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When I set up my first home studio I made a terrible mistake: I listened to a so-called professional telling me where to go, what to buy and what to do. It took me more than 2 years to get everything right that this person did wrong. That's why I'd like to share an important experience with you: Don't listen to anybody except you know what they are talking about. This also applies for this help-page which is to provide you with guidelines, useful links, hints and ideas. The purpose is to help you understand how your equipment works, so don't be disappointed if my page doesn't come up with the solution to your particular problem.
If my help page proves useful to you, I'd be glad to know, so don't forget to send me a message.
My DAW specification:
Athlon AMD 64 X2 4800+ 2,4 GHz
ASUS A8V
Gigabyte Nvidia GeForce 6600 GT
Coolermaster Centurio Case
BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 430W PSU
2x 2GB Corsair Value Select VS2GBKIT400C3
Samsung Spinpoint SP1614C and SP2054C HDD
Samsung TS-H352A CD/DVD-Drive
Pioneer DVR-108 CD/DVD-Writer
RME Fireface800 Firewire Audio Interface
M-Audio Keystation 88es
Behringer BCF 2000
Roland JV-2080
Steinberg Cubase SX3
Native Instruments Kontakt 2
Spectrasonics Stylus RMX
IK Multimedia Sampletank 2.1
EWQL Symphonic Orchestra Gold
Whether and where to buy: It's your choice. If you want to rely on a DAW-vendor, do it. If all goes well, you'll get the perfect DAW and some service, too. However, buying DAWs this way can be expensive and having no trouble is not guaranteed. You might get away cheaper if you buy the components for yourself, which is what I did and as described in detail below. If you want to buy the DAW, I recommend buying some magazine for music and computer, like 'Sound on Sound'. They are full of the likes of Carillon, Philip Reese PCs, Inta Audio, Scan 3XS etc.
Component 1 - CPU: I recommend (Spring 2006) buying a dual-core AMD like the AMD Ahtlon X2 4800+. Dual-core CPUs increase performance significantly (more than 50% according to SoS and I think, they are right) and, in case of AMD, they are cheap in comparison. There are also DAWs that are based on two CPUs (AMD Opteron or Intel Xeon solutions). Can't tell anything about them except they are rather expensive.
Component 2 - Mainboard: Your CPU limits your choice to different architectures like AGP or nowadays PCI express. I wouldn't recommend building a DAW with the newest technology. Let pass some months so that software and drivers can be updated. At the moment, AGP-based systems are still the most stable, but they are getting rare. The brand of the mainboard isn't as important as it seems, because manufacturers use "third-party" chipsets and their drivers (mainly from VIA and Intel). In the old days, you're always safe with ASUS, but I've had so many problems with my ASUS boards that I can't really recommend them anymore. Abit and MSI are getting more and more an alternative, I guess. One golden rule: If you don't need extra features (like WLAN or RAID), stick to non-deluxe versions. Each component can be another potential source of trouble.
Component 3 - Case and PSU: You're making music, so you want your PC to be silent, don't you. I recommend Coolermaster, but there are lots of silent cases out there. Be sure to check filters and fans. The PSU ("Power Supply Unit") is even more important. Not only because budget PSUs can be extremely loud, but also because you've got to get a PSU that fits your components, otherwise you get stability issues. There is a extremely good PSU calculator on the web which lets you specify your components and calculates the power you need to get your system running stable. As soon as you know your PSUs power, search on the web for the most silent one. Silentmaxx and beQuiet are a good place to start.
Component 4 - RAM: First, look in your mainboard documentation (or on the website). There you'll find the kind of RAM you need. At the moment this will probably be DDR-SDRAM or so-called DDR2-RAM. Then, look for a so-called "qualified vendor list" (QVL) of your mainboard where you find RAM that has been tested with the board. Do yourself a favour and stick to this list! If the QVL allows it, buy brand memory like Corsair, Samsung or Kingston. Be careful, though, don't take better, faster or newer RAM than your mainboard is compatible with. RAM speed is mainly defined by its CAS-latency. The lower it is the faster the RAM can be. Btw, I recommend Corsair, because there's a great Corsair Forum with hell of a support! As to the amount of RAM: If you use lots of samples or handle large audio and/or video data, you will need 3 GB or even 4, although you won't get the entire 4 GB due to PC architecture restrictions. At any rate, don't mix different kinds or brands of RAM!
