Anyone seen this?

Music Computer

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MusicXPCC2/

I’m shopping for a new dedicated music PC. I came across this on the sweetwater site. Tiny little bugger. Any input on this unit would be helpful. They can add any sound card or peripherals and it comes configured with software of choice.
Thanks,
guitarist

Shameless plug - please check out my custom made, quiet DAWs at DAW. I can build you anything you want for alot less than $1,899.00.

Just got another order from a friend last week.

Mike

Dear Minght T…
What do you mean by shameless plug? I’m simply asking for an honest opinion, as there are many people and companies that build custom daw’s.
guitarist

Right - here are some other places that make DAWs (taken from my web site):

- www.endpcnoise.com
- www.pcAudioLabs.com
- www.adkproaudio.com

I’ve never ordered DAWs from any of these manufacturers or sweetwater but I can build the same computer & beat their prices. But you can do that to if you want to do it. The spec’s for the Sweetwater cube are there.

Mike

Toker,

How many PCI slots does your shuttle based motherboard have?

Later,
C

he meant shameless plug for himself. as in, he’s advertising for himself in a forum topic.

It’s a cute unit, but they should have RCA jacks or XLR inputs built onto the front of the machine or maybe some kind mixing pots, to make a real all-in-one unit.

My units have 1x AGP 8X, 3x PCI. I designed it based on the Antec Aria case, but I’m thinking about switching to the Shuttle unit because my mobo doesn’t have FireWire.

ksdb - you’re right about these units - they’re cute. They don’t have the DAW stuff you’d like because they’re still just PCs, not dedicated devices for doing digital recording.

Hi Mike,
What would be your price for a similar set up? still shopping…The reason why I posted this dAW was because of it’s size. It’s kind of almost portable. Also, i’ve never seen anything like it and wanted to get opinions.
There is also the whole other topic of software…
Without opening a can of worms…Sweet water pushes Pro Tools LE with the MBox. Also Cubase with their new MBox style interface.
Of course the rep never heard of N-Track…but really, what’s the difference?
I’ve been using N for over 2 years and do not plan to change.
I just wanted to know if there really was a sonic difference between the 3 programs?
Anyway, please send me your pricing.
Thanks,
guitarist

Hi folks,
I’m a happy customer of Mike’s “MusicIsLove” DAWs. I’ve got a best bang for buck Big Black Beauty and am beady to bock, er, ready to rock. I dug around the web for a while before deciding on a fellow musician/Ntrack user to one-at-a-time, with TLC, build me a killer machine.
BTW, this is the 1st post in a long while. Hope the lame humor proves I’m the real RichardT of old. Uh, drum links, anyone?
RT

Guitarist321,

From what i can tell, you can build that machine for about $900 (or one that is more powerful). The case is the price killer, but if you don’t need that case, you can definitely build it for about $900.

Go to Price Watch and price it out for yourself.

Mike

PS…

For $169, the Pentium 3ghz chip is a dog. For the same price you can get an Athlon 64 3200+ chip that will run rings around the Pentium chip.

I have an antec aria case (link)
and a dfi matx board running a athlon 64 2800+ processor(link). The board has 3 pci slots and one agp 8x. Problem with the case is fitting more than one harddrive is a challenge and if you aren’t running sata drives even routing the ide cables is a pain. I previously had a shutlle matx board (mn32n) which had onboard dualhead graphics, good little board. I like the matx boards because it gives me portability (the box my aria came in has a handle so I use it for transporting it) and with 3 pci slots it is expandable enough. I’d personally steer away from the xpc’s though because they have only once pci slot. I am currently running one delta 44 and if I wanted to add another or something else as well (8080lt or the likes) no prob, with the xpc i’d have to give up my current card to upgrade to more channels :( . If you are starting out with an amazing card with as many inputs as you’ll ever need then it’s great (a little less desktop space), otherwise i’d go the matx route.

My computer was cheap too, I build all my own computers from www.ncix.com (canadian site) or www.anitec.ca which saves me huge $$$ so i can spend it on more gear.

Saw the little bugger and it’s bigger brother at Sam Ash. No - I would not buy it from those devils…yes, you all have good points about building your own daw for 900 bux, but I’m not that savvy. Also, need a place with tech support just in case.
Mike, I’m not ruling you out…still saving and planning.
Let you know!
guitarist…
PS…it seems many more people are moving over to Cubase…
Honestly, can anyone point out any advantages in the basic recording of music? But…
My friend burned me a copy of Wavelab that has become my best friend…the multi band compressor and peak master has turned my n-track mixes into gold. the difference is night and day. A lot has to be said about this editor and plug ins.

Quote (guitarist321 @ Nov. 21 2004,11:13)
Without opening a can of worms....Sweet water pushes Pro Tools LE with the MBox. Also Cubase with their new MBox style interface.
Of course the rep never heard of N-Track...but really, what's the difference?

I was reading a Velvet Revolver interview a while back and it mentioned that Scott uses pro tools to put some of the stuff together as a scratch pad...

From what I have read about Cubase, you can do the same stuff in N-Track and a wave editor.

TBG