VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Heather]

My home PC died,
and for that I cried...
FOR JOY,(its resurrection shall not happen again!)
because now I get a new toy!

I am going to have a computer built by a friend of mine. They would like for me to give them specs for optimum use as a VO home studio workhorse. So at the risk of sounding slightly... well... unversed in this, I am asking for the advise of my VO family for their input. So like the old childhood game... "I'm going on a trip and I'm puttin' in my suitcase..."

[louzucaro]

Hey Heather...

As somebody who's built many, many, many, many (did I mention many?) PCs over the years, my first question is "Why are you building one rather than buying one?"

Was your last one custom-built? Did it not have features you think you need to have?

Custom-building is nice because you get exactly what you want. These days, it doesn't necessarily mean that you get it cheaper, though. And the downside is that there's no comprehensive warranty. If your friend is willing to fix anything that comes up for free, that might be ok.

You don't really need to build something special to "just" be able to record audio well...computers are so fast these days (so long as you don't totally cheap out) that very few will have issues recording audio well.

Many people will tell you that you have to get a PC with XP because Vista is horrible blah blah blah blah blah (did I mention blah?)

That is completely false. We record our podcast (see http://www.pause.com and just find the latest one) on a stock HP laptop running Vista, Audition 3, while simultaneously running Internet Explorer 7 (so we can look up all the stuff we don't know while we're talking about it), Outlook 2007 and Windows Live OneCare (plus all the drivers that came with the laptop etc.). It all works perfectly fine.

For some general ideas on building a DAW, though, if you're sure you want to go that route, I wrote up a guide about that very subject about a year ago, and you can find that here:

http://blog.voicehero.com/2008/03/09/building-a-daw/

Lemme know if you have any other questions
_________________
Lou Zucaro
http://www.voicehero.com

"Well, yeah, there's my favorite leaf!"

[georgethetech]

If you and computer are in the same room while recording, first thing on the list should be QUIET. As few fans as possible, running slowly. Computers using the BTX style case are generally very quiet. There are even some computer cases out there that cool completely passively, but at a cost.
Second is chipset/motherboard: Make sure it is compatible with your audio interface of choice.
Third: Support. Who will support it? This is the reason I no longer build PC's for myself or anyone else anymore.
Fourth: RAID 1 (mirror). Have one hard drive for the OS and applications, and a pair of drives mirrored for your data so when one of them fails, you lose nothing.
Running XP? 1GB RAM is fine, 2GB optimal (heck, RAM's sooo cheap).
Vista? 4GB or more, if you like all the pretty stuff activated.
Personally, I run XP with it in performance mode with ALL visual effects off. Looks like you are running Windows 2000, but who cares? You want reliability and efficiency. Leave the eye candy to another computer.

The rest is just preference, as the needs of a voice over recording computer by today's standards are very basic. Any currently produced x86 CPU can handle recording audio.
_________________
If it sounds good, it is good.
George Whittam
GeorgeThe.Tech
424-226-8528
VOBS.TV Co-host
TheProAudioSuite.com Co-host
TriBooth.com Co-founder

[JimRon]

as far as operating system, it really doesn't matter. can you even find a copy of XP anymore? I have Vista and have never had a problem with it (knock on wood).

As far as other stuff: as much RAM as you can afford. 2 gigs is good, 4 gigs is better. And try to get a big hard drive, or like soundgun suggested: 3 drives. plus i'd get an external as another backup.

and get a nice size monitor too. i have a big one that allows me to display two pages of a script without having to scroll up or down. plus it's nice for movies when i need to hit hulu.com for a break.
_________________
Jim Feldman
www.jimfeldman.us
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jimfeldman
Facebook: www.facebook.com/JimFeldmanVoiceovers

[Heather]

I knew I would get the good stuff here. Good point George on the support thing, and I will take that into consideration, as it is important. The studio is an L shaped room, the long part of the L is 4 foot wide and 16 feet long; the short side measures 8 foot wide and 10 feet long, with 9 foot ceilings. This was my closet. I am still working on the acoustics, as the 4 foot wide portion is very reflective; one door and no windows, no ventilation. So the computer will be in one room, a quite box will be necessary. I have a long list of things to do to this area and the components I would LOVE to add! Priorities, the computer right now is on the top of the list. Thanks again all!