good pc to accompany mpc and ak.sys?

What are some features I consider when purchasing a PC that will be used inconjunction with my MPC4k. It will be used to run Ak.sys and Recycle. Which OS should I use, ect.. I will probably run Ableton Live and Reason plus a soft sequencer on the same machine.

I'm using abelton live, cubase sx and ak.sys on win Xp pro and I never had to reboot.
Many people told me about win2k but I had both and now I don't use win2k anymore.
But why do you use the MPC4k with reason (????) I think it won't be a nice couple... The MPC4k sounds very fat and has a good dynamic sound, but reason...
I'd rather use real vintage analog synth, I'm using a pro one (sequential, very fat sound) a stage rhodes, and electric guitar and bass. reason synths are grat but i'ts virtual synths, they doesn't sound like real hardware analog synth...

Thanks for the quick reply. And your setup sounds great by the way. But reason is just a practice pad for me and I guess my question was more about Live/reasons/ak.sys compatability with Windows XP ect...(i use a mac for them right now and Im sick of the headaches) I wouldn't want to use Reason to water down my signal coming off of the 4k either. I use Studio Electronics synths some yamaha gear ect... Never known fake the funk. So basically I will have my laptop running just protools le(audio side of things) and then I will rock my windows system for all the sequencing beat making and mpc waveform editing functions. Sounds like XP is the OS route to go huh? I'm really dragging my feet on going to OSX on my powerbook cos I don't want it to **** off my work flow but I need to do something about my compatability and crashing issues pronto. Right now I can't run MPCs, ak.sys and sequencing software along side of protools and that sucks. I want it all working correctly at my finger tips in the lab.

If you are looking for good brands of computers; I would say Micron Pc's are the best.
Micron Millenia
Sony Vaio
Dell
Those are the only three I would consider.

Operating systems

OS'
XP Pro with virtual Pc running windows 98SE and 2000
I have to tell you I am very successful running my micron Millenia pc (since june of 1998) with Windows 98SE; Ultra wide scsi HD/controllers etc..
I currently use All of sonic foundries products (Vegas;Acid;Sound Forge;Acid Pro) Cubase 5 (sx hasn't impressed me yet) Reason 2 (all propeller head products)
Aksys
It runs absolutely fine.
The mpc is the main sequencer.
Reason is basically used stand alone for me. I use reason strictly for dance music; if i'm in the mood.
The mpc is used for everything (dance, rap, hip hop etc)
Cubase; sound forge is all mixdown and editing
etc....
I would recommend fast scsi drives 7200, 10000, 15000 rpm with a seek time of less than 4MS.
Pentium 4 processor
Trust me you can have cubase reason and aksys running along side the mpc with no cpu strain or pushing your hard drives. These system specs are monster for audio/video.

Hope this helps
Peace

So I can have Ak.sys running with Recycle and have Cubase running at the same time? I would love to be able to bounce Midi data back and forth for editing between the MPC and Cubase while I am programing, all the while being able to run my synths sequencing off of the computer.
Also can you guys check this computer out and tell me what you think as far as pro and cons? The one major problem I noticed is no firewire. But check it and let me know...
http://www.cappuccinopc.com/mochae7042b.asp

If you want to run reason; cubase etc.... 0r do pro audio you really should go with a pentium 4 above 2ghz.
The (link)article looks a bit misleading; i never heard of a pentium 4 celeron processor. The celeron is an entirely different processor (inferior) than the pentium 4.
A fast processor and a Very fast scsi drives (look at seagate cheetah scsi drives) and lots of ram also make the difference in how many tracks you can push as well as the efx processing.\
You should have a gig of ram and better (so you can have diff appz open without crashing)
programs like acid are ram dependant. Keep in mind windows xp requires more than 64 megs ram alone;
If you go sony; you get firewiere and uisb 2.0.
they have well stacked computers; they just don't have ultra scsi hard drives.
Do some research man.
peace

I can modify the computer here and put in an Intel Pentium 4 - 2.8Ghz:
http://www.cappuccinopc.com/customize.asp?ModelID=5
how much of a difference will the SCSI vs the Ultra DMA make? noise issues? I've heard about clicking problems with audio on certain systems can anyone address this issue on PC's. I've never had a problem with that on my Ti-book.

Gigaton wrote:how much of a difference will the SCSI vs the Ultra DMA make?

price !!!
ultra DMA is great, SCSI is good for samplers or others, but for your PC UDMA's great !

Thanks Yamada, dude whats with the head shot in your avatar????

it's not my face, thank god !

Read the DUC - Digidesign User Conference, at www.digidesign.com. Those guys really know how to put a computer together. You can't go wrong with Digi's approved list, though some of it's pricey. Forget SCSI - Any new Maxtor, Western Digital, Seagate or IBM IDE drive is more than adequate for pro audio. Seek times of 8 ms or less are perfectly acceptable. (my opinion, of course - your mileage may vary) Just use 1 drive as system drive and another drive for audio tracks.

