Which $60 Win XP/7 computer for new Voice Over actor?

Audacity Help Forum Windows
1

I’m looking for a $60 PC with hopes of using it and Audacity and becoming a working voice actor.

I’ve been surprised at how many clean used and refurbed computers there are available online which are simply old and can be had for less than $100!

Some come with operating systems already installed, others don’t. Some have Windows XP others have Windows 7. Some have NO operating system installed. All are around the same price +/- $10 -$20.

Now, I’m trying to determine which Windows OS version to focus on.

Windows XP (32 or 64 bit) or Windows 7?

I’d intend to devote this computer to recording and editing V.O. work and only that.

I’m technically challenged, financially challenged and mentally challenged :smiley: but this is my starting point and I believe I’ve made a good start by purchasing an MXL 2001 large diaphragm condenser mic and a Blue Icicle USB interface (which has 48v Phantom Power).

Now, I’m trying to make a smart computer decision so that I won’t need to spend another penny on computer hardware until I’m generating revenue from doing voice overs to upgrade my equipment.

Should I go with XP Pro or Home?

32 or 64 bit?

Or should I look for a computer with Windows 7 (32 or 64 bit?)

The minimum/recommended Audacity system requirements for an XP 32 bit system are less than for a Win 7 system, which means less complexity and lower cost, I’d guess. Also, I’ve read that if history repeats itself, Microsoft may stop supporting Windows XP on or after it’s 10th anniversary of introduction, which would be 2014! If this happens am I just asking for trouble by investing in an XP rig?

What I really want is a trouble free, no muss, no fuss, reliable and completely professional sounding system that won’t cost me anything to maintain and which will be ready to work with from Day One until the day I upgrade.

I hope I’ve stated my question well enough for the audio/technical gurus among you to help me out. :slight_smile:

Thanks in advance!

2

We are composing a book segment called Tips and Techniques for Spoken Word Recording.

Having a good voice and a quiet, echo free room are far more important than selecting a microphone or computer. A crappy track cannot be fixed in post production. We can’t take the dog barking out later and we can’t help you if your mouth likes to click and pop while you talk.

Do not record in the kitchen. That’s deadly.

What I really want is a trouble free, no muss, no fuss, reliable and completely professional sounding system that won’t cost me anything to maintain and which will be ready to work with from Day One until the day I upgrade.

You know you’re describing a Mac, right? Just wonderin’.

…am I just asking for trouble by investing in an XP rig?

My Rolodex/Personal Database runs on Microsoft DOS 6.2 Circa August 1995. Still.

All “no longer supported” means is that the company will no longer offer patches, corrections and upgrades to the program. More troubling for Windows, it also means some of the evil virus and trojan patches will stop. This may not bother you if your computer isn’t connected to the internet, although delivering your work may be interesting if it’s not.

Are you doing voice work now in somebody else’s studio and you want to strike out on your own? One other popular option is a successful author decides to produce their own audiobook.

Koz

3

That’s awesome! I’ll be able to get all my questions answered here even after I resolve my computer/Audacity needs issues! :mrgreen:

What I really want is a trouble free, no muss, no fuss, reliable and completely professional sounding system that won’t cost me anything to maintain and which will be ready to work with from Day One until the day I upgrade.

You know you’re describing a Mac, right? Just wonderin’.

…am I just asking for trouble by investing in an XP rig?

Yeah, I know. Macs may be just too good. So good, in fact, that I haven’t found many which seem to fit the bill AND my budget.

My Rolodex/Personal Database runs on Microsoft DOS 6.2 Circa August 1995. Still.

All “no longer supported” means is that the company will no longer offer patches, corrections and upgrades to the program. More troubling for Windows, it also means some of the evil virus and trojan patches will stop. This may not bother you if your computer isn’t connected to the internet, although delivering your work may be interesting if it’s not.

Phew! That’s a relief. I thought they’d just ignore you when you had a problem or something. LOLOL And, as far as sending the client their finished recordings without risking viruses and such, I figure I’d just hook it up to the Ethernet cable when I needed to email them the mp3 file. Seeing as how I’m new to V.O. I say this hoping it proves to be the right way to go.

Are you doing voice work now in somebody else’s studio and you want to strike out on your own? One other popular option is a successful author decides to produce their own audiobook.

Koz

No, I have been clinically depressed/anxious and unable to work for more than 10 years and though I’m grateful for the SSDI check I get, I’m tired of most everything about living the poverty lifestyle and if everything I’ve read about V.O. is true, I look forward to being able to do the work from home and do it when my condition doesn’t prevent it.

