CPU

CPU - Central Processing Unit. CPUs have gotten so fast that the need
for a separate DSP card is no longer required. The CPU speed is
expressed in GHz (Gigahertz). A faster CPU can simultaneously run
more software plug-in and software instruments. In some respects it
also allows for a greater track count.
Intel vs AMD?
The AMD CPUs have a better raw FPU performance which allows it to
do more DSP processing of software plug-in and instruments. Intel
CPUs, however, are widely chosen over AMD because of Intel's longer
history of compatibility with audio interfaces.

Motherboard
The motherboard is the central nervous system of your Custom DAW.
When choosing a motherboard, you want to make sure that it supports
all the devices that you will be connecting to it.
For example: If you have or plan to use a Firewire audio interface, you
should select a motherboard that supports Firewire.
All motherboards have multiple USB ports, and most will have USB 2.0
ports.
All motherboards have a network port, for connecting to a DSL or
Cable Modem.
Memory - RAM
RAM is the short term memory of your Custom DAW and helps in
streaming audio from your hard drive as well as processing software
effects and instruments.
Having more memory will allow for higher track counts, a smoother
computer experience, and the ability to use memory intensive
software plugins and instruments.

Video Card
Video cards boast many features primarily intended for video games,
video editing, and 3D performance. Digital audio software actually
requires solid 2D performance, large video memory, and quick screen
redraws. Some of the extra features while working with digital audio
software are TV-out, dual-Monitor display, and even triple monitor
displays! We offer a range of video cards that a re suitable for digital
audio software featuring all the above mentioned features.

CD-Rom Drive
Backup and create audio CDs or DVD Audio discs with a CD or DVD
burner. We recommend burning audio at 8x and using the higher
speeds for data backup. DVD burners are great for burning your 5.1
surround audio mix, for mass storage backup, and for viewing your
DVD audio/visual project.\

RAID
RAID stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks. RAID has the
benefit of taking 2 or more hard drives and combining them to either
increase the read and write speed, or create a fail safe system so that
if one drive crashes, your data is not lost. There are 3 types of IDE
RAID that we use:
RAID 0: This type of RAID combines 2 hard drives and makes
Windows see it as one big one. ie. If you have 2 80GB hard drives,
Windows will see it as one 160GB drive. The disadvantage is that if
one drive crashes, all your data is lost.
RAID 1: This type of RAID uses 2 hard drives to make a real time
back up of the information on one of the drives. A 'mirror' is created of
one drive so that if either drive fails, the other drive will continue to
function while you replace the failed drive. ie. If you have 2 80GB hard
drives, Windows will see it as one 80GB hard drive, and the 'mirror' is
created in real time.

RAID 5: This type of raid is called Disk Striping with Parity. It requires
3 or more hard drives, usually of the same size. It combines these
drives in such a way that if either drive fails, all the data that was on
that failed drive can be recreated from the data on the remaining
drives. ie. If you have 3 80GB hard drives, Windows will see one
160GB hard drive. The formula to calculate total storage for a RAID 5
setup = (total number of drives - 1) x (size of one drive). A parity bit
is written to each drive in sequential order so that if one drive fails, the
parity bits from the remaining drives can recreate the data on the
failed drive.
IDE
Integrated Drive Electronics (or "IDE") is the term applied to a
category of hard disk drives with an integrated disk controller which is
connected to a computer system though a 40-pin data cable to a AT
Attachment ("ATA") bus connection. The IDE standard was adopted by
ANSI and is the most common hard drive interface in use today. IDE
also all ows the connection of other drives, CD-ROM drives, tape drives,
removable drives such as SyQuest drives, Jazz and Zip drives, and LS120 drives. IDE performance is adequate for most purposes, and are
interchangeable and cost effective. IDE is designed for data storage
only

SCSI
SCSI stands for (S)mall (C)omputer (S)ystems (I)nterface, SCSI
stands for (S)mall (C)omputer (S)ystems (I)nterface.
The official name of the SCSI standard is: ANSI X3.131 - 1986.
The SCSI interface is a local bus type interface for connecting
multiple devices (up to eight), designated as either initiators
(drivers) or targets (receivers).

