An appropriately equipped computer workstation is the single essential piece of equipment for a digital audio project. The quality of the uncompressed audio created from analog sources and the efficiency of its encoding will be dependent on the capabilities and performance of this central component. When selecting a computer for encoding, the most important features to consider are the microprocessor (speed and bit capacity), memory (size and speed), hard disk (capacity and performance), CD-ROM/DVD drive (speed), and sound card or audio interface (bitdepth and sampling rate).
The specifications of computer workstations are constantly improving. Over increasingly shorter intervals of time, microprocessors double in speed, memory doubles in size, and hard drives double in capacity, while workstations decrease in price. The technology for external storage is also rapidly changing; over the past few years we have moved from recordable CD-ROMs to recordable DVDs and external hard drives to small USB flash-memory drives.
Because the technology is developing so quickly, it would be misleading to suggest specifications for a digital audio workstation, since any recommendation would be outdated as soon as it is made. You can feel confident, though, that when selecting a workstation, you will never regret investing extra money to purchase a faster processor, more memory, or a larger hard drive.
Other specifications for the workstation are ultimately less important, but they also happen to be hotly contested. The operating system, for example: Apple or Microsoft--or even Linux? About one quarter of the survey respondents report that they are using Macs for their digital audio project, with the remainder presumably using Windows.5.3 Each has its ardent partisans, and although historically the Mac has had an edge over the Windows platform in the development of hardware and software for multimedia, at this point the platforms perform equally. There is no convincing technological reason to choose one over the other, so your decision should be guided by your choice of software, since all audio programs are not available in versions for both platforms. If you have no preference for software, then stick with whichever platform is already established in your library, or the one you're most familiar with.
For Windows computers, which microprocessor is best, Intel or AMD? Both perform acceptably well. The factors to consider are compatibility and price. Intel has set the standard for PC microprocessors since the introduction of the IBM PC in the early 1980s. Because Intel chips are an industry benchmark, developers of operating systems, software, and computer peripherals make sure their products are compatible with Intel microprocessors. AMD, on the other hand, manufactures microprocessors that perform as well as Intel's and meet their specifications but at much lower prices. The decision between Intel and AMD can mean a difference of several hundred dollars in the cost of a computer. Although Intel is perceived to be the safer choice, there's no good reason not to purchase a computer with a cheaper AMD chip.
If your digital audio project is small in scale, and your budget will not allow the purchase of a dedicated workstation, you can easily mount a digital audio project using a workstation that is shared with other applications. There are advantages, however, to devoting a workstation exclusively to digital audio. When a computer is shared with other applications, it can easily become cluttered with programs and multiple processes running in the background, which will degrade the general performance of the machine. You will find that even a computer fresh out of the box will have several programs running in the background by default.5.4
Thirty-one of the respondents to our survey reported on the equipment they use for their digital audio project. Of these, five (16%) are digitizing only compact discs, and two of these are doing the work on a laptop. Most libraries devote a single computer to encoding; only three respondents (about 10%) reported that their encoding workstation is shared with other applications.