I am going to buy a new PC sometime this year. What exactly should I be looking for? I want to be able to run FL Studio without any crashes, audio stuttering, etc. What exactly would I need for that? What exactly is needed in order to run FL Studio smoothly? A PC with a lot of RAM? A PC with a good graphics card? What should I be looking for?

Instead of buying a new PC, buy a good soundcard. Less money, same effect.

Buy a mac. FL runs exceptionally well on it ;)

At 1/27/13 06:23 PM, LiquidOoze wrote: Instead of buying a new PC, buy a good soundcard. Less money, same effect.

Well, I need a new PC anyway for other reasons, so regardless.

Can somebody tell me if the soundcard on this PC is good enough?

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Dell+-+XPS+Desktop+-+8GB+Memory+
-+2TB+Hard+Drive/5423578.p?id=1218644419005&skuId=5423578

You should focus on processing power.

Do what I did. Get a PC so powerful it can run Crysis 3 on max settings.
You see, as a computer you are going to use it for alot of things. ALOT of things.
And, your probably not buying a new one for a very long time.

Crysis is like trial by fire for everyones PC. If it can do that, it can do anything. anythiiiiiiing.
Thats how I do it though.

There are some nitpicky things. Makes sure its got plenty of memory, and make sure it has a good soundcard. Avoid that 'beats' contraption. You want a soundcard that gives you clear sound for everything. Not one that makes just the bass shine.

At 1/27/13 07:53 PM, LichLordMusic wrote: - Stick with Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. Windows 8 still does weird things to FL and not all plug-ins are supported on Win8 at the moment

As an avid Win8 user, I can safely assure you that there are no plugin conflicts, and there'd be no reason for the plugins to not work. It's quite the same as Windows 7.
I use Reason, Ableton and FL on my rig, with a bunch of plugins - both popular and not-so-popular. No conflicts yet!

At 1/27/13 07:53 PM, LichLordMusic wrote: (plus I hate it anyway).

Oh come on. That's no reason to shoot it down for others - just because you don't like it. Who knows, he might not like the look at first but eventually find nothing wrong with it after using it?
Everyone's wired differently.

Tips on making a good PC for music:
Build it yourself.
Get a good processor.
Get lots of RAM if you're using classical instruments or Sample-based plugins.
Get something that's not very loud.

At 1/27/13 06:20 PM, MatrixGravity wrote: I am going to buy a new PC sometime this year. What exactly should I be looking for? I want to be able to run FL Studio without any crashes, audio stuttering, etc. What exactly would I need for that? What exactly is needed in order to run FL Studio smoothly? A PC with a lot of RAM? A PC with a good graphics card? What should I be looking for?

I would not buy a Dell. :)

Also, read through this, your questions have already been answered in a thread created a few days ago:

http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1328997

If your FL Studio crashes frequently, this can have many reasons, by the way. Keep it updated, look which VSTs you use while it crashes and so on. If you do not own the original FL Studio yet, the first step to avoid crashes would be to buy it. Same goes for all VSTs. Also, concerning the stuttering, make sure you chose "Asio4All" as sound driver in FL Studio to improve your built-in soundcard's capabilities.

Omnisphere was an annoying one. No matter whatever I tried to do, the box which contains the challenge code which you have to copy and paste into the Spectrasonic website to get the authorisation code from appeared blank.

I had no problems with Win 8 yet, but I use Ableton Live, not FL Studio. However, I had the same problem you mentioned with Omnisphere and several other VSTs - The solution for me was simple, but took a while to figure out: As soon as I right-clicked on the Live Shortcut and chose "Run as Admin", it worked. :)

At 1/28/13 08:45 AM, Elitistinen wrote: build your own PC instead of buying it from store.

At 1/28/13 10:50 AM, MetalRenard wrote: Tips on making a good PC for music:
Build it yourself.

No no no no no. Why does everyone reccomend that you build your own PC? It's not a fool-proof end-all-errors solution. For someone who's not so tech-inclined, telling them that the best PC is a home-assembled PC will probably deter them from ever upgrading. they might fork out the money for parts and fuck the build up.

I'm running a shop-bought Dell Inspiron desktop and it does the job more than fine. I'm upgrading to a Mac in May. I've never built my own PC, and I still run FL studio perfectly fine and produce really nice music.

If I were you, I'd get a decent-spec desktop/laptop. Something that's any dearer than $800. Shop-bought or not, any PC works.

No no no no no. Why does everyone reccomend that you build your own PC? It's not a fool-proof end-all-errors solution. For someone who's not so tech-inclined, telling them that the best PC is a home-assembled PC will probably deter them from ever upgrading. they might fork out the money for parts and fuck the build up.

..because than you know where some critical parts (PSU & mainboard) come from. But it's true, I would not recommend building an own PC to everyone either. I know many big online shops who build your PC for twenty bucks, you just choose the parts. Maybe look out for one of those.

