timtheenchanteruk Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 We are shortly getting new PCs in the music dept at school, and want some advice on what to put in them, the actual system will be specced high enough, but want advice on soundcards/input devices for a school. In one room we will have about 30PCs, and want to run cubase with MIDI keyboards, as this is used the most by GCSE, BTEC music students, We want MIDI only cards, no bells or whistles, simple, easy to use, nothing to mess with. The second room will have 15PCs running cubase, but here we want MIDI capabilities, plus to be able to use a line/mic in if required. Ideally the I/O box needs to be fittable in a drivebay, to stop those light fingers. and again simple to use, if poss just a mic/line input, the rest of the controls being software (Ive lost count of the gain pots damaged already) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
estra Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 My school uses Creative Audigy sound cards with an I/O drive bay. Creative don't seem to do this any more but you can buy the X-Fi cards and buy the I/O bay as seen here. For your other room (MIDI only), you could use these or these cards. Ed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benweblight Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 Why not buy USB keyboards? Much simpler...and most models out these days are USB anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gav8298 Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 I pulled the Audigy's out of our Music IT suite, they were nothing but problems. At the end of the day they are gamer/surround cards and seemed to lock themselves on 48k which played havoc when importing from cd. I don't know of any cards that have drive bay I/O I'm afraid, what I installed instead was good old solid M-Audio Audiophiles linked to small Behringer mixers for mic/guitar inputs and I've had no problems since. If I see something suitable I'll post it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicemms Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 Our School has Creative ones, quite old I belive. Our music tech teacher doesn't like them much, but they are cheap. We also have a Yahamma soundcard, which he much prefers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkPAman Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 We have some classrooms with much the same requirements. For the room where you want only the midi keyboards there are many many products like this around which will connect via USB. As long as you are happy that the on board sound card will give you a good enough output (presumably to headphones) to hear what you are doing, then no other sound card is needed. For the other room we use Sound Blaster Audigy cards with something like this drive bay unit, so that all the in & outs are on the front of the compooter. Again not what I'd put in a studio, but good for this purpose. Or in another room we have M Audio Ozone USB keyboards that have a simple sound card built in. One other tip: Get a USB PCI card that has internal USB sockets so that your Cubase dongle can live inside the machine and fit some form of tamper-proof bolts to the case of the machine. Dongles walk! :) Edit See, that's what happens when you get called away half way through a post. Lots of other replies. I will say that we've had no problems at all due to the Audigy cards (just due to the users!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gav8298 Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 True, I've had 3 dongles go and Steinberg don't budge on sending replacements. I had ours tied to the case with cable ties but apparently students carry wire clippers in their pockets these days... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruce Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 ...dongles ... I had ours tied to the case with cable ties but apparently students carry wire clippers in their pockets these days... Drifting :) but we've had the same problems in University IT labs - in particular in "general" labs where at one time it wasn't uncommon to have up to half a dozen different dongles "daisy-chained" - usually on a parallel port or similar. The best work-around we found was to have a short (say about 30cm) M-F jumper ribbon cable, with the appropriate connectors, plugged into the port, and plug the dongle(s) into that. The cable could then be folded back and passed inside the PC case, and you leave the dongles inside. Of course, the computer lids are already padlocked in place.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timtheenchanteruk Posted February 25, 2008 Author Share Posted February 25, 2008 cheers, yes we currently have the audigys, but do have problems with them, ie the samplerate!! amongst others, the USB keyboards looks like a go-er The USB dongles are already walking, even though they are inside the case (modified with a slit at the bottom of the panel to slide the USB cable through)Seems our lot walk round with a tool kit, apparently the hot stuff in the IT room at the moment is RAM being nicked (along with the usual mice, keyboards, even a couple of (CRT!!!) monitors over the last week or too) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 If it's that bad, why on earth don't the IT people simply install alarms, cctv and other proper security. After all, they have access to all the kit they'd need. I you can't do Bruces internal dongle hide, then use a usb extension, and hide the dongle inside the wall trunking. Won't stop tool wielding thieves, but just takes longer to steal! I'd now second the usb keyboard idea. Many cheaper sound cards that appear to have midi just use the joystick port and 'bodge' it. It handles midi note on and note off data ok, but continuous controllers really stretch the performance, often being the cause of hung note errors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruce Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 We have somewhere in the region of 1200 "public" PCs in the University, mostly in unsupervised rooms (although there is cctv), and really don't have this problem. The important bit is the PC evaluation process - look for one with anti-theft features. On ours, all the base units are padlocked shut, and the base units and monitors are chained down. The mice and keyboards are also locked down. Of course, there are ways to get round this, but in practice it doesn't happen. And if it does happen, our insurers have agreed that this constitutes "forced entry", and so we are covered... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timtheenchanteruk Posted February 25, 2008 Author Share Posted February 25, 2008 I beleive, when the PCs are replaced, that general security of them is going to be stepped up too, ie base units enclosed, with just the drives/on/off buttons etc accessible. Looks like the USB idea wins at the moment, thanks for the heads up, I didnt know that about the cheap cards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruce Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 I beleive, when the PCs are replaced, that general security of them is going to be stepped up too, ie base units enclosed, with just the drives/on/off buttons etc accessible. Overkill.... take my word for it. :) And your PC maintenance people will hate it - these cases make maintenance a pain. They're fine for isolated machines, but probably overkill for a classroom situation. To adequately secure a PC from casual interference, a 15-quid padlock-and-chain set and a large washer is all that is generally necessary. You may need to manufacture some "bobbin locks" too. It won't deter a determined thief, but it will discourage the opportunist, and possibly satisfy your insurers. We've done the sums - for us, that's the break-even point - we still get a very small number of thefts, but the cost of these is less than the costs involved in upgrading the security. As I said, we lose very little kit these days - last year we had a couple of whole PCs lifted, but that's less than 0.2% of the total stock. We haven't lost any mice in ages. And it's not that our students are particularly trustworthy - on one occasion recently, the installers were setting up a new PC cluster - they got the job "half-done", and decided to finish, and secure the mice the next day. Half of those unsecured mice disappeared... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russ83 Posted February 26, 2008 Share Posted February 26, 2008 The only downside to some of the USB keyboards like the M-Audio Keystations is they are only MIDI controllers, they don't have any local sounds. If you are always using Cubase then thats not a problem but the teachers might want local sounds as well. :) I think all equipment should be put through a 'School' test, if there is a way to break something they will find it (and if they can't they just take it). If it survives a week in a school it's probably good for years in the home! (good old SM58's) <rant> As for Steinberg, when will they ever wake up to the world and create a network license version? Sibelius managed it yonks ago. It's very tempting to install some of the dubious versions that don't need the dongle and keep all the dongles locked up safe. (NOTE: I put tempting, the legal side could get nasty)</rant> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mervaka Posted February 26, 2008 Share Posted February 26, 2008 http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/page/shop/br...6aca1f2558db62d take a look at that section: keyboard/soundcard combos! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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