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Topic: What type of RAM is best for music? (Read 8361 times) previous topic - next topic
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What type of RAM is best for music?

Could anyone enlighten me or point to right direction?
Is the fast - best?
Like would that be the same type of RAM as for, say, games with aggresively set latencies like say 2-2-2-5 being an optimum? Or is it different? Many Thanks in advance..

What type of RAM is best for music?

Reply #1 –
Quote from: B.Fink on
Could anyone enlighten me or point to right direction?
Is the fast - best?
Like would that be the same type of RAM as for, say, games with aggresively set latencies like say 2-2-2-5 being an optimum? Or is it different? Many Thanks in advance..

HAHAHHAA..  no, seriously... RAM latencies won't give you much of an edge, unless you're doing really heavy data processing, eg. video editing, etc.  Otherwise, just take the middle-of-the-mark RAM.  Of course, it's always "the faster, the better", but you're better off spending the extra money on a faster hard drive.  Audio won't care much about RAM, it's more proccesor power and HDD speed (because it's a streaming process)

Some games also stream their data, but most of 'em cache some of it too, so it's more important in that case to have a good amount of ram.

What type of RAM is best for music?

Reply #2 –
Yep ... save the 100$ for Corsair XMS and invest them in a better sound card ...
The name was Plex The Ripper, not Jack The Ripper

What type of RAM is best for music?

Reply #3 –
Quote from: JeanLuc on
Yep ... save the 100$ for Corsair XMS and invest them in a better sound card ...

I don't know about that.  How many times have we seen strange file corruption, especially with APE, due to flaky hardware?  I replaced some NANYA with Corsair XMS and eliminated system instability.  I'm a firm believer in quality RAM.  Maybe not the fastest stuff though.

What type of RAM is best for music?

Reply #4 –
I have been building systems for many years, for myself and clients. Cheap memory or power supplies are a false economy.
Crucial or Corsair are a good investment in stability.
You don't need to have the fastest, but at least get a quality product.

What type of RAM is best for music?

Reply #5 –
I agree with the other posters.  Get quality memory and you'll be fine.  Other system elements will become a bottleneck long before RAM does.

What type of RAM is best for music?

Reply #6 –
I don't know about that. If the ram is producing errors, that means it's *broken* plain and simple. Cheap memory isn't any worse at the job of storing bits than the expensive stuff. Maybe the top brands like crucial, corsair, and kingston are more reliable, but they aren't intrinsically better than a cheaper stick that works. Especially when you look at the high speed memory where top brands charge large premiums, a second-tier brand can be a great buy.

Run memtest86 overnight, and that answers the question of whether your ram is good or not. If it has no errors now it isn't likely to go bad on its own. It's solid state, they don't wear out.

Now about cheap psus, I totally agree. Bad move.

What type of RAM is best for music?

Reply #7 –
Quote from: ddrawley on
I have been building systems for many years, for myself and clients. Cheap memory or power supplies are a false economy.
Crucial or Corsair are a good investment in stability.
You don't need to have the fastest, but at least get a quality product.


I second that.  Power supplies are very important.  I personally have fixed freezes and crashes by installing a better power supplies.  I guess most people find power supplies "unsexy", and instead spend their money elsewhere.  That's just wrong.

What type of RAM is best for music?

Reply #8 –
You can get the value ram from major vendors. Corsair, Crucial, Kingston, etc. are all fine.

What type of RAM is best for music?

Reply #9 –
Another vote for "value" major vendor RAM.
And for hilarious thread topic.

What type of RAM is best for music?

Reply #11 –
my computer sound is so much better since i put in... ah nevermind, even i think it isn't a good joke.

What type of RAM is best for music?

Reply #12 –
I believe that the chipset of the computer can majorly impact audio.  I've got an Asus A7N8X, and have also used an Epox 8RDA+ where major disk activity (like ripping a CD, a disk scan, extracting an ISO image, or RAR file) will cause skpping, cut-outs, and clicks in the audio playback.  Terrible.

What do the rest of you think on this subject?  Have you had bad experiences with motherboard chipsets in this regards?

What type of RAM is best for music?

Reply #13 –
Quote from: Supacon on
I believe that the chipset of the computer can majorly impact audio.  I've got an Asus A7N8X, and have also used an Epox 8RDA+ where major disk activity (like ripping a CD, a disk scan, extracting an ISO image, or RAR file) will cause skpping, cut-outs, and clicks in the audio playback.  Terrible.

What do the rest of you think on this subject?  Have you had bad experiences with motherboard chipsets in this regards?
I have had _no_ good experiences with integrated sound chipsets, and I use a Creative as my "add-in" (kx drivers, though)

I used to hear the radio play on my old motherboard's sound chip, when I turned the volume high enough.  Quite funny, in fact.  I'd also hear HDD seeks.

But RAM is a no-brainer.  The EM field is so minimal (low voltage, low current..) that it has practically no impact on audio quality, or a non-measurable one.  Which isn't related to RAM speed.

What type of RAM is best for music?

Reply #14 –
Quote from: Supacon on
I believe that the chipset of the computer can majorly impact audio.

If it is onboard sound then: obviously, yes
If it is add-on sound card then: yes, too, however problems you have describe sound rather like a pci bus noise, so rather to do with motherboard quality then particular chipset. Similar problems could occur when OS does not manage all the resources well which happens a lot.