Component 5 - Hard disk drive: Before choosing your HDD you should decide whether to use RAID or not. RAID allows mirroring contents of HDD for reasons of safety, splitting contents for reasons of speed or combinations of both. If you want to use RAID, don't use on-board RAID controllers. Instead, buy a good (and expensive) PCI RAID controller. I, for my part, don't use it, for speed gain is not significant and backing up your HDD can also be done using external HDDs. However, I recommend using 2 or more drives for reasons that will be explained below. It should be mentioned that HDDs can be noisy, so look for HDD that are famed for being silent like the Samsung Spinpoint Series. And don't take S-ATA II drives (S-ATA is troublesome enough...).
Component 6 - Optical drives: Noise and speed are the main criteria. The rest is up to your delight. If you want to produce decent Demo-CDs on your own, I recommend CD writers that feature the so-called Lightscribe technology which allows you to "laser" greyscale images on the label side of lightscribe CD-Rs. Looks very nice, but takes some time.
Component 7 - Floppy: Yes, you'll need one, otherwise you won't be able to install S-ATA drivers for your HDD. Thanks to Microsoft Windows XP.
Component 8 - graphics adapter: As with the mainboard, the brand isn't as important as the chipset, and the chipset is a matter of taste. So what will it be, NVidia or ATI? Both are okay. Be sure to use a passive cooling system because they are silent.
Component 9 - audio interface: Now we're getting to the most important question in building a DAW. If, at that point, you have already decided for a particular kind of software, you should have checked if there are any software/hardware-bundles (like Steinberg/EMU, Steinberg/Yamaha) that indicate 100% compatibility. If not, there's a wide range of brands and types to choose from. The main criteria are a) ASIO driver support, b) bus (PCI, USB, Firewire), c) inputs and outputs needed, d) use for music only or also for multimedia. If you are completely new to audio interfaces, I'd suggest having a look on prominent manufacturers' websites including: Echo Audio, Edirol, ESI, Terratec, Yamaha, E-MU, MOTU, RME and M-Audio.
What do you need to build the PC? You need the components, some screwdrivers, some place to lay out everything and some time. Crucial components include: CPU (boxed set, you don't want to install the CPU cooler separately!), mainboard (that package includes all necessary cables and connectors), the case, the PSU, hard disk drives, optical drives and floppy drive.
Short guide to build the PC: First insert drives, then insert the PSU. Lay out the anti-static envelope of your mainboard on a not too hard surface (like a cushioned chair). Put the mainboard on it and carefully attach the CPU as explained in the documentation of mainboard/cpu. There are even video tutorials available for download on the web. Do the same with the RAM. Now put the mainboard into the case. If you haven't done it already, insert the separators first that keep the mainboard away from the metal parts of the case. Be sure not to bend or flex the mainboard. Now screw on mainboard with appropriate screws. Connect every cable according to your documentation. Don't forget cables that supply fans and coolers! Keep cables apart from fans and parts that could get hot. Insert graphics adapter card and other PCI cards. Plug in power cable and you're ready to turn it on.
Preparations: If you want to do it right, you should have downloaded all drivers, software and firmware updates before starting to build/setup the DAW. If you have S-ATA HDDs, you must have their drivers ready on floppy disk!
BIOS revision: When you buy your mainboard, be sure to ask for a mainboard with the newest BIOS firmware. You can update the firmware yourself, but that would need an already installed system (which you don't have at that point). Apart from that I don't recommend it. Let someone else do it for you. You shouldn't run any beta revisions, though. Stick to the most recent revision that has been tested thoroughly.
