How much 'puter is best for RW?

[geocare]

I'm using an iMac that is 3 years old with 1 Gig of Ram and a 1.8Ghz processor. Working on my RR9 entry, it was "choking" going from riff to riff while playing the tune straight through or adding song layers. This is at least annoying while trying to mix and arrange or just get a feel of the thing because of the little stutter and audible pop about every 8 bars. Also, when using song layers to record or edit a track, I'll often get other tracks playing totally out of sync...two different sections of the tune playing at the same time. I usually just click on the play button and start the tune at the very beginning for just a second and things seem to "re-align." Then I can place the cursor in the middle of the song and have at it. But this is also a bit of a drag when trying to work quickly. Any comments on this are welcome.

Is more horsepower under the hood the answer? I'm somtimes running 8 or 10 tracks including bass guitar, but that seems pretty normal from what I've been hearing on many of the Riffcast tunes.

One other quick question about Line6 GearBox plugin. If I download just the software, I can use this as a plug in with my current interface (M-Audio) without using any Line6 interface gear, correct? I have RW Standard.

[Muddhole]

I get a pop every minute of so with usually around 5-7 layers per riff. So if your running 8-10 layers per riff you may be pushing it a bit. Awhile back I was getting really bad studdering, popping, and freezing until I reinstalled my OS. I think the CPU driver was either missing or bad. After that I get what I first mention but it isn't bad at all.

[Wedgebill]

You'd be far better off with 2gb of ram, or more

[davenz]

I am running 4 gig and that seems to be enough. What really determines performance though is CPU. Celerons and Semprons may do Word and Outlook Express OK but for any type of processor-intensive tasks like video and audio renedering they are as useless as a politician. I would go for a dual or quad core Intel processor, they have the sheer grunt to make things happen. Sadly, nothing comes cheap when you are into hardware like this...

I think (and I may be wrong) that the Line 6 plugin that comes with Gearbox is a seperately billed package. I can open it within RW, but to use it I need to purchase it and activate it. As for it being 'tagged' to any Line 6 hardware, I'm not sure about that. It would be good if you could use it after purchase with any flavour of interface because the sounds are so good. Of course, if you have a TonePort or something it is just a matter of buying and activating it to use it as a plugin.

Dave.

[Charvelguy]

I just had a budget system put together for about 250.00. Pentium D 775's are very affordable and will run these apps just fine but many of the intel Dual Cores are pretty affordable now too. 80.00 will buy a allendale 2.2ghz. I think I paid about 56.00 shipped for a new Presler 3.0. It runs hot but with a good air cooler it stays manageable. The case, MB and pwr supply were sold as a open box product thru Newegg for 80.00 shipped. I swapped out the power supply with an Antec earthwatt 380 for about 25.00. Hard drive was a 250 gb, another 60.00 and 2 gb 800mhz RAM ran for 50.00, and with that, I was pretty much finished for building a good computer capable of handling newer applications for a decent budget.

[geocare]

Thanks for your responses. I'm thinking about moving over to Windows from the Mac, even though I like the Mac. But, I think I can get a lot more juice for the money using the MS platform.

Any other takers on the Line6 GearBox as stand-alone software as a plug in option without using any Line6 electronics?

For GearBox users: do you prefer the Line6 sounds over the ones offered in Amplitube?

[pooterpatty]

In my opinion the quality of sounds in Amplitube products is on par with the Line 6 sounds - some are better than Line 6, some are not. It's just different. To my ears, clean patches in Amplitube just sound.....fuller, than what you can achieve in GearBox. But on high gain patches Line 6 can't be beat. I use the standalone GearBox with a GuitarPort.