RE: The set up

["Kevin Mulvihill" <kmulvihill@mediaone.net>]

Hi Michele,

I build all my own desktop computers so I can tell you that the parts are
all basically the same. You just get your choice when you build your own 
(or
have it custom built). For video, yes, the bigger the hard drive the 
better.
Hard drives are not that expensive... you can get a 20GB IDE for $150 or
so... Of course, life isn't always so easy, is it? For video, you need to
get a drive that is A/V (audio/video) compatible. This means that the drive
compensates for thermal overheating by NOT interrupting the flow of data -
most non-A/V drives compensate for the heating problem by momentarily
stopping the flow of data. This is not what you want if you're streaming
video because the video will momentarily "hang" while thermal calibration
occurs.

I suggest visiting the major manufacturer web sites (Seagate, Quantum, IBM,
Maxtor, etc.) to generate a list of which drives are A/V compatible, and
then buy one of those. I've had good luck with Quantum, Seagate and Maxtor
drives. Please stay away from Micropolis; I bought an A/V drive from them a
few years ago and had nothing but problems... of course, maybe that's been
corrected by now.

One other suggestion: you'll get best performance on a hard drive with a
SCSI bus connection - Ultra 160 is the new standard. Find a motherboard 
with
a built-in Ultra 160 SCSI controller and you'll save some money. Hook up an
Ultra 160 A/V drive to it and you're ready to rock and roll! Adaptec is the
leader in SCSI controllers.

Good luck!
Kevin

> -----Original Message-----
> From: michele wortman&guy aitchison
> [mailto:hyperspacestudios@earthlink.net]
> Sent: Monday, August 14, 2000 6:56 PM
> To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
> Subject: Re: The set up
>
>
>
> Hey Kevin!
> Thanks for your time in replying. I am new to making music. My influences
> are mostly what I listen to and what is in my head. I don't know
> much about
> programs for looping but have heard nothing but good things about acid,
> which I have and have never used since we have a mac and can't seem to 
>get
> acid to work through virtual pc. I also have an older version of pro 
>tools
> but find it kinda complicated to sync beats. I really am just fresh out 
>of
> the water and don't want to start with anything too complex. I am not a
> laptop or p.c user so that world is kind of vague to me. I am
> always maxing
> out the storage space of 8 g.b on the mac with video files so I
> was thinking
> I should plan ahead with space since I will need room  to stream the 
>video
> files through the p.c to a multimedia projector, as well as store
> alot of my
> music files so the project is somewhat self contained, in terms of being
> able to locate my beats. I was wondering if I should have a p.c
> custom built
> to avoid features that I won't use, but I guess the real expense no 
>matter
> how you slice it is the g.b and the ram.
>
> M
>