antiquoob

Oooo- that i/o box doesn't have midi! That'd be a deal breaker right there. Sure you could use a separate USB port for a midi device but having midi I/O integrated in the audio box can prevent many headaches (plus consider on location recording and performance). Look into presonus stuff- they have products at the same price point. They have some $$$$ gear just like focus-r but presonus has been making 300USD> boxes for many, many years. Lots of the high end "only" companies started making interfaces for the serious amateur-on a budget crowd, jumping on the bandwagon often times relying on their name to sell the product. Presonus has been at it for much longer then most and IMO makes a better product for that segment. In 2006, I bought their firebox- it was a big deal at the time- all metal, 4 in 6 out, midi...was a tank and could fit in your hand. I made 2 CDs with that and a 2.4 single core desktop. One cd got album of the year...in Denmark(?!?). Seriously though- no midi I/O is not good!

Erg, new at this- what are settings everyone's using e.g. Rez/aliasing/settings...?

Get a metal pop filter with a long arm. The panty hose kind=bad.

I'd totally do an interview. I started kinda early (computing) in '79 and have lots to say regarding the history of the subject

Yep, yep. Same deal/opinion here. 2x 16:10s are where it's at regarding p/perf.

Nascent tech! Hobox10 is right...think how long it took for 1080p to become standard. I remember 15 years ago reading about it. If a Note3 can take video @ 4k and 4k 65" televisions are going for 3000$ now, retina display being "outdated"...this means That the supply lines, resources, assembly line infrastructure (12,000$ OLED 15" TV a year or 2 ago anyone?) has reached the point where as far as rez is concerned, it's going to be a few years until 8K becomes the new 4K- by that time 4K will be 1080p price...the problem for "regular" high-end PC-Folks the unequal advancement of technologies- specifically GPUs being able to keep up with the speedy evolution of UHD and (what's 8K?) UUUHD(?). I'd much rather play the craziest, graphically intense game using the latest engine at 1080p with every single setting over-maxed at a constant 60fps over the same game at 60fps 4K set on medium-high. It's rather archaic and clunky- having to string 3x GPUs in XFire/SLI, scaling loss etc...just to play current gen games on 1 4K monitor. 290x/Titan Black...or 1500-2000$ worth of GPU! It's ridiculous. It won't be analogue CRT "CGA/EGA/VGA etc" like progress. Just wait a few years. GPU tech hasn't gone thru a real TOCK (none of this 30% improvement p/year stuff) in a looooong time. Yeah. Better temps. We're still using damn h2o fer cripes sake! Something tells me (based of no empirical anything) that with all these tech giants making a gazillion acquisitions, a real TOCK is upcoming. 1440 on full blast with witcher 3 running fast/smooth will probably hurt current $$$ systems. In 2 years? It'll all look kinda goofy. In 3-4 years? Observing how 4K displays went from "untouchable" a year ago to what's going on now- no reason the same won't apply to 8K. If one can go 1440 all fancy/ultra with the most demanding engines of present- stay-put. Trying to "4K" gamer style in present time when we're clearly in a 1440 max'd world is $$$ down the drain. Wait fer the TOCK. Btw- anyone seen an 8K IRL? (serious question)

Nice! Amiga=envy of all

when that tornado ripped thru Joplin killing 800+ ppl. Don't live there, but a few 100 miles east. A tornado 1.5 mi away from me wrecked "a-lot".

Blackphone.

Atari 800 6502 8/48k ram! 300 baud modem:

Mr Moose=totally nailed it. A setup "setup" for the enjoyment of listening to music IS an entirely different beast. A system used for making music will 99% of the time sound like ass to someone used to their listening setups. Adding to the confusion- the music making setup will cost more for a perceived wimpy sound. Why? A good example would be complains of headphones/speakers that "lack in the low frequency dept". The recording person/mixer has the onerous task of making a final recording which will sound good thru: 10$ earbuds 300$ headphones Car stereo 1000$ speakers iPhone speakers Television speakers MP3, AAC, WAV/PCM formats etc... it's REALLY hard! This is the reason why people who record and track their own material will pay hundreds, thousands of $$$ to have their stuff sent of to a professional mastering engineer. That said, I DO think it's 100% possible (with a lot of hard work) for someone to become proficient at both recording, mixing AND mastering. A very good resource which can answer all these questions much better then myself is "Computer Music" and "Future Music" (Hint- the magazine versions are really expensive, if u have an iPad/kindle type thingy, you can get each months edition for 6$ compared to the 25$ at the bookstore).

jumping in on 500€ headphones without a DAC to match is kinda like putting a 780 ti into a single core 2.3 Ghz system. It's putting all the beans into the basket.

