Recording studio computer selection is an essential activity when creating a home recording studio. If you have already considered and dismissed the possibility of using a stand-alone digital recorder you now need to decide which computer system will best fit your requirements.
You first need to consider whether you intend to only record in one place or whether you wish to have the flexibility to record at live gigs. If you need complete portability, then opt for a laptop computer. Otherwise, stick with a desktop or rack mounted computer. Whatever your decision it is recommended that your system is dedicated to the task of recording. This will make it less likely that you will have software conflicts or virus attacks.
Next you need to consider the hardware resources that the recording studio computer system should have. The simple solution is to invest in as much memory, disk space and processing power as you can afford. However, the reality is you may have a limited budget. Where this is the case you need to ensure that you carefully study the minimum system requirements of the operating system and recording software you have chosen to run. Your hardware resources must at least exceed these specifications.
It is easy for people who are not particularly technical to glaze over when faced with digesting hardware specifications. So the following paragraphs are aimed at assisting their research.
A recording studio computer system needs RAM to contain memory resident parts of the operating system, the recording software and data being used for input, output, calculations and comparisons. RAM stands for Random Access Memory. It is not a particularly useful acronym but it does contain that important key word -- memory. RAM used to be measured in Kilobytes and Megabytes but nowadays operating systems and application programs need lots of relatively inexpensive memory so you will see Gigabytes being specified. A Gigabyte is approximately one thousand million bytes or characters.
The hard disks in a computer are used to permanently store the operating system, applications and recording software together with large quantities of permanent and temporary data. The capacity of hard disks is also measured in Gigabytes. In fact, Terabytes are being increasingly specified. A Terabyte is approximately one million, million bytes.
A recording studio computer has at its heart at least one processor. It is the processor that drives the execution of instructions to add, subtract, divide, multiply and compare. The speed with which the processor performs is dictated by an internal clock whose speed is measured in Hertz. Currently processor speeds are likely to be in excess of several Gigahertz -- that is several thousand, million Hertz.
As well as considering RAM, disk space and processor speed you also need to consider other factors that will influence the speed and capacity of your computer system. These include the speed of the bus that connects the computers internal architecture together and the number of Universal Serial Bus and Fire Wire connections that are available for driving various external devices.
Home recording is an exciting and rewarding activity but you do need to perform thorough research to ensure you invest in the correct recording studio computer.