There are two electrical alternatives for this standard:

1. Single-ended type and

2. Differential type.

Single - ended and Differential devices are different and

MAY NOT be mixed on the same bus; however, the newest type
of SCSI, called 'LVD' or 'Low Voltage Differential', can be
used on the same SCSI bus with 'SE' type devices, if:

a. Your SCSI card supports this; and

b. You are using a multi-mode type terminator, sometimes
designated as 'LVD/SE' type.

The Adaptec card that we use are imprinted 'LVD/SE' on the

internal 68-pin connector, and it does work with both types
of devices on the same bus.

In a SCSI environment, devices are daisy - chained together

using a common cable. Both ends of the cable must be terminated.
All signals are common between all SCSI devices.

Extra Storage
If you plan to sequence audio files at the same time as streaming
sample or video files, we recommend a dedicated hard drive for this
task. It increases the performance of your DAW by reducing the strain
of trying to sequence and stream at the same time off of one hard
drive.
You can also add extra storage for internal backup, but we also offer
the option for external backup as well.

Backup Drive
Having an external backup hard drive has the benefit of being able to
take the backup with you to another studio as well as making a backup
for clients. We've chosen an external bay with a built in power supply
to avoid the need to carry around the power supply and the external
case.
With a built in power supply, you can use a standard 3 pin computer
plug and not have to worry about proprietary power connections.
Operating System
Concerning digital audio, the main difference between Windows XP
Home and Professional is that Windows XP Professional supports MultiProcessors and advanced network functions, such as the ability to join
a Windows domain. Windows XP home supports 'workgroup'
networking which is well suited for 10 or less computers connected
together. It is perfectly fine to use Windows XP Professional with a
single processor system as well. Consider future expansion plans when
choosing your operating system.

Case
The case is nothing more than a house, or skeleton, for all the
components you want to connect inside.
-Some cases feature USB or Firewire ports on the front panel.
-An aluminum case runs cooler than a steel case, but an aluminum
case is not recommended for traveling on the road.
-Some cases support 120mm fans. A 120mm fan can usually cool a
case more efficiently than an 80mm fan while producing less noise.

Silent Components
In order to make a quiet computer the following components must be
carefully selected for its sound level and type of noise they produce. In
addition, you can also add insulation materials to absorb any ambient
noise that these quiet components might produce.
1. The Power Supply
2. The CPU fan
3. The Case fans
Additional Components
1. Absorbtion Materials
We offer 4 Sound Levels. Each level has been configured based on the
environment in which you are working. Other components that we preselected for their sound level include the hard drives, the video cards,
and the cases.

Chapter 2

Many musicians are familiar with multitrack recording, mixing, and

mastering using dedicated hardware, but are moving across to PCbased systems and finding a whole new world of initially overwhelming
technical PC terms, such as IRQ, partition, latency, buffers, BIOS,
transfer rate, and so on. I've covered all these terms in some details in
my extended PC Musician features over the years. You can find links to
them in the PC Music FAQs section of the SOS Forums, or by using the
search function at www.soundonsound.com.
However, for a PC novice there's probably just too much information to
take in at once, and a popular topic request on the PC Music Forum
has been for some sort of simplified introduction. So this month I've
gathered together all of the most common terms you're likely to come
across into one neat resource. Each one consists of a short paragraph
explaining its practical significance to the PC musician.
General Hardware
AGP (Advanced Graphics Port): This is a dedicated high-speed
interface between PC memory and a graphics card and monitor. Before
AGP existed, graphics cards were fitted into standard PCI slots (see
PCI) and could cause audio clicks and pops if they didn't correctly
release the PCI buss for other duties when requested, thereby
preventing audio data from reaching a PCI soundcard. Nowadays all
PCs use AGP graphics technology, which provides faster graphics
performance and avoids such audio interference problems. As an
aside, music applications don't use 3D graphics, so musicians don't
need an expensive state-of-the -art graphics card. Far more useful is a
good-quality 2D dual-head model that supports two monitor screens,
since most music software will let you place the song's arrange page
on one screen, and the software mixing desk on the other, which
makes working with complex multitrack songs far more pleasurable.