And when I read your advice about recording in a quiet, echo-free space, I thought to myself, “whoa, there…one challenge at a time!” LOLOL

In keeping with my necessary theme of frugality AND professional quality sound as I aquire the tools of my soon to be trade, I’ve been looking at acoustic blankets draped over/behind/around me while sitting in a closet as well as Auralex foam-lined boxes in which I’d place the mic stand, small light source and myself, with a blanket over my head and/or draped behind me to deaden the ambient noise and keep out extraneous sound.

But, back to the computer, here’s an example of a prospective computer. Would it work well wth Audacity? Do you r des anyone else know of any existing problems with this model? Does it have the minimum requrements you’d look for in a computer to be used as I’ve outlined here?

By the way, thanks for your reply.

Greg

4

Oops, forgot to post this link to the computer I referred to towards the end of my second post.

Dell-OptiPlex-170L-Pentium-4-3-0-Ghz-2-GB-80-GB-CDROM

5

Hey, maybe those ebay refurb computer vendors should advertise here on the Audacity forum to reach guys like me who are looking for a second computer to devote to their V.O. business and who are trying to save $$ by using Audacity for their recording/editing needs.

6

Don’t rush out to spend your $60 all at once - check the local press, adverts in corner shops and ask around - it’s not uncommon for old, near obsolete, but still working PCs to be given away free to a good home :wink:

On old or low powered hardware XP or Linux* are likely to run much better than Windows 7 or 8.
(* On an old machine, Ubuntu, which is one of the most popular Linux distributions, will probably not run significantly better than Win 7, but there are lightweight versions of Linux that are much less demanding on computer resources).

XP may be a good choice if you are familiar with it. It won’t suddenly stop working when Microsoft discontinue support, but there will be no updates and increasingly you’ll find that modern programs won’t run on it (as software developers cease support for XP).

If you can manage without Internet (or e-mail) on this machine, then security becomes much less of a problem, but remember that viruses can still get to your computer if you use a USB stick in this computer and an infected computer.

If you get a machine with any version of Windows I’d highly recommend that you get one that comes with a Windows installation disk because at some point you are very likely to need to do a fresh install.

7

Any commercial advertising on this forum would require agreement from the Audacity team. We take a strong line on not allowing unauthorised advertising (spam) so as to keep the forum a friendly and helpful resource for Audacity users.

We are not able to offer specific advice about which computer to buy, so I’ve removed the e-bay links from your previous posts.

8

So, you’d recocommend a Windows XP machine just as long as it has an instalation disk and try to snag a local freebie.

I think I understand.

But George Whittam the “Mr. Goodwrench” of V.O. at East-West Audio Body Shop and now, Edge Studios, said that a tech challenged person like myself should stay away from Linux whatever I do.

And I take it that as long as it has at least Audacity minimums (or even better, the recommended) RAM and Processing Speed
that I’ll be good to go with Audacity, right?

What about CD or DVD burning? Necessary?

What about HDD? Necessary? What size?

Thanks, Steve.

Greg

9

Of course you had to state that for my benefit because I’m new and might not know that most (all?) forums disallow SPAM.

I just thought if these hypothetical vendors bought paid advertising here it might be a win/win/win for the forum, for people like myself and for the vendors too.

Don’t want to break any rules or cause any problems. :slight_smile:

Thanks again.

Greg

10

I’m a Mac user and he’s on Linux. I used to build Windows machines from parts but I eventually gave up the good fight and bought my first iBook used from a respected techie at work. I wore it out. After I got used to the Mac-isms, it was much easier to use than my Windows machines. I have Windows and Linux at work, so I could do direct A/B/C comparisons.

I can tell you that in any meeting of high-power creative types, the conference table is a sea of Macbook Pros. I tell them how to connect to the communications system running, of course, on Linux so they can phone home.

“When it asks you where to print, tell it this IP number and I’ll go down the hall and get the printout for you.”

Windows XP was one of Microsoft’s worst products. They got Planet Earth hooked on it and nobody wanted to leave – or upgrade. Particularly corporations. Not a good company strategy. Then they brought out Vista proving they had a sense of humor. Win7 I actually like. I know, right? My office machine is Win7 and for the most part, I can figure out where everything is and how to do work.

Then they brought out Win8 and I have no idea how to use that.

