Are you using AI - and how?

[Gatordev]

Ummm what did I miss?

Massive electronic hardware inflation, limited consumer hardware inventory, stagnating technology advancement on the consumer side for both video card and processors, circular investments where one company invests in another company that needs the first company's hardware, oh, and that same first company passively allowing massive amounts of its product into China even though the product has an ITAR prohibition on it.

 

[Swanee]

Massive electronic hardware inflation, limited consumer hardware inventory, stagnating technology advancement on the consumer side for both video card and processors, circular investments where one company invests in another company that needs the first company's hardware, oh, and that same first company passively allowing massive amounts of its product into China even though the product has an ITAR prohibition on it.

Now was a really shitty time to need to invest in a new machine to handle my processing needs in my home music studio.

The best deal I could find was actually at Costco. $2300 for an MSI with a Ryzen9900x, GTX 5080 and (sadly) 32 gigs of RAM. My previous machine had 32 gigs of RAM, but the core size increase in the CPU is $.

Hopefully RAM prices will become reasonable again and I can put 64 gigs in this machine.

 

[ChuckMK23]

Now was a really shitty time to need to invest in a new machine to handle my processing needs in my home music studio.

The best deal I could find was actually at Costco. $2300 for an MSI with a Ryzen9900x, GTX 5080 and (sadly) 32 gigs of RAM. My previous machine had 32 gigs of RAM, but the core size increase in the CPU is $.

Hopefully RAM prices will become reasonable again and I can put 64 gigs in this machine.

My go to desktop computer recommendation for most people is the awesome Mac Mini M4.

That’s some serious hardware - are you running DCS?

 

[Gatordev]

Now was a really shitty time to need to invest in a new machine to handle my processing needs in my home music studio.

I've been debating grabbing a MacBook Pro now while the prices are still very fair even though I don't need a new laptop right now. Compared to a 2016 MBP in the same "like" configuration (given tech increases), the current MBP is only $150-200 more, and that increase is because of an upgraded screen. Apple has stayed surprisingly price-stable, but I'm not sure how much longer they can sustain that. That said, I don't need as much RAM as you do, which really seems to spike the price.

By the way, that seems like a pretty decent deal, especially when you include the normally over-priced 5080.

That’s some serious hardware - are you running DCS?

I'm guessing multi-track audio software, presumable something that's PC-specific. Multi-track can fill up memory pretty quickly and having the horsepower helps speed up the render (or whatever audio nerds call it) of the final track.

 

[Swanee]

My go to desktop computer recommendation for most people is the awesome Mac Mini M4.

That’s some serious hardware - are you running DCS?

No DCS.

I do run some other AAA games though, with some mods to make them look nicer.

Apple doesn't play well with some other gear I have in my studio- mainly the monitor/IEM rig and the split snake.

I've been debating grabbing a MacBook Pro now while the prices are still very fair even though I don't need a new laptop right now. Compared to a 2016 MBP in the same "like" configuration (given tech increases), the current MBP is only $150-200 more, and that increase is because of an upgraded screen. Apple has stayed surprisingly price-stable, but I'm not sure how much longer they can sustain that. That said, I don't need as much RAM as you do, which really seems to spike the price.

By the way, that seems like a pretty decent deal, especially when you include the normally over-priced 5080.



I'm guessing multi-track audio software, presumable something that's PC-specific. Multi-track can fill up memory pretty quickly and having the horsepower helps speed up the render (or whatever audio nerds call it) of the final track.

It was a pretty good deal. I don't really need the 5080, but it's a nice to have.

And yeah, the increased core count for the 9900X and the ability to expand the RAM to 64 gigs is what got me. Depending on what we're doing we can have 24 live tracks going (drummer likes live mics, guitarist likes to mic and to DI, I just DI with the bass, and keys are SUPER easy), with mix downs into 4 separate monitor mixes (drums, guitar, bass, keys, and everyone sings). Multi-track audio with real time plug-ins takes a lot of heavy lifting. Being able to mix/edit/master in real time is nice, and yes, rendering take way less time now. It would be different if we didn't want to record live, but as it turns out laying down individual tracks is a skill in and of itself.