Ok, so I've been looking all over the internet and through these forums and I am trying to get answers. I produce a lot of electronic music using mostly software instruments and vst's. I want to use exclusively software / virtual instruments and am looking at Komplete 7.

I am going to be purchasing Presonus's Studio One because I love the workflow and the ability to just lay down a track quickly without features I don't know how to use or need.

I currently have a Dell XPS M1330 with a T7300 processor (core 2 duo, 2.0 Ghz), 2GB ram, 200 GB HD (Hitachi 7,200 RPM).

Now my questions are many:

1. Does a digital audio interface like Native Instruments Audio Kontrol 1 improve/ speed up preformance for software/ virtual instruments?

2. Will a solid state drive improve preformance/ speed within the program?

In the future I will be upgrading and buying/ building a complete desktop system. When I do what are the most important pieces of hardware relative to what I will be doing. For basic producing (not recording) within virtual and software instruments using midi tracks, what parts are most important?

Will I see any benefit to having more than 4 gigs of ram?

Will a faster HD or SSD improve preformance drastically?

Is the processor where the majority of the burden lies for using software instruments?

I know this a lot of information to put in one thread and some of these questions have probably been answered elsewhere, but I think there will be great value to the commnuity to condense it all here. I also believe that if you know the answer to one of these questions you probably will have answers to the rest. Thanks guys and I look forward to getting some good info.

-Wespro

No.

No.

Cpu

Problerly not unless your working with large amounts of sample data.

Not within your audio application.

Yes.

Consider it condensed.

Compared to what, internal sound? Absolutely. The latency of your average crappy integrated audio is too high to successfully run any of the VSTi's in Komplete 7.

No, but anything you load from an SSD will load a lot faster. It's a good idea to have one as your OS drive and you'll see Win 7 fly.

You will definitely see a benefit, but only on two conditions:

1. You must have Win 7 x64, because the 32-bit version can't use more than 4 gb of RAM.
2. The multisamples you load from Kontakt and the other VST's exceed 3 gb of data.

A faster HD or SSD will *READ* and *WRITE* data faster, but it won't speed the CPU clock.

Yes.

1. Does a digital audio interface like Native Instruments Audio Kontrol 1 improve/ speed up preformance for software/ virtual instruments?

No, but it may help reduce latency between your midi controller and recordings. Thats the biggest advantage of having an audio interface (both external & internal).

2. Will a solid state drive improve preformance/ speed within the program?

No

In the future I will be upgrading and buying/ building a complete desktop system. When I do what are the most important pieces of hardware relative to what I will be doing. For basic producing (not recording) within virtual and software instruments using midi tracks, what parts are most important?
Processing speed, RAM, Motherboard, & Hard Drive space are most important.

Will I see any benefit to having more than 4 gigs of ram?

Yes, always having more RAM is better, but 4 gigs is plenty for most DAWs. I've known this producer to have 12 gigs of RAM for his PC computer. Recording Software (or any DAW software) uses up a lot of RAM.

Will a faster HD or SSD improve preformance drastically?

Possibly, but its not absolute.

Is the processor where the majority of the burden lies for using software instruments?

From my experience, yes it does. I went from using an AMD Duron processor to a Pentium Duo-Core processor and let me tell, it makes navigating to plugin presets smooth like butter. No more waiting 2-3 seconds switiching presets!

Thanks guys. I appreciate it.

Your Welcome!