PG Music Home Forums PG Music Wishlists RealBand Wishlist WISH FOR A PG COMPUTER TEST APP TO HELP PG USERS BUY COMPUTERS.

WISH FOR A PG COMPUTER TEST UTILITY FROM PG.

this wish , came about for several reasons.
1. buying a new computer to run recording studio software is often fraught with pitfalls and a "hope and pray" scenario for a lot of people.
2. many recording forums have thread after thread of problems whereby often a user new to daw's/recording has bought an underpowered computer that actually wont meet the users day to day needs.
3. personal experience trying to help people over the years.

just the other week i was helping yet another friend agonising over the computer buying decision.

so i'm suggesting a SIMPLE STANDALONE TEST APP from PG with a small executable.

(the idea is an expansion of the pg action>>test audio performance feature in realband.
i would be happy to pay a little bit extra for BIAB/RB to have this.)

here are the basic specs.
(imagine a user takes the small app on an sd card or usb drive to a local friendly computer
store.)
1. boots up computer looking to buy.
2. runs from sdcard or usb drive the APP.
3. the app runs very fast.
4. the app issues a detailed on screen report. eg.
such things as max possible track counts, input max in conjunction with playback counts at various sampling rates,
and possible plug in counts max, assuming low cpu useage plug ins.
eg a report might look like this .
"this computer at 44.1 khz will allow recording 8 simultaneous input channels while playing back 24 tracks with xx number of plug ins each."that type of idea. ie.
it might include a table showing anticipated performance at various sampling rates.

lets look at the benefits.
1. helps the users computer buying decision.
2. might cut down on the no of calls to pg support.
3. it might help a user in the audio interface buying decision.
for example "oh wow, i can record xx tracks at a time with this computer " type of idea.
"so maybe i should buy that other multi input interface". etc etc.

would other pg users find this usefull ??
possibly this might cut down the number of interractions with pg support where a user is wondering why there are problems on a low power rig that cant handle the load etc etc.

yes i'm aware that some stores dont like in store testing.
so i just walk away, and only deal with those stores that WILL let me test.
its amazeing if you think about it that a car dealer will allow a test run, but some computer dealers wont.
(new user note, at a computer shop, just time how long the computer takes to boot up from cold. NOT from sleep mode, but from turning on the power. also note how fast different apps boot up and fluidity etc etc.if apps take awhile to boot up , this is often a clue of problems maybe,you want snappy response.)

of course at the dealers i wouldnt expect to load in plug ins and RB etc etc.

as we move into the future and people upgrade their rigs this type of test utility could be rather usefull as pg add more features to biab/RB/powertracks etc.
(of course we all know that recording lots of inputs concurrently on a slow machine can lead to problems while also running lots of plug ins/traks playing back in real time. at high sampling rates.).

to any "naysayers " i say its kinda a "trial and error" approach currently in buying a computer dont you think ??
do you have a better idea to protect the buyers of new computers ??
ie particularly for a new user , who visits a store, and buys some machine that might or might not meet their needs or have the power "oomph" for now and the next few years.
not all of us are wealthy enough to buy a new computer often.

its just a basic spec , but i'm sure you get the idea, and i feel would help a pg user immensely in shopping for a new computer to run biab/rb/powertraks etc etc and their other
daw softwares etc.

for example maybe biab/rb will run happily on a persons current computer, but what about if/when (per the wishlist) biab itself is expanded to run many more realtraks channels ?
eg 16 like some users want, myself included ??

TECH SOS FORUM benchmark thread elucidates more on this idea once the buyer has the computer home and BIAB/RB are installed or just running from the biab external usb drive.
for example a "what if concept" could be introduced. sort of AI idea.
eg one has a song , and the user enquires to the benchmark utility BEFORE starting the song "what if i record 16 tracks at a time and playback 24 at a sampling rate of 88.2"
"is that possible ?? " then RB reports back.
get the idea ??
of course sandboxing problem plug ins could be another feature etc, as well as various stats mentioned in the benchmark thread. cpu useage etc etc.

all comments appreciated.

respectfully.
muso.