~~

My favorite is furniture moving pads. Your mileage may vary. Consult your local listings.

http://www.kozco.com/pictures/boothFinished/laptop-mic.jpg

I know people that lock themselves in a closet they’ve lined with quilts and blankets. That works really well except for the breathing part. I’ve heard some of the stuff they turn out and it’s very good. You’d swear they were at Glen Glenn Sound cutting a track. No echoes and no noise.

To emphasize the room problem, we recently had to shoot a temporary track quickly as a placeholder for a television commercial. I found a quiet room and the announcer did the whole thing on the laptop microphone. That kind of thing will change with the quality of the laptop, but the room and the voice were the Big Deal. Almost any microphone would have worked.

~~

You mentioned doing Voice-Overs. Voices over what? Are you going to have to play a movie, video, or animation at the same time you announce? That can change the quality of the computer significantly.

At least $65.

Koz

11

Not just for your benefit - we don’t want a load of spammers jumping in on this topic just because you’ve shown willing to spend $65 :wink: We have sadly been forced to take a tough line on spam because we were getting over a hundred spam mails per day and it was leaving little time to help genuine users.

If you’re familiar with XP, then that will certainly help you to get started quickly. An installation disk would be very useful. XP in particular benefits from periodically being reinstalled from scratch. I don’t agree with Koz about it being the worst OS of all time - I think that award goes to Windows ME.

10 years ago I would have definitely agreed with Mr Goodwrench. 5 years ago I could have seen his point, depending on how “tech challenged” you are. These days it is probably no more difficult to learn how to use a Linux machine than any other new operating system. The reason that I would hesitate to recommend Linux is that you are far more likely to find a computer that already has Windows installed and is ready to go, rather than having to install it yourself. Also, if you get stuck with something you are more likely to know someone that help you out on a Windows machine than on a Linux machine.

Try for at least 500 MB of RAM. 1 GB of RAM would be better, which is quite a lot more than the minimum requirement, but a fully updated XP system will benefit greatly from the extra RAM.

I’ve got an old 500 MHz Pentium, 768 KB RAM and Windows XP that runs Audacity quite happily, but it has been tweaked so that it punches above its weight. 1 GHz or better should run sweetly provided you don’t bog it down with too much other stuff.

To be able to install Windows, either now or in the future, you will need a CD drive.
The ability to burn an audio CD would probably be useful, but I’d not worry too much about that. If necessary you could add a CD drive later (USB CD drives are available new from about $25).

Yes a HDD is necessary. For an XP machine, minimum size 10 GB, preferably a lot more. 40 GB will do and 80 GB or more would be nice.

If someone offers you a 1 GHz PC with XP installed, 1 GB of RAM, Win XP installed + XP installation disk, 80 GB HDD and CD-RW drive, complete with monitor, keyboard and mouse, all for free and working condition - grab it :smiley:

Looking at e-bay, for $65 you can get similar specs to this, but you need to get lucky with the pick-up location because postal charges will kill the deal:

Intel Celeron 2.00 GHz
2 GB (2048 MB) RAM
60GB HDD
Windows XP
Keyboard, Monitor, Mouse, Printer, Speakers

12

Not to mention the psychic toll it exacts on you. I could cite you studies that show how exhausting it is to do what you mods/admins do.



Well, I’m no more familiar (zero experience) with XP than I am with Win 7, 8, Vista or 2000 (zero experience with all four) ! LOLOL I just figured XP would be cheaper all around. Older. The bugs are probably worked out. And I readily found any number of them on eBay that met my uninformed standards of features it should have as well as price. I figured the learning curve would be similar to what I experienced with Win 95 and Apple’s OS X (it was an earlier iteration of their feline themed system versions…Tabby I think.



Actually, there are a fair number of clean, well taken care of machines out there without any OS installed, but after hiding behind the excuse (even though it’s true) that buying a denuded machine then installing an operating system would put me out of budget, I must confess that I’ve read articles extoling the Linux system and I couldn’t understand anything they were talking about. So, no offense, but I’m not ready to tackle that challenge just yet. :slight_smile:

And, as far as asking someone I know for help, that’s not likely to occur.



You just justifed the price I paid to become a member of this forum! :mrgreen: THAT’S the kind of knowledge base I hoped to avail myself of here. Great info!



Another solid bit of useful info!



I think we’re getting close to answering all my computer shopping questions! Great!

You’re joking, I know. But, interestingly, I think I won’t have much trouble finding that machine (although sans keyboard and mouse) within my price range. And I think I may become known as the guy who equipped his home V.O. studio for less than $300!