BIOS main menu: Hit "Delete" during boot sequence of your computer to enter the BIOS setup. Adjust parameters according to your system as far as you know what you're doing. If you're not sure, leave default settings or use [auto]. Maybe you can use some of the details given below. Be sure to jot down your settings, preferrably in the mainboard documentation next to the default values.
Crucial BIOS options - memory settings: Set the CAS Latency and other RAM parameters according to your RAM specification. Maybe your bios detects them automatically, but maybe it doesn't which could lead to stability issues. Check your RAM vendor's homepage for optimal settings. If you encounter problems, reduce performance by stepwise increasing latencies. Disable ECC unless you have ECC-memory and it is also supported by your mainboard!
Crucial BIOS options - overclocking: Higher performance mostly means less stability. Do not overclock if you don't need to. Check if BIOS option for overclocking is set to NO. If it is set to "AUTO" you cannot be sure what your system really does, so I prefer setting it to MANUAL and 0%.
Crucial BIOS options - DDR voltage / memory voltage: If "AUTO" runs smoothly, leave it. If you encounter any stability issues, set the voltage according to what your RAM needs. Ask your vendor or the RAM manufacturer. Changing this option improved my system's stability a lot.
Crucial BIOS options - Plug & Play OS: According to music computer sites on the web, this option should be set to 'No'. I haven't seen any difference yet.
Crucial BIOS options - IRQ settings: If you don't need them, disable the parallel and serial ports of your computer. That frees up resources.
Crucial BIOS options - Hyperthreading: Some Intel CPUs had a feature called 'Hyperthreading' that could be turned on and off in BIOS. This is indeed a crucial option! Many DAW users run into serious problems of CPU spikes and performance issues because they have Hyperthreading (HT) turned on in BIOS. I had serious trouble with HT being turned on while using Steinberg HALion. I then changed to Kontakt 2 which was definitely a change to the better, performance-wise. It's all in the mix, I guess.
Two separate WinXP partitions: I recommend setting up two Windows XP systems. One on your first HDD, one on your second. If it comes to the worst and one of them fails to start, you can still boot from the other one to backup or restore data. Apart from that it comes in handy if you want to try out new software, browse the web and other things that you might not want to do with your meticulously set up music partition.
Booting WinXP for the first time: Insert the WinXP CD and turn on the machine. According to your BIOS the system should search the CD before searching the (yet empty) hard disk. If not, adjust the boot sequence. Should WinXP fail to initiate any of those hard disk drives, then it probably couldn't find the right S-ATA drivers for your HDD. This requires repeating the procedure, this time hitting F6 during WinXP initializing (which is when you see the blue screen for the first time and the bottom line reads something about third-party vendors). With the F6 key hit during intializing, WinXP will require you to insert a floppy disk with the appropriate drivers. If you don't have a floppy disk with those drivers - bad. Download them on a different PC from the web or from the mainboard support CD and save them to a floppy disk.
Partitioning your HDD:
When installing WinXP you're asked where to install. This menu enables you to specify, delete or create partitions which are essentially virtual harddrives on your physical harddrives. I usually proceed with deleting any partitions that might already be on the HDDs. Then I create new partitions as follows:
Windows Setup Routine: Just do as WinXP prompts. When setup is finished, the first thing to do is install the mainboard and chipset drivers using the newest non-beta drivers available. If the install software leaves you the choice, you should install chipset drivers first, then (if available) RAID/S-ATA drivers, then on-board sound, then on-board LAN, then graphics adapter, then audio interface. btw: You should restart Windows after each component driver install. Don't do any "package installs". When you're finished, check the device manager if there are any hardware entries with question or exclaimation marks which would mean there are hardware components that haven't been detected or installed properly.