BIOS (Basic Input Output Subsystem):

This is a small program stored in a
motherboard chip that starts up your PC. Its
duties include monitoring the various
voltages in your PC, to check that
everything's working OK; recognising all the
fixed hardware devices on the motherboard,
such as serial, parallel, USB, and FireWire
ports; recognising the model and speed of
The motherboard is the
CPU and its current operating temperature;
heart of any PC. While
detecting how much RAM is installed and
many modern ones
what speed it is; registering the capacity of
incorporate an integral
each hard drive; and so on. It also
soundchip, installing a
recognises the various expansion cards
soundcard into one of its
you've installed and can allocate them
interrupts (see IRQ). Once the BIOS is sure PCI expansion slots (at
top left), or plugging an
that your hardware is working correctly, it
external USB or FireWire
will normally sound a brief single beep
audio peripheral into its
before passing control over to the Windows
rear sockets will provide
operating system. You can normally enter
much better audio
the BIOS Setup program by pressing the
Delete key during boot -up. Doing this will let quality and lower
latency.
you change fundamental system settings
and selectively disable unwanted
motherboard devices, such as on-board soundchips.
CPU (Central Processing Unit): This is the brain of the PC. Its clock
speed determines how many software plug-in effects and soft synth
notes can be run simultaneously in real time. The two most popular
manufacturers of CPUs are AMD, with their Athlon, Opteron and entrylevel Duron ranges; and Intel, with their entry-level Celeron,
mainstream Pentium 4 and high-end Xeon processors. The two best
choices for a musician are currently an AMD Athlon or Intel Pentium 4C
processor of the highest speed that you can afford. Traditionally,
buying Intel almost guarantees compatibility with the widest range of
soundcards, while Athlon-based PCs are sometimes significantly
cheaper for an equivalent amount of processing power, but have had a
few compatibility problems in the past. Nowadays these have largely
disappeared.

CPU Fan: The CPU generates a significant amount of heat when it's
running, so to ensure that it doesn't overheat it's normally fitted with a
finned metal heatsink to help dissipate the heat, and some sort of fan
that generally blows cool air onto the heatsink. The standard fans
supplied with most CPUs can be quite noisy, which rarely goes down
well in a recording studio, so to keep acoustic noise levels down you
can buy a large variety of replacement heatsink/fan combinations (the
combination is often termed a CPU Cooler). Additional system fans
may be mounted in the PC case to encourage cool air to enter at the
bottom of the front panel and to extract warm air near the top of the
rear panel. Quiet versions of these are also available as replacement
items.
Dongle: A hardware device that plugs into a parallel or (more often
nowadays) a USB port, acting as copy protection for a particular
software application. Both Emagic's Logic Audio and Steinberg's
Cubase sequencer range use dongles, and these applications will only
run when their particular dongle is detected. If you have a desktop and
laptop PC you can, in most cases, install the software onto them both
and swap the dongle from one to the other as required, but you can
never run more than one installation at once. Cakewalk's Sonar has no
such copy protection.
HyperThreading: A new feature found on Intel's latest Pentium 4
processors and on their more expensive Xeon range, HyperThreading
(HT) lets the CPU act more like dual processors that can run two
applications simultaneously, or run a single application significantly
faster than on a standard processor. To gain this advantage, HT also
requires a suitable PC motherboard running Windows XP, plus specially
written software. Little music software has yet been so modified, apart
from Steinberg's Cubase SX 2.0 and Nuendo 2.0, but fortunately you
can nearly always simply leave HT enabled, even if the software isn't
aware of it. Exceptions include Cakewalk's Sonar 2.2 and Tascam's
GigaStudio, which won't run properly if HT is enabled.
IRQ (Interrupt ReQuest): Nearly all hardware devices, including
soundcards, graphics cards, an array of motherboard devices such as
hard and floppy drive controllers, USB port controllers and FireWire
controllers, and your keyboard and mouse, need to be interrogated
periodically by the PC's OS to see if any new data needs to be
processed. To do this, Windows stops what it's doing and sends an
interrupt request to the device in question. Unfortunately there are
rarely enough different interrupts to allocate one to each device, so

