MOTM

These are really good points.  To reemphasize, dedicate your machine 
to music software/hardware.  If you start hanging scanners and stuff 
off of it, you will get instabilities.

DAWs are a personal thing.  If you are just beginning, start with 
reviews and screenshots and see which one appeals most to you.  
Chances are it will become a life-time music partner.

Mike

--- In motm@yahoogroups.com, Scott Gibbons <scott.gibbons@m...> wrote:
> Would you be willing to have a dedicated computer for your music 
software?
> If so, I think many of the bug / crash / "POS" issues would be non-
existent.
> Most problems arise from conflicts between different drivers, 
extensions,
> problems with cracked software, etc. If you keep your machine lean, 
and use
> another computer for your internet and gaming, it will likely 
behave - PC or
> Mac.
> 
> A DAW is such a personal thing... I would recommend you try them 
all out
> before you buy. What works for one person, might be unusable for 
another.
> Download the free demos from the manufacturers' websites and try 
them each
> for a while to see what you like & dislike about each.
> 
> At the studio, we use a Pro Tools|24 system, and it's AMAZING. I 
really love
> it. I wouldn't replace this setup with anything else for recording 
the kind
> of bands that come in (everything is mic'd or DI'd, no MIDI, 
nothing fancy).
> But... when I work on my own projects, I use MIDI extensively, and 
couldn't
> give up Digital Performer for the way it effortlessly combines both 
MIDI and
> audio environments simultaneously.
> 
> Digital Performer... I love it. The only thing I would change about 
it would
> be to put some of the DSP on a chip like Digi has done. But still - 
I've
> gotten 72 audio tracks before, with tons of plugins, before my 450 
mhz G4
> started to sputter. That ain't bad! As one of my friends 
observed: "if it's
> good enough for Wendy Carlos and Danny Elfman..."  ;-)
> 
> best,
> - Scott
> ____________
> http://www.red-noise.com
> http://www.strawberryplanet.org