I run Nuendo on a P4 2.4 ghz (P4TE Motherboard), 512 mb RAM (I find 1 GB ram excessive for most of my needs but, you know, "too much is never enough" , and memory is cheap), 2 - 80 GB Western Digital hard drives, Waves, UAD-1 card, RME Hammerfall Sound card w/ analog expansions. I have no trouble getting 60 -80 audio tracks out of this set-up, more than I need for most any song, even when printing effects.

If you don't want to build your own computer, even Guitar Center sells a computer specifically designed to run ProTools LE/Digi 001 - and it's digi approved. I used LE for 2 years - it's a great program - I just got tired of Digi being so proprietary. And Nuendo is excellent. Read the forums at www.nuendo.com for a wealth of information.

Definitely use XP as your OS on windows. If you're really patient, stay MAC only and run OSX (or dual boot with OS9.). OSX promises to be incredible over time, but not everything is written for it yet. I would not buy an HP, Gateway, or Sony computer for audio. You'd do much better rolling your own. Especially use RME for in/out, though M Audio products are excellent on a budget. All prices at www.pricewatch.com
More info on drives at :http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/ultra_ata_faq.html
And, more than you would ever want to know about SCSI, IDE/ATA, Firewire and USB here:http://www.scsi-planet.com/vs/

Listen to the demos for Atmosphere, a Spectrasonics soft synth at
http://www.spectrasonics.net/instrument ... phere.html
This could well change your mind about what virtual instruments are cabable of.

Read a lot and learn a lot before you buy. Have fun, most importantly. We are all very lucky to be alive, playing with all of these fun toys. Speaking of which...

Sorry my web page links did not work for you. How do I do that?

a better link than nuendo.com is this:
http://forum.nuendo.com/cgi-bin/nuendo.com/Ultimate.cgi

Enjoy. Sorry for the multiple posts.

Thanks for the info digibird I actually looked around, studied, went ahead and purchased this PC:
http://www.dell.com/us/en/bsd/products/ ... _gx270.htm
I got it fully loaded with the P4 3.06 ghz Hyper-Threading 800MHz Front Side Bus Processor, 80gig 7200 IDE, 1gig 400MHz ram. When I get it, I plan on putting a dual head graphics card in it so I can run two monitors. One for Ak.sys - Recycle(MPC4000) one for Live and Cubase or some other soft sequencer, haven't made a decision on that yet. I still have my G4 laptop running Protools LE for recording. This should help make my set up complete. Mac OS9 is a nightmare for everything except PT which seems to enjoy running smoothly therein. I just got sick of having to start and stop all of my other programs in a certain sequence or risk(expect) that they will crash. It's a frustrating way to work. I sort of think I will always run PT on a Mac. It's just very comfortable there. However I can't find an excuse to spend twice as much on a similar computer just because it has an Apple carved into the side of it. The new pc cost me $1600, about half of what my 667 ti-book cost when I bought it about a year and 8 months ago. The new computer is almost 3 times as fast. If I love it maybe I will get another and say goodby to Macs once and for all Anyways let me know what you think of this setup.

I had a nightmare with my ti-book; put it this way I have to replace my logic board for some stupid ish!! 850.00 after spending 3500. I'm back on my old pc PII 400 and damn it; Rock solid as hell and still doesn't crash. My next laptop/desktop will be a pc. As far as audio is concerned; it's not the mac anymore man; I'd piss on anyone who would say different; There's alot of cats that like to go with the mainstream; The macs are pretty; that's about it; what they did with osx version 10.1 and jaguar staggered the entire multimedia industry. Except for the video professionals. They forced an os down your throat and forced developers to create new appz/plugins/software and hardware for this os. They left audio all but for dead. Too little too late for me; Logic is wack!!! Go to www.digidesign.com ; bet u didn't realize pc's run pro-tools just as good.
Cubase is a dream on the pc. It's so damn stable. Then there's sonic foundry (end of story) ableton live runs sweet too and so does all of propellerheads stuff too.
The cost of a new powerbook or powermac (one or the other not both) is ridiculous; you can get a very fast desktop and notebook for the price of one mac; and you can't upgrade mac processors. You have to get an entire board manufactured by a second or third party. Windows 98 SE, 2000 and xp pro are solid operating systems. OSX is still playing follow the leader. My ti-book; it's cool; but no way do I consider it serious for pro audio. i'm talking multi track not just running reason and acid or fiddling with a sequencer. Yeah; u can run pro tools on it; i'd go with what I saw on digidesigns website; the cost of a mac and pro-tools 24mix is tremendous; You save more money and have longevity with the pc in the front.
I'm with u gigaton; my hats off to you; you have an incredible monster coming.
Peace