some must share (IRQ sharing). This normally doesn't cause any
problems, except when one of the devices in question prefers or even
demands an interrupt all to itself. A few soundcards do this (although
their manufacturers rarely advertise the fact) and, if they end up
sharing an IRQ, can cause clicks and pops during audio playback and
recording. For this reason, most musicians do their level best to
ensure that their soundcard gets its own unique interrupt, to minimise
possible problems.
Monitor: Unfortunately, the word 'monitor' is used to describe a
computer monitor screen and a monitor speaker, causing a lot of
confusion among newcomers. In computer terms, a monitor screen is
available in two main types. CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) models operate
just like traditional television screens using an electron beam that
scans each horizontal line from top to bottom of the screen except
that they generally have a much higher-quality picture. However, they
are being rapidly replaced by flat-screen TFT (Thin Film Transistor)
screens as prices have come down. This type of screen provides
noticeably sharper pictures with perfect geometry, far less heat
generation, a smaller footprint on the often crowded desktop and no
magnetic interference to cause hum with nearby guitars.
Motherboard: The largest single component of any computer, this
large circuit board has at its heart a 'chipset' that lets the different
parts of the system 'talk' to each other. The main chipset used
determines what family of processors can be plugged in so, for
instance, AMD Athlon-based PCs require a different motherboard to
Intel Pentium-based ones. A few years ago, some early Athlon chipsets
proved to be incompatible with a few soundcards, which left some
musicians wary of relying on AMD-based PCs, but such problems have
now almost completely disappeared.
Partition: Hard drives are shipped as one huge storage device, but
it's possible to divide them up into smaller and often more manageable
chunks, called partitions. One huge advantage of creating a separate
partition for your data (such as documents, songs and audio tracks) is
that if you ever get a problem with your Windows installation, you can
safely repair it or even erase it and install it from scratch without
losing any of your work. Creating multiple partitions also enables you
to install several different versions of Windows (or another operating
system) on the same PC and choose which one to run each time you
switch on. This may enable you to carry on running older software
while still taking advantage of the new features of Windows XP, or to
install a duplicate version of Windows solel y intended for running

music applications, to give it the best chance of optimum performance.

This is a particularly good arrangement for a professional studio where
reliability is of the utmost importance, or when children and games are
associated with a family PC.
PSU (Power Supply Unit): The PSU supplies various voltages to the
computer motherboard, hard drives, CD drives and floppy drive, and is
normally forgotten by most computer users or it would be, if it were
not for one thing: the PSU needs a cooling system to dissipate the
heat it generates and to dispose of the extra heat generated by other
system components such as the CPU and expansion cards. This nearly
always means that the PSU requires an extractor fan, which creates
unwanted acoustic noise in the studio. Consequently, a lively trade in
replacement quiet PSUs using significantly quieter fans now exists. In
some cases these incorporate a larger internal heatsink than normal,
to share the heat-dissipation duties.
Sustained Transfer Rate: The peak data-transfer rate of a hard
drive is important to most general-purpose applications that suddenly
require a lot of data to be loaded or saved, but the real -time nature of
audio recording and playback means that the 'sustained transfer rate'
is far more important, since this will determine how many audio tracks
can be played back and recorded simultaneously by your hard drive.
The easiest way for musicians to see how their hard drive performance
compares with that of other users is to run the freeware DskBench
utility written by Jose Catena, and available for download from
www.sesa.es/us/dskbench/dskbench.htm This also checks that your
various drives are using Buss Master DMA, a technology that allows
them to continue transferring data without involving your computer's
CPU, leaving it to concentrate on running music software.
Windows gon

