Well, it has been a little while since I have upgraded my digital audio workstation, so the time had come for this necessary evil...with a bit of fun to it for this geek.
Anyways, over the years, I have mostly built my systems from scratch. Now you can probably tell I am a PC user from that last statement, which has been the case for many years; for ease of upgrading, configuring, and smaller investment/bigger bang for the buck reasons. This time however, I have gone a slightly different route. That is to say going through a vendor/builder instead of building it myself.
For me, research is a big part of it. Though it seemed to take me just as much time to research the vendors as the components alone to build it myself. This time I have decided to go with a custom built system from a dedicated system builder, in this case Reyniers Audio based in Florida. These builders are dedicated to building digital audio based systems only, though you can do video and graphics on them, they are specifically tuned for audio applications. During my initial research, I realized that between the time I would have spent choosing the components, checking compatibility, purchasing the parts, installing them myself, never mind needing to return any that might be defective and having to wait for a replacement while all the other parts sit around running out of their replacement time, not to mention warranty pains...UGH! Well, it just started making more sense to go with a dedicated system builder/vendor with the knowledge, expertise, and compatibility concerns already realized, not to mention a warranty that was almost better than the manufacturer's.
From here, my obsessive self took over of course, by having to compare all the vendors and their components, pricing, and warranty to find the best price/performance/guarantee that I could afford. Of course, with Mac's you don't really have to do this, but that's no fun! Well, there are some good vendors to choose from out there and I think I would have done alright with any of the five I narrowed it down to, but the vendor who won my business was heavily due to pre-sales assistance. All my emails were answered promptly and thoughtfully, including a phone call, and plenty of re-assurance was given that what I was considering would match well with what I wanted to accomplish and then some. Now, I will say that many vendors were responsive to my concerns and needs, but their pricing tended to be quite a bit higher for similar components and slightly less warranties in some cases. Some even charged for the initial consult!...(not listed here). In the end, I felt good about my purchase, the vendor, and having my needs met. Again, I think other vendors out there are good, maybe even great too, but Reyniers Audio met my challenges, needs, and my budget. As this is my blog and not a review for an industry rag, I will mention that I was considering workstations from PCAudio Labs, ADKPro Audio, Stonewave, VisionDAW, Audeum, Rain, Sweetwater, Puget, Titanus...even DigitalStorm and CyberPowerPC (both of which offer pretty incredible builds for the money, just not tweaked for audio). The first five mentioned were my top choices. Also, I had decided not to go with a Mac for now, as I have enough invested on the PC side, as well as I wouldn't want anything less than a tower which would have been another $500+, plus shifting programs over, and that just wasn't making sense for me. Also, the processor on the Mac at that level, in tests, didn't show any advantage unless moving to a dual proc system, which got pricey…Now onto the beast itself!
I chose to go with the Virtuoso i7 system in a desktop configuration instead of a rackmount case. This was mainly due to the fact that I didn't intend to travel with it, the rackmount is slightly louder, and it will probably be in the control room with me. The case, as you can see, is very well equipped inside. It has the 2 pull out bay for HD’s. There are even rubber grommet spacers for the HD’s to mount in the bay’s. A separate area for the psu, which helps the noise but I tend to wonder if the psu would better help the cooling on the interior if it were in the same compartment. The front door has a nice breakaway feature where it opens past the usual 180 degrees. Also note the extra spaces for 120mm fans in the front of the case and the external connectors for esata, usb, and sound. As you can see I haven’t installed my BR yet. Impressive case.
So, here are the specs…the processor is the Core i7 950 at 3.06Ghz spec with a Noctua U12P and a Gigabyte X58 chipset UD3 mobo, 6 Gigs of Corsair XMS3 Ram, a 850 Watt Nexus PS, and a simple Gigabyte 8400GS video card, as I still haven't decided which card to move to...ah decisions. And of course, Windows 7 64bit on a 1TB system drive as I run Sony Vegas Pro 10, Sound Forge 10, and the new Pro Tools 9 is coming. Also, I did not order a project drive as I already had one as well as a Pioneer Blue Ray burner. All that, AND I don't have to tweak a thing!
As you can see, the installation was very clean and tidy and they even pre-ran SATA cabling for my project drive and Blue Ray. In some shots you can see where mini cable ties were used as well. The rest of the cable is run behind the motherboard in a shallow open area designed for it. I installed all of my software and hardware that included an Maudio Delta66 (soon to come out) and a Motu PCIe424 for a 2408. Once completed, I ran the Acronis Backup software to make an image of the system in case of disaster. The system already comes with an image of the completed machine, but another image should be made to include the programs installed, that way you don't have to go as far back as the initial OS installation. One note I will make, is that at the time of receiving the system from the vendor, the Acronis software disk did not make it into the package when shipped. A quick simple email to Wouter fixed this and it was received promptly. Also, they are very open to questions, concerns, and feedback.
Ok. It was all complete…hardware, software, licensing…up and running after a few hours of installations. For its first project, I was able to use it to finish up the last installments of the 'Hit and Run History' web series on WGBH.org. Man did those app's open quick! I was able to use my new Izotope RX2 noise reduction software as well and the performance was incredible. My final mixes were done in no time flat and that gave me a chance to try some rendering tests. I used a demo reel that ran about 4 minutes long that was on my old system still. Then I swapped out the project drive into the new DAW and ran the same thing again. The results were astounding. Render time on the old PC (P4 2.8G with 2.5 G Ram on an Asus P4 mobo) using the same software (still installed) and configs was a little over 10 minutes to render. On the new system, with the same software and configs, it took only 2.5 minutes! And this is a video render folks! Going from an mpeg base to mp4 for the web. Sound files just render out in a cough!
So, that is my DAW upgrade story. Here I am with a machine that should last me a few years, though probably out of date already, lol, it certainly makes working fun again. With many accollades to Wouter and his team at Reyniers Audio, this was indeed what the Dr. ordered. Now onto more projects since I get them done faster! :)
later...
ga
