That setup should do just fine. You may find that you will need more than 1024 mb of ram, or perhaps not. I'm using 1024 in my Athlon setup, and so far so good.

The main concerns with soundcards are latency, noise floor specs, the type of drivers, ( ASIO is preferred ) and sample / bit rates. 24 / 96 is generally the minimum standard that an average to lower end, but usable card made for audio production should have.

AJ

That setup should do just fine. You may find that you will need more than 1024 mb of ram, or perhaps not. I'm using 1024 in my Athlon setup, and so far so good.

The main concerns with soundcards are latency, noise floor specs, the type of drivers, ( ASIO is preferred ) and sample / bit rates. 24 / 96 is generally the minimum standard that an average to lower end, but usable card made for audio production should have.

AJ

I think my soundcard may only be a 16 bit one from what I recall and I didn't find that it's drivers are ASIO types .

Let's just say I spent lots of money on upgrading the videocard but cheaped out on the soundcard when I had my system put together so I just picked the one that came with the base model .

A further advantage for me if I used a software synth s that I could actually afford to get an 88 key keyboard controller for it but if I bought any of the top three hardware synths I could not afford the 88 key model easily.

How easy is it with FL Studio to upload samples be they free ones downloaded online or commercial ones from a sample CD Rom ?

The soundcard being "NVIDIA" smells like the integrated NVIDIA soundcard embedded in some PC chipsets developed by NVIDIA for Athlon systems.
Although it is usually fine in games (sourround sound etc), it's probably not the best solution for a pro soundcard. As for ASIO drivers, you can try the ASIO4ALL drivers (do a google search on that) which provide ASIO capabilities even for soundcards that have no manufacturer's ASIO drivers, like older Crative SB Live cards.
The guys in this forum can guide you about pro soundcards

You could load samples directly into one of FL's modules, and it should be no problem, but normally I use Kontakt as my sample player, but I'm no expert with sampling. I tend to use virtual plug in modules more often than not, things like Absynth, MusicLabs Real guitar, SuperQuartet, Jamstix virtual drummer, etc. I do have DR008 and a bunch of drum samples and setups though.

FL is a host application, meaning it hosts Vsti, DXi, and vst / dx effects. It does have built in modules as well, but I think most of us that use it normally use add on vst / dx instruments.

ASIO4All works well with my old SB live card, which I still have because it provides another midi interface and I can play soundfonts through it. The downside is it is only a 16 / 48 spec card, and the noise floor is a bit too high for good quality recording,

If you want to do a very decent soundcard on the cheap, you might consider something along the lines of the Midiman Audiophile 2496. I paid around 190 USd for mine, but today they can be had fo around 100 Usd. Mine has been in and out of 3 different computers, never a hitch. They are rock solid. I can't remember seeing very many complaints anywhere about them.

AJ

Thanks . I will consider all that was said .

Software synths have their distinct advantages and Hardware synths have their distinct advantages .

I'm still punished with dial up Internet so I don't know how frequently and how many free samples I could download as I have no idea how large they are which means I would probably have to rely on sample CD Roms more which can get pricy .

Though I agree software synths are more upgrade friendly .

Hardware synths on the other hand come with many presets and they allow you to make music away from your computer if one wishes .

I have just learned how much the Hardware sytnths would cost me . The Triton Extreme 61 would cost me $2450 Canadian , the Motif ES 6 $2560 Canadian and the Roland Fantom 6 $2715 Canadian .

Now that kind of money would buy a great keyboard controller for a soft synth as well as tons of Samples software and of coarse a better soundcard for my PC .

Are the applications mentioned such as FL Studio really as comprehensive as those Hardware synths in all they can do or does one require additional software for other tasks ? It's not that getting additional software would be too expensive but all of that piecing together would kind of turn me off honestly.

I think modular system when I think of using a PC / Mac solution. FL is my pattern sequencer. It's editing facilities and features are far ahead of the Motif's pattern sequencer. If you don't plan on working with patterns, than a regular DAW / Sequencer app might be better for you.

I often open FL in Sonar, because the audio recording / editing facilities are deeper. Still, one can produce and entire song in FL, as it supports multi tracks and effects. I like using a linear track sequencer like Sonar for it's audio faders and controllers. A guitarist I know has FL as well, but only has Cakewalk Music Creator, which is the entry level version and is very inexpensive, and FL opens an works fine in that too.

The Motif ES is an excellent workstation, but it's also WYSIWYG. If what's in it works for you, then it's a great tool.

AJ

So there aren't any software synths which are capable of creating an entire song that are better than FL Studio or Cakewalk ?

What does WYSIWYG mean ? I heard the Motif ES is kind of complicated to use , or at least more so than the Triton Extreme and Roland Fantom X series .

WYSIWYG = What you see is what you get.

Better than Sonar or FL in what way ? These are Sequencer and Audio production packages that also are host applications for many different softsynths / samplers and effects units. There are others, like Cubase, Ableton Live, Mackie Tracktion, Acid Pro, etc for example. Some users like them better, some don't. There is higher end stuff like Pro Tools and Nuendo as well, but many of us don't need something that extravagant / expensive to make music with.

Like I said, think modular.. or think rack system. Plug in what you want, leave out what you don't want. That's one of the benefits of a software system. You can't really do that with hardware, but the advantage of hardware is that everything or most of everything can be in one box ( machine ). If it happens to have all the features you want, great.

My total setup is a hybrid. The Motif ES does some nice things, my software picks up the slack and adds many things that the Motif doesn't do or doesn't do as well or as easily. I said it before.. The Motif probably has the least intuitive OS vs the Korg and Roland offerings. I chose it because I liked the overall sound palette better.

You already have a computer. Why not try out the host of freeware and working demos out there? Then you can see how it works. It won't cost much if anything except a little time to put it together. You can even use your internal soundcard. Just go get the freeware ASIO4all so that it uses low latency drivers. The sound quality won't be on par with a dedicated audio soundcard, but it should be more than sufficient for tryimg out programs and synths.

AJ