At 1/27/13 06:20 PM, MatrixGravity wrote: I am going to buy a new PC sometime this year. What exactly should I be looking for? I\

Macs run it fine.

At 1/29/13 08:54 AM, DeathRiseRobo wrote:

At 1/27/13 06:20 PM, MatrixGravity wrote: I am going to buy a new PC sometime this year. What exactly should I be looking for? I\

Macs run it fine.

But he wants a PC, and I thought Macs were no PCs? At least that's what Apple tells everyone.

I wonder why I still can run OS X on my PC, though.. Hm.

At 1/28/13 11:26 PM, ChainsawPolice wrote:

At 1/28/13 08:45 AM, Elitistinen wrote: build your own PC instead of buying it from store.

At 1/28/13 10:50 AM, MetalRenard wrote: Tips on making a good PC for music:
Build it yourself.

No no no no no. Why does everyone reccomend that you build your own PC? It's not a fool-proof end-all-errors solution. For someone who's not so tech-inclined, telling them that the best PC is a home-assembled PC will probably deter them from ever upgrading. they might fork out the money for parts and fuck the build up.

I'm running a shop-bought Dell Inspiron desktop and it does the job more than fine. I'm upgrading to a Mac in May. I've never built my own PC, and I still run FL studio perfectly fine and produce really nice music.

If I were you, I'd get a decent-spec desktop/laptop. Something that's any dearer than $800. Shop-bought or not, any PC works.

Because all it takes to get it right is to take it seriously. I didn't know much about the inner workings of PCs until a couple of months ago until I decided to build my own instead of buying one.
Then I took the necessary time and asked the necessary questions to be able to build it myself. Guess what? It worked first time and I got a PC that's much more powerful than what I need right now so I can concentrate on making music, upgrading my software and NOT worrying about my hardware.

Read up on it - how certain processors only fit certain motherboards (I got a socket LGA 2011) and how certain fans are made for certain sockets too. Find out about the size of the case you'll need and the type of cooling you want as well as if your RAM will fit under your fan (LGA 2011s are notoriously a pain in the arse in this regard because the fan extends over the RAM slots).

So to repeat, take it seriously, research and it should be fine.

At 1/27/13 06:20 PM, MatrixGravity wrote: I am going to buy a new PC sometime this year. What exactly should I be looking for? I want to be able to run FL Studio without any crashes, audio stuttering, etc. What exactly would I need for that? What exactly is needed in order to run FL Studio smoothly? A PC with a lot of RAM? A PC with a good graphics card? What should I be looking for?

Buying a PC can be tough and It all depends on what you want to use it for. I'll make it easier on you though. Any machine you buy with at least a quad-core processor and 4 GB of ram and you will do fine. You don't need a video card at unless you are really into high end PC gaming or doing lots of video editing. A sound card is also not necessary for starting out.

Have a look at the following link. I think you will find it most helpful in getting started. How To Make Electronic Music? Where To Start?

At 1/29/13 10:46 PM, MetalRenard wrote:

At 1/28/13 11:26 PM, ChainsawPolice wrote:

At 1/28/13 08:45 AM, Elitistinen wrote: build your own PC instead of buying it from store.

At 1/28/13 10:50 AM, MetalRenard wrote: Tips on making a good PC for music:
Build it yourself.

At 1/28/13 11:26 PM, ChainsawPolice wrote: Why does everyone reccomend that you build your own PC?

Because all it takes to get it right is to take it seriously. I didn't know much about the inner workings of PCs until a couple of months ago until I decided to build my own instead of buying one.
Then I took the necessary time and asked the necessary questions to be able to build it myself. Guess what? It worked first time and I got a PC that's much more powerful than what I need right now so I can concentrate on making music, upgrading my software and NOT worrying about my hardware.

I could take sports seriously, but that doesn't mean that I'm gonna succeed if I do.
I'm guessing you're a tech-inclined dude, and so am I, but some people are just not computer people... That's why shop-built PCs exist!

Also, yYou shouldn't have to worry about your hardware if you're a non-hardware-ish person that just buys a stable shop PC ;)

At 1/28/13 10:50 AM, MetalRenard wrote: Read up on it - how certain processors only fit certain motherboards (I got a socket LGA 2011) and how certain fans are made for certain sockets too. Find out about the size of the case you'll need and the type of cooling you want as well as if your RAM will fit under your fan (LGA 2011s are notoriously a pain in the arse in this regard because the fan extends over the RAM slots).

That sounds like way too much work for a guy that just wants to get a computer and track out tunes.
Again, that sounds like my idea of a real fun day (the sad part is that I'm being serious ;___; ), and you look like you enjoyed it, but some people don't know what all those fancy chips and blips in the sockets and ports do to the hard storage of the binary circuit grade-III Intel latch flip-flop IC.

In short, it could end up being more trouble than it's worth building a studio PC instead of just buying a prebuilt.

