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Ok, friend has been producing for about a year now on and off using his laptop. that died so he decides to buy a computer. knowing nothing at all about computers he has just bought one with an i7 processor (in system it shows as 8 cores @3.2Ghz each), 8 gig of ram and a 1Tb HDD (dont know RPM of that). he shelled out £800 without doing ANY research.

Now he paid for an upgraded sound card, a soundblaster one. Think he paid quite abit for it too, it only has outputs for a surround sound speaker system, and a couple of others (spdtf(?) and a digital out, no line out or anything and no inputs). is this pretty much useless for production?

only useless if he intends to use outboard gear in the future. If its an all software setup then that would be ok to start with, but at some stage he'll be wishing he did his research!!

this soundcard is far from ideal for production. its more set up for gaming or playing videos. i'd suggest buying a high quality audio interface, and selling the card or getting it refunded.

VirtualMark wrote:this soundcard is far from ideal for production. its more set up for gaming or playing videos. i'd suggest buying a high quality audio interface, and selling the card or getting it refunded.

this... noone makes music in 5.1 anyway.

sorry couldnt get back on t'internet till now. cheers for the replys, thats pretty much what i thought. he wants to use the card though for now, is there such think as a cable that converts the 5.1 surround into a 3.5mm jack? or something like that...

snick01 wrote:Ok, friend has been producing for about a year now

Did this same friend have unprotected sex with a prostitute and can't work out what that damn rash is….cause i had a friend like that once too

haha, maybe, doubt he would share such information with me though.

and no its not me who has bought this, it really is a friend! even though it looks kinda sus as i have just posted a thread asking about audio interfaces haha

Okay two things. As far as producing is concerned, your friend is useless and not in the position to be buying a new machine without advice. I know that sounds pretty harsh, but ask anyone in this forum how they were in thier first year and I very much doubt there will be anyone who will be able to tell you that they were any good.

That PC sounds like a gaming PC, and I say that because I was a PC gamer and a soundblaster is a gamer's card. Tell him he wasted his money and to get an audio interface like a Lexicon Alpha on the cheap for now. You can get a stereo to TRS jack that will fix the connection problem but 5.1 is useless as you will only ever work with 2 channels of sound unless you soundtrack for movies.

I'm largely assuming this guy is as headstrong as I was, so I would direct him down the path of studio monitors that him and his 'all consuming knowledge' has probably never heard of. That is all for now.

BTW if the assumptions I made are right, and by all means they may not be, then this guy reminds me of me lol

ASIO4all will help a lot but yeah SB not ideal.

Trying to be objective if he does decide to buy a new one, ive got a couple of firewire pro interfaces im selling cheap, hit me up if youre interested. Being objective, i do know what im doing and they will be cheap. If this is seen as complete spam, im sorry, theyre going on ebay tomorrow anyway so no bother.

Cheers

gen_ wrote:Okay two things. As far as producing is concerned, your friend is useless and not in the position to be buying a new machine without advice. I know that sounds pretty harsh, but ask anyone in this forum how they were in thier first year and I very much doubt there will be anyone who will be able to tell you that they were any good.

That PC sounds like a gaming PC, and I say that because I was a PC gamer and a soundblaster is a gamer's card. Tell him he wasted his money and to get an audio interface like a Lexicon Alpha on the cheap for now. You can get a stereo to TRS jack that will fix the connection problem but 5.1 is useless as you will only ever work with 2 channels of sound unless you soundtrack for movies.

I'm largely assuming this guy is as headstrong as I was, so I would direct him down the path of studio monitors that him and his 'all consuming knowledge' has probably never heard of. That is all for now.

BTW if the assumptions I made are right, and by all means they may not be, then this guy reminds me of me lol

nah hes not headstrong at all, he just doesnt think about things too much, he said one day im gonna buy a decent PC, i tried to talk about it with him but he just glazed over, then next day he said i bought an 800£ one last night. not a gaming one, its off a website where you can spec it yourself, he just bought an expensive processor, loads of ram and seen the sound card option and just assumed they were all up for production. its only got an onboard graphics card lol.

he now cant afford a new card for it, so thats why i was asking about a cable

cheers

paradigm x wrote:ASIO4all will help a lot but yeah SB not ideal.

Trying to be objective if he does decide to buy a new one, ive got a couple of firewire pro interfaces im selling cheap, hit me up if youre interested. Being objective, i do know what im doing and they will be cheap. If this is seen as complete spam, im sorry, theyre going on ebay tomorrow anyway so no bother.

Cheers

cheers i will let him know when he does realise that the sound card isnt right for him haha

snick01 wrote:

gen_ wrote:Okay two things. As far as producing is concerned, your friend is useless and not in the position to be buying a new machine without advice. I know that sounds pretty harsh, but ask anyone in this forum how they were in thier first year and I very much doubt there will be anyone who will be able to tell you that they were any good.

That PC sounds like a gaming PC, and I say that because I was a PC gamer and a soundblaster is a gamer's card. Tell him he wasted his money and to get an audio interface like a Lexicon Alpha on the cheap for now. You can get a stereo to TRS jack that will fix the connection problem but 5.1 is useless as you will only ever work with 2 channels of sound unless you soundtrack for movies.

I'm largely assuming this guy is as headstrong as I was, so I would direct him down the path of studio monitors that him and his 'all consuming knowledge' has probably never heard of. That is all for now.

BTW if the assumptions I made are right, and by all means they may not be, then this guy reminds me of me lol

nah hes not headstrong at all, he just doesnt think about things too much, he said one day im gonna buy a decent PC, i tried to talk about it with him but he just glazed over, then next day he said i bought an 800£ one last night. not a gaming one, its off a website where you can spec it yourself, he just bought an expensive processor, loads of ram and seen the sound card option and just assumed they were all up for production. its only got an onboard graphics card lol.

he now cant afford a new card for it, so thats why i was asking about a cable

cheers

He shelled out 800 quid for a computer with onboard graphics?

Money > Sense. Much?

Trainrek - Yup!

Turnipish - Nah! hes proper put himself in a bad position regarding funds now! haha ahh well, dedication/stupidity, im swaying towards the latter.

that is an epic epic fail