So I am gonna be having a budget of about 2,000 soon. I already have 2 rokit 6's and a rokit 10s, but I want to invest in a new desktop and a new audio interface. Any suggestions?

 

How about the room where you are going to produce? Is it up to the task? What's your set up now? Without that info, anything that can be said will be moot.

 

Grab a used pc with some decent specs, or buy parts yourself and build one with plenty of ram, an ssd or two, plenty of hard drive space, and of course a killer processor (i7 most likely, considering your budget). All of those elements will have the most impact on performance during music production. Focusrite makes some good and fairly inexpensive audio interfaces, you could check them out. But since you do have all those speakers, just make sure your room is treated, if not, definitely invest in that first.

 

So you’re in a bit of a squeeze. You can’t rely on your ears if you don’t know your room. And you can’t produce if your mothership can’t handle the task.... my honest opinion would be if the room you’re in is going to be your mix space for over 5 years, I’d say invest in getting that right first. If you’re in it temporarily, I’d say upgrade your PC. If it’s a toss up, at least get an RTA mic and some DIY broadband traps along with Pink fluffy to make some bass traps. Basics would put you around $500 for all material in a semi small rectangular room. Put the rest towards a new PC build. $1500 these days can get you a large amount of horsepower if you build it yourself..... Happy holidays and merry Christmas!!!

 

Depends heavily on the music you want to make and how.

If you want to use a lot of sample based instruments you will need a large amount of RAM (the more the better) and HDs. Especially SSDs for direct from disk streaming. This can easily eat up half of your savings.

What kind of (video)monitors and how many do you have in mind?

Do you own some good headphones?

Questions to be answered first.

 

AMD 1700x system, spend extra money on quality silent fans (noctua), a high end silent power supply , solid case, preferable with easy cleanable filter.

leaves enough room for a higher mid tier Audio interface, but that depends on your needs.

 

You can get killer quadcore i7 system with 32gb RAM for less than $500
Try to find used RME HDSP and at least one pair of good headphones, such as DT-250 250ohm version.
Get at least 2 screens, preferrably 16:10 (used ones should do perfectly)
When done correctly, you should still have ~$1000 for room treatment.

 

Where can you still get a setup like that for $500, 32gb of decent ram costs about that much on its own here in the uk.

There a worldwide shortage of ram and prices are ridiculous now.

 

depending on I/O and audio workflow you need, do consider a rock-solid audio interface, such as RME Babyface, RME UCX, RME Fireface 802 or RME HDSPe AIO, you will definitely not regret it!
regarding computers, buy some older-gen stuff and make Hackintosh of it

 

get jh audio angie II in ear monitors.
https://www.amazon.com/Angie-Jerry-Harvey-Custom-Earphones/dp/B01AUVJ0C2

8 speakers for each headphone.
perfectly portable mixing and mastering.
have the clarity you could ever need.
adjustable tone
perfect transient response.
get the sound of a $25,000 audiophile speakers used for mastering.
less than $1500

will be like hearing music for the first time again.
you ears will hear the tiniest aspects of music for the first time.

 

Last edited: Nov 11, 2017

hi Mixtic,don't know what audio interface you have at the moment,but have a look at Universal Audio,Apogee,RME & Audient interfaces

 

32GB RAM (GoodRAM DDR3L-1600) - for $205
i7-3770 - for $180
MSI Z77A-G43 - for $80
2x 500GB 2.5" HDD in RAID 0 - $35

total of $500

 

Thank you!

 

I will def look into! I have always tried to expand the way I can listen to things, this could be an awesome investment! Do you have a pair?

 

Thank you for your suggestion! This is super helpful

 

"Try to find used RME HDSP" just don't, those are old PCI, and nowadays computers (for years) are leaning towards PCIexpress only, you need to seek for RME HDSPe series (for ex. HDSPe AIO is a versatile interface to go for, but lacks mic preamps ofc)