Sometimes, a PC isn’t the right thing…

David Dorn ponders on why some people will use a PC to do something when there’s a better, dedicated tool to do the job.

I’ve got interests outside of computers, you know! Yes, I know it’s hard to believe, but I have, honest. Aside from growing the odd Fuchsia plant, I’m also a musician. I used to be a good one – a drummer, in fact – and now I’m daft enough to believe that folks actually enjoy listening to me warbling away in front of a band (www.strange-brew.com has more details for those of you that are interested).

Way back when, I used to spend a lot of time in recording studios, either playing the drums for various records, or engineering the recordings. In those days it was all 16 track tape-based recorders. Digital recorders and hard-disk recording hadn’t been invented – it was all tape, and, to my ears, we got better recordings then than you hear now. Maybe that’s an age thing, or maybe it’s just fond memories of late nights spent laying that last take down before the band ran out of money.

These days, though, you can press your PC into action as a recording studio – or your iMac, if you’re so inclined. Indeed, there’s a massive industry in the likes of Pro Tools and various other multi-track, computer based studio solutions, but I have to wonder whether they’re everything they’re cracked up to be for the serious amateur.

Note that I’m not knocking completely computerised systems for professional studios, which is exactly the market that Pro Tools is aimed at. At least I hope that’s where it’s aimed, because a complete Pro Tools system costs one arm, one leg and some of the more tender bits of your anatomy. From what I can see, though, the PC or iMac in a Pro Tools system has become somewhat secondary to the “Control Surface”  (mixer) and other bits and bobs, to the point where it replaces, more or less, the good old tape drive we used to use.

Amateur

Down at the more reasonably priced end of the spectrum, we have the likes of  Cool Edit, which is more accessible, though not amazingly cheap. Now, here’s the point. Back in the Dark Ages, we had only sixteen (often eight) tracks to play with. BUT, we could record all sixteen tracks simultaneously. For a jobbing band, that was the way to go. You went into the studio, set up your gear, stuck a microphone somewhere close to each guitar amplifier or drum kit, and another one in front of your lead singer, and set the tape rolling.

The engineer would record each separate instrument or voice to a separate track, and you’d go back over bits that were, erm, not quite right, and maybe add another vocal track or two. The essence, though, was a live recording.

To do that sort of thing now, you have to buy some extra kit for your PC. At the least, in order to record sixteen tracks simultaneously, you need to add some A/D convertors that can address individual tracks in whatever software you’re using. I’ve been pricing some such kit up, and to get sixteen tracks, you’re looking at spending at least a couple of grand.

Then you need the plugins – the echoes, phasers, flangers, mic pre-amps and so forth. Add another grand or so.

Whoah, there, hang on. You need a PC with some oomph to get all of this kit running sweetly, so add another grand to the total, and you’re beginning to get towards a total of four or five thousand pounds.

Cheaper

Scrap that lot. Yamaha has a 24-track (sixteen track simultaneous record) dedicated hard disk recorder with a 44 track mixer and CD burner for around £2,500 – some £1,500 cheaper than the equivalent setup using a PC. Why not use that? Its software is upgradeable, and, from what I’ve seen of it, it’s a very useable bit of kit. Roland has one similar, and Akai, Fostex and others are catching up as well. Indeed, you can get a 16 track, 16 track simultaneous record unit for well under a grand if you shop around. That’s somewhat cheaper than a PC based system, and rivals the cost of building up your current PC to match (in fact it’s around half the price).

So, using your PC for everything isn’t always the way to go – it may not be for other things, either. For instance, I know a bloke who grows Fuchsias. He spent barrowloads of money on interface cards and sensors and various relays and other bits and bobs to build a computerised irrigation system for his greenhouse – the total came to something in the order of £750. It all connected to his family PC, and had the effect of rendering it almost useless for day-to-day tasks, so demanding of processor time was it. In the end, he went out and bought another family PC and dedicated the original one to the task of watering his plants.

I wandered down to the garden centre and spent £40 on a timer to fit on the hose that leads to the small pipes in my greenhouse, and kept an eye on it for a week until I got the watering time sorted! I think I got the better of the deal!

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David Dorn