WinXP the second: Now that you have finished installing the Windows I, you repeat the procedure to set up the Windows II. You do that by inserting the WinXP CD-rom and having your system boot from it instead of your already set up system. Since the procedure ignores your HDD (for the moment), it requires you once more to press F6 during install and insert the S-ATA driver floppy disk afterwards when prompted. Repeat the procedure described above with one exception: Specify another partition as your (new) WinXP partition. Windows will then format (NTFS) and install WinXP onto it. Do the same that you did with Windows I.
The boot menu: When you install Windows II, the system automatically detects the first windows and modifies the boot.ini on your primary partition so that a menu appears during bootup sequence. The menu lets you choose between Windows I and Windows II. You should rename the items to something like "Windows - Music" or "Windows - Non-Music" in order not to get confused. If you did it right, you have a non-music WinXP partition (C) and a music WinXP partition, whose drive letter may be D or E, doesn't matter as long as you can tell them apart. You have a boot menu that lets you decide from which WinXP to boot.
Additional hardware components: Before configuring your Windows-music-system I suggest plugging in your external hardware and installing drivers for keyboard, handheld, scanner, printer and so on. Don't install software and leave components that you suspect to be troublesome. btw: There is a known issue with dual-core systems and palm handhelds like Sony Clié. Apparently the Hotsync USB drivers are incompatible with dual-core PCs. There are some workarounds on the web (part of them being very complicated), but none of them has worked for me.
Removing unnecessary Windows components: Go to Start/Settings/Control Panel/Software/Add or remove Windows components and remove everything you don't need, especially Internet Explorer (IE), MSN Explorer, Outlook Express (OE), Network services and Windows Messenger. If you are a IE and OE user, then leave them.
System settings:
Adjust system settings one by one. Pay particular attention to those:
Useful software: Now it's time to install software that you can't live without. That's not particularly DAW-related, but I'd like to share my experiences anyway:
Options and Preferences: Now it's time to install music software onto your music partition. This is what the next chapter will be about.
Drive images: This is what I think is the most intelligent thing you can do to backup your system: You purchase some drive image software (I recommend PQ Drive Image, but Powerquest has been swallowed by Symantec, so you'll have to take Norton Ghost) and you install the software onto your non-music partition. This software enables you to make snapshots of your drives and save them for later restore. For reasons of safety, I'd save those images onto an external harddisk. What's the point in this? If your system at a later time gets unstable (because you installed some troublesome software or because the HDD crashed or whatever the reason might be), you can instantly restore it to the exact state that it was when you saved the image! This is great!! All you have to do is always save data to a different partition because you wouldn't want your new data replaced with old ones.
To put it differently: If it comes to the worst, you just copy the drive image onto your harddisk and you don't have to setup Windows, tune it, configure it, install drivers, install software, configure software preferences, install templates and so on. You just do that once, save the image and you never have to be afraid of your system letting you down because you can always get back to the point where everything ran smoothly.
The .net framework thing: Some drive image software require Microsoft .net framework being installed prior to install of the application. .net framework is not something that you should have on your music partition. It slows the system down (especially startup and shutdown) and you want to have your music partition as clean and smooth as possible. That's why I suggested installing the image software onto the non-music partition.
A brief note on restoring data: The restoring process usually relies on you booting from a special boot CD-ROM which features enough drivers to recognize your main components, even external harddisks. You may have to press some special key during startup as you did when you pressed F6 during your first Windows install in order to have the software recognize S-ATA harddisks. You will probably be asked to provide the S-ATA drivers on floppy disc.
Cubase installation: Installing Cubase SX is the first step. You will be required to insert the CD-ROM and follow the installation wizard. So far so good. Then you will have to reboot the system. Plug in the copy protection device afterwards and wait until its drivers take effect. Start Cubase to see if everything works. If not, here's a list of problems that I ran into:
If you're still having latency problems or you don't know what I'm talking about, you should check whether your audio interface's ASIO drivers are selected in the Cubase device setup VST panel. If your audio interface's drivers are not available or not working, there is a generic ASIO driver called Asio4all. Try it out.