Hey, I appreciate your perusing ebay on my behalf. Now you have an idea of the hundreds of listings I’ve been swimming through these past few days wthout being able to settle on any one unit because I didn’t have the info you provided in your post. And, btw, I have to restrict my searches to computer deals with free shipping. :wink:

Greg

13

I currently have a non-functioning iMac G-3 Blue Dalmatian 500MHz and I gave my G-5 iMac 1.87 (?) machine to my daughter to do with as she saw fit when it stopped working. So, yeah, even though I never was very adept at using it, I know a little bit about Macs. And I’ve always wanted a Macbook Pro. But, I’m patient. :slight_smile:

Hey, your moving blanket sound booth looks sweet! Thanks for the pic. Did you know there is at least one company which mfgs and sells acoustic blankets that actually have a scientific noise dampening rating? They look just like regular moving blankets but they can PROVE they are more effective and, thus, worth more $ than regular binkies. And until I try a regular one I won’t know if I’ll be able to save by using it/them rather than the higher priced ‘spread’. Yeah, your point about getting the ambient room sound right makes sense.

I’ve never done voice overs before, per se. I worked at a few small radio stations and cut local spots for advertisers, but I also had other jobs at the station as well, so I can’t say I was ever a REAL V.O. guy. And as far as what kinds of jobs I’ll go for, I’ve been reading and listening and watching everything I can find on the internet to learn what I can without incurring any expense and the conventional wisdom suggests that a rookie should do a bit of everything (Telephony, commercials, book narration and etc.) and let the market tell you where your niche should be. However, the kind of work you describe sounds like something I could only dream of one day doing! That would be great.

In fact, it would make my personal story of rehabilitation and life reclamation a real attention getter…almost (though not nearly as dramatic) as compelling as Ted William’s story. He’s the once homeless guy with the golden voice who became a national sensation when he was offered all kinds of V.O. work and a second chance at life when a radio station guy discovered him by the side of a freeway on/off ramp panhandling and put his video on YouTube where it went viral.

I didn’t have any addictions. And my voice isn’t NEARLY as impressive. And I never hit the depths of despair he must have along his life path.

But, mine would still be noteworthy for other reasons.

Enough about me.

Thanks, Koz! :slight_smile:

14

I worked at a few small radio stations and cut local spots for advertisers, but I also had other jobs at the station as well

Our fear was you were an excited guy foaming with the prospect of mastering the voice industry – and absolutely no idea what you were doing. The most creative thing you ever did with your voice was hail a cab.

That’s much better. You’re not likely to turn into a bowl of Jello the first time you sit down in front of a live microphone. You already have the basics and we just need to fill in the holes.

You know not to do this:

Also we assume you have a useful voice out of the gate that’s not going to demand careful patching, filtering and editing just to get to “OK.” We have posters with serious vocal problems wanting us to “clean them up” (I cringe every time somebody posts those words) so they’re commercially viable.



The portable sound stage was an idea I had when somebody needed me to do an important voice shoot and I couldn’t get the quiet room. I went back to the camera film (chips) and found the photo shoot I did on the design. Obviously, I needed something I could get my hands on quickly and was cheap. I actually got a moving blanket set. They’re all the came color and size which makes construction handy and fast.

I’ll post the pictures in a bit.

Koz

15

Each wall is double blanket. This is a kit for one wall.

http://kozco.com/pix/oneWallKit.jpg

This is one wall partially assembled. The ropes are to tie the walls together.

http://kozco.com/pix/partiallyConstructedWall.jpg

Koz

16

Also please note that you can get a peculiar echo from the table, too. A quick echo is called slap and you can suppress it by putting a double layer of blanket on the table like this.

http://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/pix/JMASoundShoot.jpg

Koz

17

Well, Koz & Steve,

Here’s what I JUST bought on eBay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=221261013483

How did I do, Coaches?

Dell Optiplex GX 620 SFF
Pentium 4
2.8 MHz
1 GB RAM
80 GB HDD
DVD/CDRW
Win XP Pro SP 3 installed & COA
Free Shipping

$60 .00

No disks, but I got most everything you suggested.

How’d I do?

It looks pretty nicely refurbed, too!

18

Noted. :slight_smile:

19

It doesn’t mention the soundcard. You will need something for the computer to play to your headphones. The blue icicle doesn’t seem to have provision for headphones and is only one direction.

Koz

20

There it is. It has motherboard sound.
Koz