rackmount setup

[Ramon Leal]

I've always thought that I've known my computers well but when it comes to setting up an audio workstation, I am lost.

I'm currently using an athlon 750 with 256 megs of ram. I'm using the built in soundcard and my computer crashes often when I'm using my midisport 4x4 and logic audio 4.

I am thinking about putting together a rackmount system but don't have much knowledge about how they work. What size should I get, 4u? Should I buy one with a power supply or one without one.

Also, what's a good sound card to use with the Digi001? One that would work well with logic audio 5 and logic control.

[da BaSsTaRd!]

what's your budget?
are you going portable with it or (like me) using it in a piece of furniture?
is this gonna be DAW only or a multi-use machine?

[Ramon Leal]

See, this is the deal. I have a waldorf q, mc-505 groovebox, and an sp-808 phrase sampler. They're all controlled by my midiman 4x4. All the outputs are then going to my roland mixer. I am using logic audio 4 and sound diver for my sequencing but it is very unstable.

Since my sequencer is pretty much useless for me at the moment, I've decided to get a new computer. I plan on buying a couple more synths, drum machines, and sound modules by the end of the year but don't want to buy any more full sized synths, just rack versions of gear. So I'm gonna start putting everything in racks from now on, including the new computer.

I'm not even using the digi 001 until the XP drivers come out. (Didn't expect a long wait when I bought it in January.) So I'm looking for advice on two different areas.. 1) what kind of component I need to set up an audio rack system and 2) given a 1500 budget, what kind of rack-able system one should get. What kind of soundcard would compliment the digi001 without any of the features being redundant.

[da BaSsTaRd!]

$1500 goes a long way. here's what i think. if i were to do it all over again, i would not have bought a rack case. they're loud and i've spent a lot of money to quiet it down. its worked, but i was going for dead silence and that ain't happening.

i custom built a rack for my gear. here's a picture (http://basstardz.dhs.org/siteimages/studio2.JPG). the top half is open for my rack gear and the bottom half has a door and that's where i keep another computer and printer. the computer is in a desktop case (horizontal - not tower). i wanted it behind that door because its ugly and this is a piece of furniture in my home. it turns out that the enclosed bottom half acts as an sound isolator and i don't even have insulation or anything inside.

anyway, here's the point, if i were to do it over, i would have built the cabinet so that the bottom half is larger and i would have bought a desktop case for my DAW instead of a rackmount case. then i would stack the new desktop on top of my other computer and isolated it inside with a little insulation.

[yavuzj]

Check this out;

http://shop.store.yahoo.com/akidacomputer/4ucaswitpows.html

[Ultraslide]

A a word of caution ... actually two words.

1) I have that exact case in white. It is very loud. I have since turned it into a server and went back to a much quieter desktop case and power supply (http://www.pcpowercooling.com/products/power_supplies/ultra_quiet/silencers/index_ultraquiet_atx.ht m)
2) I ordered a black one from Akira Computers who shipped me a white one and refused to correct the problem unless I paid all the extra shipping charges for thier mistake. I refused to pay the extra 70 dollars for shipping both cases and now I'm stuck. Buyer Beware.

the 'slide

[yavuzj]

Originally posted by Ultraslide:
A a word of caution ... actually two words.
1) I have that exact case in white. It is very loud. <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Mine was loud as well. However, I changed the case fans and bought a Zalmantech CPU cooler. I also took out the chipset cooler fan and angled the Zalmantech Fan so it cools both the CPU and the chipset. It is very very quiet now. It is not very deep as the other Rackmounts so it is actually portable.

Other than that, I am sorry to hear that you had a bad experience with the store. I did not but I will be careful if I order anything else from them. Thnaks for the heads up.

[Ultraslide]

Great ideas Yavuz !
Since I originally bought the case with the hot swapable pwr supplies (my mistake) I decided to just save some cash and went back to the desktop case I already had and a quiet supply. Rather than throwing away the PwrSupplies I got with the case.
And although my experience was less than ideal I would still encourage everyone to support independent computer dealers.
The case wasnt exactly what wanted (ie, it wasnt black images/icons/grin.gif ) but it has made a kick arse server.

the 'slide

[Datus]

Well are you looking for more of a professional solution, or just like a high end standard computer sound card. Either way I would suggest a live or an audigy, good all around and the only card recommended and supported by some high end software companies. Or go the route of something like an M-Audio Audiophile pretty good specs, and its multi clientele so you can use multiple apps at once through the same card which is something the SB cards lack.

[STUDIO-DE-ARIEL]

Here are a few ideas gleened from some earlier posts. Some posts exist to search on referencing this subject that these came from I saved these on my bookmarks hope they help

http://www.koolance.com/

http://www.baber.com/cases/rackmount_index_4u .htm (http://www.baber.com/cases/rackmount_index_4u.htm)

http://www.carillonusa.com/clnwebnoise.html

[zedhed]

The digi oo1 system comes with it's own sound card which connects to the breakout I/O box.

[Ramon Leal]

so.. what about the soundcard? what kind should I get?

[STUDIO-DE-ARIEL]

Zed
I think he was talking about the sound card and the rack mount
any way the Card that you guys use for midi what is it?

BAE

[Ramon Leal]

I am using a midiman 4x4 midi interface for all my midi needs. I'm talking about a soundcard to play back my audio. And also for my midi sync. It seems like the timing is way off on my midi out.