Some musicians might expect a section devoted

Disabling these
to Windows in this jargon buster, but, as I
visual effects won't
explain in this month's PC Notes column, the
make your music
latest Windows XP requires a minimal amount of
applications run
tweaking to suit the special real-time
any faster, but
requirements of PC music applications. However,
should certainly
there are still a few points worth explaining:
make Windows XP
Processor Scheduling: This should be set to
feel a lot less
'Background Services' in the Advanced section of
sluggish.
Performance Options, which you can find in the
Advanced page of the System applet in the Windows XP Control Panel.
This setting will ensure that your soundcard achieves its lowest usable
latency setting.
Power Schemes: Accessed via the Control Panel from the Power
Management applet of Windows 98 or the Power Options applet of
Windows XP, these are mainly relevant to those using laptops.
Musicians should choose the Power Scheme named Always On to get
maximum processing power for the whole time the laptop is running,
whether from the mains supply or the battery. Switching to
Home/Office Desk will give you more battery power when you unplug
the mains supply, by activating various power-saving schemes, but
you'll not be able to run as many plug-ins or soft synth notes. Using
the Portable/Laptop setting will degrade processor performance when
you're still plugged into the mains but will save power when you're
word processing, with the result that the cooling fan will not come on
so often.
Visual Effects: While Windows XP looks very smart with its animated
windows, fading or sliding menus and shadows, many musicians find
these make it feel very sluggish. However, it's very easy to disable
such effects using the Performance page in the Advanced section of
the System applet in Control Panel. The only one I leave active is
'Show Windows contents when dragging', which makes it easier to see
what you're doing when rearranging screen contents.
Sound Hardware Formats
Soundchip: Although most modern PC motherboards incorporate a
basic soundchip device that's perfectly capable of playing back system
audio files such as the Windows startup and close-down sounds, MP3
files, general-purpose audio files, CD audio and even DVD audio
tracks, few offer reasonable recording options and none offer 24-bit
recording or playback. Using the built-in soundchip you're also likely to
suffer from significant time delays between an incoming audio signal
being recorded and monitoring it via your music software, and

between playing a MIDI keyboard and hearing the output of a

connected software synthesizer (see 'Latency' for more details). For
thes e reasons, the musician nearly always finds it essential to buy
some sort of sound device with higher audio quality and better audio
drivers, and then to disable any motherboard soundchip. Such sound
devices are available in various formats, each having its own strengths
and weaknesses.
PCI (Peripheral Component
Interconnect): PCI is still the most popular
format for musicians' soundcards. These are
circuit cards that fit into expansion slots
inside the PC. Most motherboards provide
between four and six PCI slots, to house
such hardware as soundcards, modems,
While PCI soundcards
MIDI interfaces, network cards, and so on,
and to install them you must open up the PC are still the most
popular option overall,
to gain access to its interior. However,
new formats such as
installing a PCI card only requires you to
plug it into a suitable slot, tighten down one USB 2.0 and FireWire
screw and then reboot your PC, to have the have given rise to audio
interfaces that may be
card recognised automatically, ready for its
easier to install such
software drivers to be installed. PCI
as Edirol's USB 2.0
soundcards also require an IRQ (see 'IRQ'
UA1000.
entry), and preferably an unshared one. If
your PC already contains lots of expansion
cards this may be difficult.
Simple soundcards have their various input and output sockets
mounted on the backplate of the soundcard (although some require a
second dummy backplate, housing more sockets, that will prevent a
card being fitted where the dummy has been mounted). More
advanced products have an external case (often a rackmountable one)
for their sockets, the case being connected to the PCI card via an
umbilical cable. The next generation of the PCI standard PCI Express
has already been announced and will provide significantly greater
bandwidth, as well as allowing hot-swapping of peripherals, like the
USB format. However, even when PCI-X starts to appear, during 2004,
original PCI slots will still continue to be fitted alongside PCI-X slots on
motherboards, and this will be the case for several years to come.