Dynamic mic with a (true) hyper-cardioid pattern

For carter style finger picking the neck on electric guitars is too thin. It's not a hard set rule (listen to fleetwood mac) but it's really difficult playing alternating bass /w the thumb while doing melody with a thin neck.

Recommendations and some comments- Everyones notion of an ideal home studio setup varies to a ridiculous degree, it's one of those things where unfortunately it takes a while to figure out what best suits the individual. You have the advantage of being flexible due to having little bias getting in the way of making a crappy purchase based upon herd-opinion. I've been recording for 19 years, hopefully I can give advice based upon the many bad choices made thru the years- cutting thru the spin n hype. I've also recorded @ Abbey Road, the BBC studios and other known studios in the states. Lots learned from those experiences, hanging out/chatting with engineers/producers/musicians who've been doing the stuff for 50+ years. It's easy to go gear nuts and end up with too much stuff, even on a very modest budget. There are so many cheap (as in cost) 100% capable recording devices/tools (a new development) these days, it's confusing. That said with recording gear the difference between something that costs 150$ and some similar in function thing costing 200$ can be immense. At these price points the quality of audio produced will be more than adequate- the difference will be in build quality. As a general rule Beware of things that have a zillion features- better to have a solid 2 channel I/O (AD/DA) then a same priced 10 channel I/O with built in "Amazing!" Effects+dishwasher. Another plus re: your situation, is that you're planning on doing electronic music. The style doesn't require fancy preamps, compressors, mikes etc. You're not going to be recording any orchestras (at least now). Headphones are the enemy of mixing. Never, ever, ever mix down tracks using only headphones. They are used as a minor tool at best, usually to check vocals and phasing issues. Conversely when tracking, headphones are invaluable. There is zero reason for you to procure a discreet DAC for recording. Monitor placement and room positioning is more important than the gear- something manufactures are loathe to admit as no profit comes from that. The ADC/DAC on a decent mobo with regards to electronic music will totally work great. Thing is, discreet I/Os are so cheap these days and offer much more flexibility, I can't see any reason not to get one unless you're on a tiny budget- if you can afford a decent mouse or a few video games, you can afford a discreet USB-I/O. In order of Importance: a midi controller/monitors Then an I/O What are your computer specs? Look into Akai's Controllers- like this one: Here's a (I can't believe how affordable this stuff has become) decent package which includes a mike, headphones and I/O for 250$: KRK spends a gazillion $$$ on advertising. You can do much better with something like this: Finally here's a 250$ I/O by the same (well respected) company which is (a big step up from the one in the package (do you need a mike?) any questions, ask away! Even without the stuff you'll be able to make quality stuff. Spend ALOT of time learning everything FL has to offer. That's the priority!

I gotta say those Parker guitars can do some crazy shit! I'd love to have one (the piezo pick up is awesome) but can't justify the cost! I have a 70's P-Bass, a 70's music master, Tobias bass, a Martin 001M acoustic and a Mexican strat. When it comes to guitars I don't use a pick (finger-pick)...I'd be a crime for me to have a Parker. About action- every once in a blue moon. Ya ever come across some "low(er) end" model that plays so well you think the manufacturer messed up?

