PCRECORDING.COM - - The Harddrive.
High, sustained throughput is a critical element of successful digital audio recording and is a direct function of your hard drive and CPU. Virtually any Pentium-based computer with a hard drive bigger than 1.2 Gb will meet minimum requirements for simple digital audio recording. However, a fast CPU and hard drive will make things considerably easier for larger, more complex recording projects. This is because digital audio recording puts a very heavy load on your CPU and hard drive. A good example is the typical music CD, recorded in stereo, at 16-bit resolution and a sampling rate of 44.1kHz. This format consumes approximately 10 Mb of audio data per minute of song. The graph below demonstrates the difference bit rates and sampling rates make on data stream flow.
| # of Tracks/Sample rate | Throughput at 16-bit | Throughput at 16-bit |
| 1 track (mono)/44.1kHz | 88.2Kb per second | 5.292Mb per minute |
| 2 tracks (stereo)/44.1kHz | 176.4Kb per second | 10.584Mb per minute |
| 10 tracks (mono)/44.1kHz | .88Mb per second | 52.92Mb per minute |
| 1 track (mono)/48kHz | 96Kb per second | 5.76Mb per minute |
| 2 tracks (stereo)/48kHz | 192Kb per second | 11.34Mb per minute |
| # of Tracks/Sample rate | Throughput at 24-bit | Throughput at 24-bit |
| 1 track (mono)/44.1kHz> | 132.3Kb per second | 7.938Mb per minute |
| 2 track (stereo)/44.1kHz | 264.6Kb per second | 16.876Mb per minute |
| 10 tracks (mono)/44/1kHz | 1.33Mb per second | 79.38Mb per minute |
As you can see, as the tracks and bit/sampling rates go up, the data stream load increases. Therefore, a faster CPU and hard drive will make it easier to record and/or playback a large number of tracks. If you have an older, slower PC, do not give up hope, there are a number of workarounds.