USB (Universal Serial Bus): The USB vers ion 1.1 port, now
confusingly given the label 'USB Full Speed' to differentiate it from the
far more capable USB 2.0 (see later), first appeared on PCs and audio
and MIDI peripherals in about 1999. Using a serial approach to
sending and receiving data (ie. one bit after the next, in one long
stream), rather than the parallel approach of PCI and PCMCIA, the
USB port can use a much simpler cable and plugs. USB also allows
users to plug and unplug external compatible peripherals whenever
they like (termed hot-swapping or hot-plugging), even when the PC is
powered up, although it's generally not advisable to do this with sound
devices before exiting your music application. Since the peripherals are
external to the PC, USB was initially seen by manufacturers as far
easier for users, since it avoided the need to
open up the PC.
Unfortunately, PC musicians experienced a
wave of initial problems with USB audio
peripherals, such as clicks, pops and high
latency. These problems were largely due to
the early USB controller chips in the PC,
rather than to the peripherals, and have
largely died out, but they've left quite a few
musicians mistrusting USB 1.1 as a
Your music application
standard, which isn't entirely fair. Its
may offer a selection of
12Mbit/second bandwidth is perfectly
soundcard driver
adequate for devices such as mice, PC and
formats. It's important
music keyboards, printers, scanners, and
to choose the one that
the like, and perfectly adequate for MIDI
will let you achieve the
and stereo audio devices down to latencies
of 3ms. However, USB 1.1 runs out of steam lowest latency.
when you ask it to record and play back stereo 24-bit/96kHz signals
simultaneously. USB MIDI interfaces can also suffer from slightly
higher timing 'jitter' than serial port or PCI-based interfaces.
USB 2.0 ports have been appearing on PC laptops for some time, and
are now to be found on nearly all new desktop motherboards. The
more correct nomenclature is 'USB Hi-Speed' and with a huge
480Mbit/second bandwidth (compared with the 12Mbit/second of USB
1.1), this new standard lives up to its name and is far more suitable
for multi-channel audio devices than the original USB standard. (The
world's first USB 2.0 device is Edirol's UA1000, pictured on the
previous page.) You can still plug USB 1.1 devices into USB 2.0 ports
(and vice versa, although the latter won't operate well under the
severely restricted bandwidth). If you're not sure whether your PC has
USB 1.1 or USB 2.0 ports, take a look in Device Manager under the
heading 'Universal Serial Bus controllers'. In the case of some chips,

the description may include 'USB 2.0', but if not, write down the
number of the chip and do a Google search for it.
FireWire: More correctly termed IEEE-1394, due to its approval by
the Institute of Electrical & Electronic Engineers, FireWire is another
high-speed serial standard with a similar maximum bandwidth
(400Mbit/second) to USB 2.0. It's particularly popular in the area of
digital camcorders, allowing them to be digitally connected to
computers for video editing, but both technologies support hot swapping and similar maximum cable lengths of around five metres,
and there's not too much between the two when it comes to deciding
between them for audio devices. However, FireWire does have a
reputation for causing fewer hiccups during data transfer, despite its
slightly lower bandwidth, and also has peer-to-peer topology, which
(for instance) lets you connect a VCR and digital camera without
involving a PC. Still, when it comes to choosing an external audio
peripheral, you should be guided more by the other features of
competing products, since both USB 2.0 and FireWire are extremely
capable.
PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International
Association): Due to size constraints, no PCI slots are available on a
laptop PC, but you'll nearly always find a PCMCIA slot that can house a
removable credit-card sized expansion device. The main advantage of
a PCMCIA sound device over the laptop alternatives of USB and
FireWire is that it's possible to make PCMCIA devices extremely
compact, which may be ideal for a musician on the move. However,
USB 2.0 and FireWire products are likely to feature a more versatile
selection of inputs and outputs.
Soundcard Drivers
Each hardware device used by a PC needs a small piece of software,
called a driver, to act as the glue between it and the Windows
operating system. One of the major confusions faced by the new PC
Musician is which type of soundcard driver to choose. Most are now
shipped with a bewildering array of options, such as ASIO,
DirectSound, EASI, GSIF, MME and WDM, and choosing the most
appropriate one depends on which music software you're running.
Latency: Before we discuss the different driver types, it's important
to understand the concept of latency. Because Windows has so many
tasks to perform, it can't ever devote itself to MIDI or audio tasks fulltime. Instead, it multitasks, by doing a little bit of each required task
in turn, to give the illusion that everything is happening