Hmm...may I suggest an omni-directional boundary mic, like a PZM (pressure-zone)? The expensive ones used for music recording fall into the "slightly" eclectic category- Neil Peart had one taped to his chest when recording Moving Pictures to get a "from the POV of the drummer" thing going on. That said, you can get cheap ones made for the purpose of a "roundtable" discussion. I can't attest to the quality/results of using a PZM in that way, I've just never tried that out. Here's 2 I found fer you that seem like they maybe in ur $ range(?) and this one with a description: "Full-fidelity PZM Mic with Tiny Size, Tiny Price! The Crown Sound Grabber II is a Pressure Zone Microphone for budget applications such as recording conferences and speeches. It works great with camcorders, picking up clearer sound than built-in microphones. Other uses include "no-fuss" music recording just place it on the floor near the musical ensemble." Condenser mics are used (9/10 times) for recording quiet, non-amped acoustic instruments (vox, strings, piano, overheads for drum kit etc). They need phantom power (extra juice) to (tech/nerdy reasons) be able to have the gain for picking up quiet(er) sounds. All mics kinda work the same way kinda: sound=variations in air pressure. In a mic, those variations (sound waves) when they reach the mic cause the diaphragm (as in a condenser) or coil (dynamic mic) to physical move. The diaphragm/coil is "in between" an electro magnetic field- the fluctuation (movement) causes a variation in the electric current. These "variations" or movements reproduce the sound waves (air pressure variations)...being in the realm of electric land, from there they go thru an amp, magnified many times, finally ending up coming out of a speaker/headphone. Microphones and speakers are funny- they're both transducers, just wired the opposite way (for the most part). A speaker is a reverse microphone and vice versa. Condensers are really good for voice. A decent large diaphragm condenser costs the same as a vanilla 780ti. The next level up is in the 1200-1800$ range, 2000-3000$, 3000-8000$ is the highest they go until you get into the vintage stuff. A friend of mine has an original U47 (look it up on Wikipedia, interesting story) he got for a "steal" at 30,000$. He pays his rent, renting his gear out! My Philosophy is: you/anyone can make something that sounds superb with "junk"- it's the skill of the recording/performers etc. Don't ever let anyone tell you gear XYZ will "make something suck". BS! That's the cool thing about making music. A determined person with a 300$ guitar can waste some dude with a room full of boutique custom shit...and there's none of that "I just got a 4474k 890ti quad fan 4-way sli 1 second ago and wait! I gotta throw it all away cuz crysis 6 is out!! stuff. I'll post about sound cards n' such tomorrow

This should be sticky: http://www.petri.co.il/optimize-windows-8-digital-audio.html

history! Miner 2049er Jumpman Original Archon Ultima IV-V Alternate Reality Stars Raiders Temple of Apshai Suspended Wizards' Crown Day of The Tenticle Fallout 1 Planescape Torment Kotor Blade runner Doom I Unreal I Duke Nukem (3d realms) Pirates! Bards Tale Heroes of M&M Space Quest Half Life (Big gap in time) dragon age/mass effect (I just loaded witcher 2, will see. Also, from comments here I think I'll get metroid 2033, sounds like my kinda game?)

I run into this problem every time nvidia outs a driver update. Won't install the goodies if the Realtek box is unchecked. I just use revouninstall. Been doing it with win x64 7, 8 and 8.1 Compy has no issues recognizing other sound cards. As far as games go, I only have 3 at the moment- witcher 2 (works), BIoshock I (works) and mass effect 2 (issues).

+Sors advice.