At 1/29/13 02:19 PM, wandschrank wrote:

At 1/29/13 08:54 AM, DeathRiseRobo wrote:

At 1/27/13 06:20 PM, MatrixGravity wrote: I am going to buy a new PC sometime this year. What exactly should I be looking for?

Macs run it fine.

But he wants a PC, and I thought Macs were no PCs? At least that's what Apple tells everyone.

Don't be pedantic.
I feel a little patronising saying this, but PC stands for Personal Computer, not Windows Computer. A computer.
Regardless of semantics, Mac PCs can run Windows flawlessly, through the brilliant Boot Camp tool (installs Windows on a separate partition/slice of the hard disk, allowing Windows and Mac OS to coincide). I see it every day, and if you're going to use FL a lot (and fork out the monies for a Mac, the base-est base model starting at $700), that sounds like the way to go.

Bless you, Apple.

Blapple.

At 1/29/13 02:19 PM, wandschrank wrote: I wonder why I still can run OS X on my PC, though.. Hm.

Wacky license agreements, legal wanking, a partnership dealio or two. Perhaps according to Windows's licensing, someone could legally install Windows on a Mac PC, so Mac catered to the masses (like they so kindly do on a yearly basis) and made it physically possible too. There's probably a clause in the Mac OS lisencing that forbids installing Mac to a non-Mac PC.

( ^ Oops, forget that paragraph, I misread your post as "why can't I install Mac..." Oops. Meh, it could be useful to someone.)

At 1/29/13 02:34 AM, wandschrank wrote:

No no no no no. Why does everyone reccomend that you build your own PC?

than you know where some critical parts (PSU & mainboard) come from.

That's true, but probably more useful for admins of game junkies. If you're running FL or another DAW or two, knowing where most parts are won't help too greatly, bar the sound card.

At 1/29/13 02:34 AM, wandschrank wrote: But it's true, I would not recommend building an own PC to everyone either. I know many big online shops who build your PC for twenty bucks, you just choose the parts. Maybe look out for one of those.

Yeah, those places are perfect for the not-so-tech-hungry. You get a decent-spec PC tailored to your liking, but without the build hassle (that people like myself would rather keep than forget).

i paid like 600 or whatever for a laptop with the latest gen i7, chucked extra ram in, and i'm done.

it's been a great studio computer, and i can take it with me to other people's studios.

i purchased this machine after spending about $1200 on a build (i've been building machines for over a decade), and in the end they were both equally capable, so i got rid of the desktop.

lower energy requirements for laptops are a bonus for the environment too ;D

At 1/30/13 03:29 AM, ChainsawPolice wrote:

At 1/29/13 02:34 AM, wandschrank wrote:

No no no no no. Why does everyone reccomend that you build your own PC?

than you know where some critical parts (PSU & mainboard) come from.

That's true, but probably more useful for admins of game junkies. If you're running FL or another DAW or two, knowing where most parts are won't help too greatly, bar the sound card.

Yep, but it's also important considering reliability. I would not want a cheap PSU in my computer, one exploding PSU was enough. ;)

Concerning the laptop: It truly has lots of advantages, I also own one and want to buy a new one soon. Sadly, they are very expensive if you also want a good graphics card apart from a good CPU (which you won't need if you don't play games..). At home, I always use my desktop, though. I'm used to my 2 screens, my 23113 HDDs and the comfort of being able to upgrade anything whenever I want, not only the RAM or HDD. :)

At 1/30/13 09:11 AM, wandschrank wrote: Concerning the laptop: It truly has lots of advantages, I also own one and want to buy a new one soon. Sadly, they are very expensive if you also want a good graphics card apart from a good CPU (which you won't need if you don't play games..). At home, I always use my desktop, though. I'm used to my 2 screens, my 23113 HDDs and the comfort of being able to upgrade anything whenever I want, not only the RAM or HDD. :)

it really depends on your priorities. i'm a less than casual gamer, and the HD4000 is enough for me to cop some frags on Quake 3. i'm told it can run even more recent games if you adjust your settings accordingly. likewise i am quite happy with my limited upgrade options...i can remember once in my life upgrading the CPU in my desktop independently of the motherboard.

It also depends on the kind of music you want to make and the level you want to take it to. A laptop just won't cut it if you need to run EWQL on 50 tracks.

At 1/30/13 10:56 AM, MetalRenard wrote: It also depends on the kind of music you want to make and the level you want to take it to. A laptop just won't cut it if you need to run EWQL on 50 tracks.

what specs do you need to run EWQL on 50 tracks?

At 1/30/13 12:07 PM, jarrydn wrote:

At 1/30/13 10:56 AM, MetalRenard wrote: It also depends on the kind of music you want to make and the level you want to take it to. A laptop just won't cut it if you need to run EWQL on 50 tracks.

what specs do you need to run EWQL on 50 tracks?

Let's find it out - EWQL BENCHMARK! Someone should buy me EWQL, I have a real good computer!

Someone?

..anyone?

..lo?