Thrice_removed

I run a Mac based studio, but just for the experience/fun I recently built a fairly hardcore Vista machine (in fact building and attempting to operate this machine persuaded me to stick with Macs for my audio work). However, I certainly believe it can be done rather well on a PC - just not my preference. Ok well to start off - I went with the 64 bit version of Vista as I didn't feel like shelling the dough for another operating system when they get all the drivers updated in a few months. Just cannot afford to upgrade a hobby computer in a few months. So - just to test it out I downloaded Reaper (for one because I wanted to test Reaper out and #2 I wanted to see how my PC could handle audio), and attempted re-mixing a few old projects (that were fairly skimpy requirement wise). What I decided is that while the driver support is not awful - it certainly could be quite a lot better. It was usable, but not as good as I had wished (or was used to from my Macs). This became especially pertinent when I realized many DAW manufacturer's haven't upgraded all their drivers - especially for 64 bit Vista. Not only that, but Vista itself is kinda slow. I mean I have a 1.2 ghz G4 processor with 1 gb of ram in an old iBook, and it is not much slower than my overclocked 1.86 ghz Core 2 Duo with 2 gb of memory. I was disappointed. And yes - I only went with two gigs of dual channel memory - with the possibility of adding two more eventually. However, the way I see it is alot of things in 64 bit Vista cannot even use 4 gb's so I did not feel on shelling out the dough for the extra memory just yet. This machine run games just fine, but it is not my first choice for audio. Hope this helps (and apologize if I come off to anti-PC...I really am not, I just want to provide as accurate a representation as I can).

^If they have a good collection of mics in your price range that might be a good option.

What sort of vocals we talking? Female pop? Male rock?