simultaneously. While Windows is off doing other things, the

soundcard or MIDI interface must have some pre-prepared data to
access, so that we don't hear an audio interruption (a click or pop), or
a MIDI interruption (uncertain note timing). This data is stored in small
areas of RAM called buffers, and each time Windows returns to the
music application it will prepare another buffer full of data to (ideally)
last until its next visit. Unfortunately, using buffers means that there
will always be a slight time delay between when a signal is recorded
and when you are able to hear it emerge from the soundcard, or
between playing a new note and hearing it emerge from a soft synth
(see next section). The smaller the buffer, the shorter the time delay,
or 'latency', but if you make the buffer too small Windows won't get
back in time to keep it topped up, so you'll hear clicks and pops. The
ideal size of a soundcard buffer is thus a compromise between stability
and low latency.
MME-WDM (MultiMedia Extensions Win32 Driver Model):
Between them, these two standards incorporate the oldest and newest
Windows standards, but if you run the latest Windows XP OS they are
closely connected. MME was the very first soundcard driver format,
first appearing way back in Windows 3.1, and it generally results in
high latency, although it can work well with some stand-alone
softsynths. WDM was first introduced in Windows 98, but really came
into its own under Windows XP, where it provides better performance
with USB and FireWire and generally much lower latency than MME
with suitably written music applications such as Cakewalk's Sonar (see
next section).

A modern MIDI + Audio

sequencer such as
Cubase SX 2.0, shown
here, supports plug-in
effects, soft synths and
soft samplers, to
become a complete

DirectX: A set of low-level software

software studio.
routines included primarily for games in
Microsoft's Windows operating system. DirectX interfaces between
software applications and multimedia hardware such as graphics cards
and soundcards. Its components include DirectDraw, Direct3D,
DirectPlay, DirectInput, DirectMusic, DirectSound, and DirectSound3D.
DirectSound: One of the components of DirectX. DirectSound drivers
are generally capable of significantly lower latency than MME drivers
and are a better choice for soft synths and playback of audio, but don't
normally have recording options if you're running Windows 98/ME.
(Make sure, if you choose DirectSound drivers in a music application,
that the driver name doesn't have '(emulated)' at the end of its name,
since this means that no properly written DirectSound drivers have
been detected. If you choose an emulated driver it will perform
extremely poorly and exhibit high latency.) WDM drivers automatically
provide both MME and DirectSound support without the soundcard
manufacturer having to write special code, so if your WDM-capable
soundcard is running under Windows XP you'll get more options.
However, in my experience choosing DirectSound over MME will
generally allow lower latency.
ASIO (Audio Stream Input Output): This driver format, introduced
by Steinberg in their popular Cubase application, runs at a lower level
(as it bypasses much of the Windows OS) and therefore typically
manages lower latencies than both MME and DirectSound. Many
musicians have managed to run their music software with latencies as
low as 2ms using ASIO, although 6ms is a more realistic figure, and
even 12ms is acceptable in most cases. Emagic's EASI (Enhanced
Audio Streaming Interface) format is derived from ASIO and is capable
of slightly better performance with Logic Audio. However, few
soundcards now support this option.
GSIF (GigaSampler InterFace): Designed specifically for just one
application Tascam's popular GigaStudio software sampler GSIF
drivers also work at a low level within Windows, providing guaranteed
low latency of between 6ms and 9ms. If, like plenty of other
musicians, you're interested in GigaStudio and its extensive collection
of professional sample libraries, your soundcard must have GSIF
drivers; you won't be able to run GigaStudio without them.
Music Software
Effect Plug- in: Modern PCs can easily perform the calculations
required to add traditional effects, such as chorus, echo, equalisation