+many digits-> to Sors If this reads assole-y it's not intentional; it the damned texting format! Just trying to give best advice. Spending 200-300USD (or equiv) on gaming headphones is close to criminal. More specific whichever Tech-Gaming Corp©®™ is hawking "gaming" headphones for 200-300$ should get the tar-n-feather treatment, unless troves of cashed up advert peeps addled on dexmethylphenidate buy into the PR morass. A few steadfast guidelines: 1. Mind the company who's selling the product. 9/10 times with "new" type products (ultra luxury 300$ gaming hesdphones?!?!) a familiar name in the industry known for super quality parts which are/have been part of their core Prod-Line e.g. EVGA for graphics cards, Kingz-ton for RAM...will as all capital ventures do cater to the whims of Current-Gen-Must-Have-its. Invariably the outcome goes as such: an excellent manufacturer of SSDs within a couple years comes out with super deluxe "audiophile" (that word bugs me as much as it does you) "gaming" 300$ 'phones... Kinda like superconductors, there just aren't many companies making the things /w consistency/quality, ESP. on the scale/quickness said product is released. Sennheiser, Audio-Technica, Beyer-D et. those types., have been in the business of making transducers for a long, long while. Dunno how many people would run out and buy an Audio-Technica R290Z-Quad-Xfire+128GBVRAM card Sounds to good to be true and it is. To paraphrase Sors and a few others, audiophile-gaming-sound is an oxy-non sequitur moron. It's kinda a pain in the ass to develop/train the ear to become sensitive to what can be construed as "audiophile" and "sounds great". Games for all the immersion offered and the crazy budgets involved can't take advantage of what 300$ audio headphones (not gaming ones) have to offer. It's apples/oranges. First of, what style of music is being listened to? Compressed (electronic, hip-hop, nu-metal, anything on pop-radio) music will not benefit in anyway from phones costing more than 100ish USD. The dynamic range measured in dBu will flux -/+ 5ish dB, it's nothing pejorative- just something inherent in the style of music (usually). For 97%* of folks out there, the ideal-sounds-awesome-sound is what was back in the day called the V-EQ, or "smile". Imagine a graphic EQ (fixed) with 10 sliders on your car set up in a "V" config: - - - - - - - - - - Uh, bad representation but point is, our ears have been trained to think ultra-fat bass+clear transients/highs /w minimal mid-range freqs=audiophile. Coincidentally, gaming headphones, everything at the big box stores, movie theaters etc. are setup for super-bass/clear highs. This is a weird one, cause it's a culturally (pop) pushed phenom, perpetuated by $$$ Corp., which drives CCs (content creators) to keep this semi-arbitrary game going, minus some indie types and the occasional AAA Anomaly, which breaks convention. Aaaand I digress. Look who was outsourced for the main components- like the actual drivers for the headphones. I'm fairly certain corsair didn't put together a crack team of old German audio-masters for the explicit reason of "300$ gaming headset". Very fancy packaging. Key components outsourced to somewhere in Foxconn-China land. huge scam: Any "by Beats" bullshit. Beats may sound decent for 1 specific style (read: 808 kicks) but holy crap, shows the power advertising-psych. Beats on a laptop (huh?) Beats by Beats. First was 200$ beats. Now, a variety of price points- spent 500$ on beats. Asinine. But! Great PR...(high five the marketing dept? Noooo). Honest here- The ATH50s in the realm of games and non jazz-classical (mega wide dynamic range+frequency) are, aside from proprietary DSP "surround" tech/noise cancellation (a big no no) are super excellent way more than needed for games. How did 1000$ headphones enter into gaming culture anyway? (Really, I want to know). -Any headphone /w specs (real-life) like the AT50=more than needed What's most important to consider after that has everything todo with: Ergo-Comfort Build Quality Parts Replaceable? Warranty? etc. I use ATH50s when listening to music for 100% enjoyment. They're so bass heavy (in a good way) it's fun listening to most everything with em. I would never mix with them, though- mixes would come out crazy thin on the low end. I use Sennheisers' for mix/checking and DSD audio when away from speakers. Speakers are best! but not practical with many living arrangements, and are a hassle to calibrate. I don't want to see anyone (you) throwing down 100-200$ extra on some marketing B.S., I hate PR/Advertising Departments

1 very cool thing about headphones and decent speakers: Moores Law does not apply. Unlike GPUs where a 2 yr. Old card is ancient, a good pair of speakers/headphones, when taken care of will last decades.

I gotta say I'm woefully ignorant when it comes to the kind of DACs being talked about round here. Can someone give me a brief list of DAC models often used by ppl in this thread? I need to educate myself on the specs and such, so I can (hopefully) give some decent advice. I don't know how long DACs have been so popular with gamers-PC enthusiasts but I think it's super cool.

jjtoutt is on to something. If I got it right, you're analogue output stage is compy-->3.5mm cord-->KRKs? Also, using phono (RCA) cables is kinda like using the old coax cable for connecting a Titan Super-Onyx to an 8k monitor (heheheh). Both the 3.5mm and RCAs are unbalanced and have effectively zero shielding. Shielding is super important- that awlful sound is most likely the 3.5mm cable (because of it being unbalanced/un shielded) picking up all manner of RF/EMR/PSU-related sig. The reason why I don't think it's the USB connection is 'cause that signal is all 1's and 0's- i.e. Impossible for [usb] it to pick up interference. The single most important reason why anyone would need an external Soundcard (DAC or ADC or AIO combo) is to get those components out of the computer (literally) and away from all the buzzzzzzy business inside it. So if (I have it right) you have a 1,0000000$$$ DAC/Monitors etc BUT are using a 3.5mm either coming out of your compy, OR a 3.5mm coming out of your external sound-card...into speakers, it will buzz crazy like that. I hate the "you gotta buy the 100$ cable" stuff, that only matters when running an XLR 30' or more. BUT- like jjtoutt said, use balanced 1/4" or XLRs. Avoid using any kind of adapter, be it a y-splitter etc. The KRKs I'd think (99%) have XLR INs. Anyway you can use a XLR female/1/4" Male (2 cords for l/r)?