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Best PC equipment (today)


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Pretty much anything currently available is up to the task, it's all so powerful these days. If you use lots of softsynths, a lot of RAM is good. I use a 7-year old Mac laptop and I never max it out in any way.

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Probably a mac or something like that that you can not ruin with a virus, since windows is so fragile, one wrong website, reinstall the system.

 

The better the system the more stuff you can plaace in the playlist and mixer of your sequencer. But I would recommend at least a core I3 1st Gen which you can overclock in order to have fast single threaded performance, since not all sequencer are very good at multitasking yet. otherwise a third or Second Gen I5 or I7, that is overclocked a bit. Ram you do not need more than 8 Gb and a 120 GB SSD is good in order to install your windows so you have fast boot and to put all your plugins and samples there, that way you can load your tracks very quickly.

 

I would avoid the Core I3 Sandybridge cpu because of slow clock and without the ability to overclock. If you buy a Sandybridge I3 buy the fastest 2130 with 3,4 GHz or buy the Ivy Bridge I3 3225 with 3,3 GHz

 

http://www.ebay.de/itm/CPU-Intel-Core-i3-3225-/111067550461?pt=DE_Elektronik_Computer_CPUs&hash=item19dc2452fd

 

That is a cheap cpu.

 

But I got to hate computers nowadays.

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Here's my take. If you use only hardware synths, a 2nd hand computer with decent specifications is fine. If you use a few tracks with soft synths, you can either use a mid-range synth but you'll have to bounce to audio your tracks as you create them. If you want to process several soft synth tracks in real time, you have to buy a high-hand computer. Some of the most CPU intensive synths are LuSH-101 (the worst), Rob Papen's synths, Sylenth1, Massive, to name a few. Effects processing is also CPU intensive. I have a mid-range computer, and I am unable to play this preset; one clip plays fine but more than one and my computer is desperate. The thing is that when you compose goa trance, you use a fair amount of tracks and effects, compared to other genres. I suggest Windows over OS X if you like soft synths (more synths are available for Windows). When I have the money, I'll buy a high-end computer (Intel i7 would be my choice today), to be safe for a while. I wish I could play in real time several tracks performed by soft synths with various effects seamlessly.

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I have a mid-range computer, and I am unable to play this preset; one clip plays fine but more than one and my computer is desperate.

 

Whoa. That's not a 'preset'. A 'preset' is a file a softsynth uses to create a particular sound. That link is a whole goddamned project filled with stuff, lots of synths, clips, tracks, etc.

 

 

 

The thing is that when you compose goa trance, you use a fair amount of tracks and effects, compared to other genres.

 

A fair amount of tracks, perhaps, but they can often be pretty simple. A lot of the little noises and simple sounds can often be a single oscillator with simple modulation, thus not requiring a lot of processing power. Also, a lot of times a simple delay is all the effect a sound needs, and that is very minimal in terms of processing power. As far as effects, the most processing power usually comes from reverbs and analog-modeled effects. I think psy and most electronic music tends to use synthetic (algorithmic) reverbs rather than realistic (impulse modeled) reverbs, and synthetic reverbs require less processing. Also I don't imagine most artists/producers use a lot of analog-modeled effects like real-life compressor and equalizer units and such.

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