Thanks for all your opinions on RAM, I am still not 100% convinced it has no impact whatsoever on audio quality. I mean if you just take one CD playback then surely yes.

But I meant multitrack recording at 24bit/48 kHz (and you could go higher!) with real-time software synths recorded as well on your MIDI tracks all with real-time software EQ, reverb and effects plugins. Now, do you think RAM timings still have no impact on that? I am not arguing, just not sure.

(and why the hell was that moved into OT section?)

What type of RAM is best for music?

Reply #15 –
Fast ram could "in theory" allow for more channels recording and/or effects processing. But it would have no effect on the quality of the processing or playback. Either it plays/records smooth or it doesn't.

What type of RAM is best for music?

Reply #16 –
There is a long list of hardware devices that would impact music playback long before even CAS 3 RAM became a factor. Modern RAM is way faster than what is needed for simple music playback. Video playback is fine on slower RAM and is far more demanding than audio alone.
This is bordering on the 'warm' feel of playing back on records.
There just isn't any technical support for RAM causing audible differences.

What type of RAM is best for music?

Reply #17 –
Quote from: B.Fink on
Quote from: Supacon on
I believe that the chipset of the computer can majorly impact audio.

If it is onboard sound then: obviously, yes
If it is add-on sound card then: yes, too, however problems you have describe sound rather like a pci bus noise, so rather to do with motherboard quality then particular chipset. Similar problems could occur when OS does not manage all the resources well which happens a lot.

It can be even more subtle than that. Even a quality mobo can generate audio problems with the right combination of circumstances.

The last time I opened up my computer I added a new tv capture card, and moved my soundcard to a different slot on my mobo (a quality MSI). After that, the computer started making these really quiet "zzt, zzt" sounds when I scroll in explorer or IE. (Quiet enough that it took several days to really become aware of it.) Firefox doesn't do it, nor most other apps that I use frequently, and high-cpu or hd use doesn't produce any extra noise. It's very odd, and I'll see if moving the sound card back to the old slot solves it. Not sure how much patience I'll have for it if that doesn't work... Fiddling inside my pc is a bit difficult, the price of watercooling.

I think the lesson is that computers are so complex that sometimes tracking down the exact causes of a bug or strange behavior is nearly impossible.

What type of RAM is best for music?

Reply #18 –
Quote from: B.Fink on
If it is onboard sound then: obviously, yes


Oh, I think most of you misunderstood my comment about the chipset... 
It's nothing to do with onboard sound.  I actually can even have this problem with a high quality firewire audio interface.  It's a problem with the disk activity eating up the PCI bus, or something along those lines.  I actually got an Audigy to try to prevent this problem, but it doesn't help.

If I recall, the problem was better, but not completely solved with my M-Audio Firewire 410.  It was weird, and a huge pain.  I tried different chipset drivers for the IDE bridge and such.  I kinda gave up on looking for a solution to this one.  I'll probably just have to upgrade the motherboard sooner or later when I get more seriously into audio production, and this starts to drive me way up the wall.

What type of RAM is best for music?

Reply #19 –
I have seen IRQ sharing issues with VIA chipset boards.
I have been through enough pain with cheap chipsets that I only use NVidia and Intel chipset boards.
Not perfect, but mostly problem free.

What type of RAM is best for music?

Reply #20 –
Heh... I've had better luck with my VIA KT400 chipset board than my NVidia NForce2 board (what I'm currently talking about).  I think it's a little presumptuous to say that "Any VIA chipset is cheap and therefore low quality."

But it probably would serve me well to build an intel based system in the future for my audio applications.  To me AMD stuff just seems sexier, but the business world depends on Intel.

What type of RAM is best for music?

Reply #21 –
You may want to Google VIA chipset problems.
I have more than enough data to make up my mind.

What type of RAM is best for music?

Reply #22 –
Quote from: ddrawley on
You may want to Google VIA chipset problems.
I have more than enough data to make up my mind.

You can google ANYTHING+problems in you will get thousands or millions of hits - it does not mean anything. Thanks again for all opinions on RAM for sound!

What type of RAM is best for music?

Reply #23 –
If you are not interested in 20+ years of computer experience, than I will not bother to post in your threads. I was under the impression you were looking for feedback from people with experience.
You have to make up your own mind of course.

Just a few links:

http://www.digitalconnection.com/Support/cn_maudio7.asp

http://www.audioforums.com/forums/archive/...php/t-1958.html

http://p198.ezboard.com/fdelta1010forumthe...opicID=60.topic

**
ok here's what you have to do, this is how I fixed it.

Change your motherboard to an ASUSTEK board and Intel chipset. It will set you back about 250uk Pounds and thats about 400us Dollars. I know its a lot, but it will fix your problems.

Midiman don't recommend AMD VIA chipsets with their cards. I changed board and have been so excited about the prospects of actually making music!!



Keep in touch

stoogee

**

The list goes on.

What type of RAM is best for music?

Reply #24 –
Quote from: ddrawley on
If you are not interested in 20+ years of computer experience, than I will not bother to post in your threads. I was under the impression you were looking for feedback from people with experience.


Nononononno...  I am all ears and listening

It's just that I used Via 
and I never got into any major troubles.
I know KT133 was really bad chipset and problems were carried on up to KT233A, but that's like 5 - 7? years ago...I would not just ditch them because they were not up to standards a good few years ago
But you are right: if I personally had problems with Via I would probably steer away from them no matter if they improved or not, that's true...