based on my set up, is there hardware I need to change, optimisation in W7? Wil be listening mainly through headphones when mixing.

Thanks for your help.
Z

[Ninouchka]

https://www.steinberg.net/en/support/knowledgebase_new/show_details/kb_show/optimizing-windows-for-daws/kb_back/2020.html

this is a link how to optimize windows,
and for what you want to do your i3 should do it.
Select the asio driver from your audio card in Ableton Live.
8 GB RAM I consider a minimum amount of memory to work comfortable, and maybe an external e-sata 7200 rpm drive to put your recordings,projects on.
Have fun entering the sequencing, and be creative!
btw you can find video tutorials on the web about how to use Ableton.

I also use a plasma full hd 50 inch screen via hdmi, no problem.