and reverb, to audio files in real time, but it was the concept of the
'plug-in' that really revolutionised computer music processing. Allowing
third-party developers to 'plug' additional functions into an existing
host application means that one is no longer restricted to using the
ones that are bundled with it, but can assemble a personal collection
of favourites. The first plug-in format to appear on the PC is now called
DirectX (since it uses the media-streaming components of Microsoft's
DirectX). DirectX plug-ins can be launched from within nearly all music
applications that support plug-ins. The other main format is
Steinberg's VST (Virtual Studio Technology), originally developed for
the Cubase VST sequencer, but again now widely supported by other
music applications.
Soft Synth: This is the generally accepted abbreviation for a software
synthesizer. The first soft synths were stand-alone applications that
could generate audio-waveform data in real time, either triggered from
a suitable MIDI input signal played on a music keyboard, or from a set
of notes played back using a software sequencer. Stand-alone versions
of many modern soft synths are still released, but Steinberg's VST 2.0
specification added MIDI input capability to their VST plug-in effects,
for automation purposes, and this also saw the creation of the VST
Instrument (VSTi). This is a type of plug-in that accepts a MIDI input
signal and generates an audio output signal. Many other music
applications now support VST Instruments, and Cakewalk created the
functionally-identical DX Instrument for their Sonar application.
Soft Sampler: Strictly speaking, a soft sampler plays back prerecorded samples, while a soft synth calculates its waveforms in real
time, although the boundaries between the two are often quite
blurred. In general, a soft sampler lets you load in and play back your
choice of sampled sounds, whereas a soft synth relies on a preset
collection of waveforms and an associated synth 'engine' to filter and
otherwise treat these sounds. Soft samplers use two main approaches
to sample playback: they either load the entire sound into system RAM
or stream the sample files direct from a hard drive. The latter
approach allows samples of almost unlimited length to be used, which
avoids having to loop them for longer notes, although software buffers
still need to store the start of each sample to ensure low latency when
you play a new note. However, the extra overhead of streaming
samples from the hard drive may result in you not being able to play
back quite as many audio tracks as you otherwise might in your MIDI
+ Audio Sequencer (see next entry).
On the PC there are three main soft synth contenders: Steinberg's
HALion, a VST or DX Instrument particularly popular with Cubase

users; Native Instruments' Kontakt , a stand-alone application, VSTi or

DXi; and Tascam's GigaStudio. The first two offer a choice of storing
samples in system RAM or streaming them from the hard drive, while
GigaStudio does streaming only but has arguably the most
professional library of the three.
MIDI + Audio Sequencer: The main music application that allows
you to record and play back audio tracks, plus MIDI data recorded
from external musical keyboards or entered using the PC keyboard.
The three most popular on the PC are Emagic's Logic Audio ,
Steinberg's Cubase, and Cakewalk's Sonar. Logic Audio seems to be
widely used in commercial studios, which may be useful if you intend
taking song files in with you, but Emagic have discontinued
development at version 5.5.1 on the PC, to concentrate on the Mac, on
which platform version 6.3.1 has since been reached. This makes Logic
Audio a far less attractive proposition for the PC user. However, Logic
is renowned for its high-quality bundled plug-in effects and for its soft
synths and soft samplers.
Cubase VST for Windows 98/ME reached vers ion 5.1 revision 1, but
has largely been superseded by Cubase SX, currently at version 2.0,
written from the ground up on the PC to suit Windows XP. It supports
ASIO drivers, VST and DirectX plug-ins and VST Instruments.
Cakewalk's Sonar, now at V3.0, is PC-only, and also has many
enthusiastic users. Version 2.0 supported low-latency WDM drivers, DX
plug-ins and DX Instruments, plus VST Instruments and plug-ins via
'wrapper' utilities. However, V3.0 has a bundled 'VST Adapter' for this,
and supports ASIO as well as WDM drivers. You should be able to
download demos of all three applications to get an idea which is the
best for you.